It’s known that Tai Chi improves balance and prevents almost 50 percent of falls in adults. But do we know why?
The answer is proprioception.
But before we talk about why Tai Chi improves balance, let’s explore proprioception and the role it plays in balance. To maintain balance, you need proprioceptive acuity and precise neuromuscular control—what many instructors refer to as “body awareness.” Proprioception can be described as your ability to sense the position of your body in space. Conscious sensation (muscle sense), total posture (postural equilibrium), and segmental posture (joint stability) are all involved in proprioception.
Your nerves send information from your tendons and muscles to the brain about the position, actions, and coordination of your body parts. ThIs information includes muscular tension, length, and action, as well as joint position. At the same time, your visual and vestibular (inner ear) systems are also sending information to your central nervous system about the body’s position and balance. In addition, the postural control system is operating as a control circuit between the sensory sources, central nervous system, and the musculoskeletal system.
Close your eyes and try to determine the position of your arms, legs, and head. Depending on your sense of proprioception, this can be easy or difficult. The longer our eyes remain closed, the more our sense of the position of our arms, legs, and head will decrease. When we open our eyes, our sense of proprioception is restored.
Therefore, it’s logical that if you can’t sense where a body part is positioned, it would be difficult to maintain the balance necessary to remain upright. It would also make it more difficult to make the necessary adjustments to prevent yourself from falling when you lose your balance.
Studies show that while all people depend more on proprioception than vision to maintain balance, proprioception decreases with age. Gerontologists believe that as somatosensory information from the feet changes, impaired proprioception makes it more difficult to detect changes in body position, and the subsequent lack of compensatory behavior results in falls. Ankle proprioception is very important to maintain postural control, however, older adults rely more on hip movement than ankle movement.
Regular physical activity can mitigate age-related declines in physiological systems and postural equilibrium, but not all exercises have the same effects. Activities such as swimming, cycling, running, and jogging increase muscular strength, but dedicated proprioceptive exercises have a greater effect on balance.
Proprioceptive exercises are often led by a registered physical therapist emphasize static (such as squats and one-leg stance) and dynamic (such as jogging, sideways walking, forward and backward walking, zigzag walking and running) balance exercises. Fortunately, Tai Chi includes many of the characteristics found in dedicated proprioceptive exercises.
Tai Chi requires us to be aware of our body position and movements, which in turn stimulates our ability to listen to the signals reaching our brain. The continuous, slow circular movements of the trunk and extremities with weight shifting make Tai Chi the perfect exercise for proprioception, and the body positions and joint angles help keep our proprioceptors tuned. Tai Chi also improves muscle strength and flexibility, which makes it easier to recover in the event you do stumble. Subsequently, the individual’s fear of falling also decreases.
The 2012 Shanghai study found that participants expressed more interest and satisfaction with Tai Chi than with dedicated proprioception exercises. And we all know that the more interested and satisfied we are with an activity, the more likely we are to continue doing it.
You don’t have to be elderly to work on keeping those proprioceptors fined-tuned. Besides being a great proprioception exercise, Tai Chi also calms and relaxes us. Now that sounds like a winning combination!