One of the big things with reaching fitness goals is to find balance. Balance in watching your food intake, getting in your workouts, doing proper stretches, and planning. Keeping with that theme, Certified Personal Trainer Jerod Langness wants to stress the importance of incorporating balance in your workouts.

When you include balance exercises in your workouts, you give yourself the opportunity for greater results through initiating more muscles to be involved, and to increase your coordination by teaching your body to stabilize during the exercise. This will lead to faster gains in your progress, and will aid in injury prevention through better awareness of unstable environments.

The first exercise is a total body one that involves your legs, back, shoulders, and triceps. It is called "one leg balance to overhead press". Stand on one leg while holding a dumbbell (or any other kind of resistance) in the opposite hand. Bend at the knee and hip, and lower the weight in front of that leg that you're bending. Go as low as you can while still maintaining proper posture throughout your spine. Straighten back up and bring the weight accross your body and over your head. Repeat this motion 15 to 20 times, then do the other arm and leg.

The second exercise involves your chest, core, triceps, back, and shoulders. It is known as "push ups with rotation". In a push up position, lower your body as if to do a regular push up, but on your way up, raise an arm and rotate it back as far as you can while maintaining balance. Return back to the push up position. Repeat the motion, but alternate arms. Try doing 20 total.

The third exercise is using legs. This exercise is great to train your body to stabilize while being challenged in different planes of motion. It is called "clock squats". Stand on one leg. Imagine you are standing in the center of a clock. You are facing 12 o'clock, to your right is 3, behind you is 6, and to your left is 9 o'clock. You're going to squat on that one leg while reaching out the other leg as far out as you can. Squat and reach at each of the four places. Try to do 5 times through all four positions (or hours), and then switch legs.

Making balance a part of your routine will keep your workouts fun and challenging while getting the most bang for your buck!

And don't forget, you can bring a guest for free this weekend at all 24-Hour Fitness locations.

For more tips on exercise and nutrition, reach Jerod at 24 Hour Fitness, 719-244-9532.