How to Harness Brain Neuroplasticity for Extreme Human Performance

Are We Missing the Boat?

Ever seen something that you were pretty sure was true and all the evidence was pointing in that direction, but you still felt a large chunk of the data was missing?

I always feel like that trying to explain some concepts in Z Health and how  your brain is in control of your performance in the gym and on the field.  Optimize your brain and your body HAS to follow.

How does the brain get information?

Eyes + Inner Ear (vestibular “balance”) + Joints (proprioception) = Extreme Human Performance

Optimize each one of these and you are set.   This will also allow you to add strength and not degrade your movement performance when done correctly.

If you come to me as an athlete that wants to be a D1 football player and coach says you need to get stronger.  Let’s say I add 100 lbs to your squat in 6 months, but in the process you move like you are dragging your right leg.  Did I make you stronger?  Yes!  Did I make you a better football player?  No!  Will coach (and you) be happy?  No!  What you are really saying is that you want to be a better football player and you and your coach think that strength is the ONLY way.

Strength is great and a huge component to athletics, but it should NOT come at the cost of movement efficiency.    How can we get an increase in performance without making you walk like Ethel?  THAT is the key and we need to look at the brain.

Data Please

Watch the slide show below.  It is a bit crazy, but hang in there

If you only get one thing, here is the take away

“The physical characteristics of your BODY IMAGE may affect how your brain works your body”

I would even go as far to say that they will instead of may (but we need more data of course).  If your brain is the key to performance, than maybe there is something to this body image thing.  The brain can actually change over time, so it is not fixed even if you are an older adult (concept of neuroplasticity).

Body Image, But I Already Look Good!

Not that type of body image there Fabio!  Body image is referring to the map that your body generates of yourself. When I busted up my ankle several years ago, I had a horrible map of my right ankle at the time. It just felt like a big lump and very “dumb.” It was not uncommon that I would bump it against things in my home (which does not help the healing process). My body image (map) of my right ankle was horrible. How do you think my ankle performance was at the time? Horrible! I could barely move it at all due to the injury.

To a lesser extent, this happens to all athletes. If your wrist wrist does not have 100% mobility, the body map is fuzzy because of it.

The Fix Is In

How do we fix it? For most, starting on the joints is key since they take a fair amount of abuse from desk jockeys with mousie right hand to elite athletes with crazy shoulders from throwing 90+mph fast balls to football players hitting each other at mach 2. Daily living takes its toll and getting all the joints to move through a full range of motion to clean up the body image (map) and allow more performance.

Remove the Brakes

Less than optimal joint mobility is breaking your current performance. I like the Z Health R Phase for mobility work since it targets the joints, but just plain movement is a great start.

Summary

We have evidence now that your body image will affect your performance. Fix your body image (movement map) by first starting off on some joint mobility and watch your performance sky rocket.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson
PS
Leave any comments below and tweet the heck out of this one! Much appreciate all the help!

REFERENCES
Full paper at
Interdependence of movement and anatomy persists when amputees learn a physiologically impossible movement of their phantom limb

References below taken from
Physiologically impossible movement of phantom limbs explained

1. Damasio A (2000) The feeling of what happens: body and emotion in the making of consciousness. (Vintage, London).
2. Churchland PS (2002) Self-representation in nervous systems Science 296, 308-310.
3. Ramachandran VS (1998) Consciousness and body image: lessons from phantom limbs, Capgras syndrome and pain asymbolia Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London – Series B: Biological Sciences 353, 1851-1859.
4. Price EH (2006) A critical review of congenital phantom limb cases and a developmental theory for the basis of body image Consciousness and Cognition 15, 310-322.
5. Moseley GL, Olthof N, Venema A, Don S, Wijers M, Gallace A, & Spence C (2008) Psychologically induced cooling of a specific body part caused by the illusory ownership of an artificial counterpart Proc Natl Acad Sci 105, 13169-13173.
6. Moseley GL, Parsons TJ, & Spence C (2008) Visual distortion of a limb modulates the pain and swelling evoked by movement. Curr Biol 18, R1047-R1048.
7. Parsons LM (2001) Integrating cognitive psychology, neurology and neuroimaging Acta Psychol. (Amst). 107, 155-181.

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Key Z Health R Phase Concept #9:The Neuromatrix of Pain

I know it sounds like a concept from the movie The Matrix, but it is a newer (ok, not really that new, but not overly well accepted) theory about pain.  Pain lives in the brain.  Pain is needed for survival.  There is actually a condition where some don’t feel pain, and they have horrible problems with doing all sorts of nasty stuff to themselves since they don’t get the signal that “Hey, what is that I smell, oh, I left my hand on the hot stove!”  Duh!

