Biofeedback and neurofeedback training procedures are often different for athletes than for clinical patients. Athletes come to improve performance whereas patients come to reduce symptoms. This article outlines factors that distinguish work with athletes from work with clinical patients. The training process with athletes is illustrated through a case example of a young tennis player who mastered control of his anger.
Peper, E. (2016). Increase energy. Western Edition. April, pp4.
Offers background and self-care practices of changing internal dialogue and identifying energy gains and energy drains to increase subjective energy.
Increase Productivity, Decrease Procrastination, and Increase Energy
Procrastination, self-blame, and unproductive behavior are widespread problems in student populations and in human beings generally. The authors present a framework, called Transforming Failure into Success, which is utilized in undergraduate classes and based on self-observation, self-acceptance, and mental rehearsal of positive changes. They provide instructions and guidelines for positive mental rehearsal. The students in the intervention group showed significant improvements in reducing procrastination, improving productivity, and increasing energy.
Depression, Movement, and Energy Level
My energy slowly drained and I became more sleepy the
longer the lecture lasted; however, when the instructor
guided us through a few physical movements, my energy and
mood significantly increased. I can pay much more attention.
Training Strategies for Concentration
In summary, concentration is the ability to direct one’s full attention to appropriate cues in the present task instead of being controlled by irrelevant external or internal stimuli. Most top athletes have developed their own mental strategies for doing this. These strategies are often perceived as a component of natural athletic ability. In fact, they are not totally innate; they are skills that athletes acquire through regular practice of attention control training. The consistent control over one’s attentional focus before and during competition can be improved through practice, just as any difficult physical skill is learned.
A Teaching Strategy for Successful Hand Warming
This essay outlines a successful approach used in groups to elicit rapid peripheral warming as a strategy to encourage learning and personal beliefs. It is an useful tool to demonstrate to an audience to the value of a biofeedback approach to mobilize health. Through this educational/clinical strategy, almost all participants experience an increase in hand temperature.
Enhancing Therapeutic Success: Some Observations from Mr. Kawakami
Looking at the commonalities between factors that are associated with therapeutic success and those associated with the personal and healing skill of Mr. Kawakami, we suggest options for the reader to explore.
The ‘Aha’ Experience with Somatics: Demonstrating Mind and Body Unity
An ‘Aha’ experience can change one’s belief system, lead to increased awareness and a greater sense of control, and enhance confidence and competence. The ‘aha’ process usually includes getting ‘stuck’ before attaining mental relaxation, an accepting attitude and then, resolution or insight. Because it is felt instead of explained, the ‘aha’ experience is often evoked through Somatic activities, such as lemon imagery, airplane movement, threading a needle, arm lift by a partner, or Feldenkrais foot movement. Participants shift from belief to knowing when they feel/experience an expanded awareness of the mind-body interconnectedness.
Optimize Performance in Daily Life: Improving Physical Fitness and Health at the Worksite
Muscle pain is the primary cause of discomfort for more than 30% of patients who visit their primary physicians with severe pain. These pains are often caused by dysponesis which is unaware misdirected muscle efforts not necessary for task performances. Dysponesis can be identified with surface electromyographic (SEMG) feedback. The benefits of using SEMG to reduce dysponesis through awareness and training are illustrated by two clinical case examples. SEMG is a useful clinical tool to assess, monitor, provide feedback to the therapist and client, document muscle dysponesis, and teach clients awareness and voluntary control to reduce their dysponesis and improve health.
Falls are a primary cause of injury, especially as we get older. Reduce the risk of falling– and the bone fractures that can result–with exercises that improve balance, strength and coordination.
Mcphetridge, J., Thorne, E., Peper, E., & Harvey, R. (2011) SEMG for training awareness
and muscle relaxation during toe touching. Paper presented at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Biofeedback Foundation of Europe. Munich, Germany, February 22-26, 2011.
Many people are unaware of muscle tension when performing tasks. This often results in fatigue due to excessive energy expenditure—a process that has been labeled as dysponesis or dysponetic muscle activity. This study investigated whether college students were aware of their neck and back muscle tensions while performing a simple task of bending forward and touching their toes. We recommend that SEMG training be used to enhance awareness and reduce dysponesis during yoga, stretching, and other physical activities.
