Ilchi Lee

Used by many dancers and professional athletes, the pilates method—a system of low impact exercises termed contrology by Joseph Pilates—can reawaken formally dormant brain cells and give rise to greater brain activity and cognitive function by fully engaging your mind while you exercise. It is a method used to work your whole self—mind and body.

According to Ilchi Lee, originator of the Brain Education System Training (BEST) and author of In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging, “You will find that you have a dominant side of the body, just as you have a dominant hand.” It is important to reawaken the non-dominant side of your brain for better coordination with your body.

Practicing body-brain coordination exercises will give your whole body a workout and this requires the coordination of many parts of the brain at once. Lee recommends the following exercise, spiral dance, as an exercise that will work all of the joints in your body.

From Ilchi Lee (Excerpted from In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging)

• Place a small paper plate in your right hand. Hold it on your palm, without using your fingers. Spread your legs shoulder width apart and keep your left hand on your hip.

• Slowly bend the arm inward under the armpit, keeping the palm upward with the plate balanced on it. Swing the arm upward and to the front and over the head, creating a spiral motion. Move the hips as needed to facilitate the movement.

• Return to the original position, using a downward spiral motion. Repeat 5 to 10 times.

• Switch the paper plate to the left hand and begin the same spiraling movement on the left side. Repeat 5 to 10 times. Switch direction and repeat 5 to 10 times.