The power of proprioception: how to improve your ‘sixth sense’ – and become healthier and happier

The next time you’re somewhere non-embarrassing, try this quick test: stand on one leg with your arms stretched out to the sides, imagining that one hand is holding a rock. Next, the tricky bit: “pass” the rock overhead to your other hand without putting your leg down, then pass it back, and repeat the whole movement 10 times without losing your balance. Don’t worry if you can’t manage it: that means you’ve got something to work on.

Dan Edwardes, one of the UK’s most experienced coaches in the athletic obstacle-leaping discipline of parkour, calls this the “rock pass” drill – and says it’s one of the simplest ways to check up on your proprioception, or your body’s sense of where it is in space. Sometimes referred to as our sixth sense, proprioception is what helps high-level athletes take a penalty without looking at the ball, or orient themselves in the air while doing a twisting somersault. But it’s also what lets you touch your nose with your eyes closed, push open a door without shoving it too hard, or adjust your gait when you hit an unexpected root on a trail run.

“Any complex movement skill, from jumping to vaulting to climbing, requires a high level of proprioception,” says Edwardes. “Think of adding these moves to your daily movement ‘diet’ to keep yourself strong and functional.” Or, in other words, it’s becoming clear, as our understanding of it improves, that improving or maintaining our proprioceptive ability is key to our quality of life as we age.

“In the last five years, we’ve learned a lot about the brain through functional MRI studies, and that’s allowed us to more deeply understand which regions of it are most involved in proprioceptive processing,” says the exercise physiologist Dr Milica McDowell. “Research has identified specific neural pathways and brain regions, such as the cerebellum and somatosensory cortex, that are involved – and that’s allowing us to understand a lot more about how to protect our proprioception throughout our lives.”

Proprioceptors are receptors mainly located in the muscles, tendons and joints, which work in conjunction with our body’s other sensory systems to deliver us information on our movements and environment. These let you sense the position of your limbs or even digits – “Think about splaying out your toes: you know it’s happening without looking at them, right?” says McDowell – but also gauge the weight of objects you’re interacting with, or pick up on changes in the surface you’re walking on.

Some people seem to have more finely tuned proprioceptors than others, but it can also depend on the task. It’s possible, for instance, to be rock-steady in a yoga pose but have below-average hand-eye coordination, or vice versa. It’s also something that can be affected by health issues including stroke, neurological disorders or even diabetes.

It also worsens when we get older. “As we age, proprioceptive abilities can decline, leading to increased risk of falls and reduced coordination,” says McDowell. “If you notice your elder family members having a tough time with coordinated movements or fine motor tasks like typing or playing cards, proprioceptive decline is at least partly to blame.” But, crucially, studies on everyone from pensioners to military personnel suggest that proprioception can be improved – or at least maintained – if it’s worked on, with results that can reduce the risk of falls or injury.

“Proprioception is one of those things that no one thinks about until they realise they’re not great at it,” says Jarlo Ilano, a physical therapist and managing director at Gold Medal Bodies. “But it’s something that separates good athletes from better ones – or it can be the difference between falling and breaking a bone or just scuffing yourself up a little.”

So how can you improve it? The simplest option is to add more movements to your everyday life that challenge your balance, hand-eye coordination or sense of movement – or embrace the opportunity as it arises. “Standing on one leg while you’re brushing your teeth or chatting on the phone is one of the simplest things you can do, but using movements that include reaching, bending or twisting is important, too,” says the physiotherapist Calum Fraser. “Things as simple as practising movements with your eyes closed can challenge your proprioception – forcing the body to depend more on internal signals than visual feedback, and strengthening the neural pathways responsible.”

In the gym, using bodyweight exercises or “free” weights such as kettlebells, barbells and dumbbells beats sticking to the machines. “Try exercises like planks or leg lifts, which emphasise core stability,” says Fraser. “Strong cores help with posture and better proprioceptive abilities. Another thing to try – if you’ve already got a base of strength – is plyometric movements like jump squats or bounding drills (basically, jumping from one foot to the other, like you’re taking very long strides), which strengthen how quickly muscles react to positional changes.”

Also a good idea are forms of exercise that use slow, purposeful movements that build a sense of where your body is in space – recent studies suggest that pilates and tai chi can both be effective for building proprioception in the regions they focus on (trunk and core for the former, legs for the latter). A systematic review of studies on yoga’s relationship with proprioception concluded that more research is needed, but the combination of balance, deliberate movement and closed-eye exercises is likely to be beneficial.

