Various abilities can decline as we age. This includes coordination abilities such as balance, flexibility, and strength. Different exercises can help maintain these skills, plus reduce the risk of falling and other issues.

Coordination is the ability to use different parts of the body together smoothly and efficiently. This ability can often decline as a person ages.

Exercise can be important for older adults to help maintain these abilities, build strength, and reduce the risk of falls that could cause injury.

Aging affects the body in various ways, including altering:

  • visual systems
  • vestibular systems
  • proprioceptive systems

The vestibular system is the sensory system within your inner ear that helps maintain spatial orientation and balance. The proprioceptive system is a sensory system that provides your brain with information about your body’s position and movements in spaces that require coordination, balance, and posture.

The musculoskeletal system can also begin to weaken as you age.

Alterations to these systems due to age can cause or worsen balance issues, leading to a higher risk of falls or mobility concerns.

Essentially, all aspects of coordination can be affected by aging. This includes your gait, mobility, and posture.

Balance exercises can help build strength and improve:

  • coordination
  • stability
  • posture

Research from 2019 suggests that coordination and balance exercises can help effectively improve the overall quality of life in older adults.

Tips for finding your balance

  • Determine which leg is your dominant leg and start each exercise with the nondominant one. This way the other side will be easier.
  • Be sure to maintain good posture and form while you are holding a position.
  • Focus your gaze on a fixed point straight ahead of you.
  • If you have any concerns about your balance in a standing position, try placing your feet slightly farther apart.
  • Slightly bend your knees to keep them from hyperextending and to help make you more stable.
  • Be sure to distribute your weight evenly between your feet. Pay attention to whether you tend to put more weight on one foot or shift your weight backward or forward.

It is always a good idea to speak with a healthcare professional before beginning a new exercise routine.

You may want to try these exercises at least twice per week to help your coordination, balance, and muscle strength.

Sideways walking

Perform 10 steps each way, or step from one side of the room to another. Begin slow and build up to a higher number of steps.

  1. Stand with your feet together and your knees slightly bent.
  2. Step sideways in a slow and controlled manner, moving one foot to the side first.
  3. Bring the other foot to join the first one.

Try to avoid dropping your hips as you step.

Simple grapevine

This exercise involves walking sideways while crossing one foot over the other. Attempt 5 cross-steps on each side.

  1. Begin by crossing your right foot over your left.
  2. Bring your left foot to join the right one.

If you feel unstable, you can rest your fingers against a wall or surface. Remember, the smaller step you take, the more you will work on your balance. Again, begin slow and build up.

Heel-to-toe walk

Try to perform at least 5 steps.

  1. Standing upright, place your right heel on the floor directly in front of your left toes.
  2. Do the same with your left heel in front of your right foot, looking forward at all times.

If you feel unstable, you can rest your fingers on a wall or surface for stability. As you progress, try to move away from the wall or surface.

One leg stand

Hold this position for 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat it 3 times on each side.

  1. Stand facing a wall.
  2. Stretch your arms out and touch your fingertips to the wall.
  3. Lift one leg, keeping your hips level and a slight bend in the other knee.
  4. Gently place your foot back on the floor.
  5. Repeat on the other side.

Cognitive-motor dual tasks are the simultaneous processing of the following:

  • motor skills, which include:
    • gait and gait initiation
    • balance
    • physical exercise
  • cognitive abilities, which include:
    • attention
    • working memory
    • decision making

According to 2023 research, the ability to perform cognitive and motor tasks at the same time is important for most daily activities.

Research from 2022 notes that the ability to multitask tends to decline as we age. This ability, in a daily sense, includes being able to drive a car while talking with a passenger or walk down the sidewalk while looking in shop windows.

Regularly doing cognitive-motor dual tasks can help with motor functions, such as gait and balance. These types of coordination exercises can work on:

  • hand-eye coordination
  • hand-foot coordination
  • eye-foot coordination
  • reaction to cue coordination

Standing balance with ball toss

To begin with, you can do this with both feet on the floor. Once you feel comfortable, you can try the following:

  1. Lift one leg off the floor with a 90-degree angle of the hip and knee.
  2. Using a small ball, like a tennis ball, toss the ball from one hand to the other.
  3. Make sure your eyes follow the ball.

If you are doing this as a balance exercise, complete a set on each leg.

Walk, toss, and catch

For this exercise, you will need another person to help you.

  1. Use a small ball that bounces, like a tennis ball.
  2. Walk next to the other person with some space between the two of you.
  3. Bounce the ball back and forth as you walk.

