1.

Better than Bacon

Chewy, smoky, crispy mushroom ”bacon” — MyBacon delivers all of the satisfaction and none of the pork.

$10 at www.myforestfoods.com.

2.

Sweet Support

Cymbiotika’s liquid supplements contain six mushrooms that support immune and digestive health.

$60 for 30 servings at www.cymbiotika.com.

3.

Mood Lifting

Reishi and cordyceps are just two of the eight functional mushrooms featured in these mood- and energy-supporting gummies.

$30 at www.plantpeople.co.

4.

Brain Boosting

Four Sigmatic combines quality coffee with brain-supportive mushrooms, like lion’s mane, to support better focus throughout the day.

$20 at us.foursigmatic.com.

5.

A Cut Above

With 20 grams of protein and a functional-mushroom blend, Ryze overnight oats can easily sustain you until lunch.

$60 for 14 servings at www.ryzesuperfoods.com.

Muscle Soother

Magnesium is key for muscle function, and the lotions from Epsom-It deliver a concentrated dose to sore muscles — along with anti-inflammatory arnica.

$18 at www.epsomit.com.

All in One

Just like petroleum jelly, VegaJelly is the ultimate multitasker — but unlike that household staple, it does it all with purified vegetable oils instead of petroleum.

From $6 at www.vegajelly.com.

A Greener Fix

Made with breathable bamboo fabric and nontoxic adhesive, these Patch bandages with aloe vera–infused pads help fix up little injuries without creating new ones.

From $7 at www.patchbandages.com.

Plant Power

Calendula, yarrow, and comfrey are the superstars of skin-healing herbs. Use these Green Goo salves for cuts and scrapes, insect bites, poison ivy, and more.

From $10 at www.greengoo.com.

Carry On

With plenty of space for all your poolside essentials, the Avery Rattan Day Tote Bag is chic, sustainable, and made by Balinese artisans paid a living wage.

$74 at www.madetrade.com.

Draw Straws

The insulated Hydro Flask wide-mouthed bottle with a straw on the cap is the perfect marriage of leak-proof and easy access. Holds 32 ounces of liquid securely until you pop the top.

$45 at www.hydroflask.com.

Tread Lightly

Indosole makes the soles of these stylish, comfortable slides from a combination of EVA, natural rubber, and recycled tires. A nice step up from the usual flip-flops.

$55 at www.indosole.com.

Stay Put

 Sun, sweat, and swimming are no match for the staying power of this unscented, oxybenzone-free, zinc-based sunscreen from Vacation. Goes on mostly sheer.

$20 at www.vacation.inc.

Perfect Pair

Proxies blends wine grapes with fruit, teas, spices, and ferments to create complex flavors that pair beautifully with food. All of wine’s pleasures, none of its pitfalls.

$98 for four at www.drinkproxies.com.

Minimalist Mixer

Make a refreshing mock-a-rita with this simple concoction from WithCo. It contains lime juice, agave nectar, orange oil, and water — nothing more or less.

From $20 at www.withcococktails.com.

Fresh Take

ISH mixes ready-to-drink mocktails with real ingredients, like gentian root for the spritz and lime for the daiquiri. They’re beautiful over ice with slices of fresh citrus.

$5 each at www.ishspirits.com.

Flush Feelings

The first sip of a cocktail often comes with a pleasant sensation of warmth; Free AF mocktails contain a botanical heat extract that provides the same flush without the booze.

$39 for 12 at us.af-drinks.com.

Good Cover

When you’re bringing a bowl of salad to a party or setting bread to rise, skip the plastic wrap and use these fabric bowl covers from Dot and Army instead.

$39 for three at www.dotandarmy.com.

Fresh Take

Rezip Co. makes its reusable, resealable bags from sturdy food-safe PEVA, with an airtight double-lock closure to keep food fresh.

$20 for a set of three at www.rezip.com.

Swedish Style

Each reusable paper towel ­from FEBU replaces up to 17 rolls, can survive 50 trips through the washing ­machine, and makes your kitchen look way prettier.

$15 for five at www.forearthbyus.com.

Cool Carry-On

Sturdy enough to transport groceries and stylish enough to bring your laptop to the café, this recycled-canvas tote from Maika is available in a wide range of colors and patterns.

$45 at www.maikagoods.com.

Simpler Soap

A reusable alternative to plastic bottles, this ceramic container holds a refillable bar of Nellie’s dish soap — just dab it with a dishcloth or brush and start scrubbing.

$20 at www.nelliesclean.com.

Two for One

Nested within the handsome Hitch water bottle is a matching insulated coffee cup. Fill them both and stack the cup neatly on the water bottle for one-handed ease.

$68 at www.carryhitch.com.

Real Feel

For unmatched warmth combined with barefoot-style comfort, try the beautiful Tipi indoor moccasins from Manitobah.

$80 at www.manitobah.com.

Warm Toes

For those with perpetually cold feet, Baabuk’s sustainable wool high-top slippers offer a little more coverage and comfort.

Available for kids ($39) and adults ($89) at www.baabuk.com.

Good to Go

Comfortable enough for a house slipper and high-style enough to wear around town, the shearling-lined Gallito slide from Beek is built for years of enjoyable wear.

$280 at www.beekshop.com.

Sole to Sole

 If you want to feel cozy and pulled together, these breathable wool house shoes from Nootkas are it. Hand felted from responsibly sourced New Zealand wool.

