Clumsiness signals a miscommunication between your brain, body, and environment.
Every time you move, specialized cells on your skin and in your joints and muscles, known as sensory receptors, gather info about the environment and send detailed messages about your body’s position and actions to your brain. Your brain coordinates with your vision, peripheral nervous system, and vestibular system in the inner ear to determine where your body is in space and how you’re moving.
This constant feedback loop is how your body knows to shorten your steps when the ground is icy or apply the right amount of pressure when jotting in your journal.
“The more harmonious that exchange of information, the more efficient and fluid your movements will be,” says Gary Wilkerson, EdD, ATC, a neuromechanics researcher and professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
If you’re clumsy, your brain and body aren’t coordinating with the environment as well as they should. You may slip, trip, fumble objects, spill food or drinks, bump into furniture, or struggle with dancing or specific sports.
Clumsiness Causes
There are many reasons you might be clumsy.
One may be situational. For example, even an ordinarily graceful person can lose their footing on black ice or move like a klutz after a poor night’s sleep.
If the cause is physiological, something is going on inside your body that’s affecting your balance and coordination, such as changes in body size and shape during growth spurts and pregnancy. “If you’re growing really rapidly, there may be a bit of a lag in your brain’s ability to calibrate to the new dimensions of your body, so you’re less aware of exactly where your body is located in space,” Wilkerson explains.
Other factors can also impact balance and coordination, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, blood-pressure issues, and muscle-strength imbalances. Anxiety, for example, can make your hands shake and distort how you take in your surroundings, making you more likely to stumble or bump into people.
And, for some, clumsiness is simply part of their DNA, Wilkerson says. “If your parents were clumsy, you’ve got a better chance that you’re going to be clumsy.”
Most causes of clumsiness are nothing to worry about, but sudden-onset clumsiness can be a symptom of an acute or underlying health condition, such as stroke or Parkinson’s disease. See your healthcare provider if you suddenly struggle with balance and coordination in a way that’s interfering with your daily life.
Balance and Coordination Tips
The good news is clumsiness can often be improved. Use these expert tips to build balance and coordination.
1) Stay active. A simple way to improve clumsiness is to exercise regularly — ideally, most days of the week. “Movement in general strengthens gross motor skills and balance,” explains Lisa Hobson Stoner, CPT, RYT200, a Life Time master trainer based in Minnesota.
If you haven’t been active, she suggests, start with a walking routine, because simply shifting weight from one foot to the other with every step requires balance and coordination. (Learn more about the balance-boosting benefits of walking at “The Powerful Health Benefits of Walking.”)
2) Practice mindfulness meditation. Wilkerson notes that practicing open-monitoring meditation — a form of meditation that involves tuning into feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations — can boost body awareness by helping you recognize movement errors more easily. This may help you avoid clumsy incidents.
Find a quiet place to sit or lie down for at least five minutes, close your eyes, and notice any feelings, thoughts, or sensations that arise. Observe without judging. (Learn more about the benefits of observing without judging in “A Somatic Approach to Movement.”)
3) Stand on one leg. Unilateral (single-sided) exercises challenge your balance and help correct strength imbalances that may contribute to clumsiness, Hobson Stoner says. Start by standing on one leg for as long as you’re able to balance (keep a chair nearby if you need something to steady yourself). Aim to balance for longer periods as your strength and skills improve. (Find a full-body, unilateral workout at “6 Unilateral Exercises.”)
4) Close your eyes. This can improve your proprioception, or your awareness of where your body is in relation to your environment. It forces your muscles and nervous system to react more effectively to your surroundings. Start by closing your eyes while standing still with both feet on the ground, then progress to standing on one foot with your eyes shut.
5) Challenge your beliefs. How often have you thought, I’m just a clumsy person? If you want to become more graceful, you must start challenging the stories you tell about yourself.
“If we always think of ourselves this way, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Hobson Stoner says. Replace your usual thought with a more positive one, like, I’m working on my coordination. (See the six tips to soften self-criticism and ideas to help change your internal dialogue at “6 Strategies to Improve Your Self-Talk.”)
It doesn’t take long to see improvements once you start working on your balance and coordination. “These adaptations can begin within 24 hours of exposure,” Wilkerson says.
Granted, you may never be able to compete with the natural abilities of a professional dancer or athlete, but you can definitely become a more graceful and coordinated version of yourself.
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