Brain Coach Performance Certification is an (online) certification by Annette Verpillot, respectively her Canada-based company named Posturepro. This course is co-hosted by Director of Strength and Conditioning for Basketball, Golf & Tennis, Preston Greene (Florida Gators) and Assistant Athletic Performance Coach, Blake Bender (California Golden Bears).
This knowledgeable triumvirate will tell you how to “rewire” you brain and how to bring a simple and practical understanding of neurology to fitness providers of all levels. An online certification that will equip you with the health and fitness-tools to immediately improve your practice and change the way you work with clients/patients by working with a brain-based approach.
In this article I’ll give you a glimpse of what I’ve learned and why you also should invest in this education…
Brain Coach Performance Certification – A brain- based approach
What makes this course unique you might ask? Well, it’s definitely the brain- based approach!
The Brain Coach Performance Certification(BCPC) is divided into 6 modules. It includes more than 30 lessons and over five hours of video content! On top you will also have access to all of the updates that will be added by Posturepro while improving the model content based on the users’ feedback!
There is also a private Facebook-Group where you can exchange problems and discuss solutions with other trainers/practitioners.
The BCPC is a brain-based approach on how to better train your clients and athletes. Addressing the brain to build a better foundation is key; if you are not addressing the postural foundation, you are adding more symptoms to what the root cause is.
Brain Coach Performance Certification – The inner world creates the outer world
If you want to train your clients better you will have to gain insight! That doesn’t mean that you have to be a mysterious esoteric troglodyte wizard with a crystal ball!
It simply has to do with basic human anatomy and how your brain is wired. How you observe and process the world you live in, particularly visually.
What you see, in terms of sensory impulses, and HOW this information is perceived and processed in the correspondent part of your brain (visual cortex) determines your motoric actions!
According to that, postural problems are not always and only limited to misalignments of your musculoskeletal system, but most likely due to neuromuscular problems, especially problems with sensory perception through the eyes.
But before we dig deeper into basic anatomy we’ll start with some word definitions.
If you follow my blog you will have noticed that I’m a huge fan of defining all the used terms. Just to make sure that there are no questions left.
So, let’s start with the company’s name: Posture(pro).
What actually IS a posture? Posture – unlike most of medical terms (who derive from Latin, respectively old Greek) “posture” etymologically most likely derives from Italian postura = posture (Wikipedia, 2020). The suffix -pro is an abbreviation for professional.
Due to that, Posturepro claim to be professionals in postural issues. Is that true? To make a long story short, I think it is! Just my opinion, but I could be right 😉
Furthermore, my mentor Charles R. Poliquin (R.I.P.) was a big advocate of Posturepro and anyone who knew Charles (aka “Strength Sensei”) also knew, that he didn’t endorse anything he didn’t like! According to that, consider Posturepro to be Strength Sensei approved!
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Posturepro Brain Coach Performance Certification – What you will learn
As mentioned in the summary the BCPC is divided into six modules.
- Module 1: Welcome
- Module 2: Brain Coach
- Module 3: Your Feet and Posture
- Module 4: Your Eyes and Posture
- Module 5: The Postural Assessment
- Module 6: Quiz & Certification
A single blog article is sheer too short to address all the modules with their extensive lessons. Lesson 3 & 4, for example, each have 9 sub-lessons you can dig through.
But I’d like to give you a short summary of each modules just to show you a little teaser what you can expect by enrolling/investing in this course.
Module 2: Brain Coach
In Module 2, Lesson one, you will learn about the „missing link”.
According to the BCPC the missing link in most therapy treatments is “(…) the lack of knowledge in the comprehension of how primitive movement patterns are the foundation of all human movement.” (Posturepro, 2020).
The rest of Module 2 will take you step by step through the structural built of your brain. You will learn about the most important brain areas and their functions. These are:
- The Sensory Cortex
- How to use sensory input
- The Motor Cortex
- The Vestibulospinal Tract
- The Reticulospinal Tract
- The Pontomedullary Reticular Formation (PMRF)
I want to emphasize that the Brain Coach Performance Certification by all means is not an accumulation of foreign words to suggest pseudo competency!
In case you’re not (yet) familiar with the mentioned above here’s a brief etymological explanation:
Cortex derives from Latin and means cortex of the brain (Becher et al., 1995).
Vestibulo/spinal is a composition of Latin vestibular = belonging to the vestibule and Latin spina = thorn, spike, spine/backbone (Becher et al., 1995).
Reticulo/spinal is another compound. Made out of the Latin prefix rete = net, and the aforementioned suffix spina (Becher et al., 1995).
Ponto/medullary Reticular Formation is a construction of Latin pons = bridge, Latin medulla = bone marrow and the already decrypted rete = net (Becher et al., 1995).
In Module 2 of the Brain Coach Performance Certification you will learn more in detail about the built up and function of these terms.
Module 3: Your Feet and Posture
The alignment of the feet is of uttermost importance! You can also read about that in my article: “Alignment from head to toes” and in the “Freo Foot Care System Review”.
Module 3 is divided in 9 sub-categories, respectively 9 lessons. In these you will learn about:
- The neurophysiology of the feet
- How to find out if you suffer from an foot imbalance
- The pathology of flat feet
- The movement efficiency of the ankle
- How to fix feet imbalances
- About ankle force production
- Movement efficiency of the knee
- Force production for the knee
Module 3 will also back up the recommendations with studies. Therefore you can dig even deeper into a particular topic.
Module 4: Your Eyes and Posture
The role of the eyes, respectively the conscious processing of visual stimuli plays an extreme important, yet all too often neglected role in postural problems, respectively sports performance!
