What's The Most Important Part Of The Body For Sports???

Answer: SUPRISE!!! Believe it or not, it's the BRAIN. The following article is provided to us by Dr. Daniel Gonzalez at Family Health Chiropractic in Westlake. I originally approached to Dr. Daniel for some spinal issues related to an automobile accident, I have learned even more about the importance of good spinal alignment...not only in order to live without pain, but also to perform optimally. I encourage anyone who has not had postural analysis done by a highly qualified doctor of chiropractic. I have seen tangible results, having been a big skeptic when I first started. Enjoy the article:

Now that you have decided you want to become an elite athlete (play your sport at the Division 1 level or compete at the Olympics or World Championships), how do you go about doing it?
Fortunately, applied physiologist’s and sports medicine researchers have taken the first step to figuring that out.  After interviewing and studying hundreds of elite athletes who had reached the pinnacle of their particular sport, they found some fascinating common ground.  Here, in a nut shell, is what we’ve discovered: 
Every single athlete undergoes the same training criteria when it comes to adding a competitive edge. Train for conditioning, strength, power, quickness, speed, agility, flexibility and balance. Depending on the sport, more emphasis is obviously placed on a particular component. Interestingly, flexibility and balance were selected as high priority in every single interview.
Why?
To start, we must first understand that the most powerful organ in your body is your brain and nervous system. The brain sends signals out to the body and tells your muscles how fast they should react, contract and relax all in a smooth coordinated effort. In addition, the brain simultaneously regulates oxygen, metabolism, hormone and protein production as well as the elimination of harmful waste products. In short, the brain controls every single aspect of your life (1).
However, the brain doesn’t just send messages out. It requires information from the body in order to determine the best mode of action. So the brain requires information from your body in order to determine what messages it should send out. That’s where mechanoreception and proprioception come into play. Together, Mechanoreception and Proprioception act as the information relay centers of the brain (2).
Mechanoreception refers to the process by which specific nerve endings in your muscles and tendons (tissue mechanoreceptors) are stimulated by mechanical input such as touch, muscle stretching, and joint motion. This information is carried into the spinal cord and brain for processing. When you train for a particular event, you are literally stimulating your mechanoreceptors, sending signals to your brain, which then enhance the patterns for coordinated movement and skill (3).
This is why an elite athlete doesn’t have to think about performing a particular movement; their body just does it automatically or reacts!!!
Proprioception is an appreciation of position, balance, and changes in equilibrium on the part of the musculoskeletal system. Proprioception occurs as a function of head position (vestibular input), visual input and tissue mechanoreceptor input into the brain and cerebellum. This is important because the cerebellum is responsible for all major functions of the body including metabolism, digestion, computation and balance and coordination. Because proprioception directly feeds the brain and cerebellum, it is now known in the medical world as a brain nutrient or energizer. Furthermore, mechanoreception or joint stimulation gives rise to and increases the amount of proprioception.
Some proprioceptive sensory organs are located in muscles and tendons, while others are within the connective tissues of joints. If any of these sensors begin to transmit false or incorrect information, there is a decrease in movement efficiency, which can have a damaging effect on joints and muscles. There is the potential for postural coordination problems that can range from just annoying to painful or even hazardous to health. Simply put bad information into the brain results in bad information out of the brain.
Now, why is all this important for the elite athlete?
Well, loss of mechanoreception results in a loss of proprioception. This means you are literally robbing your brain from vital processing information. That’s why if you ever spend a day on the couch watching TV, you’ll most likely feel drained and less energetic.
Sports performance is directly determined by the status and coordination of the proprioception system. Injury prevention, return-to-activity rehabilitation, and even winning depend to a great deal on how smoothly and quickly the musculoskeletal system can respond to position, speed, and balance changes. Many of the currently popular approaches to improving sports performance (such as plyometrics) are based on training and developing proprioceptive responses (4).
Being able to suddenly stop and switch directions without losing speed is directly related to the coordination of your mechanoreceptor-proprioreceptor pathways. Being able to sense and control your body’s movement takes more than just thinking about it – it requires training.
The benefits of proprioceptive training to the elite athlete are many. With increased balance, they are less prone to injury. Athletes also become quicker – able to react to changing situations, able to think fast on their feet and burst into motion when they need to. Proprioceptive training helps them make more precise movements with less effort.
So, the benefits of proprioceptive training break down to safer, more efficient, quicker, and more precise movements. What athlete wouldn’t want that?


Some Basic Rules to Follow:
The Proprioceptive Training research is so strong that it would be foolish for serious athletes to exclude it from their overall program. In carrying out proprioceptive routines, athletes should consider the following principles:
Start by learning to balance yourself one-footed on firm ground. As your coordination improves, do the same while attempting to catch a medicine ball, swinging your arms, swinging your non-weight-bearing leg, and pulling on your weight-bearing leg with a stretch cord to challenge your stability.
Once you master the above, begin use training devices like exercise mats, mini-trampolines, rocker boards, and finally wobble boards (ankle discs). When using these devices, start with two-leg stances and - when good balance is achieved - progress to one-leg positions.
Next, employ squats, lunges, step-downs, hops, and other exertions
When you think your balance is really good, attempt to carry out your routines with eyes closed. Eye closing will force your internal balance systems to work overtime and will thus produce larger-than-usual adaptations in those systems.
Anything that challenges your balance and core strength is considered proprioceptive training, but if you’re serious about your sport and performance I suggest you find a qualified fitness instructor who can design a sport-specific proprioceptive training.

Citations
Kandel, Schwartz, Jessel, Principles of Neural Science (3rd ed), Elsevier, NY, 1991
Guyton, A., Basic Neuroscience (2nd ed), W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1991
Kofotolis N, Kellis E. Effects of two 4-week proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation programs on muscle endurance, flexibility, and functional performance in women with chronic low back pain. Phys Ther 2006;86(7):1001-1012.
Gleddie N, Marshall D. Plyometric training for basketball. Strength & Conditioning 1996;18:20-25.
Additional Studies for Review
Proprioception of the Ankle and Knee,' Sports Medicine, Vol. 25(3), pp. 149-155, 1998
Kinesthetic Awareness in Subjects with Multiple Ankle Sprains, Physical Therapy, Vol. 68, pp. 1667-1671, 1988
Position Sense Following Joint Injury,' Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, Vol. 21, pp. 23-27, 1982
Effects of Ankle Disc Training on Muscular Strength and Postural Control,' Clinical Biomechanics, Vol. 3, pp. 88-91, 1988
Ankle Disk Training Influences Reaction Times of Selected Muscles in a Simulated Ankle Sprain,' The American Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol. 25(4), pp. 538-543, 1997
A Multi-Station Proprioceptive Exercise Program in Patients with Ankle Instability,' Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Vol. 33(12), pp. 1991-1998, 2001