If the ball bounces too far, try to react with extra effort to catch the ball.

Squats with focal point

Start slowly and work up to doing more squats.

Tips for proper form for squats

  • Stand with your feet hip- or shoulder-width apart.
  • Point your toes slightly outward.
  • Bend at the knees and lower your hips until your thighs are parallel to the ground.
  • Keep your back straight and your chest up throughout the motion.
  • Be sure to keep your core (abdominal and back muscles) engaged as you squat.
  1. Stand upright with your feet hip-width apart.
  2. Lift your arms to shoulder height, extending your wrists and pointing your fingers toward the ceiling.
  3. Find and look at a point on the wall or floor in front of you.
  4. Lower yourself into a squat, moving your right arm out to the side.
  5. Keep your focus on the focal point in front of you.
  6. Return to the starting position and repeat with the other arm.

Once you feel comfortable with the above process, you can do it while turning your head to follow your hand as you squat.

Proprioceptive exercises and balance exercises are similar. However, balance exercises focus more on maintaining stability, while proprioceptive exercises focus on your body’s awareness of its position and movement within a space.

Balance exercises may challenge your body to stay upright, and this engages your proprioceptive awareness.

Bird Dog

Tips for correct Bird Dog posture

  • Keep your hips level and do not rotate your pelvis.
  • Avoid lifting your leg too high or allowing your spine to curve past its natural position.
  • Keep your spine neutral and engage your core to prevent your back from sagging.
  • Keep your chest from sinking toward the floor.
  • Draw your shoulder blades back, down, and away from your ears.
  • Keep the back of your neck aligned with your spine.
  • Move with slow and controlled motions.
  • Maintain smooth and even breathing.

The Bird Dog exercise works the erector spinae (muscles that run along the spine), the core, and the glutes. It can help with correct movement, stability, and control of the whole body.

  1. Get on all fours on the floor or an exercise mat.
  2. Place your hands beneath your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
  3. Press away from the floor with your arms to stabilize your shoulders.
  4. Draw your abs in and place your spine in a neutral position.
  5. Slowly reach one arm out in front of you and lift the opposite leg, with toes pointed away from your body.
  6. Reach long for the walls, attempting to get your body in a straight line.
  7. Reverse this pattern, sweeping the hand and knee back to the starting position.
  8. Repeat on the other side.

Tree Pose

Tips for doing Tree Pose

  • Keep your hips as square as possible. Do not let the hip on the side of your raised foot stick out.
  • If your foot does not come easily up to your knee, place it lower on your leg (for example, at calf level).
  • If you feel uncomfortable with your balance ability, do this pose near a wall so you can support yourself if needed.

Tree Pose is not recommended if you have had a knee or hip injury.

Tree Pose engages your whole body and strengthens your leg and abdominal muscles.

  1. Stand on the floor or a yoga mat with your legs together and arms by your side.
  2. Slowly raise your arms above your head and press your palms together.
  3. Plant your toes firmly on the ground and slowly bend your right knee.
  4. Raise your right heel and turn it to touch the inside of your left ankle. If you feel more comfortable with your balance, you can place your right foot inside your left calf or knee.
  5. Hold your balance.
  6. Repeat with the other side.

If you can only hold the pose for a few seconds, that’s fine. Your ability to hold it will grow as you practice the pose more.

Fine motor skills are the specific movements we make with our hands subconsciously every day. Changes to brain functioning as we age can affect those motor skills.

These skills are important because they help you to do daily activities like:

  • dressing
  • brushing your teeth
  • writing
  • changing the TV channel

You can do various activities at home or in a social setting to help improve and maintain your motor skills. Examples of these activities include:

  • Gardening: Gardening uses many fine motor skills, such as:
    • grasping and manipulating garden tools
    • spreading soil with your hands
    • placing seeds
    • pruning
  • Card games, board games, and puzzles: These require fine motor skills to manipulate small pieces. They can also offer social interaction.
  • Arts and crafts: All arts and crafts require fine motor skills at various levels. Ideas for arts and crafts include:
    • painting or drawing
    • sewing
    • crocheting or knitting
    • molding clay
    • scrapbooking
  • Sports and outdoor activities: Many sports and outdoor activities help you use your fine motor skills. Suggestions include:
    • fishing
    • billiards
    • yard games

Coordination tends to decrease as we age. Participating in exercises that focus on various aspects of coordination can help maintain your balance, strength, independence, and ability to perform daily activities.

It is a good idea to speak with a healthcare professional before you begin any new exercise routine.