The devil is in the details

and details matter! It may seem that balance has nothing to do with sports success or longevity for that matter, but this is one thing that frequently gets missed by the less successful. What is proprioception (aka: kinesthesia) ? The perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body. Heightened awareness leads to better balance. When you look at the definition it seems obvious that proprioception is important to sports and some may see the connection to aging success. The trick is knowing how to prevent its loss and how to maximize it. The sprinter with more kinesthesia will be faster off the blocks, better at staying in position through the acceleration phase, quicker to come upright and better at controlling the legs to eliminate excessive distance between the ground and foot. These are all keys to maximizing sprinting success and separates the good from the great. Do you need to be great to play recreational sports or live your life? No. But you do need to be good to minimize injury risk and you must work to stay “good”. As you experience muscle loss, decreased flexibility and gain body fat your proprioception decreases. Proprioceptors are located in the muscle and soft tissue. Less muscle and soft tissue means less proprioception/kinesthesia. As you age, you then have to work to maintain not only the muscle and soft tissue, but the sharp nerve connection between those tissues and the brain. If you do not, your balance is effected and your risk of fall leading to a hip fracture, skull fracture, arm fracture, spinal fracture, etc all increase.

These nerve connections, once gained, do not stick around indefinitely and in fact are fleeting. You must train them regularly to maintain “good” status and you must train them strategically to achieve “great” status. If you over train your neuromotor connections in an attempt to maintain and keep “great” status you will forfeit other, important training such as endurance and strength training. These neuromotor connections are lost more quickly than cardiac and strength gains and should be trained last leading up to a sporting event.

A qualified Strength and Conditioning Specialist can prescribe the right balance/neuromotor training exercises to coordinate with your game type and timing.