Bill explains how the inferior vestibular nucleus affects balance and flexion, with signs like dizziness on standing and erratic blood pressure. A blood pressure difference of ten units or more between sides suggests dysfunction. Two VOR exercises, done while squatting or walking with head turns toward the affected side, can restore balance and normalize heart rate.
Hi, I'm Bill from Beyond Fitness Online. Today is part 4 of a 4-part series where I talk about the different pathways from the vestibular system to the brain, why that matters for your movement and your exercise, and how to fix it. So today we're going to talk about the inferior vestibular nucleus. This is the last one, and it is— it enters into the medulla Which is the lower part of the brainstem, which impacts all of your flexion movements. This gets input from your entire vestibular system and kind of as a whole. It goes into the brainstem on the same side that it is on, so we want to make sure that if you have an issue on one side that we are working on that one side. You may see an externally rotated foot, so if your feet are normally here and one foot's rotated out more like that, that's an indication that that may be part of the SI that you've got. You may also get dizzy when you stand up, if you stand up quickly, so similar to like an orthostatic hypotension. You may find that you've got abnormal or fluctuating sympathetics, like your blood pressure, your heart rate might just change radically without any warning and doesn't really make sense why. So those are all indications that this may be an issue for you. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to test your autonomic dysregulation on one side. Try taking your blood pressure on one side and then taking it on the other side. If you get a difference of 10 units or more on each side, whether it's your systolic or your diastolic blood pressure, then that's an indication that there's something going on here and that you'll want to work on one side. And here's the exercise for doing this. We're going to do a VOR exercise While you're squatting and while you're walking. And I'm going to show you those right here. This first exercise is doing a squat with a VOR. You're going to have a visual target in front of you, set up for a squat, and start turning your head towards the side that you have a vestibular issue while you squat. The next one is a vestibular oculoreflex, or VOR, with a walk. You're going to have that same visual target and walk forward and backwards while performing the VOR. So when you get this back under control, you should find that your energy levels level out, your heart rate and your blood pressure seem to be more balanced and level. You should be feeling more stable on the ground, more grounded. You should feel more balanced. You should feel stronger in any flexion movement, more flexible into any flexion movement, and you should be able to see things a lot more clearly. So give these— give this a try and let me know how it went for you in the comments below. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to my channel. I post new updates every Friday. And until next time, live healthy.
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