Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System
REF: CHEK Connect - Paul Chek HHP
(Direct link - https://www.chekconnect.com/Page/Article?article=152
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Today, it is generally accepted that if you need to lose weight,
want to put on muscle mass or are stressed out you need to hit
the gym and hit it hard! While this approach did bear fruit
in the past and became imbedded in our consciousness as the
way to do it…, the realities of modern eating habits and
lifestyles no longer support the use of an antiquated formula.
To see proof of my point, one need only visit a public membership
gym; there is no shortage of people who faithfully jog, run,
pedal, pump, push and pull several hours a week, yet their body
shapes change little, if at all! They get frustrated and their
trainers get frustrated. It’s time we apply programming
strategy appropriate for the 21st century.
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) may also be referred to
as the automatic nervous system because it runs various physiological
processes without any conscious thought. The ANS controls and
regulates all the functions necessary to maintain life and,
if we were to get knocked unconscious, it is our ANS that would
keep us alive. Some of the key functions controlled by the ANS
include:
Respiration
Blood pressure
Heart rate
Circulatory distribution
All organ functions, including digestion, detoxification and
elimination
Immune regulation
Hormonal regulation
Thermoregulation, and more!
The ANS has three divisions, each having key functions. Let’s
look at each of them briefly:
The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), also called the anabolic,
or rest, repair and rebuild nervous system, is responsible for
digestion, elimination, and regulating repair of the body. The
PNS also stimulates immune function at night during sleep and
PNS function is closely linked to the timing and release of
many key immune hormones and specialized immune messengers
The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is often called the “fight
or flight” nervous system because the SNS prepares the
body to fight or to flee from danger. When the SNS becomes the
dominant branch of the nervous system, blood is shunted away
from the internal organs and into the muscles and periphery
of the body to facilitate action. The SNS is also referred to
as the catabolic nervous system because when it is active there
is increased utilization of many nutrients and hormones and
also greater tissue destruction is generally taking place. It
is important to realize that when the SNS is dominant, the functions
of the PNS are proportionately shut down. If this happens too
frequently, many vital SNS functions become labored and vital
PNS functions are relatively inhibited (Figure 1).
Figure 1 (image on website)
The SNS becomes dominant over the other branches of the ANS
during exercise, physical labor or doing anything that requires
delivery of blood to the muscles. A basic rule of thumb I teach
is that if you are moving or exercising at a pace that would
be uncomfortable after having eaten a large meal, your SNS will
become stimulated and will take over. Relaxed movement with
synchronized breathing, on the other hand, facilitates PNS activation
and thus aids digestion. Another very important consideration
today is that the SNS is easily triggered into action by stimulants,
such as caffeine, processed sugar and a large percentage of
medical drugs. You may want to think about that when we review
the symptoms of excess SNS activity!
The Enteric Nervous System (ENS) is intimate with the upper
digestive system, yet does have secondary fibers feeding lower
digestive organs. The ENS is thought by many in the medical
field to be a recent discovery, yet this is far from the truth.
Byron Robinson, M.D. discusses the ENS in his book “The
Abdominal Brain” which was published in 1899 (1). The
second edition of his book published only a few years later,
is still the most comprehensive book on the ENS to date (2).
Among the many things that can be learned from a study of the
ENS, we find that not only does the ENS contain as many neurons
as the entire spinal cord (3) it has bi-directional control
and communications with the body’s major control centers
(Figure 2).
Figure 2 (image on website)
The greatest majority of the ENS neuron population resides
within the small intestine as the myenteric plexus and submucosal
plexus. This region of the body has intimate contact with all
consumed foods, liquids and any of the toxins, chemicals or
parasitic organisms that may enter during consumption. It is
for this reason the ENS not only communicates to all major control
centers, but may produce very powerful influences over mind,
mood, circulation, energy levels, capacity for exercise and
response to exercise. The enteric nervous system’s role
in regulating our overall physiology, and even psychology, should
make it clear to you that what you put in your mouth may be
even more important than how you choose to exercise. After all,
most people only exercise 3-7 hours a week (if that!), yet they
generally eat three meals a day. When you consider that each
meal influences your physiology for between 55-72 hours under
normal conditions and you’re doing this at least three
times a day, eating has a much greater capacity to alter your
physical, mental and emotional capacity than exercise done only
a few times per week! The days of personal trainers feeding
their clients packaged and processed impersonations of food
will have to come to an end if we are to help people in the
new Millennium!
RECOGNIZING ANS IMBALANCE
The ANS is a very complex system, yet there are some classic
indicators of imbalance, or dominance of one branch over the
others (Table 1).
The indicators in Table 1 can help the trainer or therapist
ascertain the current status of the ANS in any given client.
While the indicators presented help to highlight the characteristic
dominant response of a respective system, it is important to
realize that when any given symptom(s) become chronic, an ANS
imbalance is suggested. For example, constipation is listed
as an indicator of SNS dominance, yet this must be taken in
context – when the SNS is dominant, as it will be during
anything from a training session or playing tennis, you don’t
want the antagonist functions of the PNS to dominate, which
in this case would be incontinence or a hyperactive bowel! If
on the other hand, your client suffers from constipation (moves
less than 12 inches of feces daily on average or does not have
a complete sense of elimination daily (4, 5)), this should be
considered an indicator of excessive SNS tone.
