Proprioceptive training

A mounting body of evidence indicates that proprioceptive training can improve athletes’ strength, coordination, muscularbalance, and muscle-reaction
times. new studies link proprioceptive work with a reduced risk of injury during sporting activity, improved proprioception will most likely boost athletic performance.
To fully understand athletic movements your overall muscular activity, the range of motion at your joints, and your body posture are all the products of sensory-nerve activity which is received, “coded”, and acted on by your brain and spinal cord  that is Your CNS

this  gets the information needed to control
your movements from three “subsystems”

1    your “somatosensory system”

2    your “vestibular system”,

3   your visual system”.

I have been working with this system of understanding how to repair my ankle injury. I’ve been having problems with this for some time now looking back at someone injuries. I had, I see now how imbalances in the system can throw everything out.

the somatosensory

system can detect touch, pressure, pain,and joint motion and position. In your joints, the somatosensory system actually possesses both quick-adapting (QA) and slow-adapting (SA) “mechanoreceptors”(nerve endings which detect physical actions).

So what does this mean for injury and prevention

Overall, the somatosensory system is often called the proprioceptive system, and the work it carries out is called proprioception.

Proprioception is sometimes referred to as the collection of sensations regarding joint movement (kinaesthesia) and joint position.

The vestibular system, which picks up information from the vestibules and semicircular canals of the inner ear,helps to maintain overall body posture
and balance.

The visual system of course also plays a large role in the maintenance of balance; to gain an appreciation of its importance, simply stand with your full body weight supported on one foot – and then close your eyes. The resultant “leg shaking” and postural sway are a testament to the thevisual-system’s ability to help with overall balance and coordination.

The combination of the , three systems keep the function of day to day movements in balance. When either of the systems are at an imbalance and external forces are put on joints either operating systems. This is when injury can occur

The key role played by the somatosensory system helps to explain why some athletes tend to injure certain joints over and over again. For example, when an athlete sprains an ankle, he/she usually damages not just the ankle ligaments but also the somatosensory system’s mechanoreceptors which are dispersed throughout the ankle joint.

As a result, the ankle remains relatively unstable long after the torn ligaments have healed. This chronic ankle instability can be reversed if the right rehabilitative techniques are  utilised. I found this information and realized that this is where I had to go, to try and get my ankle to operate properly , and not suffer from the pain that I was experiencing.

The Swedish wobble board

One of the very first studies to look at the potential for balance improvements was carried out in the mid-1980s with professional Swedish soccer players who

had functional instability in one or both ankle joints The “proprioceptive training” carried out by the athletes was incredibly simple; they simply stood on one leg on a small “ankle disc”, which was nothing more than a “wobble board” – a wooden platform resting on a hemispheric structure, with the flat edge of the hemisphere attachedto the underside of the platform. Such a device is of course unstable in all planes of motion; the slightest deviation from stability in the ankle joint is greeted with an instantaneous “tip-over” by the wobble board.

To use the board the knee of the support leg is maximally extended, the arms are crossed over the chest, and the nonsupport leg it is flexed at the knee and
raised. Training on an unstable device like a wobble board can enhance both postural control and ankle-muscle strength concluded that it would be better to give athletes with chronic ankle injuries an ankle disc, not a brace.

I have found and have been advised by the medical profession to use a brace  in conjunction with the stability exercises it helps. By providing support that the injury needs.

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