Hi All,

I was talking to a Prof today in the physiology department at Sydney Uni and he was telling me that a really good thing to do (VRT really) to "exercise" the frontal lobe of the brain and improve balance simultaneously was this simple yet tough exercise: first, shoes off and then stand on one foot and raise the other one slightly off the ground and a little bit forward - arms slighty out to the sides (karate kid sort of stance). Keep your eyes open and fix them on a point in front of you. Now assuming you can do this without major imbalance happening, the next thing to do after you're comfortable with this for about 5 seconds is to shut your eyes and maintain this stance. This is difficult even for people without balance problems so if you can master this or even do it for 10 seconds, that's great. You'll notice too, that while doing this, you cannot think of anything else except maintaining balance. It seems to require all 8 cylinders to be firing to do it. I've given it a go twice now and was eventually able to stand with eyes shut for about 10-15 seconds before having to either open my eyes or drop the other foot down. I'm going to aim to do this twice a day.

Em, Ilia and Brina (and anyone else?) - I'd be really interested to know how you guys go with this one!

Cheers....Scott

I did it Scott! I can hold it for about 10 seconds, but I always feel like I'm falling over to my left.

Hi Scott,

One I was told to practice was:

Stand on one leg, other leg knee bent foot off the floor. Left hand to right shoulder, right hand to left shoulder and look to the ceiling. After a couple of seconds close your eyes. Aim is to hold this for about 10 seconds. Been doing that one for a few weeks now.

Lizzy x

Are these exercises supposed to make you dizzy? I've been trying them and ...yuck! They make me sick! I'm a bit nervous because I'm supposed to start my VRT today. Will I be totally messed up for a while? I'm already getting sick to my stomach.

I can do about 20 seconds quite easily standing on my left leg with eyes shut, but only about 8 seconds on the right (right ear's the bad one), and I can feel my ankle wobbling around like crazy the whole time. Got a major drift to the left going on now, though. Sounds as if it's worth doing a couple of times a day - ta!
Ann

Thanks scott, just tried it and fell over! Looks like I need to practice that one then! :dizzy: xxx

Ohio - nice one! Keep going on it every day and train the brain to hold this stance. Might help push along recovery. Interesting that it makes you feel dizzier but not unusual with new exercises.....I'd say the increased dizzies will stop once you run through your various exercises for a while. The thing is, you're not supposed to push it too much though where you end up feeling really bad.

Em - I reckon you'll be able to do it once the decompensation subsides. I'm still "wound up" from the cold myself and still feel this swaying effect when I'm walking.

Dogologist - same here....standing on the right is more difficult!

Lizzy - thanks for that one...I'm gonna try it now...with lots of pillows around me in case I go down -lol.

Cheers...Scott

And what is this supposed to help?? :eek: