Having good reflexes aids performance in sports, exercise, and everyday physical activities like crossing the street or driving. We’ve put together a list of mental and physical exercises to improve your reflexes, as well lifestyle changes you can make, plus an explainer of what reflexes are, exactly.
Enhancing Your Reflexes
- Play video games to improve your mental reaction speed.
- Play competitive sports to help your brain multitask.
- Practice catching balls or coins for an easy exercise.
- Run a nature trail to practice processing a lot of visual info at once.
- Get plenty of sleep to keep your brain sharp.
- Meditate to clear your mind and reduce distractions.
1 Do some simple exercises to improve your peripheral vision.Having a quick reaction time is dependent on being keenly aware of what’s coming. You can strengthen your ability to perceive obstacles and flying objects by paying more attention to your peripheral vision during everyday activities. Try these training exercises:[1]
- Focus your vision on a faraway object. Then, take note of and mentally list the nearest objects, working outward as far as you can, without moving your eyes. Do this once a day.
- Sit near a road and look slightly away from it. When a car passes, see if you can identify its color and general make or model without focusing your eyes on it.
Tip: While taking a walk or riding in a car, make a point of noticing objects that pop up in your peripheral vision. Practice naming the color of people’s hair and the make and model of passing cars as fast as you can.
2 Play video games to enhance your reaction speed.Studies show that playing video games each day can help improve reflexes, since they require hand-eye coordination and quick decision-making. First person shooters and role-playing games often require the most coordination, but any video game will do the trick.[2]
- Play an action video game for 20-30 minutes each day to train your reflexes.
- Playing multiplayer games against other people is a great way to improve your reaction times.
3 Practice mindfulness to clear your mind of distractions.When you clear your mind, you’ve got a better chance of reacting to things more quickly. Once or twice a day, focus all of your attention on what is happening directly around you. Dismiss thoughts of the past or future and instead focus directly on the sights, sounds, and sensations in the current moment.[3]
- Ask yourself: What do I see? Smell? Hear? Feel? Taste? This grounding exercise can bring your mind into the present, making it more alert.
- Regular meditation is also a great way to keep your mind calm in the long-term.
This will help you build awareness of surroundings that will allow you to notice more and potentially react more readily in situations.
4 Hypnotize yourself to improve your reflexes.One study shows that some people who were put under hypnosis before a test of reaction time had quicker reflexes.[4] It’s not a super reliable method, but you might try hypnotizing yourself:
- Sit in a quiet place and watch the second hand of a clock as it ticks. As you watch, imagine the hand slowing down, and predict its next tick. Do this for 5-10 minutes at a time.
Physical Exercises for Reflexes
1 Run a nature trail to train yourself to process a lot of information.Studies show that regular exercise leads to improved reflexes.[5] Running in the woods may be one of the best exercises, since the rough terrain and varied sights and sounds require a lot of multitasking, training your brain to process a lot of information at once.
- Avoid paved or wide-open trails, which don’t offer as much mental exercise.
- Begin by running at a slow speed. As you feel your reflexes improve over time, push yourself to run faster. Nature trails have a generally higher risk of injury, so it’s important to start slow.
- Mix things up by choosing a different trail whenever possible, or run the same trail in the other direction if you don’t live close to many nature trails.
2 Practice catching a rubber bouncy ball.Special bouncy balls, sometimes referred to as “reaction balls,” are 6-sided rubber balls that bounce at unpredictable angles. They may be purchased at most sporting goods stores. Take one of these, or a simple quarter-machine bouncy ball, and toss it against an outdoor wall, then try to catch it.[6] Do this for 10-15 minutes each day.
- Focus on catching the ball as it bounces back in your direction. Once your reflex time improves, throw the ball harder, challenging yourself to leap and dive to catch it.
- Or, do a similar exercise with a coin: Place the coin on the back of your hand, then toss it into the air and practice catching it in your palm.
Play jacks to fine-tune your muscles.For the days when you’re feeling more low-key, grab a set of jacks. It’s a simple way to exercise your motor functions and muscle speed.[7] Start by lightly bouncing the ball and picking up as many jacks as possible. As you get better at the game, challenge yourself by bouncing the ball with greater speed.
- Spread the jacks farther apart to increase the game’s difficulty.
3 Play jacks to fine-tune your muscles.For the days when you’re feeling more low-key, grab a set of jacks. It’s a simple way to exercise your motor functions and muscle speed.[7] Start by lightly bouncing the ball and picking up as many jacks as possible. As you get better at the game, challenge yourself by bouncing the ball with greater speed.
- Spread the jacks farther apart to increase the game’s difficulty.
