How to Become Ambidextrous

***To actually PRACTICE mirror movement development (MMD) while reading this article, read it ‘backwards’ using the MirrorRead.com web browser extension***

Developing dual-dominance (aka, ambidexterity) is a lifestyle practice that produces incredible benefits for your brain and body, inline with your physical human design for optimal function. Nikola Tesla, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Queen Victoria, Hippocrates, and Harry Houdini are only some of history’s greatest practitioners and promoters of dual-dominance. While it’s easier to develop dual-dominance the younger you are, that doesn’t mean adults can’t develop it as well. Adopting the lifestyle choice of using your less-dominant hand gradually for all activities in mirrored motion is all it takes, a practice known as mirror movement development (MMD). Start practicing MMD with your most basic movements and activities, increasing in complexity and frequency over time.

MMD can be most easily understood as you watching a mirror-flipped video of yourself doing your daily routine (eating, drinking, walking, writing, reading, etc.) and learning how to do what you see in that video. In the video, you’ll see yourself reading in mirrored direction, writing in mirrored direction with your other hand, throwing with the opposite hand, kicking with the opposite foot, etc.

Considering there are hundreds of ways to practice MMD, you may wonder, “What’s the best way to start and progress?” There’s no one route to practicing MMD, but some things are certainly easier to learn than others. With that in mind, here’s my list of the most effective ways to practice MMD, starting with the general easiest and working up in difficulty. They don’t all require in-depth explanation, as learning MMD becomes instinctual as you practice, often times simply involving just using your other hand than normal.

Important to note: your brain and body needs time to rest, recuperate, and grow when practicing lifestyle MMD. So, don’t jump in all at once. It’s gonna feel ‘weird,’ but that’s just blood flowing to your opposite brain hemisphere with oxygen to create new neurons and pathways to accomplish these tasks (which burns more calories and makes you hungrier). Start small and gradually move up the following list (starting with Beginner, to Intermediate, to Advanced) as you gain proficiency.

Here’s the quick list of suggested steps. Keep reading for explanations on each…

BEGINNER
Turning and rotations
Light switches
Doorknobs
Keys
Pocket placement of common items
Board games
Zippers and buttons
Bottlecaps and screws
Handshakes, high-fives, and fist-pounds
Folding your arms
Applauding
ATMs & Gas pumps
Remote controls
Shoveling snow/raking leaves
Leaping and stairs
Scissors
Spoons, forks, and knives
Can openers
Cell phones
Watches and bracelets
Brushing your teeth

INTERMEDIATE
Playing cards
Counting coins and cash
Computers
Chopsticks
Tying shoelaces

ADVANCED
Driving a car
Hammering
Cutting fruits, veggies, etc
Shaving
Kicking
Throwing
Sports
Mirror reading
Handwriting switch traditional
Handwriting switch mirrored

