7 Ways Training Your Brain Can Improve Your Health & Training

How does improving your brain's ability to handle stress, improve your training ability and health? 

The brain, an extraordinary and intricate organ plays a crucial role in managing our survival and safety.  It is the cornerstone for getting our body to move better, faster, and more efficiently. 

The brain's primary function revolves around a prediction-based response system, constantly assessing our environment and determining whether we are safe or at risk.

How your body feels currently is because of this threat detection system and whether you know it yet or not, your brain governs your entire physical system.

This fundamental process influences our physical responses, behaviors, and overall health. Understanding the brain's role in keeping us from falling is crucial for optimizing training and managing pain effectively.

By understanding threat detection, we can better comprehend why we experience pain and other symptoms, and how to address these issues through applied neurology.

If you have been biomechanically trained in health, like most of us, this information might seem conflicting given that we were never taught that the brain plays the primary role as the governor of our health. 

Give yourself a few minutes to understand why Applied Neurology is fast becoming this next generation's education and why it will enhance your current biomechanical education. 

Here is a brief, but important, understanding of how the brain's survival system operates and why applied neurology is essential for maintaining quality movement, balance, and health:

Back Story

The Brain:  A Prediction-Based Response System

Our brain continuously processes a vast amount of sensory information (visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive) to gauge our surroundings. This information is used to make predictions about potential threats or safety. The primary function of the threat detection system is to keep us from falling.

The brain operates through a binary lens—categorizing situations as either safe or unsafe. This binary evaluation drives how we react to various stimuli, guiding our responses and behaviors, and inevitably sending signals throughout our body to slow us down if it detects a threat (e.g., pain). 

For example, as we age and our vision and hearing become impaired, how many elderly people do you see do the "elderly shuffle?"   

What about you and when you step on ICE? What happens? You do the same shuffle. 

Why? 

The brain knows it needs to slow down because the sensory inputs coming in are not strong and it predicts a high fall occurrence.  

What happens when you improve the visual and vestibular system in a brain that has not been trained, much like we train the muscular system?

The client walks better, moves better, and feels like they have found a new lease on life. 

No movement preparation and core training will affect a client faster than applied neurology.

For effective training, understanding this predictive mechanism allows us to design neuro assessments, drills, and interventions that help recalibrate the brain’s threat detection system. By engaging in neuro-targeted exercises (applied neurology), we can train the brain to better manage and interpret sensory inputs, reducing unnecessary stress responses and enhancing overall performance.

Essentially, we are training the brain like a muscle, ensuring that it is healthy and working optimally. You may not know it, but the brain can change at any age, and it happens as fast as you can snap your fingers.

Here are 7 ways training your brain for better threat detection will enhance your health.

(1)Threat Detection

The brain's survival system is highly sensitive to potential threats. It doesn't merely react to immediate dangers but also anticipates possible threats based on past experiences and learned behaviors. This sensitivity is crucial for rapid, often subconscious, responses to potential danger, allowing us to protect ourselves effectively.

If you want more information on the Threat Detection system and what that means, read this article here. 

Training Implication: Applied neurology focuses on identifying and mitigating threat responses that may lead to chronic pain or performance issues. By addressing these threats and training the brain to interpret sensory information more accurately, we can reduce the risk of pain and improve functional outcomes.

(2) Response Activation

Upon detecting a threat, the brain activates a series of responses through the autonomic nervous system, which comprises the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous systems (PNS). The SNS triggers the “fight or flight” response, enhancing alertness and physical readiness.

Conversely, the PNS promotes the “rest and digest” response, aiding in recovery and energy conservation.   Applied Neurology essentially is retraining the brain to decrease threat and activate our own rest and digest systems. 

Training Implication: Effective training strategies must consider both the SNS and PNS. By incorporating exercises that balance activation and relaxation, individuals can better manage their stress responses and optimize their overall function.

(3) Behavioral Adaptations

The brain’s focus on safety significantly influences our behavior, including decision-making, social interactions, and physical responses.

Stressful situations may trigger anxiety or fear, leading to defensive behaviors such as avoidance or aggression. These responses are deeply rooted in the brain’s survival mechanisms.

Training Implication: Applied neurology aims to address maladaptive behavioral responses by retraining the brain’s reaction to stress and threats with neuro-based drills and the assess re-assess process.  If you want to learn more about that, sign up for this free workshop replay. 

By incorporating neuro-targeted exercises, individuals can develop healthier coping strategies, reducing the impact of stress on their daily lives and enhancing overall well-being.

(4) The Survival Mode

When faced with an overwhelming threat, the brain may enter “survival mode,” prioritizing immediate survival over higher cognitive functions. This state can compromise body movement, rational thinking, and problem-solving, focusing instead on basic survival responses like fighting, fleeing, or freezing.

Training Implication: Recognizing when the brain is in survival mode is crucial for designing effective training programs. Applied neurology helps individuals manage and reduce survival mode responses, enabling them to regain higher cognitive functions and improve decision-making and performance.

(5) Impact on Daily Life

A constant state of heightened alertness can significantly affect various aspects of life, including work performance, relationships, and overall well-being. Chronic stress and anxiety can lead to persistent discomfort and impaired function.

Training Implication: Applied neurology aims to bring the brain’s threat level back to a manageable state. By engaging in neuro-targeted exercises that reduce perceived threats, individuals can enhance their comfort and functionality, leading to improved quality of life.

(6) Neurological Training for Balance

Understanding the brain’s primary focus on survival highlights the importance of neurological training in achieving balance. Neuro-targeted exercises help recalibrate the brain’s responses, reducing perceived threats and enhancing performance. 

Reducing threat and activating the reflexive systems of the postural system, the brain, and the nervous system provide the body with what it needs to remain safe in its environment.  

Think of ballernias, and gymnasts.  Why do they have such good posture?

After reading these last few sentences and thinking about how they move in space, you can see why the brain and nervous system give them the tools to flip, move, and spin with ease. 

Read this article for more info on the brain's role in posture. 

Training Implication: Applied neurology leverages the brain’s capacity for change to help individuals overcome limitations and achieve better health outcomes. By focusing on recalibrating threat detection and response systems, neurological training promotes overall well-being and performance.

(7) Adaptive Mechanisms

One of the brain’s most remarkable features is its ability to adapt and reorganize in response to new experiences and learning. Applied neurology harnesses neuroplasticity to help individuals improve sensory and motor functions, overcome limitations, and achieve better health outcomes. 

This is the beauty of neuro-based drills.  The brain changes as quickly as you can snap your fingers and it can do so at any age. 

Training Implication: Leveraging neuroplasticity through applied neurology allows individuals to make meaningful changes in their brain function. By engaging in targeted exercises, individuals can enhance their adaptive capabilities, leading to improved health and performance.

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The brain’s primary job of ensuring survival and safety is deeply rooted in a prediction-based response system that evaluates threats and shapes our responses.

By understanding this fundamental aspect of brain function, we can better appreciate the role of applied neurology in improving overall well-being and performance in our client's lives.

Engaging in neuro-targeted exercises allows individuals to manage and reduce threats, increase range of motions, better quality movement, increase strength, and balance, optimize their responses, and achieve better health outcomes.  If you want to learn more about our educational mentorship, click here.