Ready to get “high” and skyrocket the performance of your body and brain? In my last article, I discussed a new model of performance that stimulates development of the brain right alongside the body. Today, we are going to move from concept to application and talk about how that affects workout structure.

Physical performance is measured by the brain’s ability to perceive the environment and optimally harness both its and the body’s resources to produce maximally efficient patterns of movement. I’ll explain how to apply this concept to your workouts in the three-part template you’ll find below.

Find your movement flow by challenging your brain.

How Natural Is Your Movement?

But before we get to the nitty-gritty details of workout structure, let’s talk about movement pattern selections. The most effective patterns for increasing general human performance are those that are totally unspecialized. Our brains and bodies are fundamentally designed to perceive and overcome endless variations of environmental obstacles, which makes the comprehensive natural movement patterns taught in MovNat’s curriculum the obvious selection.

These natural movement patterns include:

Manipulative

• Lifting
• Carrying
• Throwing
• Catching

Locomotive

• Ground Movement
• Crawling
• Walking
• Running
• Balancing
• Jumping
• Climbing
• Swimming

Combative

• Striking
• Grappling

MovNat’s natural movements not only have practical value for everyone, but also imply the development of an equalized amount of broad-based perceptual motor skill, functional work capacity, and healthy range of motion. From this authentic and unspecialized pool of diverse movements, we can forge the strongest base of general perceptual motor development (G-PMD) and general physical preparedness (GPP).

Workouts designed to progressively develop general physical performance are most effective when broken up into three distinct parts.

Part 1: Natural Developmental Sequence (Warm Ups)

The Natural Developmental Sequence (NDS) is nothing short of a goldmine of teaching efficiency. In addition to being a comprehensive, sensory-rich warm up, coaches have plenty of opportunity to discover students’ limiting factors, challenge alignment, and refine patterns of stability and range of motion in fundamental, accessible positions. The NDS usually begins in a prone or supine position, transitions through several seated/quadruped/kneeling variations, and finishes in a standing position, but there are endless iterations to explore while using personal creativity and style.

Depending on the level of the student, the NDS can work through basic or advanced positions and transitions. Bolsters are highly encouraged for those with severe movement dysfunctions.

Part 2: Emphases (Skill/Strength/Power Development)

The emphases are the patterns that you wish to develop with a specific goal over the course of the mesocycle. Depending on the goal, anywhere from 2-4 patterns can be combined to produce the stimulus and volume required to elicit the desired central and peripheral adaptations.

For example, let’s say on days one and three you want to work on improving the strength of your push press and swing-up (climbing) strength. Here’s one option of what the emphases portion of your workout could look like:

Day 1

• Barbell Push Press: 5×5
• Side Hang to Leg Hook to Sliding Swing-Up: 3/side

Day 3

• Sandbag Clean to Push Press: 5×3
• Front Hang to Leg Hook to Inverted Row (thick bar): 8/side (row only)

In the example video, I show these movements (Day 1) as an intermediate level example, as well as some simpler movement choices suited better for beginner students. I also include some counter-balancing drills for active recovery and additional G-PMD stimulus.

This strategy allows you to kill many birds with one stone. You’ll use the volume and intensity required to ensure the body gets the stimulus it needs to adapt at the peripheral neuromuscular level. You’ll also use longer rest periods to keep fatigue low enough to make subtle refinements to the patterns you are trying to improve. The use of environmental complexity (barbell vs. sandbag push press, whole vs. partial swing-up on varied bar thickness) works the patterns with slightly varied loading stimuli, challenging motor control while building up baseline adaptability alongside strength.

This portion of the workout sets us up nicely for the final segment.

Part 3: Combo (PMD/Conditioning)

I used to despise conditioning. Now, it’s the favorite part of my workouts.

The combo is a longer chain of movements with little to no rest in between. Pattern choices can be varied and creative, but the driving force of the combo should be progressively increased environmental complexity to stimulate PMD. While the patterns themselves can be refined and strengthened during the emphases in part two, re-combining movements, practicing transitions between movements, and introducing subtle contextual complexity between trials (rounds) or workouts will actually improve overall retention, which is an indicator of learning.

Ultimately, the more the student’s brain is engaged and challenged, the more she or he will generalize their movement skills and become highly adaptable. The conditioning factor is obvious, especially when you include varied distance running intervals.