• BEGINNER
• Turning and rotations. Righties will tend to favor more often the right side and lefties the left side. This can lead to turning or rotating more often to just one side. It may be subtle, but over time it makes a difference and can lead to body imbalances. Practicing MMD means being conscious of this and turning the other way more often.
• Light switches. As simple as it sounds; use your opposite, less-dominant hand when turning on the lights.
• Doorknobs. Just like light switches, use your opposite, less-dominant hand when opening doors.
• Keys. You can’t mirror the direction in which the key turns, but you can at least still use your opposite hand to turn it.
• Pocket placement of common items. Switch up the sides for your wallet, phone, keys, etc. There even exists mirrored jeans with the fifth pocket on the left side and fly buttons mirrored!
• Board games (chess, checkers, etc). Use that opposite hand for moving game pieces around.
• Zippers and buttons. It’s awkward, but use that opposite hand to zip up flies and pull buttons through.
• Bottlecaps and screws. Twist-off bottle caps and screws are designed to favor the stronger supination muscles of the right hand forearm. Using your left hand exercises the weaker pronation forearm muscles of the other side. Considering no chiral design currently exists to favor the left hand for these objects, there’s no pure MMD way to twist off bottle caps or tighten/loosen screws, but you can at least chose your less-dominant hand and exercise it the best you can. Thankfully, with corkscrews, there exists mirrored options you can buy.
• Handshakes, high-fives, and fist-pounds. My favorite people in life who know me give me left-handed handshakes. And I LOVE it! Did you know the official Boy Scout handshake is simply a left-handed handshake? The founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, was a huge practitioner of MMD! When meeting new people, I even have a way of giving a left-handed handshake. Once they extend to me their right hand, I’ll extend my left hand above theirs and cup it downwards, meeting them where they’re at. That might be hard to envision, and totally surprising to them, but it works in casual encounters. Ya might not want to try it at a job interview though haha.
• Folding your arms. Most likely, you normally fold your arms in just one fashion when standing upright, either right arm over left or left arm over right. Whatever way you normally do it, switch it up.
• Applauding. Yep, this is mirrored as well in finger-to-palm and cupping motions. You likely have one hand traditionally elevated above (typically the dominant hand) with the other hand below.
• ATMs & Gas pumps. No mirrored versions of these machines exist, but you can at least, awkwardly, use your opposite hand to operate them. Get creative! In fact, this need for adaptation is one reason why some believe lefties are more ‘creative’ since they have to exercise solution-seeking mental muscles more often than righties when it comes to using tools and machines.
• Remote controls. Yep, just use it with the other hand!
• Shoveling snow/raking leaves. Mirroring these heavy movements will save your lower back’s life!
• Leaping and stairs. When leaping over gaps or running up stairs, you likely often jump from just one particular leg. Switch it up! If you’re not sure which one is your dominant leg, try the maneuver various times and you’ll likely notice one side is less intuitive. Work on developing that less-intuitive side. Fun fact: someone who has equal use of both feet is ambipedal.
• Scissors. I’ve used my left hand to cut with regular scissors many times before, but any lefty will tell you it’s hard (sometimes it’s so tough that it’s not worth the headache of even trying it switch). Scissors are another chirally-designed object, meaning it has to favor either a left or right hand, in this case because of the blades. Thankfully, there do exist lefty scissors. If you do a lot of cutting, these are worth purchasing.
• Spoons, forks, and knives. You likely always favor just one hand to dip your spoon into that morning bowl of Cheerios, so switch it up. Notice also how you likely swap hands between fork and knife when cutting food. Yep, mirror this stance as well.
• Can openers. I know it’s awkward, but grab your traditional can opener with the other hand, puncture the can, and now carry the opposite hand over to manipulate it. You can also just buy a mirror-designed, lefty can-opener and use it in pure MMD fashion.
• Cell phones. Text, call, swipe, take photos, etc. now using the less-dominant hand. You also likely always put your cell phone in one side of your pockets (likely the right pants pocket). Put your phone in the other pocket on your other side now.
• Watches and bracelets. Like Nutrition and Exercise, MMD is a lifestyle that gets easier over time, but it takes great initial work before becoming routine. One easy reminder is to put your watch or bracelets on the opposite wrist. This exercises your less-dominant hand and provides a constant reminder to practice MMD in other areas.
• Brushing your teeth. Switch to the other hand. Also, notice what circular motions your dominant hand makes when brushing and work to mirror those with the other hand. Meaning, if you normally brush with your right hand in counter-clockwise strokes, now work to brush lefty with clockwise strokes. This takes looots of practice.
• INTERMEDIATE
• Playing cards. Yep, there’s a mirrored way to hold your cards. Not only are they placed in your other hand, but they’re mirror-sorted. They even sell lefty playing cards. Same thing goes with dealing out the cards. Work to learn mirroring this.
• Counting coins and cash (similar to mirrored card holding). Notice not only switching hands, but switching the placement order of the dollars, making it mirrored in that same order.