$94 at www.nootkas.com.

Balance — your ability to stay upright without falling — is an essential physical and mental skill. And yet, it’s an often-overlooked aspect of fitness for individuals at every level.

No matter your age or your goals — whether you want to run, ski, hike, cycle, lift, or simply be able to carry your groceries into the house — balance training can help you perform better, stave off injury, and enjoy a higher quality of life in the long run.

“Balance training is important because virtually all movement and physical activity requires some degree of stability,” says Cedric X. Bryant, PhD, FACSM, president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise.

By performing balance-training exercises, you can improve your strength, body awareness, reaction time, and coordination while also increasing resilience to injury.

Additionally, balance training can benefit cognition, spatial awareness (awareness of your body’s position to objects in your environment), and proprioception (awareness of your body’s movements, force, and location), says Abrea Wooten, senior national education manager at Life Time.

While there’s no age limit on these benefits, “balance is especially important for older individuals ­because it typically declines as we age, making us less stable on our feet and more vulnerable to falling,” Wooten explains.

Whether you’re a mountain biker traversing tree roots and rocks or a neighborhood walker looking out for pavement cracks and ice, balance training in a controlled setting can improve your ability to navigate your way around these and other obstacles.

Balance work doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. In fact, it can be incorporated into your daily life as well as into your existing workouts.

Many health clubs and gyms offer balance-enhancing programming. Life Time, for instance, has specifically integrated unstable-surface training into a variety of its offerings, including its high-intensity Ultra Fit classes and its ARORA training designed for 55-plus exercisers.

Most fitness centers and gyms boast unstable-surface tools (USTs), including the following four popular options. Discover how you can add some balance work into your routine with their support.

Airex Balance-Pad

A soft square made of dense foam, the pad activates your feet, ankles, legs, and core to maintain a standing posture. The spongy UST is useful for creating an unstable surface close to the ground, making it ideal for balance-training beginners.

To start, stand with both feet planted firmly on the pad. Progress to standing on one leg, closing one eye or both, rotating your head, and moving your arms, suggests Katy Moline, MS, ACSM-EP.

For a particularly chal­lenging — but fun — exercise, stand on one foot and use the other foot to try to write the letters of the alphabet or spell out your name or other words. Make the motions as big or as small as you can control, then progress from there.

BOSU Ball

Like a stability ball cut in half, a BOSU consists of an ­inflated rubber dome attached to a rigid platform. This tool is ubiquitous in many clubs and gyms due to its balance-boosting benefits.

One way to use the BOSU is as prep work for strength exercises, says Wooten. Just be sure that before you bring the BOSU into play, you’re able to perform all moves on a stable surface with a full range of motion.

For instance, practice doing sets of squats, lunges, overhead presses, planks, and other strength moves on the floor. Once you get the hang of the motion and form, increase the challenge by performing your move of choice on the domed side of the BOSU ball. Allow yourself time to progress slowly — and position yourself near a wall or other stable surface for safety.

Rocker and Wobble Boards

The names are sometimes used interchangeably, but there is a difference between rocker and wobble boards. Rocker boards, like ­StrongTek’s version pictured here, are rectangular or curved U-shaped boards that allow you to move from side to side and front to back. Wobble boards are round boards that allow you to move from side to side, front to back, and in a circle (“around the world”). Both variations are awesome for building balance skills.

“Even just getting on these is fun,” says Wooten. Try performing such lower- and upper-body exercises as squats, biceps curls, overhead triceps extensions, and standing biceps curls. You can also do planks to improve abdominal strength by putting your feet on the board, lifting one arm at a time, and then lifting one leg at a time.

Power Plate

The Power Plate constantly challenges balance by sending multidirectional vibrations through your body as you’re performing your workout. “The vibration isn’t going to be so crazy that it throws you off your game,” says Wooten, “but the connections it can make neurologically, along with extra muscle recruitment, are fantastic. So anything you’re doing on the floor” — squats, lunges, plank holds, rows — “you can take onto the Power Plate.”

The Power Plate isn’t the most challenging UST on this list, but it can be the most intimidating simply because it is a large machine that people may not know how to operate. If your health club has one and you’re unsure how to use it, don’t hesitate to ask a trainer.

On Solid Ground

You can practice balance training without the help of USTs.

“There’s an infinite number of exercises that can be done to improve balance without a single piece of equipment,” says Katy Moline, MS, ACSM-EP, who teaches balance classes to older adults.

Moline advises integrating balance training into your daily routine using no more than your own body.

For starters, anytime you have to stand — while, say, brushing your teeth, washing the dishes, waiting in a line, or working at a standing desk — switch up your stance. Stand on one leg or use a staggered stance with one foot slightly in front of the other. Take this to a tandem stance, where one foot is directly in front of the other, as if you were balancing on a tightrope. Progress by raising and lowering the heels or by closing one eye at a time.

Set your balance work in motion by mixing up how you walk. Take slow steps forward and backward, holding one leg up before each step (walking or jogging in reverse improves stability, balance, coordination, and cognitive function. For more, see “The Benefits of Backward Walking.” Move side to side while imagining that you’re stepping over a sleeping pet.

“It’s important to work on balance while standing still and while moving, as well as in different directions — forward and back, side to side — and tempos,” Moline says.

Life Time’s Abrea Wooten agrees. “We live in 360 degrees, and life comes at us from all angles and speeds.”

This article originally appeared as “Wobble Work.”