I have ADHD, and like many ADHDers I don't have great proprioreception. I often raise a glass of water to drink, and if I'm not paying attention I miss my mouth entirely and pour the water over myself; I tend to bump into walls and doorways and trip over things like coffee tables - yet when I'm mountain biking, I excel on rugged, rocky, technical trails. It always confused me how I could be simultaneously so coordinated yet so clumsy; but apparently it has something to do with the way the ADHD brain processes proprioreception and kinesthetic awareness.
Lifting weights is an excellent activity for improving proprioreception, by the way. Similarly, yoga has also helped me a lot with body awareness.
That's neat! I know folks who are very good at jiu jitsu, but seemingly "clumsy" or less aware of their surroundings than the average person, and this always seems paradoxical.
Yoga is great. It really gets you thinking about your own body in notably different ways for most folks.
My daughter was an excellent gymnast, and is a black belt in karate who has won several competitions; she is really athletic and coordinated but also bumps into walls and trips over furniture! I think it is that when we aren't doing our preferred sports, our brains just sort of check out and don't pay attention.
It is really common phenomenon amongst mountain bikers to get injured doing easy, basic trails - we joke that no one ever gets hurt doing anything awesome! I've known so many people who are really strong riders and who do some seriously gnarly stunts but then break a bone on an easy beginner-level trail. Presumably it's a focus issue; when things are too easy and boring we just don't pay any attention, vs. a difficult technical move where you have to be on your A-game or else there will be major consequences.
I think that's right: focus is like a muscle, and I am pretty confident I have a limited quantity of it on a given day. That means I try to preserve it for when I want to really use it, so now I'm being described as "aloof." I'll take it!
My side hustle is all about proprioception! Yoga, Pilates, fitness classes—is your pelvis level? Is your spine in neutral? Is your weight equally distributed? When I see a student struggling with this, I’ll have them move purposely to find and create this sense of level, neutral, or what have you. I may even have them put their hand on their hip bone, back against the wall, or hold a prop. Because sometime we have to “teach” our bodies where we are in space to be able to sense our bodies in space.
Oh yes! We have a yoga program now at our gym, and I've learned a ton about the methodology. I like it, and there's a ton of crossover with how we approach jiu jitsu, another very nonintuitive art form!
A proprioception problem was my first sign of MS. I couldn't tell where my feet were when I was doing daily walks. Tried B-12 then I had eye problems that led to an MRI and discovery of many lesions on my brain. Neurologists use "close your eyes and touch your nose" tests to determine certain types of progression.
Diagnoses of MS have probably helped us understand how the brain and body "talk" to one another more than almost anything else we've ever done. It's really revealing how all this works quite differently than I might have imagined before learning about all this stuff. I've said it before, but I really appreciate when you share first hand stuff like this. I suspect others read and get a lot out of it, too.
COOL! I hope I can provide some context and background for things I know about. I've done everything except sell peaches from a cart, and I'm not to proud to do that. :-D
I've never sold peaches from a cart, but I've been a vendor plenty of times! The adventure for me as a kid was to get on the other side of one of those tables where comic book sellers lined up at conventions - that just seemed like the coolest way imaginable to earn a living, and although I never ended up tabling at a convention, I did this via eBay instead.
My dad took me to crafts fairs where we would hawk the toys he built (and I helped finish). There is a lot of hustle/sell in me too.
I have similar experience with our family and approach to life (even if constrained by money!) We went on "trips" like Smoky Mountains and state parks. I have no regrets. I have relatives that have sold their craft work. Keeps 'em busy ;-)
"Rock-solid certainty about numbers was big during the 80s. My personal perception—the message I received from school over 13 years of public education and somewhat more than four years of college—was that science had an awful lot figured out."
But can you even be sure you've had 13 years of public education? Are you rock-solid certain of that number?
I found Daredevil in Frank Miller’s Born Again story arc. Every month I’d get it in the mail. Crinkled but who cared - I just wanted to read the story and look at the pictures. Such great storytelling - I scrambled to find the last issues when I went home over the summer.
I have ADHD, and like many ADHDers I don't have great proprioreception. I often raise a glass of water to drink, and if I'm not paying attention I miss my mouth entirely and pour the water over myself; I tend to bump into walls and doorways and trip over things like coffee tables - yet when I'm mountain biking, I excel on rugged, rocky, technical trails. It always confused me how I could be simultaneously so coordinated yet so clumsy; but apparently it has something to do with the way the ADHD brain processes proprioreception and kinesthetic awareness.