• Computers. Even most lefties tell me they “can’t” use a mouse left-handed (and that’s likely only because they’ve never been encouraged to learn how to use it lefty, only ever having it placed on the right side). I know it’s awkward, but, switch that mouse over to the left side and take your time learning. You can even mirror the mouse’s buttons within your computer Settings (turning Right-click now into Left-click) for greater MMD benefit. And when typing on your keyboard, use your left finger to tap buttons like Shift, Delete, Enter, numbers on the right side of the keypad, and letters like H, B, Y, and even N. Until a mirrored keyboard is created, there’s currently no way on Earth yet to truly MMD type. These techniques are the closest we can get today. Sadly, ’twas only an April Fools Day post, but I was recently shared this URL from i-rocks.com of an Alice in Wonderland-inspired mirrored keyboard. I, along with the mirror-writing author, Lewis Carroll, would love this!
• Chopsticks. Let the initial frustration on this one beginning! Definitely harder than using a fork, knife, or spoon, so build up to this. Work on mirroring each finger placement. This really exercises your observational muscles and spatial awareness.
• Tying shoelaces. This one I found way harder than it sounds and MIND BLOWING when first learning it. Various mirrored motions incorporated between different loops, hooks, cross-overs, etc.
• ADVANCED
• Driving a car. Steering wheel, break pedal (use left foot), ignition (awkwardly turn it left-handed), and center counsel (awkwardly reach over using the left hand) are all examples of MMD-modified driving here in the United States. Begin with CAUTION! It’s best to begin practicing this in low-speed, low-traffic driving conditions. An empty parking lot works best. While it’s not the cheapest thing to do, you can actually import a foreign car with the steering wheel on the right side to drive here in the U.S.!
• Hammering. You don’t want to smash your dominant hand by practicing the swing of a hammer with your less-dominant hand, so be CAREFUL! But like all MMD, this is learnable. It also becomes convenient when you’re in a tight, closed corner where it would be easier to get in there using the less-dominant hand.
• Cutting fruits, veggies, etc. Use EXTRA caution practicing this form of MMD.
• Shaving. Not for beginners! EXTRA caution needed for obvious reasons. When you get good at this, switch back and forth between hands for the most symmetric shave ever.
• Kicking. I consider kicking a more full body, macro-level form of mechanical movement, as you’re utilizing both upper and lower torso mirrored movements (which include both dominant and less-dominant limbs). Certainly, this requires practice. When switching sides, focus most on what your dominant limbs are doing. They’ll be able to more easily mirror the movement and allow your less-dominant limbs to properly follow the flow. With kicking, focus on mirroring the movements of the arms. The feet will follow through more fluidly.
• Throwing. Another macro-level form of MMD similar to kicking. With throwing, focus on mirroring the movements of the feet (in particular, the moment of switching weight distribution from the left to right foot or right to left foot). This will allow the arms to follow through more fluidly. And let your dominant arm guide the back motion of swing, allowing your less-dominant arm to more fluidly follow through. Throwing dual-dominantly provides lots of options for movement that unilateral throwing doesn’t, making the sport of ambiball so uniquely fun!
• Sports. Athletes, switch your traditional sport stances! In boxing, Righties now become Southpaws. In skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing, Goofy now becomes Regular. In pool, you now shoot from the other side. This becomes a big plus since MMD pool players NEVER need to use a bridge nor shoot from behind the back since dual-dominance always gives you advantage of choosing the best side for shots. In Tennis, your racquet now goes in the other hand, etc. And because of a concept known as manual transfer learning, you’ll inadvertently gain proficiency over time in your dominant side when focusing exclusively on your less-dominant side.
• Mirror reading. 99.9+% of the text you’ve ever read has likely been in the traditional direction, making mirror reading one of the most mind-bending practices. No one is innately born with an ability to read, let alone in some “traditional” direction. It’s all learned over time and takes practice. Mirror reading is no different. MirrorRead.com makes it easy to practice mirror reading with their web browser extension that mirror flips whatever is on your screen. You can also read using a simple mirror from the dollar store. Just, carefully, remove any plastic part off from around the mirror and you can now simply slip the mirror inside your book, like a bookmark. For safety, I make sure to keep my book inside a plastic bag in case the mirror ever breaks while inside my backpack. To read it, hold the book upright like normal, but at a 45 degree angle, so the page your reading is perpendicular to you, only being seen now “backwards” through the mirror. Benjamin Franklin read in mirrored direction for 30 years as a colonial printing composer. Also, one notable benefit to mirror reading is that you’ll become a much faster traditional reader and even be able to more easily read traditional script upside-down.
• Handwriting switch traditional. When I started writing left-handed in 2016 it was in the traditional direction. And it was haaaard. This is a great start though since you’re already accustomed to the traditional lettering direction, so you’re only focus is on the micro-muscular development of your opposite hand. Pure MMD though requires additional focus with mirrored lettering direction.
• Handwriting switch mirrored. This is the toughest thing to learn in MMD. This activity mirror exercises every micro muscle of your opposite hand in the same way it’s always done for your dominant hand. Considering the hands’ connection to the brain and neurological development associated with language acquisition, switch mirrored handwriting does wonders for mental health. When writing in a journal, be sure to date your entries so you can track your development over time. Leonardo da Vinci wrote like this for 40 years in all of his personal notebooks. Also, I tend to do my best mirror writing after spending some time mirror reading.

Learn even more on the science and benefits of becoming dual-dominant in my book, BIG3MMD: History’s Ambidextrous and the Benefits of Mirror Movement Development. It’s the world’s first biscriptal book, written in both mirrored and traditional text together, so you can actually practice MMD while reading it!