On instability

—“Please forgive my mistake of thinking balance itself was separate from ‘improving one’s balance.’”
I’d say that to my aquacise instructor, whose aquatic balance-training class at Canandaigua’s YMCA swimming-pool I temporarily gave up.
I switched to dry-land balance-training at a hospital physical therapy.
My hospital therapist and I have been around-and-around about this. She says “improving one’s balance” is not improving balance itself.
Years ago the guy who daycares my dog, my groomer, noticed my balance was disappearing. That aquacise instructor uses the same groomer, and said she could help me.
So I switched from “Wellness-Center” workouts to the Y’s swimming-pool.
At first that aquacise instructor and I were one-on-one. But then she advised switching to her aquatic balance-training class.
I did that 2-3 years. But it seemed my balance was getting worse.
“I can’t fix that,” my dry-land therapist says. “That’s the neuropathy in your legs. Your feet are no longer telling you you’re falling off balance. All I can do is improve your ability to offset faltering balance.”
And, uhm, I guess that’s what “improving one’s balance” means.
No one can fix failing balance. That comes with advancing age, plus I have neuropathy. (It isn’t diabetic neuropathy.)
Apparently “improving one’s balance” means keep from falling — which I hardly do any more.
To me that’s due more to changed mindset, plus strengthening muscles that catch imbalance.
Those muscles wasted away too, but to me it’s mainly mindset: roots, rocks, sidewalk edges, curbs = anything that makes me stumble.
The goal of balance-training, I guess, is to keep me from falling, which can be bone-breaking.
Actually improving one’s balance can’t be done. What can be improved is one’s ability to counter bad balance.
I noticed. The other day, walking my dog in a nearby city park, I encountered the dreaded gazebo. It has 3-4 concrete steps, which my dog descended.
Steps coming = engage mindset. I can do this; I have before.
Years ago descending steps was automatic; now I gotta exercise extreme concentration.
I started down, but stumbled on the second step. STAGGER ALERT! But I didn’t fall. That’s my strengthening of muscles that counter a fall — they caught it.
That’s the at-home exercises my dry-land physical-therapy has me doing.
A few days ago an HVAC guy came to set up my furnace replacement. Down into my basement he went: step-step-step-step; quick as a bunny.
“Get to my age and you won’t be able to do that,” I said. Step-step, step-step, step-step. One side-step at a time, and holding the railing.
Even though I temporarily dropped the class, I still do the swimming-pool. “I hope I can rejoin your class,” I tell my aquacise instructor. “But first I gotta feel more stable walking.”
I walk in the shallow kiddie-pool, where water-resistance is only below the knees. Doing that without staggering is challenging. I do better on dry-land.
Sometimes I feel that aquacise instructor missed the mark. A lot of what we did in the class required balancing on one leg.
I felt I was wasting my time. More went into staying upright than “Walk proud! If I see you hunched over your shopping-kart, you in deep trouble!”
I’m not as bad as I was. Still messy, but slightly more stable. Enough to notice; despite stumbling I didn’t fall those gazebo steps. No hands either — I was holding back a dog.
I’m also more aware of instability. I can’t just lunge out of a chair. “Slow and deliberate,” another aquacise instructor says. I lunged out of a chair once and ended up on the floor.
Getting off my riding-mower has to be done just so. If not KEE-RASH! (A head-hit.)

• The Canandaigua YMCA “Wellness-Center” is a workout gym with exercise machines: strength-training and cardio. I started that years ago, mainly the cardio. There also are weights, but I never did that.
• RE: “Neuropathy......” —The nerves down my legs to my feet don’t transmit like they used to.
• “HVAC” = heating-ventilation-air conditioning. My furnace is old, and apprised as unsafe.