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Transcript

Can You Pass This 10-Second Balance Test? · Scoliosis with Dr. Chris Gubbels

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Can you pass this 10 second balance test?
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: You see, there's a popular test that doctors use to assess your overall balance.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: But most people misunderstand what it actually tells you.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we begin, there are balance tests that are used to rule out several different potential causes of balance issues.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: But many people think if they can simply stand on one leg for 10 seconds, that you pass.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're going to talk about today and how I use this test is completely different because two people can both make it to 10 seconds.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: But how they make it there could tell me completely different things about what's going on with them.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: One person can look controlled and stable, and the other can be compensating so much that I start to wonder what happens when they have to stand, walk, or stay steady for much longer than 10 seconds.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Dr.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Grubel's leading spine and posture expert.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So grab something sturdy because I want you to try this test with me first.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'll show you what I'm actually watching for.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So to do the test, stand next to a counter or something you can actually grab onto if you need to.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then keep both eyes open.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to lift one foot off the ground and I want you to hold it there for 10 seconds.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: How'd you do?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna switch legs and we're gonna do the same thing on the other side for ten seconds.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Ten nine eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: How'd you do on that leg?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you stayed up for the full ten seconds on both sides, then you obviously pass the basic criteria.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I want you to do it again.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because this time I want you to stop just trying to last the entire 10 seconds, and I want you to really tune into and focus on what your body has to do to keep you there.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So go ahead and lift one foot again.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: But now I want you to pay attention to your upper body.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Does it stay fairly centered?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or the second your foot leaves the ground, do you start throwing your whole torso over your leg just so you can stand on it?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now a little movement is normal.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: You do have to shift your weight to stay balanced.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm looking for is how much more work your body has to do.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you barely move and stay controlled, that's one thing.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But if your shoulders suddenly shift sideways or your whole trunk is having to chase your balance, that's something completely different.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why I care about this.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You see, your body may have learned to make that exact same adjustment all day long without you even realizing it.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: You may stand that way, you may walk that way, you may always put a little more weight through one side.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So now I want to look a little bit lower and see what's going on with your hips and your pelvis.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Put your hands on your hips and try it again.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lift one foot.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: What happens to your pelvis?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Does it stay fairly level or do you notice one side dropping the second you lift your foot?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do your hips shoot out towards one side?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like you have to hang off that leg just to stay upright?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm not looking for perfection, but now compare the two sides.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe with your right leg, everything stays pretty quiet.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then you switch to your left leg and suddenly your hips are shifting, your pelvis is moving, your upper body has to lean to one side.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: You still made it 10 seconds, but those were not the same 10 seconds as the previous leg.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that difference between sides is often more useful than whether you technically stayed up for the whole 10 seconds.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because now we have to start asking why does one side need so much more help than the other side?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: You see, because in this scenario there's a major side-to-side difference.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the part I want you to pay attention to in your own test.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Was one side almost boring?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: You lifted your foot, you stood there, you put it back down, no big deal.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then you tried the other side and everything started to move.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your ankle wobbled, your arms were flaring all over the place, your hips were shifting over from side to side.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you could actually feel yourself fighting to stay up every second.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is useful information because walking is basically a series of controlled moments where one leg has to be supported by your body while the other leg is moving.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Every step asks one side to accept your weight and keep you centered.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if one side handles that job very differently, I want to know whether the same thing is happening when you're walking, you're climbing stairs, you're exercising, or you're standing in the kitchen for a half hour.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: That test may last only 10 seconds, but the pattern it reveals may be happening thousands of times throughout the day.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where people often jump to the wrong conclusion.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: If the difference matches something else you've been noticing back pain, leaning, uneven posture, or even walking getting harder, this is exactly the kind of thing we evaluate for at school like care Denver.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because one of the biggest mistakes people make after seeing a bad side in this test is assuming that they simply have a weak leg on that side.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: It may be a weak leg if one side looks terrible.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Weakness is certainly one possibility.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the foot or ankle are involved, maybe the hip is not controlling you very well, maybe you have weak abductors on that side, maybe there's an old knee injury or old knee problem.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of different reasons why one side may be struggling more than the other side.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't automatically decide that the answer is simply strengthening that leg.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's because your leg is only one piece of the overall entire system.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Above the leg you have your pelvis, and above your pelvis, you have your spine.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And all of that determines where your body weight is sitting before the leg is ever having to support you in the first place.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now imagine your body weight is already shifted side to the left when you stand.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now pick up one foot.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: One leg may be standing directly underneath you already.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: The other may have to pull your whole body weight back towards the center before you can even begin to balance yourself.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Those legs are being asked to do two completely different jobs.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you only look at the leg that wobbles, you may completely miss while it's struggling in the first place.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where it starts getting much more interesting to me as a spine and posture expert.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when do I actually want to start looking higher than the pelvis?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Most people don't just walk around staring at their own posture.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you may have no idea your body is slightly or extremely shifted out of bounds.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: You may not notice that one hip sits higher than the other.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: You may not notice that your trunk leans to one side or it shifts.