From the Ground Up Athletic Performance Podcast Chris Cervantes and Jevon Bowman " Neurological considerations: Involving the brain in training and development, considerations for athletic development"
Links for Virtual Speed and Performance as well as Personal code for $15 off located at the bottom
On this episode I sat down with Chris Cervantes and Jevon Bowman of the University of Tulsa. This episode was truly a treat, these guys were able to share valuable information about how they are able to make meaningful and quick interventions in their athletes development, preparation, and overall well being through taking into account the brain and its role in training. We start the conversation by discussing their top considerations going into offseason prep and Chris and Jevon share a variety of considerations such as taking into account things that have been lost or diminished while in season.
Our main consideration throughout this talk is how these guys are implementing functional neurology in a team setting over at the University of Tulsa, so we spent the bulk of the conversation covering how these guys are able to achieve that. They discuss how RPR was kind of their entry point into the neurological process. They discus how their warmups save time and truly prepare athletes for what the body is required to do in dynamic movements. The tone system of the muscles is largely responsive to vestibular/ VOR, posture , which everyone knows shapes determine the manners in which we move is largely reflexive. The guys discuss how they stack and layer a variety of neurological series ranging from piezoelectric means, ocular motor, Vestibular means, and visual considerations. Another system which I will link in the notes that they guys couldn't speak highly enough is Square 1 Systems.
Chris and Jevon share some of their own experiences and experimentation that they have used to validate different neurological methods such as testing different force outputs on exercises based upon eye movements. They also utilized GPS units to look at how Jevon responded to trauma on a certain side where he had previously been hit by a car. If we are constantly dealing with a threat response we aren't in a natural state to skill acquire and learn we're stuck in feed forward mechanics. We also discuss how to avoid monotony and utilize variability to provide novelty and keep an atmosphere that avoids monotony and is conducive to learning. We shift to more programming considerations towards the end of the conversation and discuss main considerations for in season prep and how they account for properly stimulating the nervous system during times of competition. Chris and Jevon also share how they rationalize certain measurables within an in season setting that help to examine likelihood of injury as well as validation of programming choices. At the end I asked the guys to share the manners in which they felt those that wish to begin implementing neurological means into their programs might best start. They share many of the intriguing systems that they use and an important consideration, which is don't overwhelm yourself or your athletes at first, get good at one area and then layer it together. Overall this was a great conversation and I loved listening to the perspective presented by these guys in this weeks episode!
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