Episode 3 - How Take Your Nervous System Into Consideration

To wrap up this chapter, George and Matt kick off with a quote from the legendary late Dr Fred Hatfield. In keeping with the no-nonsense, practical approach that ’Dr Squat’ was known for, the guys focus this episode on providing you with actionable steps to improve your performance and boost your health and longevity.

To start with, they guys recap the ‘be your own scientist’ concept and explain how you can use this systematic approach to improve markers of health and wellness- like resting heart rate or HRV. George then provides examples of protocols that you can use to gain extra accuracy on the range, improve critical thinking in the boardroom or even get a few more pounds on your bench press.

Finally, the guys drop this chapter’s Conscious Warrior Challenge. The guys want you to become your own scientist and use your nervous system to improve your performance.

You can either choose an ‘acute performance’ (e.g. a lift in the gym, or an occupationally relevant task) or focus more on your ‘chronic performance’ (e.g. daily resting heart rate, BOLT score or HRV).

Either way, start by getting some baseline data- i.e. do the acute performance task for a few reps, or take your morning BOLT score for 10-14 days.

Then choose one of the protocols George discussed- either upregulation or downregulation, depending on what you need, and re-test against your baseline scores (i.e. do the acute performance task again, or keep track of that morning BOLT score for another 10-14 days). In true Conscious Warrior style, look at your results and adjust the protocol accordingly.

As ever, we want you to share your ideas and progress with the rest of the community- tag SOFLETE in any pictures or posts of you taking back control of your nervous system.

#DIELIVING

Everything we do here at SOFLETE is based on adding value to our community, so if you have any ideas, requests or questions, please feel free to reach out to us- either through SOFLETE social media or contact George and Matt directly via [email protected] or [email protected].

Please see below for a few resources, linked to today’s episode, that you might find useful:

Power by Dr Fred Hatfield (https://www.amazon.com/Power-Scientific-Approach-Frederick-Hatfield/dp/0809244330)

Some downregulation breathing exercises from Patrick McKeown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaUEVnducI)

Boosting sports performance through breathing with Patrick McKeown (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvZsTfH_8k0)

Brent and Doug discuss the Olympics.

Episode 2 - How Understanding the Nervous System is Relevant to the Tactical Community

In this episode, George and Matt discuss how being able to make some sense of the nervous system can help enhance performance and resilience, specifically for the tactical professional.

In doing so, the guys dive into the role of the autonomic nervous system and consider how the stress response requirements have changed in humans over the last 1000 years.

Matt explains that for a lot of this to make sense, we need to consider the response to both acute and chronic stress. For instance, from a performance enhancement perspective, we need to identify what ‘state’ might be optimal for the completion of a given task (e.g. long range shooting) and then learn how to bridge the gap from our current state, to that desired state.

George then unpacks how Heart Rate Variability (HRV) can be used as a tool for quantifying state, thus providing a baseline from which to experiment.

Everything we do here at SOFLETE is based on adding value to our community, so if you have any ideas, requests or questions, please feel free to reach out to us- either through SOFLETE social media or contact George and Matt directly via [email protected] or [email protected].

Please see below for a few resources, linked to today’s episode, that you might find useful:

How to measure your BOLT score (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scy-_hWLAr0&t=47s)

Unplugged by Brian MacKenzie, Dr A Galpin & Phil White (https://www.amazon.com/Unplugged-Technology-Upgrade-Performance-Consciousness/dp/1628602619)

An interesting read on an evolutionary perspective of stress (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1560227/)

NSCA’s Essentials of Sports Science (https://www.nsca.com/certification/cpss/essentials-of-sport-science/)

Episode 1 - Introducing the Nervous System

This episode comes with a public safety announcement- the human nervous system is a pretty complex piece of hardware; the exact workings of which the scientific community still doesn’t completely understand. Consequently, George and Matt attempt to walk the tightrope balance between providing you with sufficient biological knowledge that you can understand the rest of this chapter in context, whilst still giving practical advice that you can implement directly into your own training.

The episode starts out with Matt providing a brief ‘machine gun style’ overview of the structure of the human nervous system. If this is something you are interested in, then definitely head over to youtube (or your local library!) and spend some time getting familiar with this stuff- particularly if you’re a coach, it does really help to have a solid underpinning of knowledge in this area. The late Canadian sprints coach Charlie Francis epitomised how understanding the nervous system can provide significant advantage in the athletic realm.

George then gets into what this might look like in practice.

He explains how the heart can be used for both input and output mechanisms, respectively. We can prescribe varying stimuli to the heart, to elicit a particular nervous system response. Yet we can also monitor the function of the heart, giving vital biofeedback and providing a glimpse into the inner workings of the nervous system.

As ever, George ties all this theory back to anecdotes from various athletes he has coached over the years.

Everything we do here at SOFLETE is based on adding value to our community, so if you have any ideas, requests or questions, please feel free to reach out to us- either through SOFLETE social media or contact George and Matt directly via [email protected] or [email protected].

