Physical & Athletic Performance

These days most, if not all, athletes and peak performers understand that it takes much more than training the body to become a finely tuned machine capable of topping personal bests and even world records. Training the body for peak athletic performance clearly starts at the top (the brain that is), for if it weren’t for this amazing organ the body would be unable to achieve seemingly super-human feats!

The field of peak performance sports psychology, which dates back to the 1920s, began as an effort to understand how psychological factors affected sports performance. Though this valuable field of study has lost significant momentum in the recent past; it is well understood by athletes, researchers, and the general public alike that the brain has a profound impact on the way one performs in sports, psychologically or otherwise.

Enter functional neurology. As an emerging discipline for all things brain, functional neurology holds incredible promise as the greatest intervention for peak performance athletes as it addresses the core abilities that allow us to perform at our highest levels and beyond. Assessing, correcting, and fine-tuning attention, focus, concentration, sequencing, planning, memory, processing speed, reaction time, and other critical abilities of the human brain allow virtually unlimited potential in any discipline for the athlete and teams undergoing peak performance sports training.

Peak Performance for Athletes

Whether you are a weekend warrior, Olympic hopeful, or professional athlete, peak performance Brain Training can help on numerous levels. From faster times in racing sports and improved shot accuracy and defending in ball sports, to decreased injury in any sport due to more efficient brain-body awareness. training one’s brain for peak performance is a necessary strategy for any athlete to improve outcomes and increase career lifespan and quality.

At APEX Brain Centers we have helped athletes:

• Shave precious shots off their golf scores
• Decrease lap times in auto racing
• Cut milliseconds off sprints and seconds to minutes off long distance running and swimming race times
• Climb the cycling world ranks
• Improve shot accuracy and goal tending skills in soccer
• Find more time ‘in the zone’ during critical game situations
• Improve target shooting accuracy
• Decrease recurrent injury rates
• And so much more…

The improvements realized by peak performance training for the brain also translate to the arts arena with dancers, performers, musicians, etc.

Brain Training Strategies for Physical and Athletic Performers

One example of a highly successful peak performance sports training strategy utilized at APEX Brain Centers is the Interactive Metronome (IM). IM trains timing, a.k.a. temporal processing, in the brain. By training deficient neural timing within the brain through engaging physical and cognitive activities matched to a metronome beat. We are able to calculate and improve one’s ability to process, sequence. And plan more effectively within the brain. It is easy to see how re-training these critical abilities are in the brain. can lead to higher and higher levels of sports performance.

Other examples of tools utilized at APEX for peak performance brain training are qEEG directed neurofeedback, transcranial magnetic stimulation, oculomotor (eye movement) training, vestibular/balance training, motor training, metabolic or nutritional therapies, and much more.