PRO TIPS

Training your proprioception will make you a sharper, faster and more durable athlete - here's how

- Mike James

THE EXPERT Mike James is a former military PT, a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist, and an advisor to INCUS Performance (incusperformance.com)

Proprioception is your body’s invisible skill. Put simply, it’s your ability to sense the movement, action and location of your limbs in space. It’s what enables you to dribble a football without looking down, rapidly change direction on the rugby field, return a tennis serve, run over rocky or uneven terrain, or lift weights with fluency and precision. It’s the reason you can touch your knee even when you’ve got your eyes closed. And it remains one of the most mysterious and neglected sporting attributes.

“Proprioception is the awareness of a body or joint's position in relation to its environment,” explains physio Mike James, an advisor for training data specialists INCUS Performance. “This proprioception is achieved via several different receptors in structures surrounding the joint, such as muscles and ligaments, which send messages back to the brain to let it know the position of the joint. When you move, the receptors send detailed messages to your brain about your positions and actions. Your brain processes these messages and works with your vision, nervous system, and vestibular system to create your perception of exactly where your body is and how you’re moving.”

Whether you lift weights, play squash or run up hills, well-honed proprioception is going to seriously boost your balance, efficiency, reaction times, coordination and agility.