Peper, E. (2017). Enhancing Yoga with Biofeedback. J Yoga & Physio.2(2).
How can you demonstrate that yoga practices are beneficial? How do you know you are tightening the correct muscles or relaxing the muscle not involved in the movement when practicing asanas? How can you know that the person is mindful and not sleepy or worrying when meditating? How do you know the breathing pattern is correct when practicing pranayama? Biofeedback is a useful strategy to enhance yoga practice as it makes the invisible visible. It allows the teacher and the student to become aware of the dysfunctional patterns that may be occurring beneath awareness.
Depression, Movement, and Energy Level
My energy slowly drained and I became more sleepy the
longer the lecture lasted; however, when the instructor
guided us through a few physical movements, my energy and
mood significantly increased. I can pay much more attention.
Peper, E. (2016). Increase energy. Western Edition. April, pp4.
Offers background and self-care practices of changing internal dialogue and identifying energy gains and energy drains to increase subjective energy.
Optimize Performance in Daily Life: Improving Physical Fitness and Health at the Worksite
Muscle pain is the primary cause of discomfort for more than 30% of patients who visit their primary physicians with severe pain. These pains are often caused by dysponesis which is unaware misdirected muscle efforts not necessary for task performances. Dysponesis can be identified with surface electromyographic (SEMG) feedback. The benefits of using SEMG to reduce dysponesis through awareness and training are illustrated by two clinical case examples. SEMG is a useful clinical tool to assess, monitor, provide feedback to the therapist and client, document muscle dysponesis, and teach clients awareness and voluntary control to reduce their dysponesis and improve health.
Achieving health: A 14-session structured stress management program—Eczema as a case illustration
Stressors and an individual’s stress reaction may act as an initiator, promoter, or co-factor in the development of and recovery from illness (Sapolsky, 1998). Awareness of one’s stress reaction coupled with mastery of physiological reactivity and conscious changes in behavior and attitude appear to be useful self-regulation approaches to mobilize health. We propose that therapists and teachers include a structured educational stress management program to complement their biofeedback and training protocols for enhancing clients’/students’ self-healing potentials. This paper provides an overview of a structured 14-session regenerative program that can be used to guide individuals or groups to practice at home and work. Emphasis is on active participation in one’s own self-healing, which is essential for reducing mental/emotional blocks that may interfere with regeneration.
Improving College Students’ Health-Including Stopping Smoking and Healing Eczema
Many of the health ailments we face today are due to stress (American Psychological Association (2007). According to American Medical Association (Cohen et al, 2007), stress is often a silent killer because it is commonly believed that we cannot do anything about undue stress in our lives. College students equally report high stress levels: a factor that may put them at higher risk for future illness. Thus, teaching students lifelong stress management and self-healing skills as part of a university curriculum would offer students ways to cope with stress and, optimize their health.
There is Hope: Autogenic Biofeedback Training for the Treatment of Psoriasis
Many college students experience stress-related illness, and in one study, 82% of students reported significant improvement in health when they participated in a semester-long stress management program. The factors that contribute to symptom reduction are illustrated by the case report of a 23-year-old male student who had been suffering from psoriasis for the past 5 years, which was not alleviated with medication and traditional medical treatment. Results showed a significant improvement in the clearing of the skin, more positive self-talk, and improved posture. The benefits have been maintained at the 4-month follow-up. Discussed are the training components and procedures along with factors that contributed to the clinical success and that can be applied to numerous other stress-related disorders.
An educational approach is often different from a clinical treatment approach to promote healing. Using an educational approach, 80% of university students who are enrolled in a holistic health course report that both acute and chronic disorders can be ameliorated or eliminated when they engage in daily self-practice of autogenic training, biofeedback self-regulation practices, and/or somatic posture awareness. This process of reducing health problems is illustrated by a case report of a 20-year-old female student who experienced three migraines per week for the past 6 years. After practicing self-regulation and body awareness techniques such as autogenic training, surface electromyography–assisted muscle awareness, diaphragmatic breathing, and postural changes, the frequency of her headaches decreased to zero. At 20-month follow-up, the student continued to be headache free. This type of integrated self-healing educational approach is recommended for students, patients, and anyone who wants to create lasting health changes.
