By Punto Motorio
The proprioceptive system in tai chi chuan
Tai Chi Ch'üan or Tai Chi, an internal style of Chinese martial arts - born as a fighting technique and today known in the West above all as gymnastics and as a preventive medicine technique - has been practiced for centuries in China by young and old; its beneficial effects on health, in particular the maintenance of balance control in the elderly, have increasingly attracted the attention of Western scientific researchers.
"How does a man maintain a straight or inclined posture against the wind blowing against him? It is evident that he has a sense through which he knows the inclination of his body and that he has the ability to readjust and correct all the waste in relation to the vertical "(Charles Bell, 1837).
If we close our eyes and try to establish the position of our legs, arms and head, we will find that it is an easy task, based precisely on proprioception. If we now put our feet on the floor, we close our eyes for a minute and, trying not to move, we pay attention to them, we will notice that with the passage of time we lose the "sense" of their position, because the latter becomes less accurate in the absence of movements. However, as soon as we open our eyes, we will find exactly the sense of position of the feet: the eyes help us.
The mental control of body movements, typical of Tai Chi Chuan, stimulates in an intense and dynamic way the ability to listen to the signals that reach the brain from our sensors. The graceful and fluid movements of the limbs are of varying width and direction and are completed effectively by the shifts in weight and the rotations of the torso. The positions and movements of the parts of the body are controlled with meticulousness and concentration that are not reflected in other disciplines. The awareness of our body and in general the integration between body and mind are particularly enhanced.
Neurosciences are proving today that sensory information comes from all sense organs and collaborates in giving an image of the world.
Those who practice Tai Chi not only have a better cardiorespiratory function, but obtain better results in tests related to balance control, flexibility and muscle strength. Furthermore the risk of falls is reduced by almost 50%.
Postural balance requires proprioceptive acuity and precise neuromuscular control. The decline in proprioception over the years is a contributing factor to falls in the elderly and can be influenced by regular physical activity.
Elderly people who regularly practice Tai Chi not only have shown a better proprioception of the ankle and knee joints than the control group of the sedentary elderly, but also a better ankle anesthesia compared to the elderly who practice swimming or other sports. The remarkable benefits of Tai Chi practice on proprioception result in maintaining balance control in the elderly.
Proprioceptive exercise (yoga and gentle gymnastics) seems to have better effects on controlling balance in the elderly than on bioenergetic physical activities (swimming, cycling and running). Tai Chi requires a continuous and slow movement with expressions of motion from small to larger, the displacement of the body weight from unilateral to bilateral and circular movements of the trunk and extremities involving isometric and isotonic contractions.
The reason for these benefits seems to consist in the functional enhancement of the "proprioceptors" that derives from the practice of Tai Chi Chuan.
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