Cross Body Exercises: Integrating natural development
Incorporating movement into our daily routine isn’t just about improving physical health, it's also about enhancing brain function and overall cognitive abilities. One of the most effective ways to do this is through cross-body exercises and midline movements, which encourage both sides of the brain to work together. When combined with an approach like BrainDance™, these practices become powerful tools for integrating the brain and body, fostering emotional regulation, improving focus, and enhancing overall well-being.
This post will explore what cross-body movements are, how they show up in development, the importance in holistic health, and different exercises for various age groups.
What Are Cross-Body Movements?
Cross-body movements involve using opposite limbs to cross the midline of our body. What is the midline? Good question! Imagine drawing a line down the centre of our bodies from the top of our head to between our feet. Exercises involving crossing the midline help to stimulate both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. These cross-body movements are essential for coordinating the brain's two hemispheres, which is critical for tasks like reading, writing, coordination, and problem-solving. When you move one hand or foot across your body, you're creating connections between the brain’s hemispheres, thus improving brain communication, coordination, and focus.
Some common examples of cross-body movements include:
Reaching your right hand across your body to touch your left knee
Marching in place while bringing your opposite hand and knee together
Twisting your torso while swinging one arm across your body
Cross-Body Movements in Development
Prior to cross-body movements, we actually go through six other developmental stages according to BrainDance™ - you can read more about this below. Each of the stages prior to crossing our midline, cross-lateral or cross-body, supports our ability to do so. Each plays an important role in the development of our nervous system, physical, cognitive, and emotional wellbeing. In development we see the natural cross-body movements in crawling. While some children don’t do a traditional crawl, it does not necessarily mean this stage is missed if they are crossing their midline, but it is something to be cognizant of. There are other ways to integrate this stage, such as; climbing, dance, swimming, and more.
As we age, often this is a skill we lose if it is not challenged. This is one reason it is suggested to continue dancing, swimming, walking, reading, writing, and solving puzzles as we age. While it is not technically a cross-body movement, unless you want to cross your arms in front of your body, one of my favourite mantra-mudra combinations has been studied to prevent alzheimers - Sa Ta Na Ma. I also share this tool as a great way to calm the nervous system while integrating, and a natural stimming practice for neurodivergent children. This practice also involves tapping meridian points in the fingers and roof of the mouth, to enhance calm. Check out the link to see how it works! This is a tool I use often to calm and is so easy to quietly practice ourselves, or for children who experience anxiety at school. While props are wonderful, I place an emphasis on simple tools we can practice anywhere using our bodies - breath, tapping, and mudras are perfect for this!
Benefits of Cross-Body and Midline Movements
Cross-body movements or those crossing the midline offer several benefits for both physical and cognitive development and agility:
Brain Integration: These movements encourage both hemispheres of the brain to communicate effectively, leading to improved problem-solving skills and better cognitive functioning.
Improved Coordination: Crossing the midline helps to fine-tune motor skills and enhances overall coordination, which can be particularly beneficial in athletic, artistic pursuits, and for healthy aging.
Enhanced Focus: Because both sides of the brain are engaged, these movements improve focus and attention, making it easier to stay on task, whether you're a child struggling with ADHD or a professional.
Emotional Regulation: By stimulating various parts of the brain and body, cross-body exercises can help calm the nervous system and regulate emotions, providing a natural way to relieve stress or anxiety.
Supports Learning: Our eyes need to move from left to right in order to read, and writing is even more complex as it also engages hand-eye coordination. Cross-body movement is often lacking full integration for those who struggle with reading and writing, but there are easy ways to support integration naturally.
What is BrainDance™?
BrainDance™ is an innovative movement pattern designed by Anne Green Gilbert that I learned in 2011. It’s an eight-step developmental movement sequence that mirrors the stages of early childhood movement patterns; breath, touch, core-distal, head-tail, upper-lower, body-side, then cross-lateral. The final stage is vestibular, our ability to be off balance - think spinning - and finding our centre again. You can read more about that in our other blog on Vestibular Therapy. The integration of all of these movement patterns is important in our holistic development and wellbeing.
BrainDance™ movements are designed to stimulate different parts of the brain, including the motor cortex, sensory systems, and vestibular system, which are critical for balance and coordination. When practiced regularly, BrainDance can help improve cognitive development, physical coordination, emotional well-being, and to fully integrate developmental stages.
The Eight Patterns of BrainDance™
Breath: The first pattern emphasizes the importance of breath. Deep breathing helps to relax the nervous system, oxygenate the brain, and promote relaxation.
Tactile: This pattern focuses on stimulating the skin through touch, which helps develop body awareness and sensory processing skills.
Core-Distal: This movement pattern involves reaching out from the core of the body to the limbs, enhancing both physical strength and body awareness.
Head-Tail: This pattern promotes flexibility in the spine by encouraging movements that connect the head to the tailbone, enhancing balance and coordination.
Upper-Lower: Upper-lower patterns focus on using the upper and lower halves of the body independently, fostering balance and coordination between these areas.
Body Side: This stage emphasizes using one side of the body at a time, helping to develop brain lateralization and coordination between the left and right hemispheres.
Cross-Lateral: This is the key to integrating the two sides of the brain. Cross-lateral movements, like touching your left knee with your right hand, are essential for cognitive development, as they activate and coordinate both brain hemispheres.
Vestibular: Finally, vestibular movements involve balancing and spinning, which stimulate the inner ear and improve balance and spatial awareness.
Integrating Cross-Body Movements into Daily Life
You don’t have to be a professional dancer or athlete to reap the benefits of cross-body exercises. Simple movements can be easily incorporated into everyday activities for both children and adults.
Here’s how to integrate these powerful movements into your routine:
1. Start with a Warm-Up: Begin with a short warm-up to engage your brain and body, with breath moving in a way that feels natural and liberating for you.
2. Add Cross-Body Movements to Exercise: When you’re working out, integrate cross-body movements into your regimen. For adults, you can tap opposite knees as you lift them to your chest, or bird-dog after a cat-cow series, or low lunges while twisting to each side with breath.
3. Midline Movement Games for Kids: Keep it fun and engaging, playing games like “Simon Says” or “Follow the Leader,” that encourage children to cross the midline by touching opposite body parts or reaching across their body to grab objects. I enjoy incorporating colourful scarves and touching our opposite toes, or bringing both scarves to one side of our body, then the next as we move to music.
Whether you're a parent, educator, or someone looking to enhance brain function, these exercises can help improve focus, emotional regulation, and overall well-being. Incorporating these movements into your daily routine is simple yet effective, offering lifelong benefits for both physical and cognitive health.
If you have any questions about your child’s physical development, I would recommend speaking to your paediatrician who can refer you to an Occupational Therapist. You are also welcome to reach out to me. I do offer 1:1 support through my background in this, as a Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher, Counsellor, Craniosacral & Somatic Therapist. You will also find more about this and much more in our Heart Centred Parenting course. Please note that I do not diagnose, but I do offer tools to integrate for holistic wellbeing.
Want to Learn More?
Heart Centred Parenting: Really the only parenting course you need, to guide you in natural, holistic practices aligned with your values to empower your child!
Empowered Educators: This trauma sensitive social-emotional learning course is for those teaching or assisting preschool aged children to high school!
Reach out to Me! I'm always happy to chat and support you
