Proprioceptors are components of the human body that sense awareness in space. Close your eyes and reach your hand out in front of you. Can you describe the position it’s in? That’s proprioception. When you stand on one foot and don’t fall over, it’s partially thanks to proprioception. So what?
Lack of proprioception can lead to injury. Restoration and enhancement of proprioception can help recovery from and prevention of future injuries. Now do I have your attention? No one likes to be injured. Well, except me – sometimes – because then I learn something new about my body and can teach more effectively. But, that’s a different story.
Here’s some knowledge you can WOW your clients with. Everybody loves knowledge, because it’s power.
Four Types of Proprioceptors
Golgi Tendon Organs
Muscle Spindles
Ruffini’s End Organs
Pacinian Corpuscle
How to Enhance Proprioception
1. Anatomy. Knowing muscle attachments and locations is the starting point of all effective exercise programming. A lack of understanding about what muscles are working during movement and exercise is one reason injuries occur. We over-use our body without paying attention to proper mechanics and form.
2. Body Awareness. Help clients connect more deeply to their movements by having them close their eyes and feel what’s happening in their body. Many people like to tune out when exercising to get it over with or get through it. This can be great once someone has established healthy movement habits. Who knew movement could be healthy?
3. Exercise. When you know where the muscles attach, how they move and an sense them in space – now you can exercise effectively. Isometrics are a great way to enhance proprioception and body awareness. Isometrics are exercises that hold the joint in one position while contracting the associated muscles. These help restore awareness and proprioception because the joint isn’t moving all over the place and in general the same group of muscles is working the entire time. Once the joint begins moving then there is more for the proprioceptors to monitor and more muscles being recruited through the range.
