How to Grade and Track Your Balance: A Simple Guide for Clinicians, Trainers, and Older Adults
Essential Points:
Rate of Perceived Stability (RPS) + Functional Grading = A Complete Picture
This dual-system approach combines how balance feels (subjective RPS) with how it looks (objective functional grading), creating a clear, full-spectrum view of progress and ability that is extremely easy to implement.Simple, Fast, and Effective for Everyone
Whether you're a clinician, coach, older adult, or caregiver, these easy-to-use tools require no special equipment and take just 30 seconds to apply—making balance assessment accessible to all.Track Progress, Build Confidence, Stay Safe
By monitoring both perceived effort and functional performance, you can safely tailor balance training, boost confidence, and reduce fall risk with every step forward.
Want to have easy reference to the tools discussed in this article? Download free full sized printable poster PDFs below!
Have you ever stood on one leg and wondered just how good (or bad) your balance really is?
If you've ever tried to test your balance by standing on one foot or closing your eyes during activities like yoga, you've probably noticed how quickly things can feel wobbly. It's a fun challenge at first, but for many people, especially as we age or recover from injury, it becomes a critical part of maintaining health and independence.
Balance isn't just about standing still without falling down. It's about confidence in movement, fall prevention, and being able to trust your body in everyday situations. And if you're a clinician, coach, or caregiver, it helps to know where someone is starting from so you can safely guide them forward. But here's the issue:
Most balance assessments are either too clinical, too vague, or just downright confusing.
They're either covered in medical language, require special equipment, or they require a honed clinical eye to make any decent judgements. That's why I want to introduce two simple, practical tools for grading your balance ability in particular activities:
Rate of Perceived Stability (RPS) - A simple self-assessed 1-10 scale
Functional Balance Grading - A simple 0–4 observational scale
Together, these two methods give you a full-spectrum, quick and dirty, picture of how your balance feels and how it's functionally performing. Whether you're working with patients, coaching older adults, or just keeping tabs on your own progress, this guide will help you track and improve balance safely and effectively.
What Is RPS?
If you've never heard of rate of perceived exertion (RPE) in exercise let me bring you up to speed. RPE is usually used to rate how hard a workout feels compared to your own subjective interpretations. This makes the scoring unique to you and your own personal experience. Rate of Perceived Stability (RPS) works the same way. It's a subjective scale from 1 to 10 that allows someone to rate how challenging a balance task feels in the moment. (1)
It gives us observers the "inside scoop" from you, the person doing the work. It also gives you a great consistent look at difficulty between exercises or exercise sessions. That internal perception is important, especially when:
You're working with people recovering from injury
Training older adults with a history of falls
Trying to build confidence without over-challenging someone
Progressing balance exercises in a safe, personalized way
Think of it like this: a single-leg stance might be a difficulty of 3 for one person, but a 7 or 8 for another depending on their strength, stability, and fear of falling. The task is the same, but the experience is totally different.
Here’s what the RPS scale looks like:
I have slightly modified the original RPS’s color scheme, for simplification, into a traffic light style. Here is what the colors mean corresponding to the ratings you give yourself.
Green means the exercise is easy and overall low stimulus or challenge. If you are in the 1-3 range it is probably time to increase the difficulty of the exercise.
Yellow is challenging but still mostly safe with precautions. Ranges of 4-7 are where you should aim to keep most of your balance exercises for optimal results and safety.
Red means a fall is very likely to occur and the exercise is at, or beyond, your balance ability. Ranges of 8-10 mean you will at minimum need assistance to perform the exercise, but that you are most likely outside of a productive challenge for balance.
Why is this useful?
It encourages self-awareness and engagement.
It helps track improvement over time.
It empowers people to choose the right level of challenge.
It supports safe progression without pushing someone into risky territory.
You can use this scale during or after an exercise to reflect, or even better, keep a running log of RPS scores to spot trends and improvements.
What Is Functional Balance Grading?
Where RPS captures your internal perception of difficulty, Functional Balance Grading gives you an external, observable rating. (2) This 0–4 scale has been used by clinicians for years to assess postural control and support needs during balance tasks in a simplified way. There are two halves to this type of balance grading depending on your chosen exercise or task. The first half is for static balance, or rather stationary balance. The second half is for dynamic balance, or rather moving balance.
