Episode 12: Voluntary Core Engagement is Disruptive with Mike Golden (Part 1)

Feel unsupported without consciously engaging your core? Wanting to dive deeper into why you don’t need to always grip and squeeze your core? Mike Golden shares his journey with injuries from contact sports, how his rehabilitation journey shifted to simultaneously addressing higher order brain systems, and how his journey got him to where he is today. Inspite of his journey, Mike explains how the visual and vestibular systems affect posture, movement patterns, athleticism, decisions, and metabolic dysfunction, and how optimal plasticity requires a combination of brain-based drills and muscular work. Using A GPS analogy, Mike discusses core engagement, when conscious core engagement may be appropriate, and how the ultimate goal is unconscious core engagement. By explaining the two types of unconscious core engagement that facilitate movement, Mike presents the function of the core, the power of perturbation in training a reflexive and responsive core, and how shifting the movement goal to change awareness is highly beneficial. Learn more about the intricacies of core. Topics Covered: - Mike’s Background - Mike’s Rib Injury & his Rehabilitation journey - How eye issues manifest in posture, movement patterns, athleticism, decisions, and metabolic dysfunction - Eye and vestibular drills matter, along with muscular work - Let the brain figure out core engagement, voluntary core engagement is too slow and disruptive. - Core engagement is analogous to GPS mechanisms - When might conscious work be important - The importance of getting from the conscious to unconscious - giving drills to forget the drill - The principle of specificity (SAID) to reduce threat - The function of the core & the power of perturbation in training a reflexive and reactive core - Building awareness by changing the movement goal instead of cueing form Learn More About Mike! Mike Golden is the Director of Education for Z-Health Performance Solutions, a world leader in innovating advanced, neurologically-centered rehabilitative and sports performance programs based on emerging research. Mike received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 2005 before beginning his career teaching martial arts full time and using brain-based training to fast-track his clients’ pain and performance successes. Over the course of two decades, he has relentlessly pursued professional development through the Z-Health curriculum and in the broader fields of fitness, functional neurology, and pedagogy, and he has been leading national and international certification courses for Z-Health since 2013. Check out & learn more with Mike: Z-health Z-health Instagram Don't forget! As a listener of the core series on the Love @ First Science Podcast, you get 35% off my core workshop! Head on over to my website and use code 'relax' https://www.celestpereira.com/online-workshop My Socials: Instagram - http://instagram.com/celestpereirayoga Website - https://www.celestpereira.com/