Category: Uncategorized

pain, performance, Uncategorized

Survival vs Performance Mode

Neuro Training Performance

Many people can relate to this concept, especially for people who had a concussion in their life and can’t seem to find a way to get ahead and find improvements in their life.

What is Survival mode?

Think of being in survival mode, as a way of how the brain and body feels when you can’t seem to catch up in life. That there are so many barriers in your life that seems overwhelming and thus making it very difficult and challenging for one to overcome them and find success. It is a feeling where your goals are so far down the road and you either will not risk expending the energy in order to attempt to achieve them or you make the attempt towards it but experience some minor bumps/falls, which causes you to go back to the beginning again. Basically experiencing a downward spiral or cycle for the worse. A 1 step forward – 2 steps back feeling towards your goals.

I have mentioned in a previous blog post explaining that your brain’s #1 job is making sure that you are alive and that your brain is a predictable organ. It is always analyzing how much brain fuel it has for the day and thus will determine how well you can do your objectives/activities throughout the day. If your brain analyzes that your fuel source is very low at any part of the day, then it will bring on any output such as “pain/fatigue/nauseous/dizzy/depression/anxious nociception signal” etc. to the body as a way to say: “I understand that you want to go for a walk/work/socialize etc. but I don’t have the brain fuel capacity/energy to do that activity so as a way for you to not do that activity, I will give you a “Pain signal” or any other symptom listed above in order to have you stop and make a change.

These are the characteristics and behaviour that a typical person being in “Survival Mode” feels like. The brain feels unsafe and would deliver communication signals to the body aka pain or any other symptom described above in order to keep you doing the same routine because it feels more safe and doesn’t need to expend much energy/brain fuel.

Some examples of what it feels to be in survival mode:

Frequently getting injured or re-injuring the same area

Feeling depressed.

Chronic Anxiety, sad, emotionally unstable, Frequently dizzy or nauseous.

Always feeling distracted, disorganized, makes poor decisions

Uncoordinated, poor balance, poor posture.

What is it like to be in Performance Mode?

This is the state of being where everything and anything you are doing is flowing well for you. You are in this state because your brain is analyzing that you have optimal brain fuel/energy, your brain is able to process all the signals that it is receiving such as proprioception, vestibular & visual signals really well. It is able to create better outcomes and you get to achieve your goals faster because there are very few times where you take steps back towards your goals, you are always aligning yourself towards your target in achieving your goals.

The examples of being in Performance Mode is literally the opposite of all the symptoms of being in Survival mode. So you will feel more opportunistic, a risk taker, up to the challenge, feeling more courageous and able to be in a flow state more often.

The great news about about all of this, is that through neuroplasticity, where the brain is able to adapt and change over time, is that YOU are able to change/rewire your brain to be able to overcome from being in Survival Mode. The perfect way to do it is to improve the input signals that your brain receives, in order for it to reduce the “pain/tension” output signals that it has always been giving as an survival mechanism. Once you have discovered what signals you need to improve, then you need to keep on improving those signals and to keep growing on that habit, so that your brain will continue to feel safe. That way you will be more often in performance mode and also you will know how to get back into performance mode more easily if you unintentionally have a minor set back. Neuroplasticity is a remarkable gift that our brains can do, so that anyone can truly overcome from their past trauma/injuries in their life.

Looking for direction on how to improve the input signals that your brain is receiving so that you can actively get out of survival mode and continuously be in performance mode?

One effective way is to Hire a Neuro-Performance Coach. He/she can work with you to help improve those specific inputs that your nervous system is needing in order to help you get out of Survival mode and to lead you to being in Performance mode for good. A Neuro-Performance Coach has the ability to analyse all the different inputs that each nervous system receives (ie: vision, balance, body signals etc.) and provide the appropriate stimulation as a way to rewire the brain to improve and get you to performing better. It is removing the barriers that have been preventing you from reaching your goals and ultimately giving you the opportunity to become a healthier version of yourself.

You can contact Mack to book your free 30 minute consultation:

Email – mack@ntperformance.ca or

Phone – 780-238-6225.

Thank you for reading my content. Please like, share and subscribe if this post resonated with you and you want to learn more. 🙂

Have a great day.

pain, Uncategorized

Have yourself a merry painless Christmas

Neuro Training Performance

       Think about a house full of people spending time together on Christmas evening.  All of the appliances are running to cook the delicious turkey dinner, every single light in every room is on, the Christmas lights on the exterior of the house and on the tree inside are sparkling beautifully and bright.  In every room there is a TV displaying a gorgeous fire in a fireplace and all of the music players are playing several holiday favourite songs. 