The pain in the brain can go awry though and start to cause other issues.   According to the Neuromatrix of Pain, you have 2 areas to work on

1) Signals – alter the signals coming in to the brain.  Movement can do this, as can other things

2) Interpretation -  how the brain translates that signal.

By working on both of these, many times pain can be reduced or eliminated.   Now it is not always that easy, but greater than 50% of the time with acute pain (chronic pain is a whole different can o’ worms) it can be altered in 1 session!  Pretty crazy.   It still amazes me to this day when just a few of the correct joint mobility (or sometimes eye or head movements) get man athlete to move much better.  When they move much better, a vast majority of time their pain drops dramatically.

Move Better = Less Pain

I’ve seen this myself to date about 90 times (conservative estimate).   I know it sounds crazy, but it is true.

Summary

What you thought you knew about pain is most likely out dated! Pain is a multi focal event. If you are in pain, you are NOT performing at an optimal level. Period. You need to get OUT of pain ASAP for extreme human performance.

I have a few other articles that discuss this, so check them out below

Pain Blog Posts (these are just a few)

Is Pain Bad for Performance ?

Pain and Athletic Performance, a New Study

Z Health, Pain and Limb Shaking

Nerve Flossing Z Health Style- I can rotate my neck

Tennis Elbow Pain and Tendinosis: An Exercise Fix

Biomechanics of Pain and a Shot to the Nuts

If you want to feel, move and perform better, drop me a line today for a session!  Just hit the “contact” tab above to reach me via email for details.  I guarantee everything I do 100% and your satisfaction is my top priority.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Key Z Health R Phase Concept #8: 4 Elements of Efficiency

Behind the curtains of the Z-Health Athletic Performance system rolls on.    Only 1 more left after today.   If you missed the last one, see below

Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #7: Enemies of Efficiency and SMA

Last time we learned what the enemies of efficiency were, so today we are going to learn how to move efficiently.  Watch Usain Bolt shatter a World Record.  What do you see?

9.58 Usain Bolt 100 M World Record Berlin 2009 – The best free videos are right here

Z-Health 4 Elements of Efficiency are

1)Perfect Form
2)Dynamic Postural Alignment (tall spine)
3)Synchronized Respiration
4)Balanced Tension/Relaxation

Most only stop an exercise when their form breaks down, so this is after too much tension (there goes #4), their breathing is out of whack (#3) and their spine is not tall and long (#2) and hopefully they stop now as their form is degrading.   This is the path of INefficiency.

In Z-Health, it is recommended to stop once there is EXCESSIVE tension and this takes care of the others. Does all that tension and “sour puss face” when you are bench pressing really help you lift more weight? Go back and look at the Soviets in the 70s and 80s and note their expressions. They did not have excess tension, heck some hit PRs (personal records) and they looked like they were going to fall asleep! They learned that EXCESSIVE tension was not efficient. Again, this does not mean tension is bad; but excessive tension is not ideal.

Do you see any excessive tension here?
Vasily Alexeev – 230kg. (507lb.) Clean & Press

Breathing

There are 2 general types of breathing

1) anatomical match

2) biomechanical match.

If you are teaching efficiency, anatomical match is what you want as you will breath out when the lung field is in a collapsed position and inhale when it expands.

Examples of Anatomical Breathing Match

Kettlebell Press:  breath in on the way up (expanding) and breath out on the way down (arm pushing in on the lung area).

Squat: exhale on the way down, and inhale on the way up

Bench press: exhale as the bar is pulled down and inhale on the way up.

Biomechanical match is just the opposite of this and is inefficient.

Without opening a whole can of worms, there are times you want to make exercise inefficient, but for a vast majority of yoru work you want to make it efficient.

Many have no idea which method they are using or why, so awareness is a great start.

Make it LOOK easy.  Most violate all the elements of efficiency in the gym.  Watch elite athletes, do they make it look easy?  Yes!  You get what you practice.

Thoughts?  Be sure to leave a comment below.   I love comments!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

Fat Loss Performance Tip

Below is an abstract on how you can increase the calories you burn while working to drop body fat without a decrease in performance. As always, if you want to deflate the muffin top you need to take in fewer calories than you burn off. If you miss that part, you will not loose weight. But once you have that down, the tip below may help you out.

