Don’t fall this fall! Practicing balance may be good for brain health

If you topple over more than you’d like, or if you are afraid of falling this fall, you may benefit from balance training that strengthens the muscles that keep you upright. Specifically, balance exercises strengthen the muscles in your legs and the central part of your body, known as your core. These exercises can improve your stability and balance to help prevent falls. Improving your balance may also be good for your brain.

The Connection between Balance and Your Brain

Good balance comes from strong leg and core muscles that help stabilize your hips and shoulders. Strong muscles also help us recover when we lose our balance, so a little wobble doesn’t turn into a full faceplant. But good balance is also in your head – literally!

Your brain is constantly working to keep your balance. It processes visual information from your eyes, sensations from your legs and feet, and even information from sensors from your inner ear to help you maintain your balance. Your brain processes this information every time your body position changes.

Balance Training Can be Good for Your Noggin

If you are like many people, you associate balance with being able to stand on one foot or hold a position for a long time without falling over. But standing like a flamingo for thirty seconds is not how most people fall – we fall when we stumble over a crack in the sidewalk, slip on a wet spot, or trip over an untied shoelace. In other words, we fall when our brains don’t notice a change in our environment. Practicing balance exercises can help sharpen your senses and challenge your brain to notice and respond to changes in your environment.

A small study of 70 healthy people suggested that balance training may help with memory. The study also suggested that balance training can improve support spatial cognition, which is your brain’s understanding of where your body fits into your surroundings.

The results of this study and others like it show that exercise is good for our brains as well as our bodies. That's good news for anyone who doesn't want to fall this fall!

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