What do you notice about your body in space immediately? In case you close your eyes, can you’re feeling the movement of air in your skin and the position of your head? You may detect these sensations due to proprioception, your awareness of posture, movement, and changes in equilibrium.
Proprioception is generally known as the “sixth sense” because it’s your understanding of the position you’re currently in and of your body in relation to things around you. It’s an internal sense and connectedness that means that you can discover the position of your hand even when it’s behind or above you, as an illustration, and out of your line of vision.
Yoga and proprioception have a symbiotically useful relationship. The practice improves your proprioception, and enhancing proprioception could make yoga asanas more accessible to you. Because we practice asana in a mess of various positions (the wrong way up, sideways, backwards and more!), we’re flexing our sense of proprioception after we practice yoga.
How does proprioception work?
Your sense of proprioception is initiated within the complex nerve networks surrounding your joints, connective tissues, muscles, and skin. Signals from the peripheral nervous system send data to the central nervous system. This generates reflexive responses from the spinal cord and better processing through your cerebral cortex—the a part of your brain answerable for cognitive functioning and other high-level brain functions. It’s an intricate system that helps you progress more precisely, especially relating to the effective motor control needed for tasks reminiscent of buttoning your clothes or flossing your teeth.
Sensory receptors and signals out of your peripheral nervous system and central nervous system enable you to live and move inside your environment without all the time using visual, auditory, or touch feedback. Proprioception is what means that you can step on the brake pedal whenever you see a red light. You usually are not your foot, relatively you’re sensing where your foot is in space. Ever wonder how people learn to type on the pc or play the piano without the keys? That, too, is proprioception.
How are you going to improve proprioception?
Anytime you learn a recent physical skill—including a recent yoga posture—you’re exercising your sense of proprioception. Similar to you may work to rewire the brain and improve habits, you can too train to reinforce your proprioception. Listed below are just a few ways:
1. Repetitively participating in proprioceptive exercises while adding on challenges.
2. Using a wide range of sensory inputs and mindful stimuli, activating awareness
3. Participating in balance training, especially while using unstable surfaces
4. Practicing dual task training (without visual feedback) by which you do two or more things concurrently, reminiscent of walking and talking, or carrying something and skipping.
One other strategy to improve proprioception is to tune out your sense of sight. Doing so heightens your other senses. Moreover, practicing yoga along with your eyes closed means that you can be more introspective and intentional along with your movements. You’ll notice whenever you diminish your reliance on visual feedback, you may tune into your breath, and really feel embodied in your yoga practice.
7 yoga poses to practice along with your eyes closed
Warm up for this sequence with a Cat-Cow and Sun Salutations. As you progress, see in case you can bring more awareness to where your body is in space. Also, for the next poses, you should definitely have a wall or chair handy so you may lean back or place your hand on a gentle surface in case you lose balance. And since repetition is very important for improving proprioception, be happy to practice each pose several times before moving on to the following, or repeat this sequence 3-5 times before resting in Savasana.
(Photo: Ingrid Yang)
Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
The way it helps with proprioception: Top-of-the-line ways to bolster your sense of proprioception is to walk or stand on an unstable surface, reminiscent of foam yoga blocks. This means that you can notice how turning off your sense of sight changes your relationship with balance.
Easy methods to: The first step foot onto a foam block and let the opposite foot dangle all the way down to the side, while keeping the highest of your pelvis level. Stand next to a wall or use a chair so you may reach out along with your hand to regular yourself if needed. (It’s OK to need assistance. This is an element of the educational process.) Close your eyes and grow to be aware of your body in space. Try to maintain your eyes closed for 3 breaths after which switch sides.
(Photo: Ingrid Yang)
Vrksasana (Tree Pose)
The way it helps with proprioception: Tree is all the time a pleasant pose to practice when difficult your balance—and much more fun along with your eyes closed since it means that you can tune into each your proprioception (where is your standing leg in space?) and your kinesthetic sense (where is the lifted foot touching your standing leg?).
Easy methods to: Stand near wall, facing away from it, so you may lean back into it in case you lose balance. Come into Tree Pose and stay here for 1-2 breaths, bringing awareness to the slight sway of your body. Then close your eyes and remain here for 3 more breath cycles. Did the sway increase or change? Open your eyes, shake it out, and switch sides.