Personally, I get a distinct “high” from combining movement sequences in this fashion. It’s different from the typical cardio buzz, and results in a distinct trance-like state of awareness. I call it the “PMD high.” Others would call it a “flow state.” Whatever you want to call it, it’s something transcendent, and it certainly makes cardiovascular training much more engaging and effective. It also prepares you for the ultimate “purist” experience of training in complex outdoor environments.

Train Your Brain Alongside Your Body

This flexible template was created to give MovNat coaches and students the structure they need to best utilize principles of perceptual motor and work capacity development in order to make dramatic improvements in physical competence and performance. The underlying model represents an incredibly powerful shift in our understanding of how to not only set athletes up with a better base for athletic performance, but also most effectively help the great majority who need “movement” the most.

In my next article, I’ll show you how to strategically implement training variables (volume, intensity, complexity) over time to forge elite levels of unspecialized movement skill in highly complex environments. Until next time.

Click here to read Danny’s introduction to this new model of performance.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Beyond GPP: The New Model of Performance Training
• Why MovNat Benefits Athletes in All Sports
• Proprioception: The Next Frontier in Performance
• New on Breaking Muscle Right Now

Photos courtesy of Danny Clark.

The post Beyond GPP: Find Your Movement Flow appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But I’ve also always felt that something is missing from our current model of performance. In my quest to help both myself and my students experience how empowering a high state of performance can feel, I’ve experimented with endless angles and styles of training. What I’ve come to discover recently is an entirely new dimension of training, with profound value for those who pursue and coach performance.

The principles of natural movement support a comprehensive approach to fitness.

The Rise of the Current Fitness Model

First let’s rewind back to 2008, when the current model of performance began penetrating the mass fitness market. I remember lying on a grass football field watching Pavel Tsatsouline lecture about performance training as part of his iconic RKC (now StrongFirst) kettlebell certification.

“GPP, general physical preparedness, should always come before SPP, specific physical preparedness,” he explained with a thick Russian accent. He labeled strength the “master quality,” and his training protocols clearly nurtured the development of this quality. In an industry dominated by gimmicks, machines, and muscle isolation, Tsatsouline’s words were incredibly refreshing.

Concurrently, Greg Glassman was popularizing his famous definition of GPP, with a broader scope to include “work capacity across broad time and modal domains.” With a performance model similar to that of high-level athletes, coaches and fitness enthusiasts alike were training in a way that distinguished them from bodybuilding and calorie counting dogma, methods which had pervaded the industry for decades.

An Incomplete System

Both Tsatsouline’s and Glassman’s approaches were correct in their own way. But now, decades later, it’s time we as coaches re-evaluate the current performance model, as emerging evidence points to its lack of completeness.

The current model emphasizes quantifiable movements like squatting, deadlifting, and pressing.

Depending on the specific brand of training you choose, the current model often begins with refining a student’s movement patterns. The initial goal is to correct dysfunctional patterns of mobility and stability and restore baseline function. Because the eventual goal of GPP is measurable work capacity improvement – i.e., strength, power, agility, endurance, etc – the movement patterns coaches gravitate toward are those patterns that best display work capacity.

Hence the high emphasis on “functional” patterns that are also well-suited for quantifiable work capacity development, such as squatting, deadlifting, pressing, pulling, running, and their variations. “Mobility drills” are often included to allow the student the benefit of executing these patterns with a fuller range of motion, avoid patterns of compensation, and to avoid injury and discomfort related to stiffness.

Those who train for a specific sport spend additional time refining skill and developing work capacity specific to the patterns most relevant to their particular sport. This is the case even if the sport is as relatively straightforward as weightlifting, It’s a clean, effective model that certainly has stood the test of time. So, what’s missing?

Train Your Brain

To answer that question, we need to visit a different branch of science.

In the early 1950s, a French developmental psychologist named Jean Piaget published his work on the link between movement, external environmental challenges, and cognitive ability in children. His work was inspired by watching his own kids interact with natural environments, which he contrasted with the sterilized laboratory settings found in most research studies.

Piaget discovered that sensory-rich environments stimulate the brain’s ability to perceive and produce adaptive movements. This neurological problem solving process is called perceptual motor behavior, and it is essential to a child’s overall ability to learn and develop properly. His work would become a powerful theory of cognitive development, which acknowledges the extensive neural interconnectedness of the brain, and is still referenced extensively in modern child development research and occupational therapy.