The take away is that a calorie free beverage during training, appears to help performance about 2-3%.  Nothing huge there, but since you did not take in any calories it might help a bit.

Our perception molds our reality, so if you THINK you are drinking calories, you can get a slight performance boost.  To quote Jodie L. Rummer “potential for pre-performance brain input could be huge!”   The biggest changes in performance will be advances in neuroscience, and we are just on the very edge of unraveling it.  I believe this study was one of the first to look at a performance change combined with fMRI (brain imaging) in relation to an ergogenic beverage.

Let me know what you think
Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Other References

Go rinse your mouth: a novel way to improve endurance performance? J Physiol June 1, 2009 587 (11) 2425-2426; published ahead of print March 30, 2009,

Carbohydrate sensing in the human mouth: effects on exercise performance and brain activity

1. E. S. Chambers1,

2. M. W. Bridge1 and

3. D. A. Jones1,2

Abstract

Exercise studies have suggested that the presence of carbohydrate in the human mouth activates regions of the brain that can enhance exercise performance but direct evidence of such a mechanism is limited. The first aim of the present study was to observe how rinsing the mouth with solutions containing glucose and maltodextrin, disguised with artificial sweetener, would affect exercise performance. The second aim was to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify the brain regions activated by these substances. In Study 1A, eight endurance-trained cyclists (Graphic 60.8 ± 4.1 ml kg?1 min?1) completed a cycle time trial (total work = 914 ± 29 kJ) significantly faster when rinsing their mouths with a 6.4% glucose solution compared with a placebo containing saccharin (60.4 ± 3.7 and 61.6 ± 3.8 min, respectively, P = 0.007). The corresponding fMRI study (Study 1B) revealed that oral exposure to glucose activated reward-related brain regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex and striatum, which were unresponsive to saccharin. In Study 2A, eight endurance-trained cyclists (Graphic 57.8 ± 3.2 ml kg?1 min?1) tested the effect of rinsing with a 6.4% maltodextrin solution on exercise performance, showing it to significantly reduce the time to complete the cycle time trial (total work = 837 ± 68 kJ) compared to an artificially sweetened placebo (62.6 ± 4.7 and 64.6 ± 4.9 min, respectively, P = 0.012). The second neuroimaging study (Study 2B) compared the cortical response to oral maltodextrin and glucose, revealing a similar pattern of brain activation in response to the two carbohydrate solutions, including areas of the insula/frontal operculum, orbitofrontal cortex and striatum. The results suggest that the improvement in exercise performance that is observed when carbohydrate is present in the mouth may be due to the activation of brain regions believed to be involved in reward and motor control. The findings also suggest that there may be a class of so far unidentified oral receptors that respond to carbohydrate independently of those for sweetness.

Footnotes

*

(Resubmitted 2 October 2008; accepted after revision 17 February 2009; first published online 23 February 2009)

Play Now:

 Fat_loss_tip_CHO_sensing: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #7

The concepts covered in Z Health continue on and make sure to see a few of the previous ones below if you missed them.

• Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #6: Optimal Motor Learning

• Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #5: All the Body All the Time

• Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #4: The 3 Rs of R Phase Why is it called R-Phase?

• Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #3: Why focus on the nervous system?

• Z Health Athletic Performance System Review: Concept #2 The SAID Principle

Sensory motor amnesia (SMA)

This term was first coined by Dr. Thomas Hanna and describes a process where you have lost sensation of certain parts of your body! Sounds crazy, but if you can not feel it, do you think you will have a loss of performance? You betcha (see, I am from Minnesota and I am having hot dish for dinner with a lutefisk chaser; I know you are jealous).

Startle Reflex

This is a hard wired reflex in everyone. You can learn to modify it, but it impossible to extinguish it completely. The body is survival based, not performance based. Personally, I think this sucks, but I can’t change it.

To get a performance increase, you need to teach the body how to survive better.

Increased survival potential is a way to “back door” performance increase. By learning to watch for startle, you can gage your performance. In general, if you are going into startle you will need to drop the load on your lift. Now you may be able to lift it, but long term you are not doing yourself any favors by constantly going into startle every time.

Andy Bolton deadlifts1008 lbs for a new world record

Watch Benedikt Magnusson do a 1100 Pound Deadlift

Watch Benedikt Magnusson’s training for the deadlift.

Is he making it look hard?

I LOVE watching those video!!

What did you see?

Even though it is a world record for Andy Bolton and the other lifts are nuts, there is minimal startle.  Bolton’s face is still relatively calm. He makes it LOOK easy. That is your goal. Make it LOOK easy. All the greats do that, from Wayne Gretzky, to Michael Jordan, to Tiger Woods to Barry Sanders.

