I recently attended a clinic where I learned some very effective neuromuscular magic tricks from respected strength coach and world champion powerlifter, JL Holdsworth. He showed us how to drastically improve stability, mobility and how our muscles fire – with just a few minutes of self-administered breath and manual work.
WHAT IS RPR?
Reflexive Performance Reset (RPR) is a series of breathing and neurological drills that allow people to reset harmful compensation patterns that cause pain and limit performance.
It is easily taught, takes just a few minutes to do, and blends seamlessly into warm-ups. It can be used anytime, anywhere, and without special equipment.
BENEFITS OF RPR
- Improved muscle activation, mobility, and movement patterns
- Increased resistance to injury, including pulled hamstrings, torn adductors, torn ligaments and concussions
- Faster recovery times
- Enhanced flexibility
- Increased cardiovascular efficiency
- Improved vision fields and reaction times
- The benefits are both immediate and cumulative
WHY DOES BREATHING MATTER?
Diaphragmatic breathing is the foundation of RPR. Resets will not work with shallow chest breathing.
Chest and mouth breathing triggers a stress response via the sympathetic nervous system, or SNS. The body defaults to using smaller muscles in order to conserve energy while preserving the more powerful muscles for sudden danger. In sports, this can cause athletes to tighten up and fail to ‘wake up’ for big moments. Excessive stimulation of the SNS increases heart rate and cortisol, impairs decision making abilities, and can be exhausting.
By contrast, the parasympathetic nervous system, or PNS, is the rest and digest feature of the body. This is marked by a clear and calm focus that allows the more powerful muscles to perform. The PNS is stimulated by proper diaphragmatic breathing, where air is inhaled through the nose into the lungs. Breathing nasally also stimulates the vagus nerve and increases nitric oxide production. This allows blood, nutrients and oxygen to travel easily to every part of your body, leading to faster recovery.
WHAT DOES DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING LOOK LIKE?
Proper breathing takes place when air is inhaled slowly through the nose, filling the lungs with air from the bottom up. This causes the diaphragm (a flat muscle located at the base of the ribcage), to descend down toward the belly, while the abdomen and lower ribs expand outward 360 degrees to accommodate. A full exhale allows the diaphragm to relax and ascend back up toward the ribs as the abdomen draws back in.
TEST THE EFFECTS OF DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING
To get a quick idea of how breathing can affect your movement, you can try this toe-touch drill.
- Stand up.
- Take ten, short, choppy chest breaths in and out through your mouth (your chest should rise with each breath).
- Bend over to touch your toes.
- Note how that felt.
- Stand back up.
- Place your hands under your ribs. Take five breaths through the nose and out through the mouth, filling your hands with the air (your chest should not move much).
- Bend over to touch your toes.
Was there a difference?
WHAT ARE WAKE UP DRILLS?
In conjunction with breathing, RPR is a series of manual ‘wake up drills’ that instantly activates each area of the body, starting from the center and radiating outward.
Folllowing a reset, you might notice that you feel more stable, your muscle contractions feel sharper, weight feels lighter, and you are more mobile in comparison to baseline.
Obviously, nobody gains strength or muscle mass in the few seconds following the wake up drills. Rather, the dramatic improvement is a result of nervous system firing.
Here is an example of RPR in action:
WHY SHOULD WE WORK ON THE BRAIN BEFORE THE MUSCLES?
The nervous system initiates movement.
Compensation patterns can arise when a joint struggles to move through a full range of motion, and can cause pain, tightness and injuries as the body shifts to “cheat” patterns, recruiting muscles that are not as suitable for the job.
Athletes and everyday people have compensation patterns. This does not always lead to a definite injury, but when compensation becomes a habit, it can limit our training.
For example – glute bridges are commonly prescribed to strengthen and activate lazy glute muscles. During bridges, glutes can fire THIRD after quadratus lumborum (lower back) and hamstrings. Simply doing more glute bridges will not strengthen or wake up the glutes – it will strengthen the compensation of the lower back and hamstrings. The habit becomes even further ingrained by doing repetitive work in the faulty pattern.
If we can get the right muscles to fire in the correct sequence, we can train the muscles we want to train instead of the compensation patterns.
HOW DOES RPR COMPARE TO OTHER SELF-CARE TECHNIQUES?
RPR is not designed to replace or compete with other treatments. It enhances the effects of other tools such as massage, chiropractic, strength training and mobility work. By addressing the nervous system first, RPR can help you get the most from whatever treatment you find helpful. RPR also works well on its own.
Having experience with MAT (muscle activation technique), I got the chance to talk to JL about how RPR was different. Both systems are based on activating muscles in sequence. I would say that they are both great and the effects have some similarities.
As far as accessibility, MAT can be costly, requires multiple sessions and requires visits to a practitioner, which could make it an unrealistic option for some.
RPR allows people to make changes to their OWN nervous system. It is an incredible way for coaches to not only empower their athletes, but help them avoid injury while staying well within their scope of practice.
And on that note, it isn’t incredibly fussy. If you are a little off your marker when performing the resets, you will get effect as long as you are in the vicinity.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
RPR is for anyone who wants to perform better. It has been adopted by the NFL, NBA, MBL, major college sports and special forces. It is also appropriate for weekend warriors and the general population as it helps people move well, decrease pain and prevent injury.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
As a competitive powerlifter, I can feel a bit beat up from time to time. However, as a mom, I don’t have the luxury of getting fancy treatments to help with my recovery and well being. I have also had ongoing postpartum ligament issues and several pregnancy-related surgeries. There were plenty of days that I would walk into the gym and not be able to do what I wanted to do because my body would not cooperate.
Shortly after the clinic, I had a string of exceptionally great training days. My lifts felt easier and I was feeling more refreshed than normal considering the volume of training that I was doing. I was able to reduce the amount of time that I was spending on warm-ups, and began to find myself already ‘locked in’ before training sessions.
RPR works well for me because it is something that I can do in seconds, wherever I am, in conjunction with whatever I am doing at the time. It is just as impactful as practitioner-based treatments and doesn’t take any extra time out of my day or anyone else’s. I can walk into the gym feeling like garbage, flip the switch, and get my training sessions done the way that I want to.
As far as teaching this to others, I was very excited to share this, but at the same time hesitant. It totally looks weird. On the flip side of that, it gives an immediate and easily measured result. It is a great feeling to see the stunned look on people’s faces when their bodies can suddenly do something that they previously couldn’t.
CONCLUSION
RPR is easily taught, costs nothing to perform and requires no special equipment. It yields better performance, faster reaction times and less injuries with no risk and minimal time investment. It is appropriate for athletes and non-athletes at all levels.