Play dodgeball with a partner for more explosive training.Ball-based sports help you hone your anticipatory reaction time.[8] Have a partner pitch a dodgeball at you from about 10 feet (3.0 m) away while you practice dodging it. As you get better at dodging the ball, ask your partner to throw it faster and from a closer distance.
- To make this exercise more difficult, recruit a second pitcher to throw another ball quickly after you have dodged the first one.
- Ask the pitchers to increase unpredictability by faking throws, throwing from different angles, and so on.
- Playing dodgeball as a team sport is also a great way to improve your reflexes. Practice fielding balls and kicking those that are pitched to you.
5 Play table tennis to improve your hand-eye coordination.Ping pong requires lots of small, precise, and fast movements, making it ideal for reflex training.[9] Hit up a park or rec center with ping pong tables, and challenge a friend to a game a couple times a week.
If you have never played table tennis before, a local club or group might be beneficial, as they can help you understand the basics of the game including form and skill-building.
6 Pick a sport to practice regularly.Playing virtually any sport regularly is a great way to train both your body and mind.[10] Look for an athletic activity where you have to manipulate an object, such as a ball, using a tool, such as a racket or stick. These sports generally require quick reactions, and can help you build both reflexes and situational awareness.
- Join a local club or league to play a team sport, which provides more opportunities to train your reflexes than a solo sport might.
- Baseball coach Isaac Hess says that “understanding the situation” is key to having good reflexes in a sport. Make sure you pay attention to the field as you play!
7 Slow spar with a partner to improve your fighting reflexes.If you play combat sports, like boxing or karate, then slow sparring can be a great way to develop the muscle memory you need to perform your moves faster.[11] Start by practicing your moves with a partner in a slow and deliberate way. As they start to become more automatic, you can gradually speed up.
- Whether you’re sparring in slow motion or at full speed, staying relaxed is key. Before you start a sparring match, take some time to meditate or do deep breathing exercises to help you unwind and stay focused.
Lifestyle Changes for Better Reflexes
1 Eat nutritious food to nourish your brain.Keeping your body and brain in optimal shape is imperative if you want quick reflexes, and eating healthy is one of the best ways to do that. Foods high in refined sugars and trans fats can make you feel sluggish. Make sure you are getting enough protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats.[12]
- Whole foods like nuts, fish, berries, greens, and garlic can increase cognitive function. Spinach and eggs are also great choices.
- Make sure to drink plenty of water as well, since dehydration can also lead to lethargy and decreased reflex times.
2 Get plenty of sleep.According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), getting quality sleep helps you have quicker reflexes and perform on a higher level than you otherwise would.[13] Both your body and brain slow down when you’re sleepy, resulting in impaired reflex reactions. Your reflexes will be quickest when you’re well-rested after 7 to 9 hours of sleep.
- A good night’s sleep is made up of 4 or 5 sleep cycles, each of which consist of a period of deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This adds up to 7 to 9 hours per night.
- If you didn’t sleep well the night before an important race or game, taking a nap a few hours before the event will help you be more alert when it’s time to perform.
3 Consider taking supplements.Certain nutritional supplements are said to lead to improved reflexes. Ginseng, gingko, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and omega 3 fatty acids have all been cited as dietary supplements that may be worth taking for better cognitive function and reaction times.[14]
- You might also have some caffeine or creatine, which are often found in sports or energy drinks, for a quick boost before a sporting event.
Measuring Reaction Time
Catch a falling ruler to gauge your reflexes.This is a simple test: Ask a friend to hold out a ruler, vertically. Position your hand below it, ready to catch it with your thumb and forefinger. Have your friend drop the ruler without telling you, and do your best to catch it between your fingers.[15]
- Make a note of where you caught the ruler. The further up you caught it, the slower your reflexes.
- See if you can improve your test results each week, after training your reflexes with the above exercises.
- Or, take an online psychomotor vigilance test, which times how fast you can click a sudden prompt.
What are reflexes, anyway?
Reflexes are involuntary, automatic reactions to something.A reaction is any response to a stimulus. A reflex is a response that you don’t even have to think about—your brain gets a sudden signal, and sends its own signal to your muscles to make them move without even having to think. That’s why reflexes and response times are so closely linked![16]
- Conditioned reflexes are reflexes that you’ve learned over time. For example, when you play catch, you’ve conditioned your body through practice to naturally track and catch the ball.
- Unconditioned reflexes are reflexes that you have no training for.[17] You probably haven’t practiced dodging speeding cars before, but your body will take over and react, anyway, if you find yourself in that situation.
