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>> Hey everyone.
Welcome back to day seven of our 15 day exercise program.
My name is Jimmy from the HSS sports safety program.
I'm so happy to have you with me.
Today's subject is neuro muscular control.
What does that mean?
That means we're using our brain -- that's
where that word neuro comes from -- to control our muscles.
So neuromuscular control means we're using our brain to control our muscles.
Really, today, what we're going to be focusing on is balancing our body and,
and learning how to learn new skills.
For today's video, all you're going to need are sneakers,
open-space and some comfortable clothes.
All right, let's start with a simple one.
We're going to do a single leg balance.
So all I want you to do for right now, is to stand on one foot.
You could put your hands on your hips.
If that helps.
I want you to find a spot to look out on the wall in front of you.
I'm going to look right at you, right, right at your screen.
I want you to stand up nice and tall.
I want you to think about having good posture.
I want you to think about bracing these muscles right here.
And I want you to think about having your body in the right position
and having your weight evenly spread out across your whole foot.
Very good.
We're going to switch sides.
Makes it a whole lot easier to balance when we've got our whole body
in the position that it's supposed to be in.
And we get our body into that position by using our brain,
making sure every part is exactly where it's supposed to be.
So we're just going to hang out here for another second or two.
Very good.
I'm starting you guys off pretty easy today.
Excellent.
Now we're going to ramp it up just a little bit.
We're going to do something called a single leg forward T I'm going
to face the camera for right now.
Put my hands out to the side.
I want you to think just like we were thinking before, keep your spine in a straight line.
I want you to keep your hips the same distance from the floor.
All right.
So don't let one hip twist up or twist down.
Keep them the same distance from the floor.
We're just going to bring our body into a T. I'm going to switch legs and I'm also going to turn
so you can see how it looks from the side.
I want you to think about spreading your weight out evenly across your foot.
And it may feel like it gets a little bit easier as you go.
So keep trying right now, while I'm talking to you.
It's not that it's getting easier, that the exercise is changing at all,
it's that your brain is really making stronger connections with those muscles
and allowing you to balance that much better.
Okay. So think about that.
As an exercise gets easier, it's not that the exercise itself changed it's
that your brain is doing a better job, communicating with your muscles.
Okay, our next exercise is a hurdle step.
So let's just pretend we have an imaginary hurdle right here.
All we're going to do is step over the hurdle like that.
And then step backwards.
I want you to think of how much experience we have, as humans, stepping over things.
If you've got a dog at home, maybe step over their gate.
All right.
If you're in the classroom, Maybe you're stepping over backpacks.
If you'd like to go out and hike, you're stepping over rocks and sticks.
We get really good at stepping over things because our brain is constantly going
through that process of judging how high the object is that we need to step over.
And so we get really good at it to the point where it's almost automatic,
we know exactly how high to step.
All right.
That goes back to that neuromuscular control.
I want you to think about that.
Don't take it for granted.
All right.
Next. We're going to do something that's kinda tough.
All right.
We're going to practice skipping without actually moving.
So this is going to that concept of learning new skills.
So we're going to break down something like skipping,
which maybe you're good at, maybe you're not so good at.
And we're going to break it down into a simpler movement.
So I want you to copy along with what I'm doing.
So take your left leg, put it forward, right arm, bring it forward.
Left-hand goes back.
Right leg goes back.
All we're going to do is punch our back arm and back leg forward and then go right back.
Just like that.
Let's do four on one side and then we're going to do four on the other side.
Trust me. You'll see how cool it is that this comes together
to help make you better at skipping.
Good. And again, our brain, it's making connections.
It's teaching our arms, how to work with our legs to help drive our body forward.
Last thing we're going to do is skip in place.
So you could start that same thing left arm, excuse me, left leg, right hand forward.
And then we're just going to skip.
And go back and forth like this.
Excellent.
So we just took a skill, maybe some of us aren't that good at, we made it a little bit simpler
and now we've got a drill that makes it a whole lot easier for us.
Good. Now we're going to skip and move a little bit.
We'll do the same thing going back.
Last couple of reps.
Alright. Excellent job.
So keep that in mind.
Whenever you're about to learn a new exercise.
When you go onto this video, that's going to play after this.
If there's something new there, I want you to think about that role that your brain plays
in helping you learn to do that movement.
Hey guys, have a great workout.
We'll see you soon.
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