Post TBI Workout Routine

Background: Shortly after posting my thread discussing my concussion recovery process, I was asked by a few peeps to delve into a deeper level of detail on my workout routine. As is the case for my eating habits, supplements, and behavioral changes, this was triangulated by a healthy amount of academic research, neuroscience, and general readings on mind-body awareness / optimization. I'll start by saying that I am sure my workout routine is riddled with flaws, imperfections, and the like; that's what makes the trial and error of fitness so fun and addicting for me personally. So, in addition to questions, I warmly welcome any arguments contrary to what I'll outline from a high level below! Oh, and sorry for all the parenthetical statements ahead of time; my brain seems to hate linearity so I get into a bad habit of sneaking sidetracked thoughts into parentheses). 

The high level approach:

1. Outsize focus on hip movements and activation of large muscle groups

2. Maximizing the homeostasis of the kinetic chain (bringing knees, hips, spine, shoulders, and arms into balance for neuromuscular synchronicity) 

3. Building strength in the deepest levels of flexibility / mobility (so not just a lot of stretching, but resistance training in stretched positions, i.e. deep deadlifts, deep squats, etc.)

4. Push, pull, legs split to maximize recovery time between muscle groups

5. HIIT training and diversifying endurance training with various types of exercise (jump rope, rowing machine, sprints, etc.) to maintain a high level of cardiovascular fitness with mitigated impact on joints, i.e. constantly running 5 miles per day is going to f*** your knees to hell and back eventually

1. Hip Movements and Large Muscle Groups (quadriceps, lateral maximus, abdominal muscles, diaphragm) - When our largest muscle groups are activated, our muscle / body calls for some interesting chemical changes: muscular glycogen absorption (reducing blood sugar levels), increasing growth hormone (especially IGF-1, an especially controversial chemical), testosterone, catecholamine upregulation (stress hormones; the more you activate them intentionally, the more control you have over your sympathetic nervous when you're not in a state of stress, i.e. less general anxiety). So, with every muscle split, I am trying to activate at least one large muscle group to start the workout (after warming up). For example, on push day, I'll start with some weighted crunches and really try and get blood moving to my core, then move into overhead shoulder presses. Generally, if I don't have a ton of time on my hands to get to the smaller muscles (bicep, triceps, deltoid, etc.), I will skip those movements; they're already working in the other compound exercises anyways, making these exercises somewhat duplicative anyways. 

2. Maximizing Homeostasis of the Kinetic Chain - I think my work here has been hugely beneficial (and critical for treating a life of neck tension, TMJ, and other seromuscular stress). I use the Power Plate a lot to work on mobility and posture focused exercises along my spinal kinetic chain. For example, get on the Power Plate (the vibrating machine at Equinox for other corporate sell outs like myself) and will get into a hunched position with a 40kg kettlebell and get myself to my feet with optimal spinal movement (kinda like a Turkish getup, hence why these are so popular. There's some really cool research that was done on this in the Czech Republic to rehabilitate some of the top athletes in the world at the time at an institution named the Prague Institute. Look up Michael Rintala (https://www.rintalachiro.com/) who calls this Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization. For fitness geeks, this is a pretty mind blowing area of kinetic science to dive into.

3. Building Strength in Deepest Level of Flexibility - This all has to do with that infinite goal of "mobility" you hear constantly being regurgitated from the mouths of our favorite hypomanic Instagram fitness superstars and the like. However, it is critically important (in my opinion) for maximizing "gains" and avoiding injuries. One example, put a couple plates on the ground for elevation at shoulder width and do your deadlift as you normally would (back straight, butt back), but at the end, let your back arch a bit and go deeper below your feet, follow the same kinetic path on the exocentric movement. You will hit muscles you never knew existed and build strength in deeper areas of your kinetic movements with an exercise like this. Here's a link for some other cool exercises followed by gymnasts (who are surprisingly a great resource for strength training): https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/4-simple-gymna…

4. Push Pull Legs Split - This is certainly nothing ground breaking and something I imagine a lot of you follow, consciously or not. This split gives you the maximum time of rest between muscle groups as well a making all of your movements complementary (i.e. you're using biceps when you do pull-ups, triceps when you bench press, chest muscles when you shoulder press, etc.). 

5. HIIT Training - Another not so earth shattering category, HIIT training has been studied widely and shown to maximize cardiovascular health while minimizing the amount of muscle your body will metabolize in anaerobic states. You rarely see a jacked marathon runner, but hey, those sprinters at the Olympics look pretty jacked; obviously a lot of variables at play in this reductive little line, but this is one reason why that's the case. I follow a lot of Tabata (45 seconds on, 15 seconds off) my exercises which I try and variate as much as possible to give my joints a rest. I will do Tabata with the jump rope, rowing machine, sprints on the manual treadmill, jumping jacks, and occasionally some others, but those are my most frequent HIIT proclivities. 

Other notes:

- I always try to stretch and warm up thoroughly before getting into a workout - don't feel like I need to elaborate too deeply on how important that is.

- I started using a Hypervolt for recovery. I'll just lie on the couch and gun my leg with Netflix on. There's not a ton of research supporting these, but I think it helps me.

- Breathing exercises (especially Whim Hoff) have taken my endurance to new heights (and have also made me calmer). Lots of cool neuroscientific research on this, but if you want to learn more, Breath by James Nestor is a great read.

I know this seems a bit excessive / a lot to incorporate, so please ask me any questions. I feel like I need to disclose that I am not a certified personal trainer, physician, or health expert. This is what has worked best for me and guiding principals which I think many people would find useful to incorporate.