Any comments, post away at the bottom!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

Here is an article for more information on the concepts above that I wrote for XL Athlete

XL Athlete Dysfunctional Exercise Cues By Mike T Nelson

Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #6:
Optimal Motor Learning

While there are many different theories on motor learning (how do you learn to do a new task such as a deadlift, catch a ball, fly at kite, etc), it can be split up roughly into 3 stages based on the number of reps

The 3 Stages are

1 )Cognitive (1-1,000 reps)

2) Associative (1,000 to 100,000 reps)

3) Autonomous (100,0000 to 300,000 reps)

(editor’s note, I updated the reps on autonous after more research and talking with Dr. Cobb, the numbers are very hard to nail down exactly in research and are our best guess)

When you first learn a brand new task you are in the cognitive stage since you have to think very hard about it.

After about 1,000 reps you are starting to get a handle on the movement, but it still requires some thought.

After about 100,000 reps, you are getting into the autonomous stage (think automatic) where you have very little to none conscious thought.

For Tiger Woods to hit a golf ball is in the autonomous realm.  Walking is an autonomous motion for everyone other than very young kids. You are a professional walker and you don’t have to think “ok, here I go, right foot in front, point the foot……” You just walk without much thought!

The goal initially is to get to the autonomous stage based on GOOD patterns.

“When you practice something ‘wrong’ you get really really good at the ‘wrong’ thing.

The longer you practice failure, the harder it becomes to recognize success.

Be careful what you practice, you may get really good at the wrong thing!”

–Tony Blauer

(Thanks to Frankie for sending that one to me)

Summary

Make sure you are doing perfect practice and get your reps in (practice).

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

Tiger Fans!

Photo by aka-nolimit “Volleyball Defense”

All the Body All the Time

It is Monday and we are back again with the Monday Mobility corner.

The behind the curtain of the Z Health Athletic Performance System rolls on.

If you missed any of the previous concepts, check them out below

• Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #4: The 3 Rs of R Phase Why is it called R-Phase?

• Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #3: Why focus on the nervous system?

• Z Health Athletic Performance System Review: Concept #2 The SAID Principle

Key Z Health R Phase Review Concept #5:  “All the body all the time”

This is one of Dr. Cobb’s favorite quotes. The body is all connected via the nervous system, so you MUST take this into account. Less than optimal joint mobility in ANY joint will result in a less than optimal performance. This is the reason for joint mobility work for every joint in the Z-Health R Phase manual.

Think of it as having any one of your car tires go flat.  Your performance will be less than optimal, so you need to get mobility in all of the joints.

See the posts below for more details

Z Health Case Study: Car Accident and Basketball Performance

Z Health Feedback and Jaw Mobility?

Z Health Joint Mobility and Olympic Marathon Running

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

In my coffee induced haze of late working on writing my dissertation, I totally forgot to tell you that I did an interview with Jack Woodrup at Vertical Jumping.com about how to use the power of the nervous system to increase your vertical!   Having a great vertical jump can increase your abilities as an athlete or maybe you just want to work on dunking a basketball.

Michael Jordan’s First Windmill Dunk in NBA – The funniest movie is here. Find it

I could watch Michael Jordan play basketball all day! WOW!

In the interview, we also discuss

• what exercise to perform
• kettlebells
• joint mobility
• and much more.

Click on the link below

VerticalJumping.com Interview with Mike T Nelson<–click here

Note:  There is a special offer there too where you can get a $40 value of special report I dd on mobilty, Z-Health and some cool neuro “hacks” to unlock your strength.   If you are on my email newsletter list,  watch your inbox for it as you will get it for free.  If you are not on my list, you can still get it at the site there just by entering your email address.

I had a blast doing the interview and I really want to thank Jack at vertical jumping who made it happen.  Jack lives in the land “down under” and was kind enough to start the interview at 11pm due to the time change between Australia and Minnesota.  He did a great job of hosting it on his site and has tons of great information there on how to increase your vertical jump, so check it out!

Crazy Kangaroos and Mad Ups!

We all know Australia is known for kangaroos and that a kangaroo has a crazy vert!  Check out this video of a kangaroo using his leg power!

I need to thank Eric Cressey for putting that one up on his blog recently.  I’ve watched it about 6 times already and I laugh hard each time.

Any questions, feedback, let me know in the comments section here!

Have a great weekend.