Everyone in the house is happy, laughing and having a terrific time.  One family member is late getting ready for the dinner party and just finished having a shower. They just turned on the hair dryer and “BOOM”,  all of the power goes out in the house.  It is unknown when the power will be back on and the Turkey is only half way cooked in the oven.  A Christmas evening everyone did not expect nor wanted.

This is very similar to how your brain can convey and communicate to the body.  Blowing a fuse in the house is just like a pain output your brain gives off to the body.  

Your brain is able to handle 7 +/- 2 things at once.  If your brain has any more input then theoretically, your brain will “blow a fuse” and will deliver a pain signal to anywhere in the body. 

Do not fret though, pain is a safety communication tool that your brain creates, in order for the body to stop what they are doing and to make a change.  Your brain’s number 1 job is to keep you alive and if it senses that you are unsafe, then it will create an output of pain anywhere in the body. 

There are several factors that come into play in order for your brain to handle several stimuli all at once, for some people (depending on their stressors, they can only handle 1-2 different stimuli before a “fuse bursts”).

Some factors you can start today in order to increase or maintain the right amount of stimulus, throughout the day are:

  1. Making sure you have 7.5+ hours of sleep every night.
  2. Making sure you are well nourished, and to eat and consume the types of food that can provide immediate energy to your brain and doesn’t slow down your metabolism.
  3. Go for a walk outside, move your body, perform your Neuro Drills (drills that deliberately make your unique nervous system feel awesome again).   These will help keep your brain active and it gives you the ability to maintain adequate stimulus that it receives from your eyes, body, and balance systems.
  4. Take time to train your respiratory system by performing breathwork.  Not only will this improve your energy capacity, you will feel more relaxed and all of the psychosocial stressors that are inflicted on you will start to fade away.

These are a few examples you can try to help your nervous system.  You know you are on the right track to live in a pain-free lifestyle when you recognize when your brain is receiving too much stimulus at the moment and you need to make a change, before a “fuse blows.”   

The drills listed above can be your solution to help keep you doing what you love to do, rather than adding barriers and limiting yourself of your capabilities.  By creating good, healthy neuro habits daily, you will create that neuroplastic change in yourself to be able to handle an adequate amount of stimuli all day long.  Fewer moments of blowing the fuse in your nervous system.

Please let me know if you have any questions and follow me for more tips on how you can train your own nervous system to work for you, not against you. 🙂
Thank you for viewing my content, Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. 😀

Have Yourself a Merry Painless Christmas!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

pain, Uncategorized

Does your brain currently have a “Blurred Visual Map”?

Neuro Training Performance

Are you still experiencing pain from an injury that happened several weeks/months/years ago?

You might be experiencing chronic pain in that area because your brain is seeking an appropriate stimulus to know if that injured site is safe to mobilize again.

If it hasn’t received that appropriate stimulus, then your brain will continue to give that area a pain signal until either:

A) You receive that appropriate stimulus(es) and then able to accurately mobilize that area in a safe manner or,

B) You take pain medication, which will only put a blanket over the symptoms and can potentially be harmful to your internal organs, vestibular system other parts of your nervous system etc. This option won’t actually help the primary issue in the long run, thus leading to unnecessary surgery or worse, adding more barriers to your physical & fitness goals. Or,

​
C) You choose to just “deal” with the pain, refuse to take any pain medication and hope the pain will go away miraculously. However, this way will not only limit your performance, you are also more prone for injuries in the future and are adding barriers from achieving your physical goals

Client Story –

I recently had a client who came to see me because he had pain in his ankle ever since he accidently banged it on a rock when swinging on a rope near an open body of water.

He injured his ankle 3 months ago but the pain still lingered on especially when he walks fast or runs.

I initially talked to him about the modern science of pain. I described to him how damaged tissue should only take a few days to a few weeks to heal. Not 3 months from what he is experiencing.

After an elaborate discussion with him, and gathered enough data from his health history, I asked him if he was experiencing one of the following emotions towards his ankle.

The emotions were either – Fear, Anger, or Suffering.

I then tested an unrelated muscle strength, to get a good understanding of how his nervous system is interpreting any stimulus I give him. I found that suffering was an emotion that has been on his mind when he tried to walk, run or even mobilize his ankle.

After completing the treatment of having him look at his ankle and think about suffering, his nervous system was ready to reset that type of pain stimulus.

