| Proprioception:
The sense of the relative position
of neighbouring parts of the body. The sense that indicates
whether the body is moving with required effort, as well
as where the various parts of the body are located in relation
to each other. (From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
In most sports, athletes have to act quickly and react
to immediate changes within the game. If your body isn’t
trained to manage these reactive changes, you may be setting
yourself up for injury.
Your body is a complicated machine, with muscles, tendons
and bones working together to co-ordinate certain movements.
To be successful and pain-free, all sports require synchronization
of all these body parts to work in sequence.
The perfect Tiger Woods golf swing requires his legs, torso
and upper body to work together and to contract in a certain
order. If something's out of synch, the ball's liable to
land on either side of the fairway, deep in the rough.
We may have a basic understanding of how the body works
as one, but the tough part is trying to train it to make
you a better all-around player in your particular sport.
All muscles will help produce movement, but a few specialize
in synchronizing the balance in the body. Others stabilize
the spine and hold it in a safe, neutral position. Still
others contract when necessary to help hold your balance
due to a loss in co-ordination. You need to teach your body
to help maintain your balance, co-ordinate, and contract
all together as one. This is when training must become very
specific to you and your sport. If your trainer does not
focus on this, you might want to look elsewhere.
The problem with your typical strength-training program
(besides staying motivated) is that it often involves a
machine that only isolates one particular muscle group.
These machines often deal with a straight-ahead movement
— something that doesn't happen that often in most
sports. This can increase your risk of injury and can also
limit your performance on the court or the ice.
Balance training is not just critical for someone wanting
to avoid being checked in front of the net. It's also important
for anyone who's ever fallen off a step or slipped on a
patch of ice. It's in the everyday stuff that our strength
and balance are put to the test. If you do a few simple
exercises to work on this, you may reduce your risk of becoming
a new patient in my office.
All of this technical detail is not as difficult to understand
as you might think. It is actually called proprioception,
and we do it every day.
I have come up with great way for my patients to do this
daily without the inconvenience of hitting the gym. As your
dentist will tell you, you need brush your teeth twice daily
for two minutes for good oral health. While brushing your
teeth, try standing on one foot the whole time without touching
anything to help you balance. Do your left foot in the morning
and right foot at night. Just doing this once a day on each
foot can make a huge difference and maybe avoid those nasty
ankle or knee sprains.
Training with stability balls and balance boards can take
you to the next level and build your body strength together
as a unit. These tools produce improvements that support
dynamic athletic movements such as quick stops and starts
— or cutting around that lineman to make it into the
end zone. This type of advanced proprioception
training can significantly assist in improving
your performance and reducing the risk of injuries.
Hockey is one of the most volatile, reactive sports. To
make things worse, it’s played on ice, with full contact.
Balance and stability are obviously key components of this
sport and performing the movements in their particular sequence
is essential.
Peter Twist, former NHL strength and conditioning coach
of the Vancouver Canucks, is one of the most highly respected
trainers in this field. He has come up with several key
concepts for hockey players. His advanced exercises are
widely used and accepted in virtually every high performance
gym. He focuses on this proprioception
topic throughout his books and training sessions with the
understanding of their importance in hockey.
The best thing about balance training is that it is fun
and can be made sport specific. Using a stability ball or
balance board can be extremely challenging. Standing exercises
can be done on a couple of Bosu balls. These balls are a
kind of combination balance board and stability ball. Two
people — each standing on one of these balls —
can do wonders for their core muscles simply by tossing
a ball back and forth.
My favorite experience was a couple years ago treating
a young quarterback with a sprained knee, and a receiver
with a sprained ankle. The game I came up with was throwing
the football back and forth while standing on one foot.
The first one to lose their balance and fall had to do 5
push-ups. The kids did this for about 30 minutes without
realizing they were actually exercising. It was also pretty
entertaining for the rest of the patients.
Trying different exercises during your sports season keeps
your training program fresh and interesting. Proprioceptive
training just adds to that integral program
that is needed to increase your functional strength before
and during the season.
Russell Gunner is a certified
athletic therapist in Mississauga, Ont. |
