01/25/2021
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Try this test out, stand up, with your feet together. Close your eyes and using your dominant hand, touch your index finger to the other, easy, right? Now touch your nose. It might be a little more challenging but still relatively easy (unless you're drunk right now). The last one, while still using your dominant hand, touch your big toe. All these movements should be done in one smooth swoop, meaning, in one motion, your dominant index finger should land on your other index finger, your nose, and your big toe. People with excellent proprioception will usually get to their big toe; people with less won't. People who don't usually have a hard time doing a single-leg-stance with their eyes closed without losing balance.
As a therapist, we look for these things to help determine if the issue the client is coming in for is happening at the site of the complaint, or if it could possibly be happening elsewhere in the body. Is something happening somewhere else in the body resulting in the client having pain where they say?
As a trainer, we use this to find overactive and underactive muscles. Does the client have the ability to use the correct muscles to create the movement asked without other muscles' compensations? The best example of this is asking the client to squeeze their shoulder blades together without their shoulders rising. Often our mid traps and rhomboids are underactive, the upper traps overactive. So when the client goes to perform the movement, the upper trap does most of the work, and the shoulders end up rising to squeeze the shoulder blades together. This helps us develop a program for the client tailored to them that works towards their goals without building upon dysfunctions and possibly resulting in future discomfort or injury. (FYI, someone with this specific issue most likely has complaints of a sore neck, shoulders, and upper back).
If you're looking for more in-depth insight into improving your proprioception book in a session. The link is in the bio.
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