Proprioception: Developing Your Sixth Sense And Enhancing Your Physical Intelligence
So Merry Christmas!
While I hope you’re enjoying time with family and friends I know you’ve probably experienced a bit of frustration while navigating the mad rush of shopping crowds. That tends to happen when you’re out at the mall hunting down those gifts.
To give you a little insight on why you might have experienced such frustration I figured I would pull today’s article from the archives on physical intelligence. I figure I might explain why you might have experienced some frustration when dealing with the crowds.
The original publishing date of today’s article was back on April 14, 2016. Read. learn, apply, and enjoy your day!
I’m often finding myself getting pissed off in public more and more these days for a number of reasons that revolve around the growing epidemic of laziness and the decrease of intelligence in our society. With the advent of technology people are becoming less and less intelligent both mentally and physically. Today I’m going to be addressing how this is happening and why most people are unaware of their sixth sense as a result of this societal epidemic.
Proprioception: Your Sixth Sense
You’re probably familiar with the 5 senses. You have the sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. However for the folks that work to hone it there is a sixth sense that can be added to the big 5.
The sixth sense that I’m referring to has to do with proprioception, or proprioceptive awareness. Proprioception is defined as the unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself.
Now you can understand why I might get pissed when I have to walk through the shopping mall during Christmas based on this definition. This is because I frequently feel like I’m the only one in the building that has a sense of spatial orientation. In terms of where I am in relation to others I am always spending the majority of the walk dodging and evading other people as they blindly come wandering into my space.
This goes beyond just being rude although rudeness does play a role. This is a sign that many people are not physically intelligent. There may be an argument to say that they aren’t mentally intelligent as well because the two go hand in hand. However, for the purpose of this piece I’m going to stick to addressing the physical intelligence aspect of the discussion.
Proprioception: The Lack Of Physical Intelligence
You see most people have become so immersed in life distractions through the availability of technology that their sense of awareness and coordination has diminished. The skill of having a handle on their surroundings is one that has gone by the wayside. This is because they live inside the virtual world of their cell phones and small handheld devices.
Because they spend the majority of their days doing this rather than engaging in physical tasks to sharpen their physical skills there is fallout. This results in overall them losing their overall sense of awareness as they end up diminishing in coordination, strength, skill, and quality of movement. This is because the lifestyle of society has changed. The cushy convenience and dependency on technology for everything is a big factor in creating this.
As stated in the video this heightened sense also feeds one’s reaction time and their ability to feel where they are in relation to other people and other things. With the example of the defensive back this is how he is able to move and feel his way across the field of play without necessarily knowing what’s to come. He can both react and still effectively feel his way around obstacles he may encounter in his surroundings.
To hammer home another example of proprioception you can try this little experiment. The next time you go to a coffee shop, or out to lunch find someone in the room that is sitting across from you. They don’t necessarily have to be facing you. As a matter of fact they can be slightly turned away from your direction.
Now once you’ve found the person then without being a major league creeper lock your eyes on them and stare right at them. Don’t look away…just keep your eyes right on them. They eventually will realize they are being watched and will turn to look in your direction after a bit of time. At this point it may be a good idea to not maintain the creep stare…now you can look away.
The point is that this is another example of proprioceptive awareness in an everyday setting. You can see how heightened the majority of the public may or may not be based on this little experiment. Feel fee to give it a try. Just don’t call me to come bail you out if you freak out a soccer mom.
In terms of training and enhancing your proprioceptive sense I’m big on having my students perform movements that require a more complex level of control and technique. On a large scale to me having optimal performance is about bridging the gap between strength and grace. This is why I’m big on challenging my students to perform movements that will initially challenge their coordination and skills.
You see your body has proprioceptors located throughout your system. Muscles, tendons, and fibrous capsules in your joints contain these. These proprioceptors are constantly giving feedback to your brain as to where you are in space. This system works to allow you to move and orient yourself as the feedback changes.
Now on the surface this is one complex system. In addition to this your brain has to be smart enough to process all of it. Furthermore your electrical pathways have to be efficient enough to process all of this information. This is critical so that you don’t end up aimlessly wandering out into the middle of the road to get pancaked by a dump truck.
Yet, this sort of aimless lack of awareness seems to be very common in today’s society. Once again people keep their faces buried into their cell phones. As a result their bodies aren’t challenged to move. They lack a natural feel of how to go about coordinating themselves in a relative environment.
Proprioception: The Takeaway
Don’t allow your physical intelligence to get stupid. Realize that being too dependent on technology and dumbing down your ability to problem solve is not a good thing. Take the time to engage in movements that challenge your coordination and skills.
Learn to effectively utilize kettlebell cleans, rotational bodyweight movements, and medicine ball throws. These can elevate both fitness and the development of your proprioceptive sixth sense!
Are you training to enhance your sixth sense?
If so what are you doing to step up your game?
I hope you enjoyed today’s post and if so then please don’t be shy about posting up in the comments below.
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