What is Proprioception?
Anytime you do any form of physical fitness, whether yoga, resistance training, or anything in between, it takes a certain amount of awareness about how you take up the space around you. If you’re too close to somebody or they’re too close to you, there may be a collision. You also need to know the length of your limbs to help ensure you’re not knocking into anything and everything.
On the flip side, you may also be in your head a lot about how other people perceive you or what’s going on all around you. What you think they see or think about you may influence what you do or don’t do or how you exercise.
Although worrying about what other people think about you isn’t exactly recommended, both of these sensations are known respectively as “proprioception” and “perception,” and they each play a vital role in your fitness journey.
What is Proprioception?
“Proprioception,” in essence, is just your body’s natural awareness of itself. How it moves, how it takes up space, and how your physical mass exists in the world around you. If you close your eyes and raise your hand, you’ll likely be able to visualize where in the air your hand is, even if you can’t see it. Your proprioception will inform you where in space your hand has landed.
Proprioception is important because of the sensory receptors within your nervous system that connect to your body. Your vestibular system, which is a sensory system within your inner ear that helps you maintain balance and spacial orientation, is on lock during your proprioceptive abilities.
Since your vestibular system is in charge of your balance, your proprioceptive abilities will help you out in balancing postures, whether in yoga or in your resistance training.
How do I know if my proprioception is out of whack?
As we get older, unfortunately, we’re at an increasing risk of falls, which can be detrimental to your overall health and wellbeing. My grandmother, otherwise healthy and active, experienced a fall in the middle of the night on her way to the bathroom, and had to lay put for nearly nine hours before she was eventually discovered clutching a thin sheet to try and keep her warm and a picture of my sister she’d grabbed on her way down.
There are certain disorders, according to WebMD, that can also influence your proprioception in a negative way. These can include, but are not limited to, brain injuries, autism, joint injuries, Parkinson’s disease, hip replacement surgery, arthritis, and stroke. Of course, these are just a sample of potential issues you may face, and if you’re worried about a serious neurological matter that gets in the way of your proprioception, it’s best to get that examined by a doctor instead of making any assumptions.
For the most part, your proprioceptive abilities will strengthen with practice and conscious intent. If you catch me in a yoga class, it’s likely there will be at least one single-leg balancing pose to any degree. They challenge me, too, but what challenges you the most is also probably what you most need.
What is Kinesthesia?
Before we move on to perception and the difference between that and proprioception, let’s talk briefly about “kinesthesia” and how that all fits into the mix.
The University of Minnesota defines kinesthesia as the “awareness of the position and movements of the parts of the body using sensory organs, which are known as proprioceptors, in joints and muscles,” noting it’s a “key component in muscle memory and hand-eye coordination.”
Does that sound familiar? It’s because it is.
Although “kinesthesia” and “proprioception” are often used interchangeably, kinesthesia actually removes the equilibrium and balance out of the equation, which makes a major difference. If you had an ear infection, your proprioceptive abilities might be altered and your balance may be off, but your kinesthetic senses would still be intact. Kinesthesia also focuses on the actual movements of your body and what it’s doing rather than just how and where it takes up space.
What is Perception?
“Perception,” on the other hand, is different from either of the two, although it may also sound vaguely similar. It’s defined as “the act or faculty of perceiving, or apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding,” or, more importantly, as “a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.”
In other words, perception is your conscious awareness of the world and everything in it as it exists around you at any given time. It’s influenced by your different senses, with sight, smell, and taste being major factors in it.
While “proprioception” is more about the body and its physical space, “perception” is more about the world and helps influence or determine your awareness of it. Again, both are crucial factors in your fitness goals. You need to be just as aware of how close someone is to you as you do about the length of your joints, so it’s always about finding the balance between them.
How can you find a balance between proprioception and perception?
The balance between proprioception and perception is something I talk a lot about in my group fitness classes, especially for those who suffer from social anxiety and worry about how “dumb” they may look in a class if they don’t know how to do something.
“How can you tap into your body’s natural awareness of itself and blend it enough with your conscious awareness of the outside world so you remain aware of what’s going on around you without letting it affect you? How can you worry less about what’s going on in your neighbor’s body and more about what’s going on in yours? How can you bring your attention more inward so you can push yourself to be the best version of you?”
Thoughts like that trinkle in when I bring proprioception into the mix. A lot of people are unaware of proprioception in the first place, which just poses a challenge for those who want to learn and find ways to sharpen it.
