Shadow boxing with your eyes closed

[whale]

An idiot at our gym was shadow boxing with his eyes closed. The head trainer told him to stop doing it. A few nights later he did it again and rolled his ankle. Anyone else seen stupid stuff like that in their gym?

 

[Dealt_with]

The idea isn’t that stupid, as long as it’s not a beginner doing it. Shutting your eyes puts the onus on your proprioceptors to do all the work, the lack of visual input helps you feel your body better. That has implications for balance and should actually help prevent injuries.

 

[whale]

He isn't a beginner and it was stupid enough to get him injured and miss his next couple of sessions.

 

[buff my helmet]

The idea isn’t that stupid, as long as it’s not a beginner doing it. Shutting your eyes puts the onus on your proprioceptors to do all the work, the lack of visual input helps you feel your body better. That has implications for balance and should actually help prevent injuries.

What about skipping with your eyes closed? Not a good one for beginners I wouldn't have thought?

 

[Dealt_with]

He isn't a beginner and it was stupid enough to get him injured and miss his next couple of sessions.

People have rolled their ankles doing lots of things, so the activity in itself wasn’t the problem. If he didn’t have a safe environment then that was the problem. Funnily enough, closing his eyes while doing exercise is likely what a physio will prescribe for rehab.

 

[Dealt_with]

What about skipping with your eyes closed? Not a good one for beginners I wouldn't have thought?

That’s not a good one for anyone, that’s a pure stretch shortening cycle activity. If you close your eyes during that then you don’t know the purpose/aim of closing of your eyes.

 

[buff my helmet]

 

[whale]

People have rolled their ankles doing lots of things, so the activity in itself wasn’t the problem. If he didn’t have a safe environment then that was the problem. Funnily enough, closing his eyes while doing exercise is likely what a physio will prescribe for rehab.

 

[Dealt_with]

Yeah, my point exactly. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s taking something and applying it in an irrelevant context. The faster and more rhythmic a movement the less relevant it is (slow twitch/postural muscles/proprioception and how that is mapped in the cerebellum). A fast reflexive movement is a lower order neuromuscular function (more peripheral, bottom up), not a higher-order (central, top-down) function.
Skipping is a stretch shortening activity at small joint angles, with low force demands. You have minimal postural control/precision needs.The eyes aren’t contributing much in the first place. What happens when you’re injured is that the integration between your eyes, vestibular system and your peripheral proprioception can become incongruent. Your eyes may become dominant in postural control during injury (swelling etc. alters proprioceptive input from muscle spindles), or your eyes may become dominant when you spend a lot of time moving under muscular fatigue (similar mechanisms to injury). So closing your eyes during those states (in training and rehab) can re-establish congruence (more precise integration and perception centrally).
Autistic children have movement difficulties because of an over reliance on proprioception compares to vision.
It is context and task specific, this guys rationale is ‘cover one sense and improve another’. He doesn’t understand what he’s doing.

 

[buff my helmet]

Study of the blind has shown that the brain is actually versatile. The blind are able to use their other senses to form a mental picture of what is around them. Their unaffected senses take up as best they can the responsibilities of their affected one.

 

[Dealt_with]

Study of the blind has shown that the brain is actually versatile. The blind are able to use their other senses to form a mental picture of what is around them. Their unaffected senses take up as best they can the responsibilities of their affected one.

Okay. I don’t understand what relevance that has to anything but okay.

 

[whale]

Good point about blind people.

 

[buff my helmet]

Blind people are living proof of the versatility of the brain. For a start they are able to isolate the different sounds they hear better. They even taste their food in a different way to the rest of us because not being about to see causes the brain to allow the other senses to take over.

You can easily prove this by closing your eyes when you eat. It automatically enhances your sense of taste and smell.

 

[Dealt_with]

Blind people are living proof of the versatility of the brain. For a start they are able to isolate the different sounds they hear better. They even taste their food in a different way to the rest of us because not being about to see causes the brain to allow the other senses to take over.

You can easily prove this by closing your eyes when you eat. It automatically enhances your sense of taste and smell.

Yes, we are adaptable, same thing happens with a stroke. I still fail to see what point you’re trying to make.
You need sensory input to be optimal for your condition. The word congruence I used, that means compatible. Compatible sensory input from multiple sources, for your condition. If you are capable of seeing and close your eyes too much, you create issues for yourself, because we are adaptable.
You don’t enhance integration by cutting off a source for no reason. If it’s necessitated (blindness/stroke etc.) you are required to develop a new normal. That’s not the purpose of somebody shutting their eyes to enhance proprioception relative to their visual input, during exercise. If you’re compensating for a deficit, it needs to be in relation to that deficit. That’s why your blind example is completely irrelevant.
I don’t know how to put it any more simply than that.

 

[Dealt_with]

Good point about blind people.

Would you like to explain what the point is you think he is making?

 

[buff my helmet]

Your brain doesn't require permanent necessity to adapt. Temporary necessity, by covering your eyes, automatically makes your brain adapt. Example enhanced sense of taste and smell.

 

[Dealt_with]

Your brain doesn't require permanent necessity to adapt. Temporary necessity, by covering your eyes, automatically makes your brain adapt. Example enhanced sense of taste and smell.

Okay, you clearly don’t understand. You can only improve something relative to something else. You can’t just keep randomly covering things and expecting each one to keep rising higher and higher until you become a super taster, super smeller etc. etc. You also adapt continuously when you’re not covering your senses, and that is proportionally far more time than having them covered up.

You cover a sense to improve something else if there is a discrepancy to return to ‘normal’. Then everything can be levelled, integrated appropriately. Covering your vision is useful when there are deficits in mechanical proprioception. In the situations I mentioned before, due to fatigue and injury your eyes have become dominant for postural adjustment. Your sense of mechanical proprioception is impaired. Once that is back to the level of appropriate integration/balance with the eyes, that is optimal. If you keep closing your eyes to rely on mechanical proprioception, you’re just creating another discrepancy. This time in the opposite direction.

Do you and the people who liked your post kind of understand yet?

 

[whale]

It is amazing how much difference it makes when you close your eyes doing quite a few things. Particularly when added concentration is required.

 

[A.C.S]

Yeah, my point exactly. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s taking something and applying it in an irrelevant context. The faster and more rhythmic a movement the less relevant it is (slow twitch/postural muscles/proprioception and how that is mapped in the cerebellum). A fast reflexive movement is a lower order neuromuscular function (more peripheral, bottom up), not a higher-order (central, top-down) function.
Skipping is a stretch shortening activity at small joint angles, with low force demands. You have minimal postural control/precision needs.The eyes aren’t contributing much in the first place. What happens when you’re injured is that the integration between your eyes, vestibular system and your peripheral proprioception can become incongruent. Your eyes may become dominant in postural control during injury (swelling etc. alters proprioceptive input from muscle spindles), or your eyes may become dominant when you spend a lot of time moving under muscular fatigue (similar mechanisms to injury). So closing your eyes during those states (in training and rehab) can re-establish congruence (more precise integration and perception centrally).
Autistic children have movement difficulties because of an over reliance on proprioception compares to vision.
It is context and task specific, this guys rationale is ‘cover one sense and improve another’. He doesn’t understand what he’s doing.

Your a fucking weirdo, who writes all this shit in their "coffee break" you need a girlfriend

 

[alternative hypothesis]

Your a fucking weirdo, who writes all this shit in their "coffee break" you need a girlfriend

Perhaps start with a fish.