In our earlier post, we established that the quality (i.e. technique and form) of movement is of significantly more importance than the quantity (repetition or load). When we shift our focus from short term to long term effect of training on our bodies, it is imperative that the time spent doing quality movements should dictate our training. Thus, as one gets farther away from his/ her prime or has had a late initiation into physical training (and is still looking to squeeze true athletic potential), quantity shouldn't hold any meaning if it comes at even a small sacrifice of quality (a PR day here and there is fine). In the next paragraphs, we dive into a key aspect of improving lifting quality, which is the focus of this post.
With all the hype around mobility and flexibility these days, when thinking about movement quality we have a tendency to overemphasize the role of these two. The ubiquitous SMR tools in strength/ Oly gyms, CrossFit boxes and, even yoga studios, seem to convey the message that a bit of pre/post/during (training) mobility is enough to achieve both quantitative and qualitative progress in training. Amongst all this, something that we often ignore (or worse, not even think of) is the concept of proprioception.
Wikipedia defines it as :
"Proprioception is the sense of the relative position of one's own parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement"
In other words, being proprioceptively sound and body aware would imply that there is no difference between (a) "How one is moving" and (b) "how they think they're moving". Conversely, an existence of such a difference between the two would mean the athlete in question can't really be classified as a perfect athlete* and if already not in pain or injured, then the same is bound to happen at some point in the training cycle.
Here's how an unchecked proprioceptive issue manifests itself to one or more injuries (due to one or more muscle compensation patterns along the motor chain) : Say an athlete is doing a back squat. Let's assume that due to an existing condition (which the athlete is unaware of) the athlete favors his right glute more than his left. Thus looking from the front, as the athlete descends into the squat, it would appear that instead of solely going straight down, he/she also shifts horizontally to the *left* (knees outs more on the right, hence shifts left). It is highly likely that the athlete "feels" fine doing such a movement. The irony is that at a heavier weight, when the "stakes" are high and the shifting would be more pronounced, the athlete is actually *less* likely to notice or experience the shift. Why? Because as the weight goes up, more and more of the mental energy is focussed towards the movement itself (no one wants to get crushed and/or miss a PR) and less of it (if at all) at being aware of the movement pattern. As you can see, the problem gets worse fairly quickly over time. However, depending upon the severty of the inital condition, it may take months or years for the issue to surface itself as a full blown injury.
Problems related to proprioception and insufficient body awareness can be divided into two categories. The first is when athletes/ coaches aren't even aware that the problem exists. As sometimes it is really hard to spot in an environment dominated by noise (more likely in CrossFit boxes)
And the second (more frequent) is when the observation is made but attributed to something commonplace (e.g. "Yeah, I know my right side is stronger"). The issue is (usually) diagnosed incorrectly and the athlete is made to do incorrect "corrective exercises".
Further more often than not, proprioceptive issues are hardest to work upon, almost impossible for progress to not stall while we take the time out to work on it.
Consequences of a proprioceptive issue left unchecked :
- As the saying goes "practice makes permanent" if principles of progressive overload is applied while being unaware of above situation, one is essentially progressing towards an inefficient and injury prone athletic state (of strength, speed, agility etc).
- The bigger the "proprioceptive difference", the more of "anti-progress" is made instead of true progress.
- As the weights get heavier and the reps increase over time, the rate at which "anti-training"/ "anti-progress" is happening increases.
- If unchecked, the problem gets worse and finally enters a zone where the imbalance is so bad that the athlete/ lifter begins to "feel" the issue (either through pain or difficulty in making a lift).
*A "perfect athlete" in this context would be one who is well balanced, mobile & injury free. Such an athlete in most scenarios won't have to bother with proprioceptive issues and would be okay focussing their time in reaping gains (yes, blame it on their genetics and/or an athletic childhood). I've used all in the original sentence above since a "well balanced mobile" athlete are few and far between. In fact, a lot of coaches believe for it to be a myth.