Supine Exercise Improves Standing Balance and Agility — Enhanced Trunk and Lower Limb Neuromuscular Coordination with Short, 2-Week Program —

It has been revealed that a short (10-minute) supine exercise can improve standing balance and agility. This study confirmed that a 2-week exercise program performed while lying on one's back upon waking significantly improved flexibility, agility, and static balance. These effects were suggested to be due to neuromuscular adaptation rather than muscle hypertrophy.

These research findings were published in "PLOS ONE" (dated April 29, 2026), an open-access journal issued by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), a non-profit academic publisher in the United States.

Paper Title: A supine exercise program linking trunk stability with lower extremity coordination is associated with improved body balance and agility: A study using randomized crossover and pre-post trial designs

URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0345749

Background: Balance and agility are fundamental abilities for bipedal humans. Exercise is known to be effective in enhancing balance and agility. However, conventional training often involves standing postures or high loads, posing challenges for the elderly or in rehabilitation settings. Therefore, there was a demand for the development of new exercise programs that could be performed safely and easily.

Research System: This research was conducted by Ms. Aya Atomi, then a doctoral student in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology; Dr. Junko Atomi, then Visiting Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (currently Specially Appointed Professor at the Center for Brain and Medical Engineering, University of Electro-Communications); Professor Tomoaki Atomi of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Kyorin University; Dr. Miho Shimizu, then Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (currently Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and Specially Appointed Professor at the Center for Brain and Medical Engineering, University of Electro-Communications); Mr. Mizuki Sato and Mr. Masaki Otaniuchi, then master's students in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology; Professor Toshiyuki Watanabe of the Department of Applied Chemistry, Institute of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology; and Specially Appointed Professor (full-time) Wataru Takano of the Center for Mathematical and Data Sciences Education and Research, Osaka University.

Research Results: In this study, we developed a low-load supine exercise program (performed while lying on one's back) aimed at improving trunk stability, lower limb coordination, and toe function by stimulating the abdomen with one's fingers, and verified its effects.

Two experiments were conducted, and the effects of the exercise were evaluated using indicators used in physical fitness tests, static standing balance (center of gravity sway), and agility (acceleration of various body parts during shuttle runs). The following results were obtained:

- Significant improvement in flexibility and agility.
- Significant improvement in static standing balance indicators (sway area, trajectory length) under conditions of narrowed foot width.
- More efficient movement of the head and trunk during shuttle runs (reduced acceleration of the head and thoracic region during movement).
- On the other hand, no significant changes were observed in maximum muscle strength indicators such as grip strength and jumping.

These research results indicate that even supine exercises can improve agility and postural control ability in standing and anti-gravity positions (states where posture is maintained against gravity). In particular, it was suggested that coordinating and stabilizing the heavy trunk, and enhancing coordination so that the lower limbs appropriately link according to the load, contributed to efficient motor control.

These research findings are expected to be applied in fields such as elderly care and rehabilitation as a safe and simple training method.

Future Developments: Going forward, we plan to investigate the sustainability of the effects confirmed in this study and the long-term intervention effects, as well as verify the applicability to subjects with reduced motor function (including those with low back pain and lower limb degenerative diseases).

Figure 1: Overview of this research

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