Move Better and Feel Better with Pilates AND a Brain-Body Approach toward Movement. Let's begin with the brain. Neurology 101: A Simple Understanding of How Your Nervous System Works and Why It Matters

I receive emails and questions asking why do I do vision or balance exercises?  To answer these questions, I need to start by giving you a short lesson about neurology. 

First, you have a brain. You can’t actually see your brain and that’s actually a test of your visual system.  Your brain basically has 3 primary tasks: #1 - it receives input and basically what this means, you have eyes sending input. You have feet sending input. Your whole body is sending input to the brain. So your brain’s #1 job is to receive input and the quality of the input is incredibly important.  So, if you were at your computer trying to type an email and you’re not paying any attention to the keys that you’re pressing, you’re giving a lot input, but it won’t give you the end result you’re looking for. Bottom line: your brain is receiving a lot of input and there is a lot of inputs that has to be sorted out.

Second, task for your brain is #2 - is to receive that input and interpret the input.  The brain has to interpret and decide. So the brain has to take the input signals from your eyes and ask, “What is it? Is it the color blue?  Is it the color red?” And that’s the interpretation and does it matter?  “Oh, it’s a STOP sign.  Yeah, it actually matters so the decision part is very important.

Then we go to the third thing #3 that your brain or nervous system has to do and that is to create an output. An output is all about muscles and reflexes and visceral responses and heart function and blood pressure.

So, you’re driving along and you see a red sign in front of you and your brain can INTERPRET that it’s red. Your brain can go “ah, it’s red and it says ‘stop.’”  That’s a DECISION and sends an OUTPUT to your foot so that you can press the brakes.  That’s Neurology in a nutshell!

So the inputs your brain is receiving, are they good ones? Are the inputs enough?  Does your brain understand what the inputs are and can your brain interpret the inputs?  Can it decide what to do with the inputs intelligently and then ultimately, can your brain send good signals out to the rest of the body to say “hey this is what I want to enact in the world.”

That’s Neurology 101.

This explains why Pilates Whole Body approaches movement from a brain-body approach.  Because if we look at the human body, we can ask “what are the different ways that I can receive input?”  Inputs can come through your eyes, your inner ear, your muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, vibration and pressure and all of these things.

So, if I am working with you as your brain-body movement professional, as a Z Health Trainer®, I am interested in, for example, if I ask you to close your eyes and I touch your index finger and your ring finger.  Can you tell the difference? Because if you have LOUSY INPUT, that’s a BIG DEAL because it makes it hard for your brain to INTERPRET. It makes it really hard to DECIDE and then ultimately your OUTPUT will be poor.

Another example, if I ask you do a figure eight (8) with your shoulder, can you actually do that?  Can you coordinate it and can you tell me the muscles to turn on and off appropriately as necessary because that also tells me, as your brain-body movement professional, Z Health Trainer® a lot about YOUR BRAIN. 

So whenever you think about Pilates Whole Body’s (PWB) brain-body approach, a Z Health Trainer®, and you learn about what PWB does in a training environment asking why does a brain-body movement professional talk about the eyes?  Because it makes a difference in sports performance.  Because it makes a difference in the gym.  It make a difference in pain.  It makes a difference in rehabilitation.  Everything that Pilates Whole Body, as a brain-body movement professional, is doing is based off of this basic concept of input, interpretation/decision, and output.

So what’s the next step or what does this really mean for you? It’s very important that you understand this part. #1, if you have stuff that you’ve been struggling with meaning you’ve got a bad shoulder, bad knee, or bad back, I guarantee you this is the answer somewhere. You’ve got an input problem, an interpretation problem or an output problem and you need to be working professionals that understand this (neurology) and can help you delineate or figure out what that problem is.

My recommendations are if you have been dealing with any kind of chronic issues, #1, make sure you don’t have anything serious. That means go to your doctor or your health care professional and get cleared for exercise.  That’s very important.

And if you’re looking to work on these things, work with me, a brain-body movement professional, that can have this kind of conversation with you.  I would need to look at at all the different sensory input that you are getting, look at how your brain is taking the information in, and then do some tests to see are your muscles working, are your ligaments working, all your joints - essentially testing to see if everything is working like they are supposed to.

Because somewhere in that chain is the answer to your problem.

Pilates Whole Body is more than just a Pilates studio.  It has a signature brain-body approach to all movement that is based on the understanding that all movement starts from the top: your brain. 

To learn more and to set up a brain-body (neuro) session with South Dakota's first and only Z Health Trainer, contact me, Jan at [email protected].