Proprioception literally means “the reception of one’s own signals.” These signals originate from muscles, tendons, joints, and fascial structures and reach the central nervous system. Proprioception allows us to recognize the relative position (and movement) of two body segments connected by a joint. Postural stability and motor control depend on it.
An efficient proprioceptive system is an essential requirement to minimize instability and reduce the risk of injuries and falls.
Why It Is Essential to Train It
Modern lifestyles and most sports disciplines are unable to adequately train the proprioceptive system. This can promote:
Learn more about proprioception- Chronic Instability: common in the ankles, knees, and hips.
- Injuries: such as ligament tears, fractures, and tendonitis.
- Neurological Decline: resources normally dedicated to higher functions are instead required to support an inefficient proprioceptive system.
The Riva Method truly trains the proprioceptive system. By activating neuromuscular spindles, it induces high-frequency reflex contractions of the stabilizing muscles, restoring a natural connection with the ground.
Sensory channels.
The proprioception supremacy
The millions of sensors related to movement and the maintenance of posture and balance are the source of billions of signals.
A large flow of these signals is essential both to maintain a good level of motor skills and to enable the “maintenance” of muscles, tendons and bones.
Here are the main sensory streams that originate in our bodies:
- Exteroceptive (from skin receptors sensitive to touch, pressure…)
- Proprioceptive6 (from receptors in muscles, tendons and joints)
- Vestibular (from the organ of balance)
- Visual
Sensory channels. The height of the columns is proportional to the quantitative importance of the channel.
Proprioception
and “deep brain”
da Ghepardi da salotto 2008 D. Riva 2019 4th edition
Proprioception comes from Latin (proprium = own) and means “reception of own signals,” that is, from own structures. Proprioceptive signals, in fact, arise from sensors in muscles, tendons, and joints and are the most important sensory channel…
The proprioceptive misunderstanding
“The proprioceptive misunderstanding” refers to the confusion in the scientific literature about what truly defines a proprioceptive exercise.
Instability alone is often incorrectly used as the main criterion to label an exercise as “proprioceptive.” This leads to the misconception that any balance or unstable exercise is inherently effective for proprioceptive training.
Meaningful proprioceptive training should be defined by the mechanical nature of the instability, its frequency, the tasks required, and measurable outcomes, rather than by generic balance challenges.
