Week Ten!!!

You are one week away from the half-way point, team.

This weeks word is 'proprioception'. Proprioception is our sense of balance and our intuitive awareness of the position of our joints.

Proprioception keeps us stable and oriented during moving activites - like running, walking, biking and hip hop dancing. The problem is if we injure a joint, this can interupt our position sense and we are likely to keep re-injuring ourselves.

A Canadian physiotherapy team found that balance training is very important and that balance training improves leg and muscle strength more than a series of gym weight training exercises.

The exercises are very simple - stand on some foam and balance on one foot. Next try to maintain balance with your eyes closed. The next step is to toss a bounce ball while balancing. Finally, you can move up to a balance board doing the same exercises. Try this 3 times a week before exercise.

Six weeks of this has been proven to restore balance sense sense and virtually eliminate joint injuries.