Copyright 2006 John Perry

Stephen Covey (http://www.stephencovey.com/) told us to
“begin with the end in mind.”

Have you ever heard “train with the brain in mind?”

Growing up, I would get the latest issue of Muscle and
Fitness and plug away at biceps, triceps and chest
routines. What resulted was frustration due to lack of
performance enhancement and usually an overuse injury or
two.

After becoming a Physical Therapist and gaining the
knowledge of how the body operates, it became apparent why
I had so much trouble meeting my fitness goals growing up
and why I had injuries.

I was confusing my brain.

The brain is our guardian; like a protective mother with
lots of kids. The kids in this case are all the bones,
joints, muscles, etc.

The mother wants her kids to be successful. It really
bothers her to see her kids suffer or doing anything that
makes them struggle. In other words, the brain is
interested in the body’s success.

Now most mothers (brains) have spies to help them. These
are neighbors, kids in the neighborhood, teachers at
school, etc., that let mothers know if there are problems
with the kids. You see, the brain does not like the body or
its parts (the kids) to get into any difficulty.

These spies are called proprioceptors. They send
information to the brain to let it know such things as how
fast a limb is moving, how much tension a muscle is under,
if a joint is under too much strain and where a body part
is located in space. The brain reacts by making adjustments
so the body is successful.

You see, by training the body in the correct way, the right
information gets to the brain. When you train the body the
wrong way, the spies send bad information to the brain;
this results in poor performance and fitness outcomes.

The brain will take in whatever information you feed it,
good or bad. It loves you like only a good mother could. It
will react based on the information it gets. The brain
wants you to be efficient and have glorious results.but can
only respond to the information it receives.

The last tidbit of information about the brain and its
importance to training is this; the brain recognizes muscle
synergies (groups of muscles working together).

This brings me to my point about confusing the brain. If
you send it information about muscles working in isolation
(biceps curls, triceps press downs, sitting knee
extensions), then the brain responds with mixed signals. It
wants to make the body efficient by having the muscles work
in groups. Based on the feedback it is getting though, it
tries to make the body as successful as possible by helping
the muscles work individually. This results in poor
movement patterns and injury.

Based on this information, I realized my brain needed some
help. I needed to stop feeding my brain artificial movement
information. I needed to train my muscles and joints as a
group and do programs that allowed my body to move as it
was designed to move.

Now I realize I just gave you a lot of neuroanatomy and
physiology in a few short paragraphs. However, with that
knowledge in tow, let me tell you the type of routine that
will stimulate your brain!

There are four things you must do:

First, get on your feet. We constantly ask our bodies to
perform while squatting, walking and climbing stairs. Our
muscles need to be ready to respond when executing these
types of activities. If you train the body (and brain)
while on your feet, it will respond by making the body more
efficient during those occasions.

Second, train movements, not muscles. As mentioned before,
the brain recognizes groups (synergies) of muscles, not
individual muscles. To make greater fitness gains, don’t
confuse your brain.train it correctly.

Third, work in multiple planes of motion. There are three
planes of motion: sagittal (front and back like a forward
lunge or walking straight ahead), frontal (side-to-side
like a lateral/side lunge or arm motion during jumping
jacks), and transverse (rotation like a drop-step lunge or
swinging a bat). All human movements have all three planes
involved; however, there is usually one dominant plane.
Training in three planes will assist in training muscle
synergies and will make your brain happy.

Fourth, get your hips into it! The hip musculature
originates and dissipates (controls) body forces; forces
like gravity, ground reaction (forces coming up from the
ground when taking a step), and external forces (weights,
exercise bands, etc.) acting on the system. The hips are
the crossroads for many forces working on the body. Proper
motion and strength in your hips can help make other parts
of your body perform better.

A few sample exercises that incorporate the above
principles are:

. Three position lunges. Lunges to the front, side and
drop step (stepping back at a 45 degree angle).

. Squat to overhead shoulder press with dumbbells.

. Squat to row - similar to the seated row, only in a
standing position. When arms are out, you are in a squat
position, when you pull back to row, bring your hips
forward and stand up.

I could talk for hours about the benefits of full-body
multi-plane exercise routines. Hopefully you understand why
it is so important to your movement success and ultimately
your fitness success.

Take home points from this article:

. Train on your feet, in three planes of motion.
. Work through your hips to train your brain
. Full body, synergistic routines send the proper
information to the brain about successful movement patterns.

Ultimately, this will improve:

. Movement
. Weight loss
. Energy
. Balance
. Flexibility
. Strength
. And help eliminate joint pain and injury possibility.

Good luck, train your brain.your body will thank you.

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