I had him run down the hallway afterwards and he said the pain was 100% gone.

He said to me the big break thru he experienced during my treatment session was that when I told him that his ankle is not injured and that injured tissues heal.

So the next time you are experiencing pain, anywhere in your body and you blame that significant injury you had several weeks, months, or years ago. Remember that your brain is giving the body that pain signal not because there is anything wrong or damaged to the tissues but because of the lack of point A) or because you are on the path for point B) or C) as described above.

Remember this:

Pain ≠ Injury and Injury ≠ Pain.

Give your brain the stimulus that it is missing and you will be able to be more stable, more mobile and have less moments of moving into pain.

I hope this post resonates with you. If you know anyone who is in chronic pain please share this post and I can do my best to help them understand that their chronic pain can be resolved, no surgery or medication required. They just need the correct stimulus that their brain is seeking.

Please comment if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading my content.

Uncategorized, vision

Vision Training

Neuro Training Performance
Site icon
Vision Training

​There are several names out there for a variety of visual conditions. A few examples are:

Astigmatism
Amblyopia
Far-sightedness
Near-sightedness
Strabismus

or have reading/ visual processing difficulty such as

Dyslexia
Alexia

Or people who cannot stay focused on a task such as ADHD.

Several visual conditions are developed over time or congenital, or after a serious brain injury such as a concussion or stroke.

If you are needing glasses as a tool to see better or if you are challenged by using your eyes everyday then your brain understanding of where you are in space in confusing.

Think of it as your brain has a “blurred vision map”, It has a difficult time to know how to use the eyes appropriately and cannot locate or process as efficiently as it could.

Having a “blurred visual map” can play a massive role in how you think, move, feel, behave, balance and of course see in your environment.

luckily, your brain loves to learn, it is adaptable and wants to add clarity to that once “blurred visual map”. You brain needs to know how to add clarity though.

That is why training your eyes, in specific movements, can add clarity to your “brain’s visual map” so that you will be able to think, move, feel, react, balance and see better in your environment.

The better you get at training these pathways the better you will become. You will be able to train these pathways to move very fast, making them energy cost efficient so that you will be able to perform at your favorite activity more efficient and have less moments of error or fatigue.

Side note – Even if you are experiencing pain at the moment – the better you are able to train your eyes, the more moments you will be without pain. I can explain this in a later post.

Caution – Training your vision can be both rewarding and impactful to your nervous system. Once you know how to train your eyes to make yourself see, feel and move better then there is no looking back 😉

I hope you found this post inSIGHTful. Let me know in the comments what is your favorite eye exercise. Thank you for reading. 🧠💪

Uncategorized

What is your “Why?”

Neuro Training Performance

Ask yourself these questions: 

1. Why do you repeat the habits that you tend to have everyday?

2. When you do those types of habits, are you thinking about how it contributes to achieving your goals and ultimately your identity? or do you feel like you are stuck in rut?  

If you feel like you are wasting time when you do those habits, then it might be a good idea to review the most fundamental question of your existence.  

Answering the question “What is your Why?” is a huge step and should be the foundational criteria in order to make a difference in your actions and behaviours.  Numerous individuals, leaders and companies fall short of their goals simply because their reasoning wasn’t a great enough force to make change last.

I personally have met several people who had a goal to lose weight or to become stronger but lifting weights and running on the treadmill had derailed them from coming back to a gym setting.  One of the culprits of this, is that their “Why” wasn’t a strong motivator enough to keep pushing themselves to expend the calories in a gym setting.  

Every individual is different, and that makes your “Why”  so unique. Your “Why” can be developed at any age based on past experiences, cultural factors, social/work environments, beliefs, knowledge and logic.  All of these concepts are analyzed by your brain because your brain’s #1 job is to make sure you survive. If the events that you involved in are considered “safe” by your brain, then you are more likely to do it again.  If your habits are closely associated with your “Why” then you have the emotional driver to aid in your desire to achieve your goals.

That emotional component is very powerful, because it can solidify new habits and make you stronger as a whole.

Let me explain with an example:  A mother of 2 children who works at an 8 hour office job, then only has about 5 hours left in the day to cook, clean and rest/recover for the next day. One of her goals is to lose weight, but she has never been to a fitness center before. She is unlikely to go to the gym after work everyday to expend more calories, especially if she is a novice at the gym. How is she planning on achieving her goal?

