Do You Know Where Your Foot Is? Part 1 of 2

Try a little experiment with me. Hold your hand up above your head, but don't look at it. Tilt your hand backwards. Now tilt it forwards. Repeat those motions, but with your eyes closed: concentrate on the feeling of your palm going back and forth, back and forth.

I'm assuming your eyes are open again. Even though you couldn't see your hand, you knew it was moving, and, more importantly, exactly where it was in space at all times. When it moved forward, you knew it moved even though you couldn't see it, because you have special nerve endings that do nothing but alert the brain to where all your body parts are in space at any given moment.

At this moment, where is your right big toe? Obviously it's in Peoria if you're in Peoria, but I mean more specifically on your body. You know exactly where it is, and you don't even need to look down to find it. You can "feel" it somehow without even thinking.

This special sense is called "Proprioception", and I touched on it slightly in "I Live For the Noise!" The special proprioceptive nerves work just like all other nerves: they connect to your spinal cord, and then continue up to the brain. The proprioceptors in your arms and hands connect to your neck spinal cord, and the proprioceptors in your legs and feet connect to your low back spinal cord.

You can imagine how important proprioceptors are for anyone who does fine detail work with their hands, any athletes who need exact and powerful motions, any musicians who need to look at the music page while their hands play their instruments, and on and on. Everyone has a nervous system, and everyone relies heavily on their proprioceptive input.

Can you imagine what nerve interference does to proprioception? For example, if your neck nerve is interfered with by inflammation, stretching, rubbing, or trauma, do you think that your hands would lose some of their proprioceptive capabilities? In the same way, if your lower back nerves are interfered with, do you think your feet might "feel" heavier? Do you think you'd lose your balance more often? Do you think you'd have to look down at your feet in order to ensure that you're walking properly?