Balance Exercise and Your Brain
by Alan Pritt
But first let’s quickly explore what controls your balance – the vestibular system...
Our vestibular system is buried inside our ears. Within each ear there are 3 tubes. They lie in 3 directions: x, y and z; and they are called the semicircular canals. These are connected to membrane sacs called the otolith organs. When we move, liquid inside these canals and sacs also move.
Sensors pick up that movement of liquid. These sensors send messages to our brain. Our brain then has to interpret that data and work out where we are in space, how fast we are moving and whether we are upright or not.
This information combines with our other senses to keep us coordinated, to control our eye movement, to allow us to read and write, to think abstractly, to do practically everything.
We use it to understand space, direction, movement, depth, orientation, speed and gravity. This combines with the rest of the senses and allows us to experience the world in the 3 dimensions in which it exists.
When it isn’t working properly it causes a whole host of problems; some that seem completely unrelated to balance. In a moment I’ll explore them and then we’ll get to the practical balance exercises.
But first let’s explore how balance can affect such things as reading ability...
The foundation of the other senses
When a baby is still in the womb there is one sense that is more important than any of the other main senses. We don’t need to hear, see, smell, taste, or touch as much as we need to know if we are upside down. The vestibular system lets us know which way we are facing.The vestibular system is the first to develop in the womb. At just two weeks, it starts to form; and by 4½ months it has begun operating.
The early development means it has many connections with the rest of the brain. Everything else develops around it; becoming integrated with it.
When a baby is born, it loves to be cradled and rocked. This provides stimulation for the baby, feeding the brain with lots of sensory input. As the child develops, this information begins to become intertwined with the other senses. A baby will start to associate what it sees with the vestibular system. When a baby looks at a toy from one angle, then moves around it to another angle, the vestibular system allows it understand it is the same toy. Recognition that the toy is the same no matter which way it is turned, then manifests.
Gradually, as the child grows, the system is refined and begins to connect with all the other senses. It provides a basic framework upon which the other senses are connected. This sensory integration is vital to the way we understand the world; it allows us, for example, to understand that the ball we can feel in our hands, is the same object as the one we look at with our eyes. Only when we experience something with all of our senses do we understand it fully.
If you want to test the effect of losing your sense of balance, try this de- balance exercise! Simply spin around a few times until you get dizzy. Notice how when you stop the world continues spinning. Our vestibular system coordinates with our vision and informs us that it is our eyes that are moving and not the entire world!
As well as the vestibular system helping out the other senses, other senses help the vestibular system. The sensors for sound and balance, for example, are both found in the ear; and as such are interdependent. So those who have total hearing loss tend to have trouble with balance and coordination. Similarly, those with speech impediments, often improve following a balance stimulating activity such as swinging.
Sensory integration is vital for the ability to concentrate, academic learning, self esteem, abstract reasoning and thought, visual perception, hand-eye coordination and organisation.
Flight simulators are a great example of how our vestibular sense combines with our other senses. A popular flight simulator is one that sends us on a rollercoaster ride. When the screen shows us descending down a big drop we feel like we are actually speeding down it. In actual fact the simulator has simply tilted. To our vestibular system, being tilted and being driven forward feels exactly the same. Our eyes inform us of the difference.
For a more concrete example of how our eyes are integrated with our balance, try this balance exercise:
Fetch a timer.
Now stand on one leg, and time yourself.
Repeat; but this time do it with your eyes closed.
How can a baby learning to crawl also help it to read?
As we look into this subject further, we find more remarkable connections between the vestibular system and other, seemingly unrelated, functions. The fact that learning to crawl lays the foundation for learning to read can seem baffling – but it’s true.Crawling helps build vital connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. The building of these connections is vital for learning to crawl because both sides of the body must act in coordination. Since reading also requires strong connections between both sides of the brain, it is this learning of coordination that makes reading possible.
Problems with a bad vestibular system
Since the vestibular system forms the basis for many areas of perception, problems with balance can cause problems in seemingly unrelated areas of brain function.A vestibular system that isn’t sensitive enough causes problems with balance, bodily control and can make someone seem clumsy. It has also been linked with emotional problems, perceptual deficits, dyslexia, schizophrenia, autism and ADHD.
An under sensitive vestibular system can cause problems with sitting still. Not enough data is reaching the brain, so a person must move a lot in order to stimulate it. To do this a person will often have to move around a lot, perhaps rocking, pacing, humming, making noises, banging things, or jumping around.
The opposite can also happen. More data can arrive at the brain than the brain has learnt to deal with. It hasn’t yet worked out how to organise that information and so confusion arises.
Imagine you are trying to write an essay. It’s on a subject you know nothing about. For example:
Discuss the role of climate and topography in the development of the early English colonies in America.
The deadline is fast approaching, and you are beginning to feel the pressure.
Now imagine you have no text books, no references of any kind, no tutors to help, and little or no prior knowledge. How can you possibly complete the essay?
Now imagine the library books are returned and you suddenly have 14 books dedicated to the subject, your tutor is back from holiday and is giving you lectures, there is a documentary on the subject, you have found 16 journal articles… You have all the information you need, but the deadline is still fast approaching and you have to figure out what to do with all this information.
Suddenly you feel overwhelmed, and don’t know how to deal with it all.
Sensory input is similar. We can suffer from a lack of sensory data, or we can have so much that we don’t know how to deal with it. Sensory integration works to activate the brain so that we receive enough sensory data, but don’t feel overwhelmed.