About the methods of Autogenic Therapy
Autogenic Training (AT) is a highly systematized technique designed to generate a state of psychophysiologic reaction relaxation– a state diametrically opposed to that elicited by stress.
Stiffness, tightness, pain or other muscle discomforts and exhaustion are common experiences for many people who work long hours at the computer or for athletes who push their body physically. Muscle discomfort often limits what they would like to do and, as symptom intensity increases, their discomfort tends to interfere with their work or athletic performances.The teaching examples presented in this chapter illustrate the efficacy of the evidence based SEMG biofeedback approach in the assessment and reduction of dysponesis, or misdirected muscular efforts.
Experience the Mind-Body Connection: A Metaphor for Immune Competence
Feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, and powerless are common feelings especially when sick. We often forget that evoking or ruminating on negative thoughts decreases our energy level and strength. This change in strength can be used as a metaphor for immune competence. In many cases caretakers of a family member with Alzheimer disease or a disabled child have reduced immune competence. For many of these care takers, life feels like being on a treadmill with no end in sight. Just recalling or ruminating on a hopeless, helpless, powerless memory causes our energy to drop. Experience the change in energy and physical strength when you shift your thoughts in the following exercise taken from our book, Fighting Cancer-A Nontoxic Approach to Treatment (Gorter and Peper, 2011).
Awareness of one’s stress reaction coupled with mastery of physiological self-regulation, conscious behavior and attitude changes appear to be useful approaches to mobilize health. This poster provides 1) an overview of a structured 14-session regenerative program, 2) results of the 5-month follow-up email outcome survey, and 3) two case examples to illustrate the process.
The Effects of Upright and Slumped Postures on the Recall of Positive and Negative Thoughts
This study assessed whether it was easier to generate positive and negative thoughts in either an upright or slumped position. Surface electromyography (sEMG) of zygomaticus major, heart rate, and respiratory rate were assessed across four 1-min counterbalanced conditions of either upright or slumped posture and either positive or negative thought generation. At the end of the study, participants rated which thought was easiest to generate in the two postures. Significantly more participants (92%), indicated it was easiest to generate positive thoughts in the upright position. This study supports the finding that positive thoughts are more easily recalled in the upright posture.
Current Applications of Biofeedback to Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Clinical biofeedback has a 35 year history of developing applications to disorders in physical medicine and rehabilitation. The authors summarize the paradigm of biofeedback, discuss its mechanisms, and review current protocols for the treatment of asthma, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, headache, myofascial pain disorders, repetitive strain disorders, and urinary incontinence. Biofeedback interventions are compatible with and often augment the therapeutic effects of conventional medical, pharmacologic and manual interventions. Biofeedback offers evidence-based alternative therapies for a variety of common disorders in rehabilitation.
Thermal biofeedback training in children with headache Autogenic therapy
Two young girls with a history of headaches were trained with autogenic training phrases and with thermal biofeedback training. Both girls rapidly learned to control their peripheral temperature in two training sessions while practicing for 3 weeks at home and school; both have been symptom free (without medication) for the last 6 months. This learning process may foster a shift in health attitudes from helplessness to self-responsibility.
Mcphetridge, J., Thorne, E., Peper, E., & Harvey, R. (2011) SEMG for training awareness
and muscle relaxation during toe touching. Paper presented at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Biofeedback Foundation of Europe. Munich, Germany, February 22-26, 2011.
Many people are unaware of muscle tension when performing tasks. This often results in fatigue due to excessive energy expenditure—a process that has been labeled as dysponesis or dysponetic muscle activity. This study investigated whether college students were aware of their neck and back muscle tensions while performing a simple task of bending forward and touching their toes. We recommend that SEMG training be used to enhance awareness and reduce dysponesis during yoga, stretching, and other physical activities.
biofeedbackhealth.org 