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

Be sure to check out the other great free interviews there too, especially the one on plyometrics from plyo expert Shawn Myszka.

VerticalJumping.com Interview with Mike T Nelson

I recently did an interview with Mark Young (see his smily face above) from Mark Young Training Systems  below

Mike T Nelson Interview: The Nervous System, Neuroplasticity, Joint Mobility and More!

In the interview, we chatted about the nervous system, neuroplasticity, working the opposite joint for better strength and mobility & more!

This is not the typical “stretch this” “just lift heavy” etc interview. We go into specifics on how you can dramatically increase your performance in the gym and on the field in seconds!

Go to the link below to Mark’s site here and check it out it out now.

Mike T Nelson Interview: The Nervous System, Neuroplasticity, Joint Mobility and More!

And it is totally FREE too.

Special thanks to Mark for taking the time to interview me.

Five Finger Death Punch Video

They are back!  The boys from Five Finger Death Punch have a brand new CD “War is the Answer“  I picked it up today and it is AMAZING.  If you loved their last CD, you will love this one.

Below is a video for the first single.  If you like your metal hard and heavy with clean vocals and some guitar solos, you have to pick up this CD.   The amount of passion they put into their music is stellar and something that you don’t see in most music today, especially most of the crap you hear on the radio.  Lead singer Ivan Moody can actually sing very well live the times I’ve seen them.

They will be playing 2 shows here in Minnesota as a show on Oct 1 was just added at the Rock.   They will be with Shadow’s Fall (new CD is amazing) and OTEP.  I already have my tickets.

Let me know what you think of the interview and if any “knuckleheads” are going to be at the 5FDP show and thoughts on the new CD by dropping some comment love below

Rock on
Mike T Nelson

Upcoming Shows ( view all )
Sep 22 2009 8:00P
The Regency Grand San Francisco, California
Sep 23 2009 8:00P
Crest Theater Fresno, California
Sep 24 2009 8:00P
The Glass House Pomona, California
Sep 26 2009 2:00P
KUPD’s Summer Scorcher @ THE FARM Phoenix
Sep 27 2009 8:00P
Sunshine Theater Albuquerque, New Mexico
Sep 28 2009 8:00P
The Black Sheep Colorado Springs, Colorado
Sep 30 2009 7:00P
Sokol Auditorium Omaha, Nebraska
Oct 1 2009 8:00P
The Rock Maplewood, Minnesota
Oct 2 2009 8:00P
The Rock Maplewood, Minnesota
Oct 3 2009 8:00P
Club V Chicago, Illinois
Oct 5 2009 8:00P
Wescott Theatre Syracuse, New York
Oct 6 2009 8:00P
Northern Lights Clifton Park, New York
Oct 8 2009 8:00P
House of Blues Boston, Massachusetts
Oct 9 2009 7:30P
Bourbon Street Ballroom Baltimore, Maryland
Oct 10 2009 8:00P
Webster Theatre Hartford, Connecticut
Oct 11 2009 8:00P
Starland Ballroom Sayreville, New Jersey
Oct 13 2009 7:00P
TLA Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Oct 15 2009 7:00P
The Crofoot Pontiac, Michigan
Oct 16 2009 8:00P
Orpheum Theater Madison, Wisconsin
Oct 17 2009 6:30P
Orbit Room Grand Rapids, Michigan
Oct 18 2009 7:00P
Expo Five Louisville, Kentucky
Oct 20 2009 7:00P
Sunset Station San Antonio, Texas
Oct 21 2009 7:30P
Pavilion Lubbock, Texas
Oct 23 2009 7:00P
The Village Little Rock, Arkansas
Oct 24 2009 8:00P
Mo Freakers Ball Kansas City, Missouri
Oct 25 2009 7:00P
Pop’s Sauget, Illinois
Oct 26 2009 8:00P
Diamond Ballroom Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oct 28 2009 6:00P
KBPI’s INFEST @ The Fillmore Denver, Colorado
Oct 30 2009 7:00P
The Great Salt Air Salt Lake City, Utah
Oct 31 2009 7:00P
Knitting Factory Boise, Idaho
Nov 1 2009 7:30P
Knitting Factory Spokane, Washington
Nov 2 2009 6:30P
Showbox SoDo Seattle, Washington
Nov 11 2009 8:00P
Live Music Hall Koln
Nov 12 2009 8:00P
Columbia Club Berlin
Nov 13 2009 7:00P
Vox Hall Aarhus
Nov 14 2009 8:00P
Klubben Stockholm
Nov 16 2009 8:00P
Nosturi Helsinki
Nov 18 2009 8:00P
John Dee Oslo
Nov 19 2009 8:00P
Brewhouse Gothenburg
Nov 20 2009 8:00P
The Rock Copenhagen
Nov 21 2009 8:00P
Sputnikhalle Munster
Nov 22 2009 8:00P
Grunspan Hamburg
Nov 24 2009 8:00P
Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton
Nov 25 2009 8:00P
Garage Glasgow
Nov 26 2009 8:00P
Academy Manchester
Nov 27 2009 8:00P
Electric Ballroom London
Nov 29 2009 8:00P
Academy Oxford
Nov 30 2009 8:00P
Waterfront Norwhich