If the mother’s “Why” is to support the family more than herself, then her tendencies will follow suit.  She will wake up everyday and do the activities that follow her values and leave her personal health on the back burner.  If her “Why” is to promote growth and development in her family, then we would assume that after her 8 hour office job she would do more activities that involve her family being together. This will make her more happy and less stressed in her day.  

Having less stress and being able to do the activities that you know will make you happy.  It will ultimately have your brain release the natural hormones that make you want to do it again (Dopamine). The release of Dopamine leads to less of the “stress” hormones that contribute to you slowing down and doing less.  Slowing down, leads to low metabolism and perpetuates the vicious cycle of not achieving your goals. 

Knowing your “Why” is where people choose to do things and instill habits.  It is the authentic reason for your goal. If you are a runner, you choose to run often and enjoy every minute of it. You enjoy the preparation work of it by signing up for races for the near future, the type of physical and mental training you do, as well as the type of clothing you wear when you are training and when you are not running. The community you are involved in even keeps you motivated, because you have fun and it helps you stay on track with your goals. 

Anyone can set goals but it is your “Why” that can help drive you to achieve those goals.  Mark McMorris, a Canadian professional snowboarder. Who is an Olympic medalist in both 2014 (Sochi, Russia)  and 2018 (Pyeongchang, South Korea) Winter Olympics. He has also won several medals in 2015 – 2017 at the Winter X-Games.  Despite having a life threatening injury in 2018, where anyone would have thought this would be the end of his professional snowboarding career, he made the incredible comeback to compete and won 2 medals in 2019 and 3 medals in 2020 X-Games.  This is an astonishing story of an athlete’s desire to win and participate in professional snowboarding.

Another athlete who has really taken off from knowing their “Why” is one of my stroke clients.  For confidential purposes I will call him Mr. G.  

Mr. G  is a hard working grandfather who moved to Edmonton from India with his family.  He was a retired taxi driver, truck driver and construction worker.  Learning from his job in construction he decided to retire and build his own house for he and his family to live in.  After going through some health complications with his digestion and heart, he ended up having a stroke which paralyzed his entire left side of the body.  Sensation, strength, coordination and movement was almost obsolete on his left side. Fortunately from the support of his family and understanding about neuroplasticity, Mr. G had the emotional drive and determination to overcome this injury and be able to do the things he enjoyed doing with his family.  After about 2-3 weeks of intense neuro therapy and lots of exercises on his own, Mr. G met all of his goals but he didn’t want to stop there. Mr. G wanted to be able to drive again and to get back to what he loves to do, which was construction. After 2 more weeks of therapy, Mr. G was back at renovating his basement and he got cleared from his doctor that he was in great health to drive again.  

A massive contributor in successfully recovering from Mr. G’s stroke was that everyday he gets to help out the family. If he didn’t have a motivator like that as his “Why”, then any exercise that I would give him, would be unsuccessful.  He would lose interest and give up.  

By acknowledging what your “Why” is, can open doors to learning new skills, new experiences and overall increase happiness in your life.  Your brain will thank you because our brains are made to learn and adapt to any type of changes. It will be ultimately up to you to decide if whatever goals you have, will be aligned to your fundamental question.

Whatever your “Why” is, whether it is being a parent, a reader, an artist etc. you will be spending most of your time in your waking hours doing those types of activities.  This is because you have set that as your identity and it is because you are doing the activities towards your identity that brings you fulfillment and joy. 

Remember that the activity is not your “Why”, it is your identity that is your “Why”.  You are not a golfer, if you golf once or twice a season with your friends. That won’t be a lot of time to perfect yourself in that sport and improve yourself.  Likewise you are not a swimmer if you swim once a month. You are just a person who is swimming.

 People can have multiple “Why’s” but as a suggestion it will save you time and energy to focus on one.   That is because you need to put time and effort into deliberately working towards your “Why”. If you have multiple “Why’s”, then your time is spread out among them and it may seem like you are getting nothing done as opposed to having one direction to go towards.  

If you are working towards your goals, and you find that you are struggling in achieving it for the moment.  Thinking about your “Why” before attending to it, can create an emotional outburst of increased motivation to accomplish it.  For myself, I like to train my vision and balance exercises so that I can improve my skill in the sport activities that I like to participate in.   Visualizing and recalling my “Why” before exercising, has been a helpful driver in keeping up and achieving my goals.

Lastly, do not forget that this is YOUR “Why”, not your friend’s or your spouse’s “Why”.  By setting goals towards your identity based on YOUR “Why” is so much more rewarding because you know that all the time and effort that you put in.  You are accomplishing certain goals that you love to do rather than for someone else.