(Photo: Ingrid Yang)
Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose)
The way it helps with proprioception: One other great strategy to work on proprioception is changing the planes by which you’re moving your body. Moving your torso sideways while keeping your eyes closed trains your brain to register if you end up now not upright or level.
Easy methods to: Stand along with your back against a wall for support and have a block nearby. Come into Half Moon in whatever way is comfortable along with your eyes open. It might probably help to rest your bottom hand on the block for support. Stay in the form for 1-2 breaths. Press strongly through the ball of the raised leg, then slowly close your eyes. If possible, stay here for one more 2 breath cycles, but when this is just too disorienting, open your eyes as soon as needed or before you come out of the pose. Repeat on the opposite side.
(Photo: Ingrid Yang)
Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III Pose )
The way it helps with proprioception: My third grade teacher had eyes on the back of her head, but most of us don’t. We’ve got no idea where our back leg is while practicing Warrior III. By practicing this pose along with your eyes closed, you learn to maintain your suspended leg regular while also increasing spatial awareness of your arms, head, and torso, which can show you how to feel more stable within the pose.
Easy methods to: Come into Warrior III along with your eyes open and blocks under your hands to help with balance. Engage your core and expand your chest. Press firmly through your raised leg and spot which muscles engage to maintain it lifted. This motion can show you how to “locate” your leg and aid in your balance. While you feel regular, close your eyes and spot where the balance challenge shifts. Is it in your standing leg, raised leg, or each? In case you like, you may take your usual arm variation. Stay here for 2-3 more breath cycles. Be happy to bring your hands back to the blocks at any time. Open your eyes as you lower your leg and stand upright. Pause for just a few moments after which repeat on the opposite side.
(Photo: Ingrid Yang)
Vasisthasana (Side Plank)
The way it helps with proprioception: Balancing in Side Plank along with your eyes closed may feel a bit less vulnerable than the previous poses because you’ve less distance to the bottom in case you fall out of the pose. Interestingly, eliminating your sense of vision means that you can tune into your core strength with more integrity and focus. Moreover, being aware of the side-to-side, front-to-back teetering in your trunk and supporting arm enhances your proprioception.
Easy methods to: Come into Side Plank in your forearm. Be happy to return into any supported variation of the pose. Stay here for just a few breaths after which close your eyes. If this feels comfortable and stable, consider practicing in your hand as a substitute of balancing in your forearm. Stay here for 2-3 breaths on all sides.
(Photo: Ingrid Yang)
Paripurna Navasana (Boat Pose)
The way it helps with proprioception: One other interesting strategy to improve proprioception is with dual task training, which implies doing two things directly. Try practicing Boat Pose with a block between your hands or feet. By adding a prop to the pose, your awareness of your body as an entire increases.
Easy methods to: Start by coming into Boat Pose along with your knees bent. Place a block between your feet and hold it there. Reach your fingers toward your feet and stay here for just a few breaths. Then close your eyes and spot where your focus is directed—to your feet or your core? When you find yourself ready, open your eyes and are available down onto your back.
(Photo: Ingrid Yang)
Savasana (Corpse Pose)
The way it helps with proprioception: Proprioception was certainly one of the primary lessons I learned in yoga. A friend had me lie down and asked me if I felt that my spine was straight. I answered yes, but apparently I used to be all off. She realigned my head and pelvic positions and moved my arms in order that they were equidistant from my body. Savasana is an awesome strategy to work out how strong your sense of proprioception is, but you’ll likely need someone to let you know in case your limbs and head are literally where you’re thinking that they’re. We regularly have a slight tilt to our head, or one shoulder or hip barely shifted higher than the opposite.
Easy methods to: Lie down onto your back and ask your teacher or one other student in school to show you how to get positioned, after which allow yourself to loosen up in proprioceptive accuracy.
About our contributor
Ingrid Yang is an internal medicine physician, yoga therapist, and published creator. She has been teaching yoga for over 20 years and is the creator of the books Adaptive Yoga and Hatha Yoga Asanas. Dr. Yang leads trainings and retreats everywhere in the world, with a special concentrate on kinesthetic physiology and healing through breathwork, meditation and mind-body connection. Discover more at www.ingridyang.com or on Instagram.
Our model, Anuja Vyas, M.D. is a pulmonologist, critical care doctor, and enthusiastic yogi! She loves attending Ingrid Yang’s international yoga retreats, growing vegetables and fruit in her garden, and. practicing yoga along with her eyes closed!