What you need to know about fitness boot camps

September 29, 4:29 PMSan Diego Fitness ExaminerLou McGovern

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Is your Fitness Boot Camp preparing your for success?

Boot Camps and CrossFit type training programs have become very popular due to their demanding, competitive, high intensity nature. but this article suggests: “Training the brain to respond to unexpected stimuli, thus sharpening the their anticipatory skills when faced with unexpected scenarios, may be more beneficial than performing rote training exercises in a controlled setting, which is much less random than a true competitive (or real life) scenario”.

In English, what this means is: practicing actual sporting activities - those which force you to react and respond to things in the environment, like an opponent, a ball or a boundary, is better for preventing injuries, than doing fitness drills - pushups, squats, burpees, etc. until you puke.

The article, from Science Daily, suggests that brain training may be much more beneficial than physical training for injury prevention.

Injuries are the most common reason people quit their fitness programs; 75 % of individuals who begin training quit within the first 6 months due to injury. Injuries play a major role in shortening athletic careers and can lead to long term health concerns.

Thus, shifting your approach to training - from trying to perform at a certain level to preventing situations that provoke injury (or compensate performance), can be extremely beneficial to your short-term performance and long-term health.

A study at the University of Michigan found that when subjects performed one-legged squats to fatigue, and then tested the subjects reaction to various jumping and movement commands, both legs (not just the fatigued leg) showed equally dangerous and potentially injurious responses.

As reported in Science Daily, U of M assistant professor Scott McLean, stated: “These finding suggest that training the central control process - the brain and reflexive responses - may be necessary to counter the fatigue induced ACL injury risk”.

In other words, the human body - under control of the brain, has certain hardwired reflexes that are activated in response to overly stressful and fatiguing situations. The ability to recognize & understand these reflexes and train yourself to limit the effect of those reflexes is necessary for injury prevention. 

Recognizing and assessing the affects of those “brain and reflexive responses” and retraining the brain are at the core of the Z-Health System. 

Z-Health is a system rooted in neuroplasticity that utilizes precision movement to retrain the brain to limit the activation of reflexive responses and perform exceptionally in the dynamic and complex environment of athletics.

For more info: visit www.essentialstrength.com for performance and injury preventing tips