Get on Your Nerves
Our bodies are run by our nervous system - our thoughts, movements, reactions and all our conscious, unconscious, and subconscious mechanisms are dictated by the electrical signals traveling over 100 miles per hour through your body (yes, probably not as fast as you thought). An understanding of this system can provide significant insight into our behaviors. We can begin to understand how we can perform better in work, life, sports, and even rest and recover better. Let’s look into some of the basics of the nervous system and talk about how to apply this to daily life.
At a basic level, the role of the nervous system is to allow the body to interact appropriately with its environment. We take in sensory information (touch, sound, taste, movement, light, color), process the information, then send signals to the appropriate organs or muscles to respond with an action. A substantial amount of this processing occurs at the subconscious or unconscious levels, often via reflexes. Reflexes are pre-programmed responses which can be triggered by sensory information going to the spinal cord, rather than all the way to the brain and back – this saves valuable fractions of seconds as nerve signaling is not as fast as many may think.
This means that our body has programmed many defensive reactions, and our nervous system can be activated into a protective state. The Autonomic Nervous System is responsible for this response and has two distinct states – Sympathetic and Parasympathetic. Under stress the sympathetic nervous system is activated, what is often called a “fight or flight” response. Sympathetic nervous system activation stimulates stress hormone release from the adrenal glands (first epinephrine for the initial response, then cortisol if a prolonged response is necessary). These hormones cause elevated heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure to oxygenate our muscles. Sugars and fats are released to provide fuel for cells. Our vision, hearing and senses are heightened due to increased oxygen to the brain. All of these responses prepare for activity – to fight or run.
In contrast, the parasympathetic response can be thought of as “rest and digest”. When parasympathetic activation occurs, blood is redirected to organs to digest and process nutrients, remove toxins from blood and tissues. This is when we feel sleepy, hungry, relaxed. Parasympathetic activity is essential to recovery for our entire body.
The autonomic nervous system is constantly trying to balance these responses based on our environment. In theory, we should spend a significant amount of time in the parasympathetic zone. The sympathetic system is made to “hit the gas” on our body for a few seconds or minutes until the threat is dealt with. However, our body does not differentiate physical stress from emotional, mental, or psychological stresses. Many people are stressed by relationships, jobs, or their environment every day. Most of the time we cannot run away from, or fight, these stresses in our lives. So we spend hours a day stimulating our adrenals, pumping out adrenaline and cortisol, raising our blood pressure, and being dominated by anxiety and reflexive activity. It is very difficult to make constructive progress in your life, or even think clearly while in this state. Try learning something new while your body thinks it’s fighting for its life – nearly impossible.
This doesn’t mean we should try to remove every stressor from our lives, that isn’t pactical. What we need to do is train our body to react appropriately to stresses, and to make the transition between sympathetic and parasympathetic more efficiently. If you’ve ever lost your appetite, been kept up at night, or had a short fuse at home because of a stressful day, your body was not transitioning into parasympathetic efficiently. Through exercises such as diaphragmatic breathing, foam rolling or other soft tissue releases, mindfulness/meditation we can guide our autonomic nervous system into a resting state. Doing this regularly will train your system to transition better and more quickly. In fact, it may even increase your threshold to stress before “fight or flight” kicks in, improving performance in stressful scenarios.
Clearly this is beneficial at work and home, but how does it apply to the athlete? Refining the control of our body to transition between sympathetic and parasympathetic, and raising our stress threshold can improve performance and allow for increased voluntary control and decision making at the cerebral level. Think of a fighter – when pushed and pressured enough, a fighter begins to make reflexive movements and decisions. These decisions are predictable, and a skilled opponent will use these reactions to predict windows of attack. Often fighters, or athletes, that are regarded as highly skilled and adaptable are also seen as “calm under pressure.” These are people who have mastered the balancing act of their autonomic nervous system. Obviously, we need enough stress response to engage our bodies and stimulate our muscles, but we want to remain in our conscious bodies enough to be thoughtful, creative, and adaptive. And when the fight is over, our parasympathetic system allows us to rest and recover more efficiently.
A basic understanding of your nervous system can change the way we view our training, learning, work, and relationships. If you feel you struggle to appropriately deal with stresses or want a deeper understanding of training your body and nervous system together, Integrity Physical Therapy & Wellness can help provide a foundation of education and techniques to get you started toward a more balanced system.
