FINE TUNE YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM

These tips come from an article of the same name that can be found here, bit I'll only touch on some of them so give the article to read all 12 tips.

I'll list them all but expand on those I think are most important.

Enhancing performance in absolutely anything is about balancing stress and recovery.

I've posted about the nervous system and it's implications on performance before but here's a very quick summary of how it works:

-  Performance is controlled by the autonomic nervous system (ANS)

- the ANS has two sub-systems being the parasympathetic nervous (PSNS) system and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS)

- PSNS inhibits/rest/digest

- SNS excites/fight/flight

The secret in balancing these 2 systems is to know when to excite and when to inhibit because if you stay "on" in times where you should be off (taking home work with you for example) then you're on a fast road to and illness sooner rather than later and it cascades from there when you cease to address it as time goes on.

1 - Don't Dwell on Your Training

2 - Big Events Require Big Recovery

- Big events are usually those that you aren't in your usually schedule and this your body probably hasn't adapted to that type or volume of stress as well as what you do day in and day out. When you are less adapted to something then it uses more resources to be fuelled and also more resources to re-fuel after it.

- A lot of us go wrong thinking we can simply add these big events on top of everything else and we'l be able to handle it but all that happens is that your stress cup overflows and the body will put the brakes on you to MAKE unable to do more, in the form of an injury (back pain for no reason) or illness

- With a big event on the on the calendar you'll need to drop something from your schedule in the lead up to the event, during the event and after the event and once you've recovered from the big event, then you can go back to your normal schedule 

3 - Don't Even Think About Program Hopping

4 - Relax

5 - Nap

6 - Pick Your Aggressive Spots

- The positive effects of the SNS are short lived so once you've used it for what you need it for (run from a bear, get that presentation done you forgot about) then you have to shut it down

- Don't amp yourself for a walk in the park, save it for life altering situations

7 - Do Compound Lifts

8 - Train Hard, Recover Harder

9 - Reconsider Your Training Split

10 - Celebrate Special Occasions

- I don''t need to tell many of you this one but when you do celebrate, don't think of the consequences

- Celebrating is almost the height of PSNS activation

11 - Account for Doing Something Different

12 - Learnt to Breathe

- Specifically learn to control your breathing

- Take the time everyday at some point to lie down and simply focus on breathing.

- Breath all the way in through your nose, hold for about a second and then most importantly breath ALL of the air out of your stomach and chest before going into your next breath.

- Each breath should take about 6 - 8secs if you're doing this properly - don't rush this!

There's a lot of good stuff in this article and most of the points can be implemented with a little bit extra planning and minimal effort.

I incorporate a lot of this stuff into my programming for personal training clients so if your program feels a little out of control and you need a bit of overhaul, feel free to contact me.