Please see below for a few resources, linked to today’s episode, that you might find useful:

An example educational video, explaining the structure of the nervous system in more depth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeo19WVQ47w)

Charlie Francis Training System by Charlie Francis (https://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Francis-Training-System-ebook/dp/B008ZK0WR8)

Chapter 14 of the NSCA’s Essentials of Sports Science (https://www.nsca.com/certification/cpss/essentials-of-sport-science/)

Bottom Of The Barrel 20 - Third Time Is The Charm by SOFLETE

We're back with another episode, listening in on a conversation from the SOFLETE Human Performance Team's virtual office.

Talk this time is based around another book on George's reading list, 'The Creativity Leap' by Natalie Nixon.

In the book, Natalie illustrates the concept of balancing work and play through the construct of 'wonder versus rigor.' She describes how finding time to be creative and reflective ultimately leads to greater quality work being produced.

George and Matt discuss how this concept can be applied across a wide variety of environments, from teaching your child to play softball or preparing for an ultra-endurance event. This episode is a reminder that whatever it is you're doing, take some time to find a way to enjoy it and introduce a little play (or wonder!); you'll undoubtedly reap the reward of increased productivity.

As ever, the guys invite you to join in the conversation- either through SOFLETE's social media or by contacting them directly ([email protected] [email protected]).

The Creativity Leap by Natalie Nixon (https://www.figure8thinking.com/books/)

“Why not”? These two words have been the genesis for many of this week’s guest’s achievements.

Long time SOFLETE Athlete Tony Nash first started asking himself, “why not?” when he accepted a place at Westpoint. Since then, the momentum has continued to grow exponentially for this Buffalo, NY native.

Tony has now served as an Active Duty Field Artillery Officer for 11 years, whilst simultaneously authoring The Night Before Journal, hosting the Got Your Six podcast, graduating with a master’s degree at Cornell, and most recently becoming the first person to complete an Ultra Ergathlon!

In true SOFLETE Athlete fashion, Tony isn’t just content to smash life himself; he’s also all about helping others get a leg up.

From assisting his junior officers in getting academic work published to celebrate the community's everyday successes through his Stacking The Win section on his podcast, Tony shows that a rising tide really does lift all ships.

If you’re interested in learning how to achieve more with less time (no, this isn’t The Shopping Channel!), you definitely need to check out this episode.

Please see below for links to the resources that the gents mention during the podcast.

-To find out more about becoming a Field Artillery Officer (https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/career-match/ground-forces/explosives-artillery/13a-field-artillery-officer.html)

-Tony’s Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/thetonynash/?hl=en)

-Got Your Six podcast (https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/got-your-six-with-tony-nash-tony-nash-fxG5RXbN6di/)

-The Night Before Journal (https://thetonynash.gumroad.com/l/NightBeforeJournal)

-Tony’s Stacking The Win form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScG6Wb2h8LEPWY-Sqct9pPS2gd4WzMiACChO6Uq78YBl3PSkg/viewform)

-Tony’s Ultra Ergathlon (https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a36849626/ultra-ergathlon-ski-bike-row-run-workout-marathon-fitness-challenge/)

-The Libby App (https://help.overdrive.com/en-us/1307.html)

-F*CK Your Feelings by Ryan Munsey (https://www.amazon.com/Your-Feelings-Accomplish-Anything-Significant/dp/1983468878/ref=pd_lpo_2?pd_rd_i=1983468878&psc=1)

-The Creativity Leap by Natalie Nixon (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634022/the-creativity-leap-by-natalie-nixon/)

-The Art of Impossible by Steven Kotler (https://www.theartofimpossible.com)

This week the guys were fortunate enough to reconnect with Dr. Theo Ballard, SOFLETE’s in-house physical therapist.

Theo is a civilian Orthopedic and Sport Certified Performance Physiotherapist specializing in both sport and tactical performance, specifically with conventional and SOF military personnel.

In this episode, George and Matt get some great insight into a few of the more common injuries and training pitfalls that Theo sees in his clinic. Theo then provides some awesome advice to help you navigate these and boost your own training at the same time.

Finally, the guys geek out on the current best practice tendinopathy management protocols (spoiler alert- eating jello might cure your knee pain!) and compare notes on how best to train the foot- considering the requirements for most tactical professionals to operate in boots.

Even if you’re not currently broken or in pain, this episode is well worth a listen; it provides a fantastic illustration of why Human Performance needs to be considered from a well-rounded and multidisciplinary perspective.

Please see below for links to the resources that the gents mention during the podcast.

Theo’s Instagram Page (https://www.instagram.com/tb_physio/?hl=en)

Theo’s Website (www.tbphysio.com)

Theo’s ‘Always Ready’ Performance Manual (https://www.tbphysio.com/store/p/jam0dibr3fj3l3glybnh0uyal1epku)

Theo and Doug discussing Tendon Care (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fow2d61A8W4)

A link to Dr. Keith Baar’s faculty page at UC Davis, where you can access many of his research papers (https://health.ucdavis.edu/physiology/faculty/baar.html)

A paper from Dr. Keith Baar describing some of the topics Theo mentioned (https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/29/4/article-p453.xml)

Doug and Brent revisit some of the tough times in the triumphant return of the Bottom of the Barrel podcast.

George sits down with Derek to discuss his process with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Treatment. Derek provides insight into the minds of special operations solider and the risk that comes with it. Sharing personal stories and how he has is using EMDR to work through his own struggles and improve his mental defenses to create the life he deserves.

This podcast has no relation to the Department of Defense.