Great athletes have fine tuned their muscles and movements, but also their five senses are usually better than average. Some ways that athletes have honed in on utilizing their senses to improve their performance include:
- Vision – They can track rapid movements of player, balls, or terrain with ease.
- Hearing – They can hear an opponent approaching from behind.
- Touch – They can put a spin on a ball by the tips of their fingers.
- Smell – They can smell changes in
- Taste – They can taste the sweetness of victory.
And then there is proprioception – The athlete’s 6th sense!
Proprioception is the sense of your body’s position and movement. It is produced by nerves embedded in our muscles which send information to the brain about how much pressure, force, and speed should be applied. The brain uses this information to figure out how hard your quadriceps are contracting, how bent your knee is, and how long a step you have taken.
A great example of proprioception is when you close your eyes and point one finger into the air. You can sense exactly where and what that finger is doing, even though you cannot see, hear, touch, smell, or taste it. It is your body’s ability to know where it is in space. This is essential for athletes to develop because a slight turn in leg position can ruin a field goal, an elevated shoulder can cause a slice in a golf swing, or a bent knee can ruin a split leap.
Sports chiropractic care incorporates enhancing this “sixth sense” to increase sports ability. The nervous system is important because it controls how the body functions, reacts and moves. Therefore, when the nervous system is working optimally, sports performance is enhanced. Our office helps athletes remove irritation on their nervous system, so they feel better, function better, and perform better.
At Desired Health Chiropractic we assess biomechanics and neurology of the body so we can find issues before they make things worse. We want our athletes to feel, function, and perform goal is to help all aat their best.
Call our office today for a free assessment of what you can do to improve your movement and enhance your athletic ability- 763-205-6192.