Improving coordination contributes to well-being by supporting balance and agility, reducing any kind of injuries, and regulating mood and mental health. Therefore, practicing coordination exercises is essential for all individuals.
If you want to learn about coordination skills and wonder, “What are coordination exercises?”, you are in luck! Through this blog, you will learn details about coordination and discover the best coordination exercises examples for kids, adults, and seniors. Let’s get started!
The definition of coordination is the ability to execute smooth, accurate, and controlled motor responses. This ability enables individuals to use the right muscles and body parts at the right time with the right force to complete a task or action.
Additionally, coordination can be explained as a determining skill for movement efficiency as it determines how much energy a person spends on a particular movement and the level of performance.
Motor coordination in the human body consists of the collaboration of fine motor, gross motor, and hand-eye skills. Let’s take a closer look at each type of coordination skill.
Fine motor coordination is the ability to coordinate the action of eyes and small muscles together to perform manipulative movements like writing, drawing, or buttoning a shirt.
Generally, fine motor skills and coordination development starts in infancy and accelerates the most at ages 4-6 and gets more complex as kids grow.
Gross motor coordination requires coordinated movement of large muscles in the arms, legs, and torso to complete everyday movements, including walking, standing, running, and jumping.
Also, it includes utilizing hand-eye skills for actions like throwing, catching, kicking, and swimming.
Hand-eye coordination is a perceptual-motor skill developed during the early years of childhood and the ability to perform movements with hands while being guided by eyes.
Grasping objects, playing instruments, sewing, or using a computer mouse are examples of actions completed with hand-eye coordination.
So far, we have learned details about the body’s coordination system and the types of skills that it includes.
Now, let’s discover the best coordination exercises for kids to support their coordination, balance, and agility, along with motor skills and hand-eye skills.
Utilizing exercise to support your kid's coordination skills is a great idea. Still, if you want to keep your kids active and support their overall development, you might need safe and trustable fitness apps for kids to expand their abilities.
MentalUP is the most beneficial coordination exercises app for kids! The award-winning app offers 240+ fitness workouts that help kids’ physical and mental development. These daily programs are prepared according to their age and performance, so kids take advantage of these programs to the maximum, besides having so much fun!
MentalUP coordination app is here to support your kids with more than 240 physical workouts! 💪👟
To discover unique daily exercise programs according to their needs and abilities, download MentalUP now to reach a variety of animated balance, cardio, strength, and stretching exercises for your kids! 🤩👏
This is one of the most efficient hand eye coordination games for young kids. As it includes concentrating on several actions at the same time, it improves both hand-eye coordination and focus.
How to do it:
Planking is a safe and beneficial coordination training exercise for improving kids' gross motor skills. Also, it requires a small amount of time, like 10 or 15 seconds, to strengthen all the core muscles in the body.
How to do a plank pose:
Jumping with a rope is one of the best PE Games for both calorie-burning and fine and gross motor skill-building. As it requires kids to use both their hand and feet muscles simultaneously, it is perfect for better bilateral motor coordination.
How to Jump Rope:
If your kids are getting excited about playing on a playground, giving them a jungle gym exercise is a great idea to support their hand-eye coordination and brain development. Also, it is good for inspiring kids to be active and feel more confident.
How to Jump Rope:
This exercise is one of the best coordination warm-up games for kids as it involves both the lower and upper body and requires a good use of motor coordination skills.
A daily exercise routine starting with jumping jacks can correctly improve your kid's fitness, balance, and coordination.
How to do jumping jacks:
Performing cross crawls supports the coordination of your child by building a bridge between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Cross Crawl is also one of the most effective yoga poses for kids, which supports both hand-eye coordination and the ability to complete cerebral activities, like learning languages and reading.
How to do cross crawls:
Crab walks are a fun exercise that will strengthen your kid's core and coordination. As it engages all the muscles from head to toe, it is also great for increasing body awareness and focusing on posture.
How to do crab walks:
Coordination exercises help adults build more muscle and enhance their mood and mental health. Especially for athletes, coordination exercises are essential to improving the technique and form of overall sportive performance.
Let’s explore the best exercises with coordination for adults!
With more than 240 coordination exercises of MentalUP, people of all ages can enjoy improving their balance and coordination skills!
The most critical feature MentalUP offers is that daily workout according to your age group and performance level. So, adults can keep their bodies active with the exact activities that are needed for their development.
