Strength Training - The Magic of Proprioception
October 8th, 2008 Posted by David Lemberg
What’s so good about strength training? Well, the benefits keep on coming, over the entire course of a person’s life. Probably the number one benefit is that your body becomes much smarter. Smart bodies have rapid reaction times, adjust quickly to new situations, and are able to make instantaneous decisions that could avoid serious injury.
Surfers Have Smart Proprioceptors!
This sounds pretty magical. How are these benefits of strength training possible?
The key word here is proprioception. Proprioception means your body’s awareness of its position in three-dimensional space. All your joints have specialized nerve endings – proprioceptors – that send this important information to your brain. Proprioceptors can be smart or not-so-smart. Regular exercise makes these receptors very smart.
Any activity trains the proprioceptors of the joints involved in the action. Strength training – because over the course of a week it involves a series of a total-body activities – trains all the proprioceptors you’ve got. Pushing and pulling dumbbells, barbells, and machines trains your chest, back, arms, legs, hands, and feet. All your joints, muscles, and tendons get involved, and your proprioceptor system becomes maximally smart.
Smarter muscles and joints can do more things and can do them better. Your physical capabilities increase. Swinging a baseball bat, running downfield with a soccer ball, throwing a Frisbee, swinging a golf club, dancing a tango, and running 3 miles all begin to be done with increased ease and skill. A big payoff.
As I mentioned, improved proprioception also offers protection from physical injury. Avoiding ankle injuries is a practical example. Smart ankles are a pretty useful accessory when you live in a place like New York City, where I grew up and spent much of my adult life.
We all know about “street smarts”. If you’re a runner in Manhattan, or even a walker, you’d better have a pair of smart ankles. Manhattan streets are an obstacle course of moving hazards on two legs, four legs, two wheels, four wheels, and sometimes two legs and one wheel (those wheelbarrow baby-carts for jogging parents).
Frail older people using walkers. Nannies pushing twin-sized baby carriages. Kids whizzing by on skateboards and scooters. Bikers using the sidewalks. Dog-walkers hogging the entire sidewalk with their clutch of canines.
There are no rules of the road. It’s every man, woman, toddler, and Yorkie for themselves. You get the picture!
Whether you’re running on Manhattan city streets or on the Southern California shoreline, strength training is an important part of your fitness routine. Runners who also do strength training have smart ankles that know what to do in an emergency. They can tolerate the extreme position of being turned all the way over without damage to joint capsules, ligaments, or tendons. Aerobic exercise and strength training go together.
Another strength training bonus ? when you drape your arm across the back of someone who’s lifting weights ? or hug someone who’s lifting weights ? you know it. Their body feels hard ? harder than what most of us are familiar with. And that hardness feels good ? it’s the way our bodies are designed to feel.
Muscles are meant to be used, they’re meant to be worked. And in our modern world, muscle work needs to be done in the gym. Not too many of us get our muscle work by tilling the land or hunting our dinner. We need to be intentional about it.
Strength training provides so many additional important physiological benefits. You get so much bang for your buck.
2 Responses to “Strength Training - The Magic of Proprioception”
Excellent article. The proprioception injury correlation is huge. The trick with proprioception though is it is only one component balance. When we eliminate our eyes or have an inner ear disturbance it puts us in a compromised state. There are various modalities of dectection. Working with all components of the “balance system” is very critical. Keep up the good work on your writing.
By Larry on Dec 5, 2008