Any time you see a client and want to determine the status
of their ANS, run through the indicators in Table 1, the more
indicators they present with, the greater the relative imbalance
between the branches of the ANS. As a side note, the ENS communicates
with and activates the SNS and PNS – thus, any dietary
influences should be strongly considered as a potential stimulus
to either branch of the ANS as mediated via the ENS. Although
even just one indicator, when chronic, can indicate an imbalance
of significance, it is generally reliable to assume that the
greater number of chronic indicators you find, the greater the
problem and the more critical it becomes to modify diet, exercise
and lifestyle factors to encourage balance.
STEPS TOWARD BALANCING THE ANS
The first step toward balancing the ANS is to understand the
common influences that create an imbalance. To do this we must
look at the developmental structure of the human brain and nervous
system.
Research in evolutionary biology, comparative anatomy and neurocognitive
sciences has led to an understanding of what is now referred
to as the Triune Brain (three brains in one), a concept that
was founded and demonstrated by researcher Paul MacLean (6).
As you can see in Figure 3, the reptilian brain represents the
oldest brain structure that humans possess. Maclean describes
the mammalian brain and neocortical, or human brain structures,
as outgrowths of the reptilian brain. This is important to understand
because many people misinterpret MacLean’s model thinking
that the individual brain structures are modular, or independent
of each other in function, which they are not. The best way
to understand the triune brain system is to realize that the
reptilian brain is like the operating system of a computer (e.g.
MS Windows) – it is the platform upon which all the other
computer programs operate. In this case, the other computer
programs are the mammalian and neocortical brain structures.
As you can see in Figure 3, the reptilian brain is intimate
with and inclusive of the ANS. We still have remnants of our
developmental history as reptiles, and thus still maintain reptilian
drives and behaviors. Reptiles (including the reptile in us!)
have three primary drives, or concerns:
Safety: Before hunting or doing anything, a reptile’s
primary concern is for his/her own safety. Reptiles are also
very territorial and have a strong rank structure among them.
Sustenance: It only when the reptile’s safety is assured
that it entertains consumption of food. Sustenance issues can
range from having a lack of food to having to protect one’s
food from others.
Sex/Procreation: The reptile only entertains sex/procreation
after it knows it’s safe and has been fed for the time
being. Because perpetuation of any species is a primal and genetically
programmed drive of most living creatures, the inability to
procreate would be considered stressful to most creatures, reptilian
and otherwise.
Today, our clients present us with one or any combination of
the following issues:
Safety, which generally relates to financial issues in most
cases.
Sustenance relates to overeating, under- eating, eating incorrectly
for your metabolic type (4,5,7,8) or eating poor quality foods
that don’t deliver adequate nutrition and life-force.
Sex/Procreation today relates to any issue linked to inability
to procreate (infertility, impotence) or sexual relationships
(too much, too little, poor quality, inability to physically/emotionally
connect).
The more of these reptilian stressors they have in their life,
the greater the stimulus is to the SNS! At a very core level,
these stressors are interpreted as being the greatest threat
to our survival as a species – thus, the stress response
is proportionate to the interpretation of the stressor in each
individual. In other words, whatever someone’s perception
is of any given stressor, the degree to which they feel stress
towards that event will proportionately serve to stimulate the
SNS. When looking at the number of SNS dominance indicators
that are chronic (repeated regularly and exaggerated over weeks,
months or years), we can interpret which one or combination
of a client’s reptilian stressors are driving the system
and just how stimulated, or over-stimulated, they’ve become.
While the collection and use of this information is much more
vast than I’ve presented here, and is an important aspect
of the CHEK Nutrition and Lifestyle Coaching Program as well
as C.H.E.K Certification Levels 2, 3, and 4, the health or exercise
professional reading this article can be of great service to
their client by:
Suggesting educational resources to help them manage their
reptilian stressors more effectively.
Modifying their exercise program to support balancing the ANS.
EXERCISE PRESCRIPTION
When you have a client who demonstrates multiple chronic indicators
of reptilian stress (Table 1) and you have suggested books,
tapes or counselors to help them better manage their specific
stressors, you can further assist them with correct application
of exercise.
A general rule of thumb I teach my students that if you can’t
perform an exercise comfortably on a full stomach, that exercise
is stimulating your SNS. With that in mind, you can now easily
see how the majority of exercises being prescribed in a typical
gym setting are serving to further stress the SNS; remember
that SNS stimulation keeps the body in a catabolic state! If
a client’s body gets stuck in SNS dominance in response
to the combined stressors of their individual life, exercises
that stimulate the SNS will only serve to perpetuate an already
dysfunctional situation. In fact, I have had several clients
over the years seek my consultation because, after hiring a
personal trainer and exercising regularly, they gained weight…
a pretty good indicator that the body interpreted the exercise
as a threat to their survival.
