Coordination & Brain Health

Movement is one of the most direct routes to a healthier brain. Learning novel physical patterns engages multiple brain regions simultaneously: those involved in attention, planning, memory, and motor control. The more unfamiliar the movement, the more the brain is asked to do, which is precisely why coordination-based practice has particular value for cognitive health over time.

In this practice, Damian Chaparro guides you through a series of coordination challenges: a standing hand-flip balance sequence with a cross-body knee and gaze twist, a crab walk in multiple directions with hip-lift variations and cross-body ankle taps, a seated step-through alternating toe grabs, and finger coordination patterns with both hands. The session is designed to feel unfamiliar. That is the point.

Transcript

All right, Team, Welcome back. Day six of our movement challenge. Your movement is one of the most powerful ways to stimulate your brain. Learning novel movement engages multiple brain regions involved in attention, Planning, Memory, And motor control. You might have noticed this each time you finish a session a little more alert. So today we focus a little more on coordination in support of our cognitive health. As always, Have fun and adapt as needed. Okay, So come to stand. We're going to start with something that appears relatively simple, And maybe it'll stay that way, Who knows. Here we go. One hand to the other, And then you just flip it. So I'm just flipping one hand over and over and over. Looks like this. Get this going in your body. And to be fair, I think this can almost be enough sometimes. So you might just have a play with this little movement. But if you want a little bit more. You're gonna bring your left knee up. And you're balancing on that one leg and you're just going to take that knee across. The body. And the gaze is gonna switch to the other side. You're gonna look up. To a high corner. Twisting in the opposite direction. Slowly bring it back. And touchdown! Okay, Let's try the other side. So now we're just opposite hand. Kind of pancaking. One side and then the other. Get that going, Get as much pace as you can. I think you'll notice if you go too fast, You just kind of lose it, But we'll try. And switching sides, Finding balance. That knee goes across the body. The gaze goes the other way. And we look. . . Up. And twist and go for it oh feeling my neurons growing it every second come back to center and go ahead and touch down beautiful Now, Come down onto the ground. Face up. We're gonna be moving into a crab-like position here. So arms come back underneath our shoulders, And you always wanna start by stabilizing the shoulders. So push down into the floor, Lift your chest up, Activate your shoulders. So I'm not slumping in my shoulder heads like that, Because I can invite injury that way. So just keep really active through the chest this whole time. And then we're just gonna lift the hips up. Ooh, A little stretch. And then release the hips down and you're gonna cross one ankle over the knee. Lifter. And release. Opposite ankle over the knee. Lifter. Release. Let's do one more. Release, Switch sides. Okay, With our crab walk, We're going to walk opposites. So right and left lift, And then step, Left and right lift, And then step. Just take a few steps forwards, A few steps back. There's crab walking. And then we're going to rotate. Clockwise. You will likely find. . . Certain movements are easy and some really take some new neural focal points to get down. Now moving sideways here we're just going to walk laterally towards Choo choo. That's the one. And back to center. Nice work! All those contralateral movements connecting neurons. Now, You can do this one sitting or lying down. If you find it quite difficult to do sitting, Just lie on your back and do the same thing. So we're going to find a balance point just behind our sit bones. And what I want you to do is reach forward. See if you can grab ahold of your big toe. And then step the other foot through. Grab the opposite big toe. Let go of the first. Step the foot through. So we're just grabbing a toe, Creating a little hole, Stepping through. Stepping through. Stepping through. Stepping through now. Each to his or her own ability, You're just going to start to move a little. Faster. Mwahaha Don't worry if it gets. . . A little wonky just keep Keep playing and keep learning. Growing. That's it, Last three. One. Excellent. Okay come to sit. You can sit cross-legged or you can sit as I am on your heels. And we're just going to play with the hands here a little bit. So take your hands out in front of you and you're just going to start by touching index to thumb. Middle to thumb, Ring to thumb, Pinky to thumb. Send them back. That's the fairly easy one now. Come back to that index to thumb and switch one of your hands to pinky to thumb. So I'm index on one side and I'm pinky on the other. And you're just going to move. Back to the start and then move back. So. . . That's it. You might feel your face scrunch up. And our mind does. Just take a couple of breaths. And keep trying. All right, Shake it out. Let's try one more. Bring your hands together. So it's quite fun to do the warm-up where you can hopefully do it. So try just separating your fingers into two groupings of two. And then a grouping of two and two splits. And then back, And then back, And then back, And then back. Let's give it a try. Perfection not needed. You probably can feel your brain cells growing just as you do this. Or maybe you can smell the burn of the neural connections. Urgh. Last one or two. Shake it out. Okay, My team, Anytime you are doing something new, Anytime you feel that awkwardness of newness, You are growing your neural connections. Enjoy. Okay team, All done. Want more neural good times? You can spend just 10 minutes today learning one new skill, A phrase in another language, A drawing technique, Or maybe a groovy dance move. Have fun, And forever chase that beginner's mind. Tomorrow. We bring everything together. So practice can carry into a lifetime. We'll see you there.

Reviews

Thank you!!!

I love this! Short & sweet and my favorite part of all: EFFECTIVE. 🙏💫🕊️✨😎