How to integrate Brain Endurance Training into your physical training for performance
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In a meeting with Olympiaparken, Lillehammer about athletic performance, I had an epiphany.
I realised that all of the athletes and coaches I’ve been speaking with, have asked me the same two questions:
1. What exactly is Brain Endurance Training?
2. How does Brain Endurance Training increase an athlete’s performance?
I will answer these two questions in a 5-part blog series, which will explain how Brain Endurance Training (BET), when used correctly, increases cognitive and physical performance for any athlete, in any sport.
Last week we looked at How Brain Endurance Training Can Boost Performance. So this week is (sadly!) the final part of my series and we’re diving into how you can integrate Brain Endurance Trainer into your physical training for enhanced athletic performance.
SOMA NPT (neuro performance tech) is a systematic framework approach to Brain Endurance Training (BET). It is a scientifically-backed app-based (iPhone and iPad only) selection of cognitive training drills.
As seen from the scientific studies on Mental Fatigue and Perception of Effort in my past blogs, when SOMA NPT is integrated correctly into physical training, it increases your mental resilience and resistance to mental fatigue and subsequently increases physical performance.
The main focus of SOMA NPT is to deliberately target the certain areas of the brain that generate mental fatigue, which impairs physical performance (as explained throughout my blog series and Brain Endurance Training Guide For Athletes PDF).
It’s also important to highlight that all information is processed in the brain. This means the skills that are continuously practised in the cognitive drills provide the athlete with a huge competitive advantage.
It’s therefore irrelevant if the drill is requiring the athlete to react to an arrow, circle, ball, competitor or a jumping gorilla, as quickly as possible for a specified time period. The athlete’s brain is still being trained to improve its reaction to information.
I design each athlete’s brain endurance training plan to induce the desired level of mental fatigue, with cognitive drills that are the most relevant to the mental demands of the athlete’s sport.
It’s just like how you train your body at the gym. One machine at the gym isn’t the only machine that will help you gain your desired leg strength and size. Your leg muscles adapt and grow by the way you use the machine and how you progressively increase the load you put your legs under over a period of time.
This is just like your brain. By utilising different cognitive drills that match the demands of your sport and by increasing the cognitive load you put your brain under over a period of time, you create adaptions in the brain that increase your resilience and resistance towards mental fatigue and your physical performance benefits too.
Furthermore, by integrating SOMA NPT into your physical training, enables you to add to the stress you receive from physical training, without including more physical work. This means you’re reducing the risk of injuries and/or overtraining and overreaching syndrome. SOMA NPT therefore allows you to include another training stimulus into your plan without impacting your physical training.
In Summary
As can be seen, BET through SOMA NPT is a highly effective tool when integrated with physical training to increase resilience and enhance neurocognitive ability to endure and sustain higher levels of performance during any sport.
In a world where minutes and milliseconds count, SOMA NPT can give you the edge on the competition and make the difference between coming out on top or not, achieving your potential or falling short.
