Your Brain's Movement Maps

Your brain controls how much each joint moves.  Our joints have receptors in them that tell the brain about things like location, pressure, and temperature.  This joint-receptor input forms a three-dimensional map of the body.

This 3-D map is located in the brain and this is known as the third sensory system called proprioception.  This spatial awareness is how your brain knows where your body is in space at all times.  The better your brain's map of the body, the better your movement.

Conversely, if you don't move a body part, the brain's map for that area is "blurry".  If you were injured and didn't rehabilitate 100 percent (which is defined as the ability to move a joint in all ranges of motions at all speeds), then your brain's map of that injured area is blurry.

As a result, when your brain has to move the previously injured area, movement might be choppy, ratchety, spastic, or rushed.  These types of movement indicate poor mapping, an indication that your brain doesn't know how to move an area.

The better the brain's map of the body, the more smooth and efficient the movement.  Think about a highway.   You can go fast on well-traveled roads.  Similarly, when you repeatedly practice a movement, your body (and brain) get really good at that movement.  

Practice makes perfect but you need to practice perfect.  That's because your body gets good at whatever it does, exactly how it does it.  This is known as the SAID principle or specific adaptations to imposed demands.  You get good at whatever you do, exactly how you do it.

For that reason, you want to practice all movements in good form or your body will get good at bad movement.   Your brain's mapping of the body is dependent on many other neurological factors but for this blog, just know that all movement is planned and controlled by your brain and your brain depends on receptor input to know where the body is in space.  

Take-aways:

• Your brain can forget how to move a body part if you don't move it.   
• Practice moving each joint in all directions at all speeds.  
• The better the brain's map of the body, the better your movement