PROPRIOCEPTION: HOW CAN IT HELP ME?

Featured Article for St Dunstans Collage.

PROPRIOCEPTION- HOW CAN IT HELP ME?

These are often the training “bits” that people neglect and forget about. Proprioceptive training is important for maintaining and optimizing physical fitness. It encompasses exercises for stability and coordination, stimulates motor learning, helps in maintaining proper body posture and balance, and improves body control.

Proprioceptive signals from mechanoreceptors in the joints, muscles, tendons, and skin are essential for the intact neural control of movement. The loss of proprioceptive afferents may affect the control of muscle tone, disrupts posture and severely impairs spatial awareness. Proprioceptive training induces cortical reorganization, thereby improving sensorimotor function.

In a nutshell, proprioception is your body’s ability to identify where you are in your space and your ability to control your movement within that space

LET’S TEST IT

STORK STAND

Aim: Try to stand on one leg for as long as possible.

Variation: Eyes closed (this is more difficult)

Purpose: To assess whole body balance and proprioceptive ability

Scoring (in seconds):

Excellent > 50s

Good 40 – 50s

Average 25- 39s

Fair 10 – 24s

Poor < 10

Kirsty Roux Biokinetics would like to thank St Dunstans for the opportunity to have shared our Biokinetics knowledge with the St Dunstans community.