The driving force of perceptual motor development (PMD) is motor learning in response to environmental demands, which is a step beyond learning new movement patterns in isolation. For example, balancing on a new surface requires far more sensory integration and adaptive movement, and thus perceptual motor skill, than deadlifting a heavier load. Complex, highly practical and functional movement drills, such as crawling, become perceptual motor drills when unfamiliar obstacles or other environmental complexities are gradually introduced. Any external challenges that demand complex, adaptive movement patterns stimulate the brain to refine and build its neural pathways, increasing its ability to adapt via this neuroplasticity.

Responding to environmental demands will retrain your neural pathways.

A New, More Sophisticated Model

In the same way that general work capacity (GPP) increases the capacity and robustness of the body, general perceptual motor development (G-PMD) can be seen as increasing the overall capability and robustness of the brain.

This leads to robust health. Modern evidence supporting the benefits of this type of training for all ages is flooding in, both in clinical and non-clinical applications. Potential benefits include:

• Increased working memory in aging adults
• Increased synaptogenesis
• Increased neuronal complexity
• Improvements in proprioception
• Greater competence in a wide range of practical life patterns
• Greater athletic performance, especially in sports that require high degrees of adaptability

Further, the brain’s ability to perceive both its internal and external environment is subject to the same “use it or lose it” principles that govern work capacity. Lack of use, whether through over-specialization or lack of movement, can have detrimental effects for both the athlete and average person. In contrast, this general perceptual motor skill manifests itself as general adaptability, and it’s the hallmark quality of a person who trains and develops perceptual motor skills.

Like GPP, perceptual motor development can be approached generally or specifically. Interestingly, G-PMD would more closely resemble the elementary stages of the classic Russian PASM (Process of Achieving Sports Mastery) system, with a higher emphasis on building skill in natural human movement patterns and less emphasis on increasing work capacity. Specific perceptual motor development (S-PMD) is already well established in many current models of training for elite athletes- task (i.e. sport) specific perceptual and motor skills that build task specific performance.

Examples of G-PMD:

• Learning how to lift an object efficiently using the hip hinge pattern for the first time
• Ground locomotion patterns with variable situational demands (for example, moving under and over low obstacles or getting up and down off the ground on varying terrain)
• Precision jumping and balancing on various objects
• Walking barefoot on varied surfaces
• Brachiation, aka arm swinging patterns

Examples of S-PMD:

• A new defensive strategy in football
• Adjusting foot positioning and weight distribution for a more agile fighting stance
• Fine tuning an elite lifter’s barbell clean
• Refining a tennis serve
• Drilling a new wrestling takedown, then attempting the technique during live sparring

With this new understanding of the complete spectrum of human abilities, we can lay the foundation for a new and improved model of performance training:

Force the body to increase performance through work capacity or movement capacity.

MovNat’s model of performance represents a sophisticated understanding of how the body responds to different types of stress. We can then create more effective movement and training programs.

By emphasizing movement sequences that demand PMD, the body is stimulated to make adaptations predominantly in the central domains, including it’s sensory-perceptual, coordinative, and processing systems.

By emphasizing movement sequences that demand work capacity, the body is stimulated to make adaptations predominantly in its peripheral domains, including the musculoskeletal and cardiorespiratory systems. Even though peripheral adaptations are regulated by the brain, studies have shown that synaptogenesis (the formation of new synapses between neurons) doesn’t occur without exercise that requires motor learning.

The overlapping adaptations in the diagram happen in the body during both forms of training. This means the adaptations that PMD stimulates aren’t exclusively central, while the adaptations that work capacity stimulates aren’t exclusively peripheral. In the body there is always overlap, so making a concrete distinction would be overly simplified. For example, crawling through obstacles will primarily lead to central (brain) adaptations, but there are muscular and cardiorespiratory benefits as well. No type of training style is exclusive to any one physiological system.

The outcome of these adaptations is the tangible increase in performance for our students that can be directly observed, either by increased movement skill or work capacity.

Train Both Systems

For the purposes of modeling, I have separated work capacity from perceptual motor skill development in the diagrams, but I am by no means implying that these training styles need to be mutually exclusive. When most people use the buzzword “movement training,” they are usually referring to a small fragment of PMD: the increases in proprioception and coordinative ability that follow refining movement patterns with little environmental enrichment. A solid training program incorporates a more comprehensive version of PMD right alongside GPP, developing movement performance synergistically and organically.

