Brain Gym: Integrating the Left and Right Hemispheres

After spending a lot of time indoors on the blackboard during my Fastest Way to Health series, I thought it would a great idea to go outdoors and share a very simple exercise from the brain gym family (there are several books on this topic available on Amazon).

Brain gym exercises integrate the left and right brain hemispheres. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body.

These exercises are good if you spend a lot of time looking at computer screens or regularly perform exercises where you don’t cross the mid-line of the body, such as pushups, bench presses, squats or dead lifts, or those that don’t have a rotational movement.

When this happens, your left and right hemispheres stop communicating effectively, which can show up in a lot of ways, from anxiousness and brain fog to forgetfulness and lack of feeling present.

Because C.H.E.K Practitioners are trained to assess a client’s ability to do infant development and Primal Pattern® movements in order to judge their motor skills, they recognize when clients could benefit from more cross-brain integration.

A simple way to incorporate this into a program or your daily activities, is to stand up and do some brain gym exercises! Of course, some people have more complex issues that require a deeper level of training and corrective exercises, but that is one reason I developed my Advanced Training Programs, to train fitness and healthcare professionals in methods so they can recognize such problems and help their clients and patients correct themselves.

For the best results, you’ll want to couple this simple exercise with good breathing. Typically, I use it as I warm up for shooting my weekly vlogs, or whenever I need to focus and concentrate deeply.

First, as you raise your arms, inhale deeply through your nose. As you exhale, bring your elbow down to touch your raised knee on the opposite side, then repeat with the other elbow and knee.

As you inhale, make sure your belly is expanding. Remember, the first two-thirds of that breath should come from your belly, with the remainder coming from your chest.

You can do this exercise at the pace in which you breathe. Typically, I like to do 20 reps timed with breathing to integrate the brain hemispheres.

If you have balance problems, you can go a little faster to keep the movement going in a synchronous way, so it’s not broken up.

Be careful of EMFs

You probably noticed in this video that my shoes are off when I’m exercising. One of the big things that causes the disintegration of the hemispheres is exposure to electromagnetic pollution, and not allowing your bare feet to touch the earth with regularity (which should be at least daily).

If your feet can’t touch the dirt or grass, concrete and stone will connect you to the earth too. Even if you can only stand on your front porch, the concrete it’s built on is connected to the earth. No carpet, linoleum or any other synthetic, manufactured materials will do.

The practice of having your bare feet touch the ground allows the electromagnetic pollution to drain out of your body and into the earth.

If you feel sluggish and disintegrated, before you reach for a cup of coffee or any other stimulant, usually it’s a combination of breathing problems and a lack of integration between the hemispheres.

If you don’t have a good grounding mat at your workplace or a similar sheet or pillowcase on your bed to release electromagnetic pollution, check out Earthing.

If you need to protect your body from electromagnetic pollution emitting from phones or the environment around you, I also recommend an Aires tech device (use the code CHEK10 to save 10 percent at the Aires website).

Do you need to know more about the dangers of being exposed to electromagnetic pollution? Check out my recent vlog where I discussed Nicholas Pineault’s book, The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs: How to Fix Our Stupid Use of Technology.

Also, many brain gym exercises like this one are very similar to the zone exercises featured in my book, How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy!, too. Study Zone 6 which works with the eyes to give you techniques you can use at your desk.

 

Have an awesome week!

Love and chi,

Paul