Week 5 Balance Exercises

Exercises to increase balance and decrease motion sickness

All of the motion sickness exercises should make you slightly dizzy or nauseous. While this does not sound fun, remember the saying, no pain no gain. Unless you push your brain past its comfort point, no rehabilitation can be gained. Most people will feel the effects for 5-10 minutes after finishing the exercises. If you continue to feel dizzy or nauseous after an hour, decrease the amount or speed of the exercises for next time. Remember, start slowly and don’t overtax your system. This is a marathon, not a sprint. You can begin by trying out all of the new exercises on the first night or by choosing to only do one or two new ones a night and spreading them out throughout the week. Continue adding on to the previous weeks’ exercises and switching them up every night so that your body doesn’t adapt to one move only!

When attempting these exercises, always make sure to be holding on to something stable or to be near something stable that you could easily grab if you begin to lose balance. If you start feeling overly nauseous or dizzy, take one hand and press down on the top of your head for a few seconds or make a pair of binoculars with your hands and look through them at the ground.

Week 5:

Motion Sickness:    Begin by looking at a target somewhere in front of you. Close your eyes and continue to imagine that you’re looking at the target and stay focused on that target. Now rotate your head to one side or up and down while still pretending to keep your eyes on the target. When you open your eyes, they should still be focused on the same spot. How accurate were you? Repeat this exercise for about 2 minutes, varying the direction of your head and the speed at which you rotate it.

Balance:    Stand in the middle of the floor and put various small objects around you in a circle (cans, socks, pens, pencils, etc. Try to have at least 10.) Stand on one leg and try to touch each of the objects with the other foot. You can lean over and bend your supporting leg if need be, just try not to let the raised foot touch the ground. Once you have done that with one foot, switch and use the other.  After completing one set, pick up the objects and move them around and try again.

Good luck!