Here's what it looks like:
As with the RPS, I have modified the look of the Functional Balance Grade, for simplification, into a traffic light style. Here is what the colors mean corresponding to the grade you get.
Green means the exercise is easy and overall low stimulus or challenge. If you are in the 3-4 range it is probably time to increase the difficulty of the exercise.
Yellow is challenging but still mostly safe with precautions. A 2 is where you should aim to keep most of your balance exercises for optimal results and safety.
Red means a fall is very likely to occur and the exercise is at, or beyond, your balance ability. Ranges of 0-1 mean you will at minimum need assistance to perform the exercise, but that you are most likely outside of a productive challenge for balance.
This scale is quick to use, requires no equipment, and gives immediate context:
Are you barely shifting weight and steady? (Grade 3)
Are you holding onto a rail the whole time or only part of the time? (Grade 1 or 2)
Can you stand still and shift side-to-side easily with control? (Grade 4)
Why use this scale?
It provides an objective snapshot of real-world ability
It’s fast and easy for both professionals and the average person
It makes goal-setting more specific
It can inform decisions about exercise progression, home safety, or fall risk
Together with the RPS, this forms a more complete picture:
RPE tells you how it feels (subjective challenge)
Grading tells you how it looks (objective functional performance)
This combo is gold for clinicians trying to quickly screen balance in multiple clients, as well as for you, the individual tracking your own progress without needing fancy equipment or clinical training.
How to Use RPS and Functional Grading Together
You can use these two tools in combination for each balance task you practice or test, and it will only take 30 seconds at most. Here’s a simple format you can use to take notes for an exercise using both tools:
Format:
Exercise name - Task RPS (0–10)/Functional Grade (0–4) - quality note
Example Notes
Tandem Stance, Eyes Open - 4/3 - Slight sway, no hand support
Single-Leg, Eyes Closed - 7/2 - Needed rail briefly
Foam Pad, Eyes Closed - 9/1 - Used wall most of time
This dual-rating system allows you to exercise then capture both how hard it feels and how well it was done. Over time, you can see improvements in:
Perception of challenge (RPS dropping)
Functional performance (grade increasing)
Confidence and independence
It also helps identify when someone might feel unsafe (high RPS) even if their performance looks good, or vice versa. That insight allows for smarter, safer progressions.
Who Can Use This Dual-System of Balance Assessment?
This grading and RPS system is incredibly flexible. It works for:
Physical therapists and rehab specialists who need quick screeners
Personal trainers and coaches tracking balance progress
Older adults monitoring balance training at home by their self
Anyone recovering from injury or surgery
Family caregivers supporting a loved one
You don’t need to be a clinician to benefit from this, just a curious, safety-minded human who wants to improve your balance or a loved ones.
Final Thoughts: A Simple System That Builds Confidence
Balance isn’t just a “nice to have”, it’s foundational for independence, safety, and long-term health. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. With the combined power of Rate of Perceived Stability (RPS) and Functional Balance Grading, you get a practical, intuitive system that’s easy to use and effective for everyone from rehab pros to home users.
Whether you're recovering from injury, coaching older adults, or just wanting to feel steadier on your feet, this approach helps you:
Track real progress over time
Adjust intensity safely to avoid injury or fear
Build awareness and confidence with every session
No fancy tools. No guesswork. Just a clear, easy way to see and feel improvement.
Ready to take control of your balance training? Be sure to download my free printable posters for each of these grading systems at the top of the article!
References
Espy D, Reinthal A, Meisel S. Intensity of Balance Task Intensity, as Measured by the Rate of Perceived Stability, is Independent of Physical Exertion as Measured by Heart Rate. Journal of Novel Physiotherapies. 2017;7(S4). doi:10.4172/2165-7025.1000343
O’Sullivan SB, Schmitz TJ, Fulk GD. Physical Rehabilitation, 6th Edition. In: Physical Rehabilitation. 6th ed. Jaypee; 2014:222. https://hsrc.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/books/85/
