Proprioception Is Key to Improve Performance

When working out, we are often aware of how to work each muscle correctly. That is, we take care of each movement with the ability to feel the use of each muscle. This is called proprioception and it's also considered a sixth sense.

Our bodies are extraordinary. They have different systems that work together to generate movements, thoughts and carry out vital processes. One thing is true: the more you know how your body works, the more opportunities you have to improve its performance. Therefore, in this post, we’ll explain how proprioception and performance are words that go together.

Proprioception

Think of a time when you had to walk through a place where there were many puddles of water. The goal is to walk and avoid stepping in one, your body strengthens the concentration and balance with the muscles. In your mind, it predominates not to step in the puddles, but beyond that. Your body reacts to the situation and makes the necessary adjustments to face it.

Proprioception was born under the term ‘sense of locomotion’ studied in 1557 by Julius Caesar Scaliger. As time progressed, deeper studies were performed by psychologists, neurologists, anatomists, among others. It was also called ‘muscular sense’, but it wasn’t until 1906 that it embraced the term proprioception following the research by Charles Scott Sherrington.

The components of proprioception in humans are made up of different parts of the body, which ultimately work together. These components are the receptors that we already know as senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing). They also include the central nervous system that elaborates a response to the situation to which the body is exposed.

Sometimes, there are people who call themselves “clumsy”, either because they often fall down or have minor accidents. Clumsiness is nothing more than poorly developed proprioception, this implies a small deficit at the motor level.

Proprioception and performance

Now, proprioception does influence our athletic performance. Obviously, people who have developed this ‘sixth sense’ are more sensitive and skilled to perform certain exercises.

Actually, proprioception is present in all areas of our daily lives. In the field of sports, it focuses more on exercises that involve balance or coordination.

Develop your sixth sense

Proprioception is a sixth sense that connects the whole body. The best way to improve it is through movement. This means through sports, there are exercises focused on it, mostly involving the use of fitballs or Bosu Balls. Since they are unstable surfaces, they force the body to better develop the inner sense.

Among those exercises, the following stand out:

• Fitball push-up: instead of doing push-ups on the ground, lean on a fitball. This will force you to use your proprioception to do the exercise, despite the instability of the ball.
• Bosu Ball squat: once again, the instability of the surface will practice your sixth sense to perform the squat.
• Dance steps: learning dance steps is one of the most effective since it tests your coordination, balance, and also goes to the beat of the music.

Why proprioception is important?

Proprioception and performance go hand in hand because good proprioception guarantees good performance, both in sports and in any other situation. Also, developing this sense is like learning any discipline, practice improves it more and more.

An example of how proprioception works in our bodies and why it’s important is a person walking in the dark. When you are in complete darkness you have no knowledge of the environment, therefore you must use the awareness of the internal state of the body. In this way, you can walk without problems even though it’s dark.

Proprioception is completely necessary for the execution of the different tasks in daily life. So, if you consider yourself clumsy, it’s not bad, but if you want to fix it, you know where to start!