For adults, improving coordination and building muscles might be harder than for kids, and it requires regular workouts. 💪
If you don’t know where to start, you can download MentalUP. Thanks to the easy-to-follow animated balance, cardio, and strength exercises for adults, you can easily follow your routine, get fit, and improve your mental and physical skills! 🚀💯
Now is the right time to get started with MentalUP and transform your body and mind for the better! 🥳✨
This exercise is great for warming up before a long workout session and improving coordination skills at the same time. Plus, it works out both primary and secondary muscles without needing any equipment.
How to do a standing march:
When done correctly, an overhead squat can significantly increase the strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination of your body. So it is one of the most essential coordination exercises for athletes and people who want to get fit.
How to do overhead squats:
Walking lunges are a simple yet effective exercise to increase the range of motion and loosen up the hips and hamstrings. It is also one of the best exercises to improve posture, balance, and gross motor coordination.
How to do a walking lunge:
As an alternative to walking lunges, the lateral lunge exercise keeps groin muscles more active. It can be combined with other exercises and lunge alternatives to have a full muscle and coordination-improving workout.
How to perform lateral lunges:
If you need an exercise that works all the major muscles and coordination skills simultaneously, the single-leg deadlift is a great option for you. Just keep in mind to start with lighter weights and then build up.
How to do single-leg deadlifts:
As people age, memory, balance, and coordination skills start to decrease. In this case, coordination exercises function as a support to overcome these age-related problems.
Here are the most simple yet effective coordination exercises for seniors.
For a senior, regular physical activity is one of the most important factors for health. A daily exercise routine can help people to delay health problems, improve their fitness level, and decrease the effects of illnesses like strokes and Parkinson's.
That’s why fitness apps like MentalUP offer age-appropriate daily exercises that can help seniors stay active. Besides 150+ brain games for seniors, 240+ daily workouts improve elders’ coordination in an easy and fun way!
If you need a trustable source to help you execute your daily exercise routine in a practical way, you can check out MentalUP! 🤩
Within the app, you can find a variety of exercises suitable for seniors and different fitness level, create a daily exercise routine to strengthen your body, and follow these exercises easily with animated videos. 💪
Get started with MentalUP now to support your physical health with balance and stretching exercises! 💯👟
This is one of the greatest coordination exercises for Parkinson's patients as it enhances hand-eye coordination and balance. It is also good for warming up at the beginning of an exercise session to avoid injury and regulate breathing.
How to perform standing balances with ball tosses:
These side squats are great for intermediate-level seniors that need to improve their hand-eye coordination and reaction skills. This type of squat needs to be done with a trainer to get the most benefits.
How to do reaction side squats:
Weight shifts are great for improving balance and coordination. Additionally, when it is executed in a wheelchair or sitting position, they turn into one of the most effective coordination exercises for stroke patients.
How to execute weight shifts:
A well-known yoga pose, the tree pose is a simple and beneficial exercise to improve core muscles in the body, regulate balance, and stretch the legs at the same time. Especially for seniors, it is great for giving a little challenge to core muscles.
How to perform a tree pose:
This is a simple exercise with numerous benefits for seniors. It strengthens the core muscles and spine, improves balance, stretches hamstrings, and releases stress. So if you are looking for an exercise to challenge your body a bit in a fun way, this one is great for you.
How to execute the rock the boat exercise:
As we’ve learned detailed information about coordination and explored the best coordination exercises examples for kids, adults, and seniors, we can move on to explaining why is coordination important for individuals.
If you still have some questions in your mind about coordination exercises, here are the most commonly asked questions about the topic.
As coordination promotes movement efficiency, improves performance, and prevents injuries, it is essential for athletes to improve their coordination.
Factors and illnesses, like alcohol misuse, certain medications, strokes, brain degeneration, and genetic disorders, can cause ataxia, which refers to poor muscle control and coordination.
Having a habit of daily exercise routine is the first rule of improving coordination. Exercises that require balance, strength, and hand-eye coordination are great for boosting concentration.
You can support your kid's coordination skills by providing them with beneficial activities, like playing an instrument, exercising, swimming, threading and lacing, working in the garden, and doing puzzles or building blocks.
Clearly, having a healthy body and mind is tailored to maintaining a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercising habits. Still, sticking to an exercise routine is not as easy as it seems. 🤔
This is where the MentalUP coordination app steps in! By including effective exercises for balance, strength, stretching, cardio, and fun exercises, the fitness app enables kids, adults, and seniors to gain a daily exercise habit. 🥳✨
Whether you work out with suggested exercises within a variety of categories or the ones you choose yourself, MentalUP is the right solution to help you get stronger with appropriate exercises! 💪👟