Improve Proprioception With Yoga

For many people, fitness means improving three areas: cardio, strength and flexibility. But that approach may be overlooking another important measure of fitness. A measure that can be improved with yoga, and further enhanced by simply closing your eyes.

Proprioception: your "sixth sense"

Proprioception refers to a special kind of body awareness. It's the sense of your body's position and movement in space. It's what lets you walk through a dark room or touch your finger to your nose when your eyes are closed. Some experts refer to it as our "sixth sense" and think it's just as important as our other five.

From an anatomy standpoint, proprioception is a function of the nervous system which relies on sensory and motor nerves (proprioceptors) in our muscles fibers and tendons. Proprioceptors sense changes in our bodies, including changes in muscle length, muscle tension, movement and pressure. They may also trigger protective reflexes to try to avoid injury.

With a strong sense of proprioception, you may be more agile and quicker to react to a sudden change, such as someone tripping in front of you. On the other hand, a weak sense of proprioception may be partly responsible for being clumsy (along with balance and coordination).

Testing your proprioception

It's easy to test your proprioception. One of the most common ways is to see how long you can stand on one foot with your eyes closed. The goal is to close your eyes, lift one foot 6 inches off the ground, and hold it there without swaying, teetering or otherwise moving around.

It sounds incredibly easy, but it is not. I first came across this test in physical therapy. For me, it began with standing on one foot with my eyes open for 30 seconds -- No problem, I was up and steady for over a minute. (Smugly proud and unaware of the failure to come.) Then I closed my eyes and didn't last 10 seconds.

Some people (and maybe WiiFit?) use this test as a way to measure your "real age." There's a balance-based real age chart showing you how many seconds equal what age. I've also seen guidelines saying that 25 to 39 seconds is average any anything over 50 seconds is excellent.

Note: there are some other fun activities to test your proprioception, too.

Improving proprioception with yoga

If you can hang out on one foot with your eyes closed for over a minute, that's great. But, chances are, your proprioception could use some improvement. Fortunately, you are already working on this body awareness just by practicing yoga.

A regular yoga practice helps proprioception because your mind focuses on the position of your body parts as you move through different asanas (poses).

Imagine the way your body feels when you take the shape of a familiar pose, such as Warrior II. Think about your front knee bending over your ankle, your arms reaching forward and back, and your hips opening toward the side of your mat. Your gaze is on your front fingertips, but your awareness is on the placement of your entire body.

While a mindful practice helps with body awareness, your regular practice partly relies on visual cues to stay focused and balanced. Your drishti, or gaze point, is an important element of yoga. It helps with both concentration (dharana) and withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara). Yet, a strong visual focus may be making up for a weaker sense of proprioception.

To shift your focus more toward improving proprioception, try simply closing your eyes. Pay attention to how your body feels with both your eyes open and closed. Nothing is changing except your visual focus. Trust your body to stay in the same position when your eyes are closed. This may be harder than it seems, but it does get easier with practice.

Closing your eyes during balancing poses is particularly challenging. Tree pose is a great place to start, but you may want to modify your pose until you feel more steady. To modify: bring your raised foot lower on your standing leg, you can even take it to your ankle with your big toe grazing the mat. Keep your hands pressed in prayer position at your chest, instead of raising your arms overhead. Over time, you can work toward taking the full expression of the pose with your eyes closed.

Proprioception is a sense your body uses to safely navigate throughout your life. Adding elements of it into your yoga routine can be another way to take your practice to a deeper level.