Simple device helps achieve balance to fitness routine

Karate instructor Paul Acklin believes balance is the key to life.

"In the martial arts, we work on the whole package ... body, mind and spirit. Balance is the glue that holds it all together," said Acklin, owner and operator of Superkicks in St. Petersburg, Fla.

When Acklin talks about balance, he is speaking literally and figuratively.

"The more you practice every move, every kata, the more you will improve physical balance," Acklin said. "But the students who stick with it, and eventually earn their black belt, are the ones who learn how to balance the physical training with other aspects of their life, such as work, school and family."

Acklin, who teaches the traditional Japanese, Okinawan and Korean martial arts, puts a strong emphasis on strengthening his students' core, or stomach, muscles.

"If you think about it, those muscles are what hold you together," he said. "You need a strong core to just walk down the street."

A strong core helps build confidence, Acklin said, the kind of confidence a martial artist needs to hop up on one leg and throw a high kick.

"Our students go over the same moves again and again, fine-tuning the smallest details for a reason," he said.

Practicing a kata, or the choreographed moves against imaginary opponents martial arts students do again and again, is the best way to improve physical balance, he said.

At Superkicks, Acklin also offers more mainstream fitness classes such as yoga and cardio kickboxing.

"I'm always keeping my eye out for equipment that will work for general physical fitness and still cross over to help my martial arts students," he said.

Lately, he's been using the Indo Board Balance Trainer, which looks like a small surfboard balanced on a separate roller.

Developed by a surfer named Hunter Joslin, the Indo Board Balance Trainer has been used by everybody from professional baseball and football players to international tennis stars.

"The learning curve is pretty steep," Acklin said. "Within 15 minutes you can start to realize the benefits."

Acklin has been holding regular Indo Board exercise classes for several months, and the training tool has been embraced by soccer moms and black belts, and even some black belts who are soccer moms.

"The very act of trying to balance will work muscles you didn't know you even had," he said.

The true benefit of the martial arts lies not in the destination, but in simply staying on the path, Acklin said.

Acklin likes to talk about one of his black belt students who wrote his entrance examination essay to Harvard about his experience as a martial arts student.

"The martial arts taught him how to live a balanced life," Acklin said. "It can be tough for a kid at times to go to karate class after school when they know their friends are home playing video games."

Balance is hard to achieve but well worth the effort, Acklin added.

"For any exercise program to work, it has to become part of your daily routine," he said. "Fitness is not a routine. It is a way of life."