minipost
Over the weekend many of you probably saw highlights of Simone Biles' extreme athleticism. Gymnastics has a lot of interesting science going on, but balance is a central element. It's important in many sports. Athletes need to deal with dynamic situations that place their bodies in positions the rest of us wouldn't be able to recover from. Here's a little exercise to check your balance and muscle control. No equations or math.
Stand still with one foot in front of the other - the heel of your left foot touching the toe of your right. With your hands relaxed at your sides shift your weight to one of your feet. See how well you're doing at thirty seconds and then at a minute. How are your calf muscles doing? It can be surprisingly difficult. Spreading your arms out sideways should make it easier. Arms in again and lean to your left or your right. Not exactly stable is it? Try again with your arms out.. An improvement, but probably not by a lot.
Try a normal standing position like you are talking to someone .. feet side by side. Even with your arms at your side, you're much more stable.
Now go back to one foot in front of the other again and crouch down as low as you can. You'll probably find balancing gets easier the lower you go.
I won't do the physics, but when a vertical line through your center of gravity falls outside the base of support created by your feet you're out of equilibrium and your body has to figure out how to compensate or suffer the consequences. As you move your feet further apart you broaden your base of support and become more stable Divers often start their dives by leaning forward and moving their center of gravity away from their standing base of support.
You can also increase your inertia by spreading your limbs out. This slows your wobbling giving your body a better chance of dealing with the situation. The killer way of doing this is to carry a tightrope walker's pole. This dramatically increasing their moment of inertia (in one axis) slowing what would be dangerous wobbles to the point where their reflexes can deal with them.
A few days ago I saw this. I'm not a fan of scooters as the physics is wrong for stability,. At the same time I'd hazard Simone has the balance to handle one. Not to mention her four foot eight inch frame gives a low center of gravity. I asked a physical therapist who has to deal with balance about scooters. The advice: you shouldn't be on one unless you can close your eyes and balance on one foot for thirty seconds. The ability to do this drops dramatically with age. I won't say much more about scooters as I'm negative and will get flames, but if you must ride one make sure you wear a helmet and don't go fast.
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