If you need assistance in discovering your “Why”, please read my last post about neuroplasticity. You can also contact me, and I will be happy to assist you in discovering it.

I would love to hear your feedback.  Thank you so much for reading.

Mack Rutherford – Owner Neuro Training Performance LTD

​

 “Keep on learning.”

Uncategorized

Neuroplasticity

Neuro Training Performance

For the longest time, I thought that our brains are hard-wired. I figured that any dream you wanted to accomplish is all based on your family genetics. As a teenager, I assumed that my dreams of becoming a professional athlete relied on stellar genes for the best muscle fibers and lung capacity. Or if I wanted to be a math genius, I needed intelligent parents and a natural gift. 

I also thought that after the age of 25 or 26, I would be fully developed and at my strongest potential both in intelligence and athleticism.  I figured that around that age, I would be at my prime, every year after my neurons would slowly degenerate until my last moment on earth. 

After those prime years came and went, and my professional athlete dreams were discarded, I started working as a physical therapy assistant in the stroke program at a local hospital.  There I got to assist with rehabilitative therapy for patients who have recovered from a brain injury, a brain bleed or a brain that is deprived from oxygen. During my first few years, I was amazed and excited to see our therapy team train stroke survivors to rewire their damaged brains again and again.  It turned out that these patients’ brains were adaptable, and their outlook was hopeful.  

My original theory about having a hard-wired brain was wrong.  It turns out that our brains are more soft-wired, and that they’re constantly rewiring themselves.  The technical term for this is “neuroplasticity.” As BrainLine’s Celeste Campbell explains.

“Neuroplasticity is the brains’s amazing capacity to change and adapt.  It refers to the physiological changes in the brain that happen as the result of our interactions with our environment.  From the time the brains begins to develop in utero until the day we die, the connections among the cells in our brains reorganize in response to our changing needs.  This dynamic process allows us to learn from and adapt to different experiences.”

In the stroke department, we used “neuro therapy” to train each patient to regain their sensory map, their movement map, their balance map, their interoception map and above all else their vision map.  In the upcoming months, I will explain a lot more about these maps and how neuro therapy works.

Most patients made amazing progress after only about six weeks of intense, ninety minute neuro therapy sessions.  I saw stroke survivors regain function of limbs and become comfortable with their social skills again without fear of mispronouncing or forgetting words.

After getting some experience and comfort in this field, I start to wonder…. If stroke patients can make this kind of progress, why wouldn’t this type of therapy work for other people seeking to improve their own skills or recover fully from their chronic injury? 

It turns out you can!

Understanding neuroplasticity has opened up so many pathways for self-improvement for me.  Sure, I may be limited based on my genetic structure at 5’11, you won’t find me making slam dunks with ease on an official NBA net. But I can train my vision to see more clearly from both eyes and train my balance system to improve coordination and prevent injuries. 

Imagine yourself, walking on an icy sidewalk.  Are you looking down at the ground, worried about falling, creating a high stress response the whole time?  Now imagine walking that same sidewalk with ease and grace, feeling more confident with every step to take.

Neuro training can help you improve your awareness of your body, both internally and externally, so that you can feel more relaxed in any high stress situation, such as talking in front of a group, making a game winning goal or even facing a phobia that you might have.  When you feel more relaxed, you will find that you are stronger in that situation and can make decisions and react faster than ever before. 

Making these kinds of neuroplastic changes-rewiring your brain-takes effort.  Getting better at any skill requires training to create new habits. I wish I could say neuro training has some “magic”  effects. But the reality is that you have to “use it” by activating the brain, or you will eventually “lose it.”  

I ask everyone who reads this article, to write down your top one or two deepest values and spend more time nurturing them everyday.  You can and will achieve the ability to create and solidify the neuroplastic change. You may also want to try removing “distractions” from your daily time.  This can be a great strategy to keep those habits going and create lasting changes in your life

If you need help to create a neuroplastic change in your life, or to improve your daily habits and skills, I can assist in providing options that can work for you. 

I would love to hear your feedback.  Thank you so much for reading.

Mack Rutherford – Owner Neuro Training Performance LTD

​

 “Keep on learning.”

​References

Campbell, C. (2009, February 4). What is neuroplasticity? BrainLine. Retrieved from

https://www.brainline.org/author/celeste-campbell/qa/what-neuroplasticity