The body’s physiology is effectively a ‘slave’
to the nervous system
experienced a certain treatment or training protocol working with one
individual, but not achieving the desired result with another. The easy
response to this outcome is to blame the client for not committing to
their program, not following your instructions. The harder response is
to try to understand how the two systems or bodies differed.
With this question of ‘why do human bodies respond differently to
the same intervention?’ as a trigger, I began a few years ago to try to
develop a broader understanding of how the body reacts to therapy
and training interventions. This is a big question, and although the
level of knowledge I had gained from a university degree, thousands
of hours of courses and reading, years of practical experience and
countless informal chats with other professionals was considerable,
it did not adequately answer my question.
The things I found, or conclusions I drew, from this enquiry can be
summarised in a few points:
• Anyone who thinks they understand exactly how the human body
works is kidding themselves.
• The body is a ‘complex adaptive system’, meaning it comprises
a number of systems which interact and enhance each others’
function (I’ll elaborate on this point later).
• Many of the explanations that therapists, trainers and coaches
use for the effects of their interventions are not accurate – but
that does not detract from the fact those interventions have value.
• ‘Old wisdom’ or knowledge has as much value as ‘new wisdom’:
elements of ancient descriptions of the body’s functions from
teachings of disciplines such as acupuncture and yoga are
proving to be scientifically valid as more detailed research into
the body is carried out.
The body’s systems
A fundamental assumption that traditional Western medicine has got
wrong, in my opinion, is that the body’s various systems are ‘discreet’,
i.e. they operate as independent systems. The systems of the body
I refer to include the nervous system, the musculoskeletal system,
the endocrine system, the digestive system and the cardiovascular
system – and you can define a few others (just go to any text book on
the human body). The nervous system can also be broken down into
the central nervous system (CNS), autonomic nervous system (ANS)
and enteric nervous system (ENS). Assuming these systems are
discreet, and therefore do not interact with or influence each other,
leads to interventions that are like going to the casino and putting it
all on black: sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.
An example of this is strength training: two clients can do exactly
the same program (exercise and diet) and have different responses.
One can get stronger, improve lean muscle mass and feel better,
while another may not respond as well. Why? The ‘discreet system’
56 | NETWORK SPRING 2018