# Balance Training

[The Research](https://boddy.app/research.md) / [Exercise](https://boddy.app/exercise.md) / [Excluded](https://boddy.app/exercise/excluded.md)  
Canonical: https://boddy.app/exercise/excluded/balance-training  
Last reviewed: 2026-10-23

## What It Is

Balance- and stability-focused exercises, like single-leg stances and reactive balance drills.

## Why It Matters

Balance and functional exercise reduces the rate of falls in older adults, and for that finding, from one Cochrane review, the certainty is high.[1] Isolating balance training from the programs it usually comes bundled in is less settled, though one network analysis ranks it first for reducing falls; the bundled programs rest on more trials and show a smaller but steadier effect.[2] Whether the same training extends life is a separate, far less settled question: the evidence is very uncertain about whether it changes the risk of death at all, and it comes from a population too far from Boddy's readers to back a behavior.[3]

The gap is about who was studied and what was measured, not a contradiction in the results. The falls evidence comes from adults in their seventies,[1,2] and no trial has tested balance training against mortality directly; where the broader exercise programs it belongs to have been tested against mortality, the interval around the result is wide enough to hold both no effect and a worthwhile reduction.[3,4] Below 60, where most of Boddy's readers are, a review of trials in adults aged 40 to 60 found none that measured falls at all.[5]

None of that makes balance training a bad idea. If falls, stability, or long-term mobility already concern you, working single-leg stances, reactive balance drills, or a dedicated balance program into your week is a reasonable, well-supported thing to do. It just isn't, on the evidence so far, a lever we can put a number on and ask every reader to track.

## GRADE

- Certainty: Very Low
- Magnitude: Unknown

## References

1. Sherrington, C. et al. (2019). Exercise for preventing falls in older people living in the community. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012424.pub2
2. Wiedenmann, T. et al. (2023). Exercise based reduction of falls in communitydwelling older adults: a network meta-analysis. European Review of Aging and Physical Activity. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11556-023-00311-w
3. García-Hermoso, A. et al. (2020). Safety and Effectiveness of Long-Term Exercise Interventions in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-020-01259-y
4. Pahor, M. et al. (2014). Effect of Structured Physical Activity on Prevention of Major Mobility Disability in Older Adults: The LIFE Study Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2014.5616
5. Adams, M. et al. (2023). Effects of Physical Activity Interventions on Strength, Balance and Falls in Middle-Aged Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine - Open. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-023-00606-3