Tapping into what you already have
When we know something intuitively, it means we have made a mental model of it. If you see a film, for example, where someone gets punched in the face do you ever get the feeling that you can feel their pain? You imagine what it would be like if you got hit, and you will likely make a mild physical reaction to it. You do this because you have a mental model in your head that allows you to imagine what something would be like without having to actually experience it. You basically have a simulator inside your head.Similarly when we think of, say, Newton’s laws of gravity we can imagine what an object would feel like if it were travelling with no friction, or if an object suddenly went up hill, or if an opposing force slowed it down. We take our experiences of being in a car, ice skating, swimming, sledging, etc and use it to construct an interpretation of an idea.
Other examples include navigation skills, being better at sport tactics, understanding what it would be like to be inside an engine, what it would be like to be a blood cell in your body, why earthquakes occur, et cetera. Things like this, you cannot experience directly, but you can use your imagination to understand them.
Manipulating objects in our imaginations like this is one of the primary skills that are tested in a traditional IQ test.
Without the ability to simulate things in our heads, it is impossible to understand anything.
When something is particularly tricky to understand, we need to examine our thoughts more closely. We have to go through our thinking over and over again; making alterations to try and understand what is going on.
Refining your vestibular sense through balance exercises will help improve the accuracy of your thinking, but through the years you will have refined it to a large degree already. By learning how to sit up, walk, throw a ball, et cetera, you’ve already naturally been doing balance exercises. Making the most of the results of these balance exercises comes from learning how to think more effectively using this sense.
Visualisation exercises allow you to use this information more effectively. You disengage from the real world, and experiment in your virtual world (your imagination).
Smart people often have a greater ability to disengage from the real world and experiment in these simulators.
Visualisation exercises train us to think about our vestibular system internally rather than externally. By imagining ourselves in our imagined environment we can start to think more clearly in our brain simulators. So I can describe Newton’s laws of gravity to you, and you will be able to imagine intuitively why the laws are so. You take the information you already have in your head and you apply it to the examples.
I shall discuss visualisation exercises elsewhere on this site, but for now let’s get down to the topic of improving this sense with balance exercises.
Ways to improve
By refining this sense further we create a more accurate ‘simulator’ that we can use to think clearer and more precise thoughts with. Using this information we are able to process, perceive, react to and organise information, and so our overall functioning improves.The rocking that babies love so much is great stimulation for their vestibular system and is a natural balance exercise. By gently rocking the baby, you provide it with a consistent, repetitive and simple message. The brain can cope with this better and begin to organise the data.
As adults we can perform certain balance exercises that will, like rocking, enable us to enhance our vestibular sense further.
Exercises
Here are a set of basic balance exercises to get started with:(For these balance exercises you may want to stand near a solid support such as a counter top or a tall chair. If you are concerned about falling you can lightly grasp the support with your finger tips. Then try the exercises by keeping your hand near the support, but not actually touching it.
If you feel particularly uneasy about your balance, get someone to stand by you ready to provide support.)
Once you find a balance exercise easy, move on to something more difficult.
Do exercises for 10 minutes, 2 times daily.
Core Balance Exercises
1. Stand with your feet together for 2 minutes.
2. Pretend you are on a balance beam and put your right foot directly in front of your left foot. The heel of your right foot should be gently touching the toes of the left foot. Hold for 2 minutes then do the same, but put the left foot in front this time.
3. Stand on your right leg for 2 minutes. Repeat with your left leg.
4. Purchase a balance board (or teeter board) and remain balanced on it for 2 minutes.
Eye orientation
To make sure your eyes are well attuned to your sense of balance, complete the above core balance exercises again but with the following additions.
Throughout the exercise, keep your head upright, and in a stationary position.
- Hold your right hand straight out in front of you (i.e. don’t bend at the elbow). Do the ‘thumbs up‘ sign. Keep your eye focused on your thumb nail, and begin to trace the figure of 8 sign in the air. Make it as large as possible.
- Repeat, but in the opposite direction.
- Repeat with left hand.
Head orientation
In the last exercise we kept our heads still. This time we are going to move our heads. So go through the core balance exercises again, this time using these additions:
- Head turned to the left (as if you were shaking your head)
- Head turned to the right
- Head tilted to the left (so that it rests on the shoulder)
- Head tilted to the right
- Head tilted down (as if your were nodding)
- Head tilted up towards the sky.
Eye and head orientation combined
Once again complete the core balance exercises. This time, however, we are going to keep our eyes fixed on a stationary object while moving the head. I use a brightly coloured pin placed in a pin board.
Place the object at about eye level.
Get into your balancing stance.
Keep your eye focused on the object and turn your head to the left, and tilt it up, down, left and right. All the time keep your eye positioned on the object.
You can make this harder by placing the object on a busy background so that it is more difficult to keep track of.
Eyes closed
You saw earlier how sight is linked heavily with your ability to balance. This is true of other senses as well, but sight is the easiest to bypass and has the most dramatic effect when we do so.
If we are specifically going to work on our sense of balance we can gain a lot of benefit from isolating that sense. So go through the core balance exercises a final time, but, this time, keep your eyes closed.
Sports
Sports, especially racquet sports will help with tracking and depth perception while you keep your balance. Good balance sports include:
- Racquet sports (table tennis is very good)
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Martial arts
- Gymnastics
- Circus games
- Twister!
The above balance exercises and sports should give you a good start. I’m going to continue researching balance exercises to try and find the most productive ones. In the meantime just keep challenging yourself.