Lifting weights is an excellent activity for improving proprioreception, by the way. Similarly, yoga has also helped me a lot with body awareness.
That's neat! I know folks who are very good at jiu jitsu, but seemingly "clumsy" or less aware of their surroundings than the average person, and this always seems paradoxical.
Yoga is great. It really gets you thinking about your own body in notably different ways for most folks.
My daughter was an excellent gymnast, and is a black belt in karate who has won several competitions; she is really athletic and coordinated but also bumps into walls and trips over furniture! I think it is that when we aren't doing our preferred sports, our brains just sort of check out and don't pay attention.
It is really common phenomenon amongst mountain bikers to get injured doing easy, basic trails - we joke that no one ever gets hurt doing anything awesome! I've known so many people who are really strong riders and who do some seriously gnarly stunts but then break a bone on an easy beginner-level trail. Presumably it's a focus issue; when things are too easy and boring we just don't pay any attention, vs. a difficult technical move where you have to be on your A-game or else there will be major consequences.
I think that's right: focus is like a muscle, and I am pretty confident I have a limited quantity of it on a given day. That means I try to preserve it for when I want to really use it, so now I'm being described as "aloof." I'll take it!
My side hustle is all about proprioception! Yoga, Pilates, fitness classes—is your pelvis level? Is your spine in neutral? Is your weight equally distributed? When I see a student struggling with this, I’ll have them move purposely to find and create this sense of level, neutral, or what have you. I may even have them put their hand on their hip bone, back against the wall, or hold a prop. Because sometime we have to “teach” our bodies where we are in space to be able to sense our bodies in space.
Oh yes! We have a yoga program now at our gym, and I've learned a ton about the methodology. I like it, and there's a ton of crossover with how we approach jiu jitsu, another very nonintuitive art form!
A proprioception problem was my first sign of MS. I couldn't tell where my feet were when I was doing daily walks. Tried B-12 then I had eye problems that led to an MRI and discovery of many lesions on my brain. Neurologists use "close your eyes and touch your nose" tests to determine certain types of progression.
Diagnoses of MS have probably helped us understand how the brain and body "talk" to one another more than almost anything else we've ever done. It's really revealing how all this works quite differently than I might have imagined before learning about all this stuff. I've said it before, but I really appreciate when you share first hand stuff like this. I suspect others read and get a lot out of it, too.
COOL! I hope I can provide some context and background for things I know about. I've done everything except sell peaches from a cart, and I'm not to proud to do that. :-D
I've never sold peaches from a cart, but I've been a vendor plenty of times! The adventure for me as a kid was to get on the other side of one of those tables where comic book sellers lined up at conventions - that just seemed like the coolest way imaginable to earn a living, and although I never ended up tabling at a convention, I did this via eBay instead.
My dad took me to crafts fairs where we would hawk the toys he built (and I helped finish). There is a lot of hustle/sell in me too.
I have similar experience with our family and approach to life (even if constrained by money!) We went on "trips" like Smoky Mountains and state parks. I have no regrets. I have relatives that have sold their craft work. Keeps 'em busy ;-)
"Rock-solid certainty about numbers was big during the 80s. My personal perception—the message I received from school over 13 years of public education and somewhat more than four years of college—was that science had an awful lot figured out."
But can you even be sure you've had 13 years of public education? Are you rock-solid certain of that number?
Sorry...that was highly in-a-propriote of me.
I'll just let myself out.
It's turtles of ignorance all the way down! 80s Q: How could you know what you learned in school was any good? A: I learned it in school!
I'd like to think you just explained my clumsiness
It's early but my nose is playing hard to get. Swigs more coffee. Mathew Murdock really got this.
Oh man, Daredevil's proprioception is like an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.
I found Daredevil in Frank Miller’s Born Again story arc. Every month I’d get it in the mail. Crinkled but who cared - I just wanted to read the story and look at the pictures. Such great storytelling - I scrambled to find the last issues when I went home over the summer.
Frank Miller was really something. His Batman treatment was also excellent, and very stylized - totally different for the time.
Oh man I loved his dark knight take. Think I still have the graphic novel. Also 300
Yes! So good.
Ahhh Pluto 😢
RIPluto!