What is Neuro-Training?

Neuro-Training is the name we have given to training that involves mentally fatiguing activities to induce mental fatigue to help augment this training stimulus. 

Mental fatigue, as a training stimulus? 

Yes, you read that correctly. Any activity that has a component of prolonged time, think sports matches, endurance activities, prolonged focused work – they all have a component of mental endurance. As a result, performance in these can be improved via neuro-training. That’s right, doing neuro-training will help your marathon running, or triathlon performance. 

But if it is so good why am I just hearing about it now? 

As a former elite cyclist and lifelong endurance athlete and self-described performance geek, our founder, Sun Sachs, had been aware of the science around building more cognitive resilience as a way of improving athletic performance. He had been waiting for a commercial version of the science to come to market for 4+ years until one day on the bike trainer he had an epiphany for how it could be done. With 25 years in software and hardware development he was able to build a prototype in a few weeks with his first co-founder, Cody Rotwein, start beta testing, file a patent, add one more amazing co-founder, Ed Gibbins and the rest is history. 

So in short, we aren’t sure, but we sure are happy to be bringing this game changer to you. 

So what is Rewire?

Rewire is a complete system developed for both neuro-training, readiness tracking and mind/body recovery. 

It caters to all your neuro-training wants and needs, in or out of physical training hours, allowing you to gain the edge on your competition by being better able to focus and handle mental fatigue.

Additionally, as mentioned, it is an integrated readiness tracker. This is because, like all training, neuro-training isn’t optimally done when you are dealing with a high amount of cognitive fatigue, so tracking this becomes essential. 

The beauty of Rewire is that it allows you to understand where (emotionally, physically or mentally) you are ready to perform and where you are carrying fatigue. Armed with this knowledge, the inbuilt personal recovery sessions (based on these results) and the will to modify your training program, you can work with your body to optimize training. Heavy mental fatigue? Well maybe do a recovery session and change training, or use this mental fatigue as a form of neuro-training. Heavy physical fatigue? Maybe modify training and take advantage of the time to do more neuro-training with the app. 

You get the picture, we are changing the game through working with your situation rather than assuming you are a robot who can just perform as planned from the training program written six months ago. 

Related: Overview of Rewire’s Neuro-Training System

What does neuro-training look like? 

It comes in many forms, in fact some of them are things you are probably doing. For example, prolonged concentration on a task is a form of neuro-training, this is why after a long, mentally tough day at work training can feel harder. That said, just like physical training, there is a huge difference between targeted  and specific training and training that has some effect. This is where Rewire comes in. 

Rewire uses the same types of training developed in research studies for inducing mental fatigue to help your neurotraining. These require prolonged attention and help increase cognitive load during training, or induce a mentally fatiguing stimulus before your training, to help augment the physical stimulus induced by the subsequent training session. 

How does neuro-training work? 

Fatigue itself is complex, but it has many components, one of which is mental fatigue. By doing neuro-training you are becoming more resistant to mental fatigue and thus will improve this factor in performance or at least reduce or remove it as a limiting factor in performance. Neuro-training can be standalone, or done around physical training depending on goals of the neuro-training and physical training. It is no use pre-fatiguing yourself mentally before a key workout, but perhaps this is a good way to get a little bit more out of the easy workout you have today. It can also be done concurrently with physical training with our Neuro-Training Buttons.

Related: Brain-Endurance Training For Athletes: What You Need To Know

What does neuro-training do?

Neuro-training will ultimately help you improve focus and mental performance. 

This has implications to everyday life and performance of course, especially with more mentally burdensome activities. In an athletic sense, as mentioned, fatigue has a large component of mental fatigue and neuro-training looks to address this specifically. So whilst there are other factors to fatigue, this part will be improved, helping reduce mental fatigue and removing it as a barrier to performance. 

Why is neuro-training necessary? 

You spend so much time training and preparing for the race, it seems a waste to completely ignore one aspect of training doesn’t it? You wouldn’t skip swim training for a triathlon, so why skip neuro-training for your upcoming athletic endeavors? 

Given the interrelated nature of mental fatigue and performance it is crucial for you to focus on the mental aspects of performance. These include neuro-training and finally there is a way in which you can do this easily, in a structured manner thanks to Rewire. The added benefits being that it will have flow on effects to all aspects of your life in terms of focus and mental performance and can be done without adding significant time to your day or any more physical load. That’s right, you get better without having to physically tax yourself! 

Don’t hesitate to start your neuro-training and unlock the benefits of improved mental performance, Rewire your performance circuitry today. 

Tap here to try one of our Neuro-Training sessions. If you aren’t a Rewire member yet, tap here to sign up today! Or, you can try out our Free Online Mental Toughness Challenge!

Looking to take your Neuro-Training to the next level by layering it onto your physical workouts? Check out Rewire’s Neuro-Buttons.


Further Readings:
Brain Endurance Training for Athletes: What You Need To Know
Overview of Rewire’s Neuro-Training System
Neuro-Training Studies

Kyle Korver
Kyle Korver
NBA All-Star and Prolific 3-Point Shooter

“As a professional athlete, I’ve known firsthand the importance of training the mind and body to push the limits of performance. Rewire’s latest platform makes mental strength training more accessible to athletes everywhere with easy-to-use tools to help them reach their goals.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT REWIRE’S NEURO-PERFORMANCE SYSTEM

Dr David Lipman is an Australian trained Medical Doctor, Podiatrist and Exercise Physiologist. He has worked with athletes of varying levels in all 3 roles. He is an ultramarathon runner, avid physical activity advocate and is passionate about performance in all people.


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