Combining these two forms of training for optimal performance is exactly what my work entails, as I am in charge of developing specific, science-based “Performance for Everyone” programs for MovNat, a Natural Movement education system. In my next article, I’ll be discussing how to implement both GPP and G-PMD into a successful training program. Until next time.

This article was originally published on Breaking Muscle US.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Move Your Body, Move Your Brain: Training for Neuroplasticity
• Is CrossFit’s Definition of Fitness Flawed?
• When Comfort Is Uncomfortable: You Need Natural Movement
• New on Breaking Muscle Right Now

References:

1. Alloway, R, Alloway, T, “The working memory benefits of proprioceptively demanding training: A pilot study,” Perceptual and Motor Skills, 120 (2015): 1-10

2. Aman, J, et al. “The effectiveness of proprioceptive training for improving motor function: a systematic review,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, (2014): 1075.

3. Black, JE, et al. “Learning causes synaptogenesis, whereas motor activity causes angiogenesis, in cerebellar cortex of adult rats,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 87 (1990): 5568-5572.

4. Briones, TL, et al. “Stability of synaptic plasticity in the adult rat visual cortex induced by complex environment exposure,” Brain Research, 1018 (2004): 130–135.

5. “What is Crossfit” Crossfit.com. Accessed Jan 18, 2016.

6. Myslinski, T, “Development of the Russian Conjugate Sequence System,” Accessed Jan 18, 2016.

7. Piaget, J,“The Origins of Intelligence in Children,” New York: International Universities Press, 1952

8. Tonoi, G and Edelman, GM, “Consciousness and complexity,” Science, 5395 (1998): 1846-1851.

Photos courtesy of MovNat.

Reviewed by Jon Morey, DC, MS, MCT3.

The post Beyond GPP: The New Model of Performance Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This wasn’t some sadistic “natural movement” challenge, though, as our evening session of MovNat practice with Erwan Le Corre was already complete. Most of our group members were engaged in euphoric post-workout chatter and had already begun preparing for the mile-long hike back to the surf village of Sayulita.

Frank was near drowning, in a sick twist of irony, just after sharpening his ability to become stronger, tougher, and more self-reliant. Watching his struggle from the shore, I stood dumbfounded and unsure if my new friend needed help or not, while his ability to save his own life was being put to the ultimate test.

By circumstances of pure fate, two of the many paradigm-shifting lessons taught by Erwan quickly became critical to Frank in his stark confrontation with real world danger. As push transitioned to shove, would he display the crucial combination of skill, strength, and stamina required to save his own skin?

Lesson #1 – Practical Skills Require Specific Training

In the fitness industry, we’ve become increasingly reliant on the concept that getting stronger and more conditioned in fundamental human movement patterns fully prepares us to be “ready for anything.” We assume that by having the muscular power, mobility, and perfectly timed fine motor control required to snatch a loaded barbell overhead, plus the energy system efficiency required to earn a respectable “Cindy” or one-mile time, we have developed all the physical assets we could possibly need to fare well in a situation like Frank’s.

But are we truly empowering ourselves to have a sufficient degree of useful physical competence? Or are we getting stuck fixating our valuable training time grinding toward an arbitrary set of synthetic skills, such as lifting perfectly balanced barbells, climbing on powder-coated steel bars, and running on unnaturally level surfaces?

“The fitness industry’s status quo has largely become a potent narcissistic reagent, strongly paralleling the at-all-costs competitiveness that has run amuck in our culture.”

Undoubtedly, Frank’s level of general strength and conditioning certainly contributed, at least to some degree, to his ability to handle the situation. But should his ability to survive hinge on skills only mildly relevant to the all-or-none type of situation at hand or would more specific training have served him better?

