Unlock Natural Gains: Neuro Type 1

Part 1 – Nonstop Natural Gains: The Neuro Typing System Part 2 – Unlock Natural Gains: Neuro Type 1 Part 3 – Double Your Natural Gains: Neuro Type 2 Part 4 – Never-Ending Natural Gains: Neuro Type 3 Part 5 – The Neuro Type Workouts Part 1 of this series introduces you to neurological typing. In short, your baseline levels of three neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine) strongly influence your personality and dictate your how you should train and eat for best results. Your personality profile is largely determined by three key neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Your baseline levels of these chemical messengers are determined by genetics. The three basic personality types are: Type 1: Novelty seeker Type 2: Reward dependant Type 3: Harm avoider Each has its positives and its negatives. If you adopt a training style that doesn’t match your psychological and neurological type, you simply won’t get results from it, no matter how well-designed the program is. In this series, we’ll go over each type and what type of training, nutrition and supplement plan is best for each. To determine your type, review Nonstop Natural Gains: The Neuro Typing System. Below we’ll cover the novelty seeker. This type has a low dopamine level, causing him or her to seek out new things to stimulate it. You could call them “adrenaline junkies.” Optimal Training for Type 1: Novelty Seekers 1 – Training Preparation Novelty seekers have less dopamine than serotonin. They must increase dopamine prior to starting the actual workout to have good motivation and work capacity. If they don’t, performance will suffer in the first part of the workout. For that reason, it’s very important for them to focus on activation drills prior to starting their workouts: jumps, throws, high speed movements, etc. The focus needs to be on speed – moving violently but without creating a lot of fatigue. Example: 3 sets of 5 vertical jumps. Or striking a tire with a sledgehammer for 3 sets of 12 seconds. When it comes to the main heavy lift of the day, they should ramp up to the working weight while doing gradually heavier sets and focus on compensatory acceleration (CAT). That’s where you accelerate the weight as fast as possible during the concentric or lifting phase of the rep. This acceleration will increase force production and will amp up the nervous system by increasing the release of dopamine. A ramp should start at around 60% of your max. Do around 5 ramp-up sets before doing the work sets. These ramp-up sets should only be done for the same number of reps that you plan to do on your work sets, or lower. You want to amp up the nervous system without creating fatigue. A ramp could look like this: Ramp-Up Sets: Set 0: bar x 10 Set 1: 165 x 3 Set 2: 195 x 3 Set 3: 215 x 3 Set 4: 235 x 3 Set 5: 255 x 3 Note: Use maximum concentric acceleration on sets 1-5. Work Sets: Set 6: 275 x 5 Set 7: 275 x 5 Set 8: 275 x 5 Set 9: 275 x 5 Remember that dopamine and adrenaline are connected. Dopamine is used to produce norepinephrine which is used to produce epinephrine/adrenaline. So anything that amps you up will raise dopamine levels. Just be careful not to overdo it. This type has a low baseline dopamine level and can produce spurts of it, but they crash if they have to produce too much. When that happens during a workout, their willpower and motivation goes down the drain. 2 – Training Variation Type 1 lifters need a lot of variation in their training. They’re your typical “I can’t follow a program” guys. They always want to try something new. If you put them on programs like 5/3/1 or The Power Look (programs based around doing the same stuff over and over) they’ll get de-motivated and won’t get results. We often say that we need to stick to a program to make progress, but in their case it’s not necessarily true. Remember, whatever helps you train the hardest will give you the best results. On a static program, novelty seekers get bored easily and will lose focus if the training is too repetitive. In their case, a lack of sufficient variety is actually a stressor. This neuro type… Can stay on a program for 2 weeks. Does better on multiple types of stimulation in a week. Does better when different types of stimulation are included within a workout. Cybernetic periodization (freedom within a structure) is a great approach for them. This refers to pre-planning the first big lift of the workout but selecting the assistance work based on the performance of the main lift. Surprisingly, a lot of powerlifters are novelty seekers. The Westside Barbell system is the perfect example. They vary the main lift every one to two weeks, they do three types of stimulation per week (four if you include conditioning), and they use cybernetic periodization by selecting their daily assistance exercises based on how they performed on the main lift. Oddly enough, CrossFit is also a perfect example, especially the shorter 8-15
Origin: Unlock Natural Gains: Neuro Type 1