If you or someone you know is training a client who has overly
stimulated their SNS, I recommend that they focus on Chi-cultivating
exercises until their ANS has been adequately balanced to respond
to SNS challenges with an adequate PNS or anabolic rebound.
Examples of Chi (life-force energy) cultivating exercises are
introductory Yoga postures, Tai Chi, Qi-Gong or simply walking!
In a number of cases where people were unsuccessful at changing
their body shape or losing fat using a typical bodybuilding
program, once they switched to a period of PNS stimulating (Chi-cultivating)
exercise, along with the necessary diet and lifestyle modifications,
their body changed favorably and rapidly! Not only were they
able to improve their body shape and reduce body fat, they did
it with far less time in the gym, which is music to a client’s
ears given the schedules of most people today.
Just how much SNS stress an individual can take is specific
to the individual. You may find that you can stick with one
or two compound exercises such as squatting, deadlifting, cable
pushing or pulling. Keeping the training sessions under 30:00
and supplementing their program with stretches that specifically
restore muscle balance will also improve Chi (Life-force energy)
flow in the body, thus facilitating ANS balance; to learn how
to assess length/tension balance in the body, refer to The Golf
Biomechanic’s Manual (9). When you see sleep quality,
energy levels, mood and response to exercise improving along
with a reduction of chronic SNS indicators you can carefully
add more challenging exercises to their program, always being
sensitive to the client’s day-to-day needs and overall
stress levels. Some days it may be necessary to only stretch
or cultivate Chi because they haven’t sufficiently recovered
from the last workout. Monitoring your client’s digestion
and elimination will also give valuable cues to their progress
on your fitness program. (I expand on this more in my Flatten
Your Abs Forever! video (5) and in my book How To Eat, Move,
and Be Healthy! (4).
WHAT ABOUT THE PNS?
PNS over stimulation, or finding clients with chronic PNS dominance
factors from Table 1, is very rare today. I may have seen only
a half dozen in the past 10 years, most of which resulted from
electrolyte deficiency. One of the primary indicators of PNS
over-stimulation is orthostatic hypotension or, getting dizzy
when rising from a seated to a standing position. The easiest
first step to take in such cases is to add a pinch or two of
unprocessed sea salt to each liter of water the client consumes
for a few weeks. If that doesn’t address the problem,
I suggest you consult a CHEK NLC Level 3 or a naturopathic physician
for a comprehensive assessment and any needed program modifications.
There is also a list of recommended people to consult with in
the Resources section at the end of the article.
CONCLUSION
We must let go of the “no pain, no gain” philosophy!
What worked with Navy Seals and football players no longer works
for today’s gym members or the public. Because of the
environment we live in today, we must change our philosophy
about exercise and what it is to be healthy in the gym! Today,
I personally believe that “pain = no gain”, and
therefore we must “train, don’t drain!” We
must remember that the reptilian brain is inclusive of the ANS
and the key reptilian stressors are very real. Look not to see
how much weight you can stack on the bar or leg press for your
clients, but how much stress they have on their back each day
on the job and at home. How are their finances (safety/security)?
Is their diet adequate to improve life-force (sustenance)? Are
they having meaningful, fulfilling sexual relationships? While
these issues may seem a long way from a barbell, one need only
stand in a gym for 20 seconds with two ears open and you will
learn quickly that these issues can be heard in many conversations
in the gym. As trainers and therapists, we were given two ears
and one mouth so that we could listen twice as much as we talk
and when we begin to listen to our clients, we will better understand
their needs and realize the need to design eating and lifestyle
programs to help them accomplish their goals most effectively
– not just “hammer them” with the latest trends!
Please join me and my fellow C.H.E.K Practitioners, CHEK NLC’s,
CHEK Exercise Coaches and Golf Biomechanics in building a health
and vitality consciousness in the exercise and health care industries
today! And remember, you are your best form of advertising for
your programs, so the first place to start is always with yourself!
Toward Health and Vitality,
Paul Chek
References
Robinson, B. The Abdominal and Pelvic Brain with Automatic
Visceral Ganglia. The Clinic Publishing Co., 1899.
Robinson, B. The Abdominal and Pelvic Brain. F. S. Betz, 1907.
Benteen, T. Personal Communication.
Chek, P. How to Eat, Move, and Be Healthy!. C.H.E.K Institute,
2004.
Chek, P. Flatten Your Ab’s Forever. C.H.E.K Institute,
2003
Gerald, E., Cory, A. Jr., Gardener, R. Jr. The Evolutionary
Neuroethology Of Paul MacLean – Convergences and Frontiers.
Praeger, 2002
Wolcott, W. Metabolic Typing Diet. Doubleday, 2000.
CHEK NLC Level I Manual, C.H.E.K Institute, 2003
Chek, P. The Golf Biomechanic’s Manual. C.H.E.K Institute,
2001.
Resources
Dr. Clifford Oliver, DC. Ph: 858.272.2333
Dr. Daniel Kalish, D.C. Ph: 800.616.7708 or 858.720.8380
Emma Lane, UK Ph: (+44) 01924 24285 energizefitness@yahoo.com
Megan Valente, California Ph: 707.849.7314 balancetraining@hotmail.com
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