My Neural Path Way: My journey from a meat-head to a neuro-head

Recently, I have had a life changing moment. It was all brought on about by a workshop I participated in about 3 months ago regarding Kinesiotape and how to apply it in rehabiliation and performance enhancement.

This workshop was facilitated by my friend and colleague, Dr. Nick Studholme, DC. Of course, we started with the neurophysiology of the Kinesiotape, of which I'll go over in another post, which really excited me. I had already been awakened to the possibility that the body is run by the body's president, the brain by another friend, Dr. Peter Jo, DC. During the summer we discussed, in detail, how the nervous system is the key to the body and how it is important that the we address the nervous system when we look at the body; otherwise, we are missing a huge component.

Well, many books and websites later, I finally found Diane Jacobs and the folks at SomaSimple.com who really got me thinking. They are a group of manual therapy physical therapists, massage therapists and even a few strength coaches and chiropractors who have created a pretty amazing forum dedicated to understanding neuroscience and how it relates to pain elimination/management but easily be applied to performance enhancement especially when so many athletes are in pain.... A LOT.

1 - blastula, 2 - gastrula with blastopore;orange - ectoderm, red - endoderm.

On the forum, they frequently refer to ectoderm and mesoderm. These terms are based in embryology and describe the progression of development of the embryo to maturation with the ectoderm (nervous system, skin)  and the endoderm (digestive organs, lungs, bladder) developing first and THEN the mesoderm (muscles, skeleton and blood systems). Because of this order of development, it seems working with the ECTODERM or nervous system, makes more sense than trying to work with muscles or joints or the MESODERM for a truly functional outcome.

However, MANY in the rehabilitation and strength and conditioning fields are "mesodermalists". They insist that the muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons and fascia are the sources of pain and dysfunction. Treating or training them is the primary focus of many and while they may acknowledge the existence of the nervous system, it seems to be in a more "Oh of course it's important" and then go right back to focusing on joint mobilization/manipulation, ultrasound, deep tissue massage (read: beating), and in training focusing on isolated muscle building, foam rolling to "prep tissues", and joint mobility work.

All well intentioned but what I have learned in working with neuroscience or being an ECTODERMALIST, is that the brain can do all the heavy lifting (no pun intended) in terms of rehab AND training.

WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! I know that probably got some feathers ruffled but it's unfortunately the case folks. Now in terms of strength, sure,  you can't just think yourself strong. You have to obviously increase the demands of load upon the organism to stimulate 'hypertrophy". I totally get that. However, how is that that the signals are sent that stimulates all the necessary metabolic changes to take place? How are type I or type II fibers "recruited?"

Hint: Nervous system.

How about in terms of pain in rehab? Well, just reading Melzacks Neuromatrix  will clue you into that pain is an OUTPUT from the brain and not an input to the brain. This totally changed the way I treated pain along with thinking ectodermally.

I have been getting so much better results while just working with the skin and a technique developed by Diane Jacobs, PT called DERMONEUROMODULATION than digging into fascia or muscles. I simply let the brain do the work. There is no need to cause more pain with these techniques to the patients especially when muscles are just meat and fascia is just structural support. They do not signal the brain themselves. They are simply innervated.

As we look a little closer at training, many coaches say that they are doing "functional training," which is a dirty word in some regards but has become so widely misunderstood, the truly functional training coaches like Vern Gambetta, barely use it anymore. However, I am not sure they are sure who actually sits in the seat of "function." Here's another hint:

It's the nervous system.


I could go on and on about it, but I don't think more details are necessary, at least not in this post. This post was meant to stimulate some deeper thinking on the subject of the Nervous System as the "President of the body". Sure, he can't go at it without support from other departments like the vascular system, the cardiopulmonary system, etc,  BUT he's still the "PREZ".

Thoughts? Questions?

Let me know.

Will