Grammar

1) balance out

If I was carrying two heavy bags and my mom would like to take one of them, I’d tell her that it’d be much worse because if she did it, I’d be left with one bag and the weight of that single bag would put more strain on one side of my body. Could I then say something like this?

“I’m actually using the other bag to balance out the first one.”

2) do a few strokes

I have already asked you about this but I’m still confused. If I spent just very little time in water swimming the breastroke, could I say that I only did a few strokes?

Thank you.