In the Brain Coach Performance Certification you will learn about how divergent sensory input might negatively affect the visual information processed in your occiput, which is Latin occiput = back of the head (Becher et al., 1995).
Module 4 is divided in 9 sub-categories, respectively 9 lessons. In these you will learn about:
- Neurophysiology of the eyes
- How to test for an eye imbalance
- Eye Exercises à check spelling error in module 4 exCercises
- Movement efficiency of the back
- The lox back fixing imbalances
- Low back force production
- Movement efficiency of the shoulder
- Fixing shoulder imbalances
- Shoulder force production
Module 4 is the most practical oriented module. By the way I’m aware of the irony of saying “practical” in an online seminar 😉 But let’s put it this way. It’s the module with the most exercises in the program.
Preston Greene and Blake Bender will guide you through efficient exercises that are (not only) useful if you work in the strength and conditioning profession.
Module 5: The Postural Assessment
The Brain Coach Performance Certification is more of an advanced course as it challenges you with a lot of (new) input. In chapter 5 you will find the longest videos of the course, up to about 30 minutes for a single lesson.
Module 5 is divided in 4 sub-categories, respectively 4 lessons. In these you will learn about:
- Recap of the Brain Coach
- The sensory receptors
- The postural assessment
- More about Brain Coach Posturepro
Module 6: Certification
In order to accomplish the Brain Coach Performance Certification this course finishes with a quiz. To successfully pass, you’ll have to answer the questions correctly to demonstrate what you have learned.
The course closes with a “Thank You” by Annette Verpillot.
What will you get as a bonus?
As if the course wouldn’t be enough you also get a cornucopia of extras, including:
- BONUS 1: 30 mins One-on-One Business Development Call with Annette Verpillot (value: $500)
- BONUS 2: FREE Access to our Facebook Practitioner Group (value: $500)
- BONUS 3: Get listed on the Posturepro Website as a Provider (value: $850)
- BONUS 4: Gain Access to Peer-Reviewed Studies (value: $250)
Posturepro Proprioceptive Insoles
A proprioceptive insole? What’s that I can hear you ask… Well it’s a “cool tool” you will learn more in depth in the Brain Coach Performance Certification. I’ll give you a short summery though.
The guys from Posturepro describe it this way:
“The Proprioceptive Insoles excite the hundreds of thousands of nerve cells loaded in the soles of your feet. Studies show that a textured insole is optimal to arouse postural muscles and elicit benefits ranging from improved balance to improved gait patterns.” (Posturepro, 2020).
As you will learn in the course, numerous studies have confirmed that the feet are part of how your brain manages movement.
According to this, your body utilizes information from your feet to create the proper postural strategy to stand upright, which is quite an energy-consuming task if you suffer from (structural) imbalances!
The postural insoles are designed and supposed for the purpose to correct foot misalignments.
They work by activating your skin’s mechanoreceptors, by changing the way that the motor cortex is projecting onto your muscles, allowing each foot to send the same (and propper) information to the brain.
Mechano/receptor derives from Greek mechan(o) = “with the help of tools”, “caused by mechanic action” (Becher et al., 1995); and Latin recipere = “to take back” (Frag Cäsar).
So, literally translated, mechanoreceptor means: “with the help of tools (something is) taken back”.
With the help of these insoles you’re supposed to have an enhanced coordination of movement and furthermore improved via several motor tracts (reticulospinal and vestibulospinal).
Posturepro states that:
“Because the insoles work with the movement center of the brain, we can see changes in alignment, stability, and pain reduction in a very short amount of time.” (Posturepro, 2020).
Brain Coach Performance Certification Conclusion
In the end of each blog article I like to draw a conclusion. Likewise with the BCPC-course. To make a long story short, you probably just want to hear my answer to one simple question:
Would I recommend taking this course?
And the answer is: yes! From my point of view it was definitely an investment. Sure, it will take you time, not only to work through the extensive video material but also to have all the information settle and digested.
Having absorbed all the new information you are, as the word says, in a new formation. This will give you new tools for your “health tool box” while treating patients and/or clients.
Remember, if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail!
Let’s have a brief talk about the investment. In EUR it’s 390 € (429 US $). You’ll probably have noticed that I wrote “investment” instead of “cost”.
If you invest, you will get a so called “return on investment”. Which means at first you “spend” some money, but in the long run you will profit from the knowledge you have gained.
Therefore I address you to learn more, to earn more! And please rather be a “learn it all” than a “know it all”. The only thing I know for sure, is that I don’t know anything for sure!
© HP Bernd Stößlein, Master of Business Administration in Sportmanagement.
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Literature
Posture, source: https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/posture, access from 13.7.20.
Posturepro, Module 2, Lesson 1, The missing link, 2020.
Lateinisch-griechischer Wortschatz in der Medizin, p. 53.
Lateinisch-griechischer Wortschatz in der Medizin, p. 62.
Lateinisch-griechischer Wortschatz in der Medizin, p. 131.
Lateinisch-griechischer Wortschatz in der Medizin, p. 132.
Lateinisch-griechischer Wortschatz in der Medizin, p. 176.
Lateinisch-griechischer Wortschatz in der Medizin, p. 207.
Lateinisch-griechischer Wortschatz in der Medizin, p. 207.
Lateinisch-griechischer Wortschatz in der Medizin, p. 246.
Recipare, Quelle: https://www.frag-caesar.de/lateinwoerterbuch/recipere-uebersetzung-1.html, acces from 13.7.2020.
