Your vestibular system helps you stand upright, maintain balance and move through space. This system also coordinates information from your inner ear, visual, tactile and musculoskeletal system. This system helps regulate your heart rate, muscle tone, limb position, immune responses and your arousal. Balance board exercises stimulate multiple components of your vestibular system, such as tactile, balance, visual and audio processing mechanisms.
Vestibular Dysfunctions
Balance board exercises provide multiple inputs for your vestibular system, and may help reduce or eliminate vestibular problems. Vestibular system dysfunctions may lead to anxiety or panic attacks, increased need for self-stimulation and abnormal muscle tone. Defecation difficulty, teeth grinding, chin tapping, drooling and hand flapping may also result from vestibular dysfunction. Balance board exercises may help you overcome feelings of nausea or dizziness that result from vestibular problems. These exercises may help reduce mental confusion, disorganization, distractability and memory loss that result from vestibular dysfunctions.
Vestibular System and Balance
Pressors on the soles of your feet provide vestibular input about the texture of the ground. Your vestibular system uses this information to calculate weight and posture adjustments to help you maintain an upright balance and coordinated movement. Balance board exercises require continual shifts in balance that provide a high amount of vestibular input and concentrate your focus. These exercises provide the challenge of standing still on a changing surface, and the board immediately shifts if you let your mind drift while balancing.
Athletic Training
Balance board exercises can provide cross-training for both extreme sports and mainstream sports, and may improve vestibular functioning for athletic training purposes. Football, soccer, tennis and other court or field sports require stepping strategies that coordinate athletic movements. Forward, backward and lateral steps are common in most sports and athletics. Balance board exercises may improve athletic performance, particularly in situations that require speed quickness, agility and fast reaction times.
General Fitness Benefits
Improving your vestibular functioning with balance board exercises enhances your ability to maintain your balance and coordination in addition to other fitness benefits. These exercises strengthen your legs and increase your core strength. Balance board exercises can help improve motor skills in children or individuals recovering from injury. Balance board exercise can also provide a good low-to-moderate intensity aerobic workout. You can also include ankle weights or perform traditional exercises like the squat on the balance board to increase the difficulty and stimulate more vestibular action. These exercise may improve your vestibular system by helping release the effects of emotional stress, trauma and enhancing your self-esteem.
Basic Exercises
Basic balance board exercises include side-to-side, front-to-back and circular rotation movements. These exercises help you get accustomed to the board and how it moves. Hold on to a chair or a wall to spot yourself while you perform these exercises. You may also benefit from these exercises if you are recovering from a balance impairment or have balance problems. Stand on the balance board, position your feet close together and shift your weight from side to side without lifting your feet off the board for the side-to-side, alternately tipping your toes and your heels slightly downward to perform the front-to-back movement. Combine both of these exercises to perform a circular movement. Balance boards that roll on a cylindrical apparatus do not accommodate the circular motion, but you can generally perform all these exercises on boards supported by circular cushions.
Advanced Exercises
Advanced balance board exercises include movements like balanced push-ups, crunches and squats. Grasp each end of the board while performing push-ups to stimulate your vestibular system with your upper body. Sit on the center of your balance board and perform crunches to combine a core and abdominal workout with vestibular training. Squats may be more difficult. Balance your weight on top of the board by standing on it until you can maintain balance with little movement. Extend your arms forward and squat down by bending your knees and letting your hips bend back. Push back up by extending your knees and hips until your legs are straight again. Keep your back straight and your knees pointed in the same direction as your feet throughout this movement.
Member Comments