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You see, your body adapts little by little over time.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's been doing that for years, that position probably feels completely normal to you.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: But then we shrink your entire base down to one single foot, and suddenly those differences become a lot easier to see and much more noticeable.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now it still doesn't tell me exactly what is going on, but if I see a big side-to-side difference in your balance, I start asking whether the same asymmetry is showing up somewhere else in your body.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: For example, do you always stand with your weight on the same hip?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Does one side of your back get tired faster than the other?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Does the same hip always feel tighter?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you notice yourself leaning to the side or hunching forward after you've been walking for a while?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Does one side of your body feel more stable when you go up and down stairs compared to the other side?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if your answer is yes to several of these, now this is not just a 10-second balance test anymore.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is a clue on how your entire body is working together.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when that pattern first shows up in your balance and your posture and the way you move, I start wondering whether the spine itself is contributing to the balance issue.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So where does scoliosis enter the picture?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: You see, one thing scoliosis tends to do is change the way your body sits over your pelvis and your feet.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: You see, your spine bends and curves, it rotates, your whole torso can shift to one side, and the body still has to figure out how to keep your body upright and aligned over your pelvis.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: You see, there's something called the cone of economy.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it basically says when your body is upright and aligned in a proper position with your body aligned up over your palpus, your body is at its most efficient state, meaning it takes the least amount of energy to keep your body in an upright, erect position.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the second your body starts to shift to the side or it gets out of balance or you start to lean forward, your body has to work much harder to keep yourself in an upright position, meaning it'll spend a lot more energy just to stay upright and erect compared to if you're in proper balance and proper alignment.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because when your body's out of balance or out of alignment, the muscles compensate, the pelvis may compensate, your hips and legs have to compensate, and you'll likely get very good at it over time.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Good enough that you may not even know that you have these simple imbalances at all.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: You just know that one side always feels different than the other.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: One side of your back keeps hurting, or maybe walking seems to take a lot more effort than it used to.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I don't look at balance as an isolated leg problem.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it is, but sometimes the balance issues you notice at the bottom is part of a much bigger overall alignment problem that's happening above it.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why I would not just blindly train the side that looks or feels worse.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: See, you can't just train the bad side.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: For example, let's say you're struggling on your left leg.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: You may be tempted to start doing single leg exercises on the left leg every day until it catches up.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: That could be appropriate, but I would first want to know why the left side is struggling in the first place.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that side worse?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because if your body is shifted to the side, or your pelvis is uneven, or your spine is putting you in an asymmetrical position, strengthening without corrupting a bigger underlying problem will just make you better at compensating.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It won't fix anything.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You see, you can make the muscles stronger without fixing why the muscles were being asked to work differently in the first place.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly why people can spend years stretching one tight side or treating one painful joint and keep ending up in the exact same place with no real lasting progress.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because the painful or unstable area may be reacting to something that's actually happening elsewhere.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So this test gives me a clue.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there is one thing I don't want you to do after doing this test.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to overanalyze every little wobble and convince yourselves that something bigger is absolutely going wrong.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: A little wobble when you're standing on one leg is normal.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody stands perfectly still.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Your ankle is gonna move a little bit to adjust and adapt, your foot's gonna have to move and adapt, your muscles make little corrections and adjustments.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's how balance works.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Look, it's my attention is not one tiny little wobble.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's when the compensation is big and when it happens consistently, when one side looks completely different than the other, and when the balance problem fits with other changes you're already noticing in your body.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is when I take a more serious look at the situation.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: There are a few situations when I would skip doing these home tests altogether and go strictly to getting expert help.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if your balance has subtly gotten worse rapidly, get it checked out.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: If one leg is becoming noticeably weaker than the other side, get that evaluated.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you're developing numbness or having falls or near falls, or walking is becoming rapidly harder, I would not just practice this test.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Go seek professional help.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if your balance problems are happening along with the noticeable lean to one side, recurring one side of back pain, or a major difference in how you carry your weight from one side to the other, I want somebody to look at your spine specifically for scoliosis problems.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because at that point, I'm not interested in whether you can stand on one leg for 10 seconds.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: What I want to know is why one side of your body is having to work so hard or differently than the other side.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So here's how I would think about this test.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you made it 10 seconds on both sides, stayed reasonably centered, and both sides looked and felt pretty much the same, great.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: No problem, nothing to worry about.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you had a little wobble but stayed controlled, that doesn't automatically concern me either.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: But if you technically passed and once I looked like a completely different person was doing a test than the other, pay attention to that.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Try it again the next day and see if the same pattern continues.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then start paying attention to the rest of your life.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is that also the side that gets tired first?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Is that where your back hurts all the time?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the same hip you're always standing on or you always got to take pressure off?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do you lean in that direction when you walk?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you keep seeing the same pattern, that's when I would stop calling it just bad balance.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'd want to know whether there's an issue coming from the foot or the ankle or the hip or the nervous system or whether you have spinal imbalances that are contributing.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because the 10 seconds were never really the most interesting part about the test in the first place.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: The interesting part is what your body had to do to actually get through the test.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to help figuring that out, book a free discovery call with us at School A Care Denver.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you can do that by clicking on the link in the description below.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you already have one side of back pain, be sure to watch the next video because I explain why that may be.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you there.