Powering movement, injury prevention & rehabilitation and maintaining independence & quality of life as we age
I think there’s a big benefit from making your activity multi-dimensional; encompassing strength, mobility, balance and cardio goals. There’s also a hidden force that plays a crucial role in movement: proprioception. Often called our "sixth sense," proprioception is the body's ability to perceive its own position in space. It allows you to run without looking at your feet, adjust your balance on uneven ground, and react quickly to changes in terrain, and it plays a vital role in helping us being effective in all movement. It also reduces the risk of falls in later life and boosts confidence in our physical abilities, with a benefit for social interaction and mental well being.
I’m going to explore here what proprioception is, its importance in movement and activity, how it helps prevent injuries, why it's vital for rehabilitation, how it can benefit us all as we age and how we can test and improve our own.
What Is proprioception?
Proprioception refers to the sensory information that your brain receives from muscles, joints, and connective tissues. Specialized receptors, called proprioceptors, are located throughout your body—especially in muscles, tendons, and ligaments. These receptors continuously send signals to your brain, informing it about limb positions, movements, and forces acting on your body.
Without proprioception, basic tasks like standing or walking would become challenging. In running, this sensory feedback is even more critical. It allows you to make micro-adjustments while running to maintain balance, stay stable, and coordinate your movements efficiently.
Proprioception's role in movement
Movement, for example running, though seemingly straightforward, is a complex neuromuscular activity. Every stride involves precise coordination between your muscles, tendons, and joints. Proprioception helps:
Maintain balance: When running, your body is in a state of controlled imbalance, constantly shifting from one foot to another. Proprioceptive signals from your joints and muscles help maintain equilibrium with every step.
React to uneven terrain: If you run on trails, grass, or cobblestones, proprioception enables you to sense changes in the surface and adjust your foot placement, keeping you from tripping or falling.
Optimize performance: Efficient movement patterns in running are crucial for speed and endurance. Proprioception allows for smoother, more controlled strides, minimizing wasted energy.
Proprioception in injury prevention
Proprioception is a key player in injury prevention especially when it comes to issues like ankle sprains, knee injuries, or overuse conditions like tendonitis. With good proprioception, the body is better equipped to sense when joints or muscles are in potentially harmful positions, triggering adjustments that help prevent injuries. This is especially important for aging individuals, who may experience a decline in reaction times and physical resilience.
Improves reaction time: Proprioception enhances your body’s ability to react quickly to sudden changes, like stepping on an uneven surface or losing balance.
Builds joint stability: Proprioceptors in muscles and tendons work to stabilize joints, especially in areas like the ankle or knee, which are prone to injury in runners. By activating the right muscles at the right time, proprioception reduces excessive strain on ligaments and minimizes injury risk.
Reduces overuse injuries: Repetitive motion can lead to overuse injuries. Proprioceptive training increases body awareness, ensuring that muscles work together and minimizing imbalances that can lead to chronic issues like shin splints or plantar fasciitis.
Proprioception in injury rehabilitation: A focus on sprained ankles
Proprioception helps retrain the body to regain its sense of movement and position after an injury, which can accelerate the healing process and reduce the chances of re-injury. Proprioception plays a particularly important role for sprained ankles—one of the most common of all injuries.
After a sprain, your brain receives less accurate information from the affected ankle. Proprioceptive exercises (such as balancing on one foot, using wobble boards, or practicing stability exercises) help retrain these receptors. This restores the brain’s ability to accurately sense the position of the ankle and improves joint stability, reducing the risk of re-injury.
Proprioception’s increased importance as we age
As we age, proprioception plays a vital role in maintaining independence and quality of life by:
Reducing fall risk, which increases with age due to weakened muscles, slower reflexes, and reduced sensory perception. Good proprioception helps us make subtle adjustments to prevent falling.
Supporting movement coordination, ensuring smoother, more controlled movements. This is important for everyday tasks such as walking, climbing stairs, or even reaching for objects, which can otherwise become difficult and increase the risk of injury.
Compensating for vision and hearing loss. Proprioception compensates by providing reliable feedback about body position and movement even when visual cues are limited, such as walking in low-light environments or when multitasking.
Enhancing confidence in physical abilities leading to greater participation in physical activities, improved mental well-being, and reduced isolation.
How to check and improve your proprioception.
Want to see what you can already do? Try this simple move, the “rock pass”: Stand on one leg with your arms stretched out to the sides, imagining that one hand is holding a rock. Next, the tricky bit: “pass” the rock overhead to your other hand without putting your leg down, then pass it back, and repeat the whole movement 10 times without losing your balance. If it’s a struggle you know you’ve got something to work on!
Proprioceptive exercises
Whether you're preventing injuries or recovering from them, integrating proprioceptive training into your routine can enhance your performance and resilience. Here are some exercises to try:
Single-leg balance: Stand on one foot for 30 seconds to a minute. Increase the challenge by closing your eyes or standing on an unstable surface, like a foam pad.
Wobble board training: Use a wobble board to strengthen ankle stability. This is particularly helpful for those recovering from ankle sprains.
Heel-to-toe walking: Walk in a straight line, placing the heel of one foot in front of the toes of the other foot. This helps improve balance and coordination.
Dynamic warm-ups: Before running, do dynamic exercises like high knees, butt kicks, or skipping to activate your proprioceptors.
Ball pickups: Put a ball down either in front of or behind you, then pick it up again with the other hand. Repeat, trying to get more creative with the ways you lower yourself to the ground (think squats, lunges and splits) or the spots where you put the ball.
Jumping turns: Don’t do this one if you aren’t confident about your coordination – or your knee health. Bend your knees slightly and then jump, aiming to do a quarter, half or even full 360-degree turn in the air. Land as softly as you can.
Mobile balance: Whenever you can, walk along a thin surface such as a kerb or a low railing in the park. Before you go for height, work on your movement: use your free leg as a counterweight, and keep your knee slightly flexed. Try to keep your upper body relaxed – this will improve with practice – and once you get the hang of walking, try turning or even squatting on the object you’re balancing on.
Sources: The power of proprioception: how to improve your ‘sixth sense’ – and become healthier and happier
Guardian 18th July 2024
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