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Exercise set · Balance and leg strength

The Balance and Falls Prevention Set

  • 12 to 15 minutes
  • Most days; balance responds to frequency
  • 4 exercises

Balance is trainable at any age, and the evidence on what works is unusually clear: challenge balance meaningfully, build leg strength, and do both often. This set packages that into a daily routine done beside a kitchen counter. It is deliberately unheroic, because the routine you actually do most days is the one that prevents the fall.

Designed and reviewed by Dr. Shyyada Banu, BPT, MPT · MIAP License No. 69386

Who this set is for

  • You have had a fall or a near miss in the last year
  • You have started holding furniture when moving around the house
  • Standing from a chair needs a push from the arms
  • You want to stay independent and are willing to do boring things daily to ensure it

The set, in order

The sequence matters: it moves from switching on to loading. Each exercise links to its full guide, with the technique, mistakes and progressions.

  1. 1

    Sit to Stand

    10 repetitions, hands off if possible

    Standing up from a chair and lowering back down with control, ideally without pushing off with your hands. The most transferable strength exercise there is, and the single most valuable movement in a falls prevention programme.

    The most valuable exercise on this page. If ten is easy, slow them down.

  2. 2

    Calf Raise

    12 repetitions, both legs

    Rising onto the balls of the feet and lowering with control, done with the knee straight and again with it bent. The main strengthening exercise for the calf and Achilles, and the treatment that actually resolves plantar heel pain.

    The ankle is the first responder to a wobble. It needs strength and speed.

  3. 3

    Step Up

    8 each leg onto a low step

    Stepping up onto a low step and lowering back down under control. It trains the exact pattern stairs demand, and the controlled descent is where most of the value sits.

    Controlled on the way down as well as up; the descent is where control lives.

  4. 4

    Single Leg Balance

    30 seconds each side, at your current stage

    Standing on one leg beside a kitchen counter, worked through a staged progression from feet together up to standing on a cushion. The core of any falls prevention programme.

    Always beside the counter. Progress the stage only when the current one is easy for the full time.

Running the set well

  • Always within instant reach of a solid surface. The training happens near the edge of steadiness, never past it.
  • Firm, fitted shoes, not slippers, and not socks on smooth floors.
  • Three hours a week is where the falls prevention evidence gets strong. Daily short sessions reach that without any single session being long.

When to get assessed instead

Do not practise balance work alone if you have fallen recently; have someone nearby until the early stages are secure. Get assessed if you feel dizzy on standing, if a knee or hip gives way, or if you cannot rise from a chair without arms at all.

Read about the conditions this supports

Other sets

The Desk Worker's Neck and Shoulder SetThe Lower Back Pain Starter SetThe Core Foundations SetThe Knee Strength SetThe Postnatal Foundations Set