We know the answer, largely because of two ubiquitous scientific principles:

1. SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demands) – Preparing for a survival situation involving swimming by practicing squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, rowing, and sprinting is the equivalent of perfecting your algebra to prepare your business for tax season – valuable, but excessively nonspecific. According to this principle, in order to overcome the high level of imposed demands, Frank needed to have earned the specific adaptation through his training. Not only physical adaptations, but also behavioral adaptations because equally important to his physical prowess was his situational intelligence. He needed to know how to best apply his skills – when to swim hard versus when to relax and conserve his precious energy stores.
2. Synergy – In our modern training programs, we’ve compartmentalized our fitness routines. Leg day. Back day. Strength day. HIIT day. Rest day. We’ve reduced our movements down to their rawest kinesthetic components and functions. We’ve designed our programs and “periodized” them to elicit peak competition day performance and picture perfect leanness. But we’ve forgotten to reassemble the whole complicated mess back into something more complete than calorie burning, squat strength, and energy systems development in order to better serve the average citizen who pursues physical health and fitness. The vast majority of people will, at some point, find themselves in the most ancient of human circumstances – the kind of crucial situations that require a truly holistic skill set. And in the same way that an athletic competition requires extensive training in that specific sport to develop an integrated, effective skill set, so does life. Let’s not forget that.

Unfortunately, Frank didn’t possess the skill set he needed to overcome that particular situation, literally leaving his fate to the tides.

Putting the “strong to be helpful” concept to work at a MovNat retreat in Thailand

Lesson #2 – Fitness Has a Greater Purpose

As a lifelong athlete and strength addict, I’ve become all too aware of the biggest motivation behind my training – winning. I want to stand out, be exceptional at whatever I do, and hopefully present myself as humble enough to be an inspiration for others to follow in my footsteps.

But in order for me to win, by definition, many others need to lose. While winning has its place in life, should it be the dominant ingredient that drives our health and fitness efforts? The fitness industry’s status quo has largely become a potent narcissistic reagent, strongly paralleling the at-all-costs competitiveness that has run amuck in our culture.

“Deep down, I believe we all are craving more substance from our fitness, so we can make our pursuits of health, confidence, and self-actualization become something immensely gratifying.”

Walk into any gym and you can feel it. The gym scene has become grounds for an ongoing superficial size-up, rivaling that of a fifth grade playground sprint contest. Call it “gymtimidation” or whatever you want, but it’s real. And it’s left a great many sitting at the sidelines, wondering if it’s really worth the cost of admission into yet another high-pressured rat race.

Deep down, I believe we all are craving more substance from our fitness, so we can make our pursuits of health, confidence, and self-actualization become something immensely gratifying. I found that substance on the Sayulita shoreline, as Erwan Le Corre hoisted Frank out of the surf. “Don’t wait until your brother is in obvious distress. Go find out,” Erwan said. “Become strong to be helpful, because attempting to assist without the required skill is useless and sometimes even counter-productive,” he continued, as the house of cards that was my “elite fitness” alter ego became shaken at its foundation.

At that moment of epiphany, I felt an electrical storm of neurons realigning themselves as I realized I had been shown the link between fitness and the humility that accompanies a purpose bigger than one’s self.

MovNat workshops and certifications focus on cooperation and practical exercises.

Shift Your Perspective

Back home, I still reflect on the fact that Frank could have easily been my father, my wife, my son, you, or even myself. I take great comfort that people like Erwan exist, because the practice of natural movement is capable of causing a much needed, fundamental shift in collective mindset – a “movement movement” that could make our world a much richer place.

“There’s something incredibly satisfying about imparting a ‘strong to be helpful’ message to others, especially our more impressionable youth.”

I find myself itching for my workout sessions again. While I don’t have the ability to train for every possible survival situation, my training now better emulates the types of higher-level tasks our bodies were designed to complete. As I develop skills like pop ups, rolling, balancing, crawling, and barefoot running, I enjoy a child-like curiosity and freedom during my workouts. A smile has replaced my killer-instinct scowl as I’ve found a purpose that fosters powerful, deeply motivating internal dialogue. I feel my body becoming more able and timelessly athletic looking – assets I am, naturally, embracing with open arms.

As a gym owner and personal mentor, I have had the opportunity to work with people of all walks of life. There’s something incredibly satisfying about imparting a “strong to be helpful” message to others, especially our more impressionable youth. I hope you, too, will find MovNat’s philosophy and exercise modalities infectious so you can accompany me down this newfound journey.

More Like This:

• Move Your Body, Move Your Brain: Training for Neuroplasticity
• Understanding and Analyzing Your Movement Environment
• Fit for Duty: The Fitness of Fire Fighting
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo, 2 and 3 courtesy of MovNat.

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