Balance is an important component of any physical activity, and can be a key to preventing injury and improving overall performance. Coordination exercises are an ideal way to improve balance and help you stay safe while exercising.
These exercises involve the coordination of multiple body parts, with the goal of developing better balance. By engaging in coordination exercises, you can help coordinate your body’s movements, improve your balance, and reduce the risk of injury.
Coordination exercises can be done with or without equipment and can be adapted to fit any fitness level. With regular practice, coordination exercises can help improve your balance and help you become a stronger and safer athlete.
Why Do You Need to Improve Your Coordination Skills?
Since you are doing fine so far with moving around and doing various activities, you cannot help but wonder why you need to improve your coordination skills. These are some of the things you have to remember:
- When you have poor coordination skills, you will find it harder to exercise.
- Poor coordination skills will mean that you have poor dexterity, and you will find it hard to do certain activities.
- People with poor coordination skills may sometimes have a hard time gripping objects firmly.
Those who have underdeveloped coordination skills would need to undergo therapy to be given by professionals. Therapists would involve people in doing different coordination exercises.
10 Best Coordination Exercises You Should Try Now
One thing that you should realize about coordination exercises is they do not have to be hard to do. The exercises can be done at home whenever you want to. If you need to improve your coordination, these are some of the exercises that you can do:
One Leg Balancing
When it comes to this type of exercise, there are two types of exercises that you can do. One is the simple leg balancing, and the second one is the complex leg balancing. Let us discuss the simple one-leg balancing first. This exercise requires you to do the following:
- Lift one knee until your hip is already bent at a 90-degree angle.
- You can hold your knee for as long as you can.
- Make sure that your legs will not touch each other.
- If you cannot balance in the beginning, you can first start by holding onto a chair.
- As you continue doing the exercise, you can try removing the chair.
If you would like to do complex balancing, the processes that you have to do will be the same as simple balancing, but the only difference is you need to do the process on a soft surface so that balancing will be harder to do.
Best Coordination Exercises-Balance Beam
You may initially think that to do this exercise, and you need to have the balance beam that is normally used in gymnastics; you can create a simple balance beam using bricks or a plank. You can first start by walking back and forth across the beam. The more you become used to it, the more you can make changes to the plank to make it more complicated.
- To make the exercises more complicated, you can balance a heavy object on top of your head while you are walking.
- You can also place some items on the plank that you need to pick up while walking.
- You may also try to balance on one foot while walking the plank.
Best Coordination Exercises-Hopscotch
When was the last time that you have played hopscotch? It may have been a while since you have last played this game. This time, you can use it to improve your balance and coordination.
- Draw a hopscotch grid on the floor where you are going to do this coordination exercise.
- Make this game as complicated as you can. You can draw shapes that you would not have drawn when you were younger.
- Once you are happy with what you have drawn, you need to go across the spaces without stepping on the lines. It may not be as easy as you thought.
- If you want to complicate things, you can choose to place some bean bags on some squares. This will symbolize that you cannot step on them.
Best Coordination Exercises-Ball Exercises
There are different exercises that you can do that will help improve your coordination with the ball. Any ball can be used. If in case you want to use an exercise ball, you can do this easily.
- Lie down on an exercise ball.
- Place your hands on the sides of the ball to make it easier for you to keep your balance.
- You can lift one foot off the ground one at a time.
- Lower one foot, and you repeat with the other foot.
If you do not have an exercise ball, you can use another ball to do an effective coordination exercise:
- It will help if you keep both your feet on the ground.
- You can toss the ball up but make sure that you will not move your feet.
If you find this exercise too complicated, you can also lie down on your bed and toss the ball upwards. Try to catch it as many times as you can.
Create an obstacle course
Do you want to complicate things a lot? Create an obstacle course that will allow you to jump and run. Create a plank wherein you have to balance yourself, and you need to jump without losing your balance. Make it as long or as short as possible. The longer that you make the obstacle course, the better.
- Time yourself whenever you will do the obstacle course.
- Expect that you will be slow in the beginning, but you will surely improve your time in the future.
- You can also change up the obstacle course the moment that you have memorized it.
- This will improve your time for the obstacle course better.
Balance with the use of your hands and knees
- You can use a gym mat to balance properly. If you do not have a gym mat, you can use a blanket placed on the floor.
- When you stretch your hand in front of you, make sure that your other foot will be stretched out in the back as well.
- Try to keep that position for a long time.
- Once you are happy with the position, you can do the same with your other hand and foot.
- The best thing about this is you are not only improving your balance, but you are also strengthening your core.
Best Coordination Exercises-Jump with Twists
You already know that jumping with the use of a jumping rope will help you become more coordinated. Some people are naturally born to be good at using the jumping rope, but if you are not naturally talented, you can always practice improving your skill.
- Jump in place.
- Twist 90 degrees to the left.
- Twist 90 degrees to the right.
- Make sure that you will not lose your balance every time that you land.
Do target practice
There are different items that you can use to do this exercise. For example, some make use of darts to hit the desired target. The target does not have to be very small in the beginning. You can start with easy targets. The best thing about this is it can be very addicting. You would like to do exercises all over and over again.
- Choose the items that you will practice with.
- You can start by being close to the target in the beginning.
- The more that you improve, the more that you can go farther.
- You may be surprised by the new skills you would have later on.
Best Coordination Exercises-Balloon Kicks
Instead of using the normal ball to do kicks, you can use a balloon to make the fall of the balloon smaller. Many people assume that this is an easy exercise in the beginning, but the more they try it, the more they realize how hard it is to predict when the balloon will fall.
- It would help if you made a few changes to your position because your main goal is to keep the balloon up in the air for a long time.
- You will realize that you will become more skilled at it as time passes by.
Best Coordination Exercises-Dribbling
When you think of dribbling, you may assume that you will dribble with the use of a basketball. Do this initially as you are still trying your best to improve your skills, but if you want to make this exercise more challenging, you can use a smaller ball.
- You can try different speeds when you are dribbling.
- You can also try dribbling close to the ground, or you can dribble far from it.
With all of these exercises that you can do, your coordination will surely improve.