“The concept of our five senses is generally attributed to Aristotle, though much older Hindu scripts talk about these senses and more,” says Bassanti Pathak, founder of the London-based Pathak Yoga.

Related: It takes all 53 of our senses to bring the drab external world to life

Pathak teaches her students to draw on less talked-about senses, with proprioception being taught and honed by letting students close their eyes in postures or in movements such as the sun salutation, as long as they feel balanced enough to complete the movements safely. “The more you practise, the easier it becomes,” she says. “It’s definitely a sense that can be honed. One of my students, who is in her 70s, told me that it wouldn’t scare her to lose her eyesight, because in my classes she is getting a glimpse of how other senses would take over and heighten her enjoyment of the world in a different way.”

Proprioception is also useful, of course, for faster and less predictable movement. It’s what allows veteran trail runners to run efficiently on mud, sand and gravel, but it’s also what helps road runners avoid injury – according to a recent review of studies, people who undertake proprioceptive training suffer fewer ankle sprains, whether they’ve had them before or not. And for anyone who wants to take things a bit further, there are more adventurous options.

“Almost everything in parkour requires and improves proprioception,” says Edwardes. “Regular parkour training hugely improves your ability to navigate space and overcome movement tasks – from simple, everyday things like getting up and down from the floor to more advanced problems you may have to solve like climbing over a gate, playing a sport or even dodging a car when crossing the road.”

Research to back this up is fairly limited, but one study found that experienced parkour athletes (also known as traceurs) had a better sense of balance with their eyes closed than a control group. And even for people too risk-averse to scale walls or tightrope-walk along rails, managing imbalance while in motion causes more motor neurones to fire and many more neuromuscular connections to coordinate throughout the body. “Essentially, it’s far more complex than just balancing on one leg and far more ‘functional’ in terms of movement outcomes,” says Edwardes.

Related: Seven ways to improve your balance

To sum up, then: improving our proprioception has a positive knock-on effect on our health and our lifespan – and it seems to be very trainable. It will reduce the chance of a fall in later life, help us avoid injury in daily activities, and the improved coordination helps us to enjoy movement – which makes us more likely to keep moving on a regular basis.

But what if you struggle to even pass an imaginary rock overhead? “Everyone can benefit from moving more mindfully, but if you have poor proprioception, it’s even more important,” says Ilano. “Being present in your body and paying attention to your movements and your surroundings means fewer accidents and better success with whatever skills you’re trying to learn.” In other words, concentrate on what you’re doing as you move – and take every opportunity you can to challenge yourself in everyday life. You might surprise yourself with what you’re capable of.

How to check and improve your proprioception

Want to see what you can already do? Try these simple tests.

Heel-toe walking
It’s like tightrope walking, but without the risk. Find a straight line on the ground – or mark one out with tape – and walk along it, touching your front heel to your rear toe at each step. Try not to wobble, or step off to the side.

Wall bounces
This one’s about hand-eye coordination. Grab a small, bouncy ball – a tennis ball will do – and throw it underhand into a wall, then catch it with the other hand as it bounces. Repeat as many times as you can.

Ball pickups
You can use the same ball for this one. Put it down either in front of or behind you, then pick it up again with the other hand. Repeat, trying to get more creative with the ways you lower yourself to the ground (think squats, lunges and splits) or the spots where you put the ball.

Jumping turns
Don’t do this one if you aren’t confident about your coordination – or your knee health. Bend your knees slightly and then jump, aiming to do a quarter, half or even full 360-degree turn in the air. Land as softly as you can.

To improve your movement, try these parkour-inspired exercises

Easy: mobile balance “Whenever you can, walk along a thin surface such as a kerb or a low railing in the park,” says Edwardes. Before you go for height, work on your movement: use your free leg as a counterweight, and keep your knee slightly flexed. Try to keep your upper body relaxed – this will improve with practice – and once you get the hang of walking, try turning or even squatting on the object you’re balancing on.

Challenging: precision jumps Practice small, accurate steps or two-footed jumps onto a target, like a bench, kerb or – if you’re feeling confident – a low railing, so that you have to maintain your balance after the jump. Work on taking off and landing softly, and use an arm swing to build momentum before your jump and to control your body afterwards. As you improve, try jumping for distance or height, or putting more than one jump together.

Hard: rail crawl For a more advanced movement, try crawling on all fours along a low railing – moving one hand and the opposite foot at almost the same time. Parkour practitioners sometimes call this the “cat balance”, so think feline: try to keep your back parallel to the rail and your hips not too high.

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