The New Rules for Elite Performance

4 simple rules are redefining the way exercise programs are built. They are transcending sport, ability level, age, and genetics to create levels of fitness that we’ve never seen before and achievements that were previously unthinkable.

High school sprinters are deadlifting almost triple their body weight.
Clydesdale triathletes (+200lb) are finishing the Ironman in under ten hours
170lb catch weight fighters are flipping 600lb tires for warmup.
Offensive linemen running the 40 yd in 4.94 seconds (at +300lbs)
Rock Climbers are breaking into grades of 5.15, when climbing a 5.10 was previously thought impossible

This isn’t normal. It goes way beyond the usual evolution of sport. And the 4 rules are something that you should start using today–to build an exercise program that takes your fitness to abnormal heights.

Each of the new rules or “protocols” replaces an outdated myth. Something that has been proven wrong, or ineffective, in the training industry.

With each new protocol–you must learn to cast off the old myths that have been holding back your fitness–and begin to use modern training technique.

Myth #1: Big Muscles are Strong Muscles

On any given competition day Tina. weighs less than 105 lbs. She is also lifting more than triple her body weight with a 330+ lb deadlift.

Feeling weak yet?

Neuromuscular strength is actually available to everyone–regardless of size.

It’s because her training focuses on strength, not size. And it’s about time we all learned the difference–because you too can become capable of incredible strength.

Your strength is in your nerves. It comes from the ability of your CNS to 1) activate a large number motor neurons and muscle fibers per motor neuron and 2) coordinate and synchronize the activity of those motor neurons to maximize effort output.

It was previous thought that both of these talents were genetic gifts–but today we know that both of these skills can be “trained into” anyone.

Keijo Häkkinen put this theory to the test at the University of Finland using endurance athletes as the guinea pigs (definitely not muscular giants). Significant strength gains were made over the course of the 8 week program and –more importantly– these gains directly translated into higher levels of performance across all activity including higher V02 Max.

CTP Protocol #1: Add Strength–Without Adding Mass

Myth #2: Training Should be Grueling

It’s not your fault. The health&fitness industry has perpetuated and thrived off the notion that workouts have to suck, and you need a personal trainer to keep you motivated. The fact is, constant exhausting workouts are holding you back from your full potential.

And it’s all because of your fight or flight reflex.

Your central nervous system can be divided into two opposing sides. Your fight or flight system (‘sympathetic’) and your relax and adapt system (‘parasympathetic’ or ‘PNS’)

The fight or flight system reacts to exhausting workouts and elevates heart and breathing rate, tenses muscles, constricts blood vessels, releases catabolic hormones, and can even narrow your vision. The focus is on survival. And the effects are felt throughout the entire body and continue to effect you long after the workout is over.

Conversely rest and recovery system is when your body relaxes and adapts. And here’s the secret to rapid gains: Without adequate parasympathetic function you will never get the full benefits of you training program. Periods of higher PNS activity are when the body devotes its energy to neural plasticity and building strength, power and coordination.

CTP Protocol #2: Your incorporate PNS activation into your plan

Myth #3: Stretching Prevents Injury

Stretching will only passively lengthen warm muscles–that’s it. If you want to use the older high repetition programs, you can get away with using stretching to prevent injury–if only through its placebo effect.

Exercises like the one legged squat can be used to build extraordinary injury resistance.

But if you’re ready to take on CNS training and push your body in ways that weren’t previously possible, you need to be ready. First, you need to understand what the real root cause of chronic sports injury is.

Your CNS monitors your body’s activities and muscular contraction through something called proprioceptor feedback. This is muscular awareness–and when it’s deficient, the conscious part of your CNS and it’s alpha motor neurons lose control and injury begins.

That’s when automatic your reflexes such as the golgi tendon reflex and the H-reflex take control. These two reflexes create an irrational relaxing and tensioning of the muscle under load. And it’s this sudden, uncontrollable jerking of your muscles that leads to pulls, strains, tears, neural shutdown, and chronic injuries.

Fortunately for us–within the cause lies the cure. Its called prehabilitation.

Prehabilitation is a focused phase of training that uses specific exercises and routines to hone your proprioceptors and build a resilient neuromuscular system. And because the changes rapidly take place, you’ll start to build up an healthy injury resistance system within only 6 workouts.

CTP Protocol #3: Use a prehabilitation program to prevent injury and accelerate gains

Myth #4: Cardio Comes First

Extensive cardiovascular endurance is the final piece of the puzzle for many athletes–but it should never be the foundation.

Inigo Mujika has been extensively studying the changes that occur within your body as a response to strength training. Working with athletes in the Pyrennes mountains, his studies have proven that those with a higher strength baseline show an improved performance in all categories. Including resistance to muscle fatigue, enhanced energy systems, improved speed and power, resistance to injury, and improved recovery time.

Athletes that began identical training programs at reduced levels of strength had higher injury rates and lower performance for their season that their stronger colleagues.

CTP Protocol #4: Elite training programs START with strength.

When you combine these principles together, you’ll begin to create a specialized workout schedule to take you into to top 95% of the population for strength, power and coordination. This is a straightforward formula that reliably builds healthy robust athletes ready to dominate their sport.

It represents something that anyone can use to their advantage to make remarkable advances in each sport. Something accessible to athletes at every ability level and age group. And something that–until the dawn of the information age–we didn’t fully understand.

It’s called Central Nervous System Training and it leverage’s the human body’s ability to quickly mold the central nervous system (CNS) to meet an athlete’s needs for speed, power, strength and coordination.

How quickly?

At the Centre for Exercise and Sports Research at Edith Cowan University–researchers have found thatthe CNS starts adapting to training within a matter of only 2 weeks! That means that, with a properly developed program, you can begin to develop injury resilience, extraordinary strength and explosive power immediately.

But the benefits of CNS training extend well beyond the first weeks.

By striking a balance within your autonomic system you can:

Accelerate recovery times while increasing neuromuscular adaptations.
Improve power and endurance by transforming type IIx and type Ia muscle into type IIA muscle
Or you can even increase the adaptability of your CNS (called neural plasticity) by creating workouts that encourage “neurotrophic” (CNS friendly) hormones.

There’s an extraordinary amount of science and studies to be reviewed here. But fortunately, we can boil it down to a practitioners method–use what works–and develop amazing training programs to unlock your full potential.

But, unlike other training programs, the Central Training Program isn’t a one size fits all approach to fitness. Instead, you’ll get a program that’s tailored to your goals.

Ready to start building your first CNS targeted training program for elite performance?