Just got back Sunday night from the second weekend of Z-Health R-Phase here in Minneapolis, MN.   Great times and awesome to see everyone there again.

I will have a full update on my powerlifting meet very soon!  If you follow me on twitter, you can find the results

follow Mike T Nelson on twitter by clicking here

It is Mobility Monday and time for Z Health concept and common question:

If you missed the past reviews, please see the links below

Z Health R-Phase Review : Why Focus on the Nervous System

Z Health Athletic Performance System Review: The SAID Principle

Z Health Athletic Performance System: Behind the Curtains Part 1

Key Z Health R Phase Concept #4: The 3 Rs of R Phase Whys is it called R-Phase?

1)Re-education
2)Injury Rehabilitation
3)Movement Restoration

Re-education

It is called RE-education since most HAD good movement, but have LOST it. When I demonstrate a Z Health wrist circle, most look at it and go “Oh, that is easy! but then they try to do it with PRECISION and it is quite hard on the first few reps. Your brain at some level knows that you knew it, but lost it. The purpose of Z-Health is to RE-educate your body via dynamic mobility training.

Injury Rehabilitation

While the goal is not to diagnosis anything, the goal is to get them to perform at a higher level, despite their injuries. I know for myself, that I have managed to do all sorts of “not so good things to my body” such as

• pulled groin on both sides and hip flexors (very poor lifting technique)
• midline scar (open heart surgery in 1978 for a heart defect)
• scoliosis
• formally had no 3D vision (currently some suppression of my right eye, used to be complete)
• multiple sprains to ankles and fingers (basketball)
• sprained/partially torn right ankle (snowboaring crash, wearing a walking cast in the winter sucks!)
• multiple car accidents
• torticollis (aka wry neck)
• ripped out right shoulder completely to about the middle of my chest (broomball game)
• separated left shoulder (mountain biking accident)

the list goes on….

I can honestly say that now I am moving,  feeling and lifting better at 35 years old than at any other point in my life. Now it has taken awhile to get to good movement, but Z Health has been the only thing that I have tried that began to make a difference right away.

Getting through your injuries is huge for performance increases and if you target the nervous system with precise work, this is EXPECTED.

Movement Restoration

Many times by getting athletes to move better results in dramatic decreases in pain. While my goal is not to explicitly treat pain, my goal is to get them to move better and most of the time that result of moving better is dramatic decreasing in pain. Since we are targeting the nervous system, many changes can take place in seconds! I can give you multiple examples of times when this is true. Some examples from Z-Health work that I have done

• Female powerlifter missed 281 pounds on her second attempt at a meet. Some Z Health drills and in a few minutes goes on to pull 281 pounds.
• Athlete twisted his ankle at a fun house and pain is 7/8 on a scale of 1-10 (1=little to no pain, 10= loss of a limb). After some Z-Health drills 40 minutes later his pain was less than a 2.
• Olympic marathon competitor had big toe pain of about 7/8 (out of 10) and left hip pain of about 6/7. After about 45 minutes of Z-Health she was able to roll up on her big toe without pain for the first time in 1.5 years and left hip pain was less than a 2 also.

…and there are many more. See the link below here

Z Health/Mike T Nelson testimonials

Now it is not always that easy, but many times it can be with the right applied knowledge. I am currently batting at about 90% of athletes seeing a huge increase in movement quality (and pain reduction) in one session. Again, this is not going to be true for everyone, but for most it truly is. This does not mean that all of their issues are gone and they still need to work on their movement homework drills for about 10 minutes a day for 3-4 weeks to get the changes to hold.  They will also have other things to work on to increase their performance, as the pursuit of excellence is a life long journey, but getting a huge jump start is a great way to start out!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

PS

If you are in the Minnesota/ St Paul area and are interested in a Z-Health mobility session, drop me an email at michaelTnelson@yahoo.com