Your brain controls movement and balance through the cerebellum. The cerebellum helps you balance by reacting to signals sent to it by your muscles. You can sense this by standing on one foot for awhile. Odds are you will shake a little bit initially. Then your leg will start to relax and the shaking will stop. Your brain and body make "connections" to help you stabilize. As you practice a particular movement or exercise, those connections become stronger until you can perform them easily. This is how exercise can help the brain improve balance.
Your Brain and Balance
An area in your brain called the cerebellum controls balance, posture and motor movement. According to California State University's Patrick McCaffrey, Ph.D., the cerebellum is continuously trying to improve your movements, including balance or speech, based on the information it receives from your body. When you walk, jump or perform a new exercise, your cerebellum is processing that information like a high-speed computer and sending signals back to your body to enhance your performance. As these brain-body connections are used more often, they become stronger and allow for better movement.
How Your Brain Learns to Balance
According to sports coach Brian Mac's website, your body and brain go through three phases to learn a new physical skill such as balance or dancing: cognitive, associative and autonomous. In the cognitive phase, you are actively thinking about the exercise as you perform it, such as thinking about each step you take when learning to dance. During the associative phase you are linking the new skill with other actions or movements through practice and feedback. This occurs when you are learning how to spin and move with a dance partner. You are in the autonomous phase when you can perform a skill automatically, requiring little or no thought. For example, dance instructors can focus on teaching others how to dance while dancing with a partner.
Cardiovascular Exercise and Balance
Cardiovascular, or aerobic, exercise tends to be repetitive because you need to be able to do it fast or repeatedly enough to raise your heart rate. Most of these exercises, such as running, swimming and bicycling, tend to have a very low “balance” component to them since we can perform them autonomously. However, you can try to switch it up and improve your balance by performing the usual "cardio" exercises in unusual ways. Try jogging backwards or in a side-shuffle motion, raising yourself out of your seat while cycling or walking backwards on a stair climber.
Resistance Training and Balance
Resistance training is usually how you can improve your balance the most. However, remember that resistance does not have to be holding a dumbbell or rowing a cable; it can be your own body weight. Stand on one foot. Then move one arm in a circle. Then close your eyes while still moving your arm and on one foot. Notice as you decrease your base of support by standing on one leg or increasing movement complexity by moving your arm and closing your eyes, it makes balance much more difficult. You can apply this idea to many different resistance training exercises.
Specificity: The Key to Balance Training
Whether you want to improve your balance for sports, to pursue a new skill like ice skating or just to catch yourself from falling, specificity in training is key. The brain-body connection can allow for significant balance improvements; however it is only for the movements you are practicing. For example, performing exercises on one leg will do very little to help you get better at performing a handstand. First you should choose how you want to improve your balance. Then you can perform specific exercises to improve that aspect of balance. A certified personal trainer is a great resource for developing targeted balance exercise workouts.
