Exercise 3: dynamic jump and stick

“This is the most complex and dynamic movement out of the three, and produces the greatest neural pressure,” Mooney says. “You are having to make rapid-fire calculations in your brain to anticipate the forces involved in landing, while at the same time synchronising muscular activation to support the three joints that are involved in landing and manage your centre of balance in your upper body to prevent you from moving.”

Method

Starting with your feet shoulder-width apart, jump forward using both feet and land with one foot
As you land try to ‘stick’ the landing by absorbing the force through your ankle, knee and hip to stay in that position without needing to move your foot
Hold for 1-2 seconds before returning to the starting position and repeating with the other foot
Repeat twice for each leg

Tips

“Control is key here, as you will have to actively think about not shifting as you land,” Mooney says. “Take smaller jumps to start with and focus on quality of movement.

“As you start to progress in all of these movements you can always push the difficulty – with balance, adding complexity will create more favourable results. For example, if you remove visual stimulus by closing your eyes, you are increasing the complexity for the other systems of the body that are managing your balance, and if you add in an external load like holding a small weight, you are adding complexity, as you will need to coordinate multiple movement functions.”

3 expert-approved exercises for improving balance to add to your gym routine