20 Time Reflection

When we were assigned a 20 Time project, I was excited to create my own project but also unsure as to what I was supposed to do with my new found freedom. Throughout school, I have always learned to do assignments word for word as outlined by the directions, and so it was a great chance to branch out and do something that I found interesting. I wanted to explore a topic which I could learn from and apply to real life. I have been very involved in weight training, which coincides with my passion for kinesiology and physical therapy.This interest pushed me to develop a project that I could personally grow and improve from. I grew up as a gymnast, which required a lot of physical strength and balance. I never understood how solid balance becomes so solid, it was just a given that everyone accepted. Land on two feet, bend your knees, stay focused and practice, but why? Over the years I continued to occasionally wonder what exactly balance was, but never had the chance to answer it. So in order to test out the complex inner-workings of the human body’s balancing abilities, I decided to re-learn an elementary gym hold called a straddle-press handstand. This involves relying on only arm and core strength to lift your legs up into a handstand from a straddled position.

Initially, my project was intended to be solely self-help based, and to apply my research in real life situations. I started to explore what it means to balance and how complex it really is. Basically, balance is dependent on a few different sensory outputs: vision, muscles and joints, and the vestibular system, which includes the cerebral cortex. I planned to do exercises every day that targeted each component; I thought it would be simple. I would stand on one foot and do some crunches, and it would come back to me right? Well, it wasn’t quite that easy as I found out. I started integrating different strength exercises into my daily workouts, and practicing fine hand eye coordination drills (tossing a tennis ball against a wall, catching it in the other other hand) to learn how our bodies balance and how it is improved. Having pre-existing wrist injuries, I had to make sure that I was properly warming up and stretching safely. I took progress videos every so often to see if I could actually improve my balance by narrowing in on these different components that help us to stay stable. I did a lot of exercises like standing on one foot with a BOSU balance ball, single leg kettlebell deadlifts and one arm planks. In a short amount of time, I noticed a significant difference in my ability to balance on one foot, and my core stamina. This all helped me to practice my straddle press handstands up against a wall.

My gymnastics inflicted wrist injuries have affected me even after quitting the sport. Specifically, because of a past dislocation, my left wrist becomes very swollen and sore with excessive weight placed on it. I go to physical therapy often and work to regain mobility in my wrist, but after 7 years, I still do not have the same strength I used to. I was talking to my physical therapist about my project to re teach myself this handstand, and he shut it down quickly. He told me that it is not a good idea to keep practicing my straddle press because of its intensive strain placed on the hand and wrist joints. I was pretty disappointed; I was really excited to apply my research to my own life, and it was stressful knowing that I would have to start over. However, I knew he was right and that it was time to shift my project in a different direction. I started thinking about how my original goal to improve balance could benefit other people as well. I decided to see how well my friends and family could balance and recorded data. I timed them standing on one foot with their eyes closed, both with shoes and without shoes. Footwear plays a big role in balance, as it is designed to provide extra stability and could affect the results. I then categorized this information by the sports that people are involved in, to see how each activity compared. After averaging all of the data, I found that dancers/cheerleaders, and marching band members have the greatest balance which was slightly surprising. I wouldn’t have expected marching band to build strong balance, but after learning about the brain’s visual output, I was able to understand what made them such good balancers. Although they may not have as much strength as a bodybuilder would, marching and playing an instrument requires coordination to walk in sync while focus on performing a piece. Similarly, a dancer is trained to move in rhythm with music, which requires both strong visual cues and balance to stay centered while moving.

Averages:

Sport	Left w Shoe	Right w Shoe	Left w out Shoe	Right w out Shoe	Shoes on or off?	Type of Shoe
Football	00:18.95 sec	00:39.08 sec	00:10.37 sec	00:33.57 sec	80% say on	80% Sneakers 20% Skate shoe
Basketball	00:17.01 sec	00:47.12 sec	00:17.12 sec	00:43.85 sec	66% on	100% Sneaker
Dance/Cheer	00:27.14 sec	1:01.87 sec	1:11.79 sec	00:37.72 sec	60% say on	60% skate shoes 20% Flip Flops 20% sneakers
Lacrosse	00:21.38 sec	00:33.51 sec	00:09.47 sec	00:24.38 sec	100% say on	100 % sneakers
Soccer	00:32.90 sec	00:16.33 sec	00:19.73 sec	00:12.87 sec	100% say on	100% skate shoes
Instruments/School activities	01:07.49 sec	00:35.95 sec	00:17.54 sec	00:50.96 sec	50% say on	50% skate shoes 50% flip flops
General Weight Training	00:12.25 sec	00:27.77 sec	00:20.15 sec	00:13.88 sec	33% say on	33% sneakers 33% skate shoe 33% flip flops
Highest average times?	Instruments and school academic activities 1:07.49	dance/ cheer 1:01.87 sec	dance/ cheer 1:11.79	Instruments 00:50.96	Lacrosse and soccer say that its easier with shoes 100% of the time Weight training lowest

To finalize this project, I created an infographic which informs people about balance and how they can improve it. In the future, I still plan to use many of these exercises in my workouts because of their effectiveness. I personally have learned so much from this project and I am glad that I was forced to think outside of myself, and ultimately help others.

Although I struggled at first to find the motivation to initiate my project, as I developed a more concrete plan I got very involved. It was hard to step outside of my workout plan comfort zone to try new exercises because we all get very comfortable with what we are good at. Having to shift my project in a new direction was very stressful, but I dealt with it in a very productive and effective manner.

Overall, I would evaluate my work as an A-, because of my thorough research and effort put into it. I incorporated a lot of information from past units.  I even decided to do my better joints project about wrist dislocation since it affected this project as well. I enjoyed doing it and handled the change productively and even created a better project for myself.