Cognitive vs. Reflexive Learning Phases

you just woke the woke you pulled out an old macbook pro and fired it up and went oh hello world oh we're doing this again okay i remember how we do this because your brain's already learned that pattern right so here's here's a good way of putting it you have two different two different categories of how we're learning right or a sequence and how we learn you have cognitive learning which is what beginners go through like if you if you wanted me to coach you on how to do a snatch and a clean. Even though you've done pulls and you've done deadlifts and you've done back squats, you've done overhead squats, you've done front squats, you're going to have to go through this cognitive learning phase again because now that you put all those together, basically deadlift to the bar and do an overhead squat and then come up in a front squat. You have to learn how the sequencing. So during a cognitive phase, which is what every single person will have to do when they begin a new exercise, especially if it's radically different from any other exercise they've done. In the cognitive phase, you actually have to think about what you're doing. So when you're ready to do the lift, you have to approach the bar and then you have to go, okay, let's say I'm doing a snatch. So I need one more wide grip. So I have to get my hands where they need to be. And then I have to know where to pull my ass down to, where to extend my back to, where to look. Then how do I initiate this? How do I keep the bar closed? What happens when the bar gets to my waist. Well, I got to launch the bar and pull myself under the bar. So your brain has to go through all these checklists of what it's supposed to do. And they reckon it takes around three to five thousand reps to basically program a sequence like that. Right now, athletes will do it faster, but most people, most non-athletes or normal gym people, it's going to take you about three to five thousand repetitions of an exercise to then be able to approach the bar, just do it and then switch into what's called the reflexive phase, where you've actually now the information isn't necessarily stored here, it's also stored in your spot in your nervous system, so that it becomes automatic, right? And that's how you know someone who's done the hard yards of learning and exercise or not. Like you, that's how I can tell if I go to a gym, I can tell who knows what they're doing and who doesn't just by watching them do a movement. Because the people that are apprehensive and hesitating and they're kind of choppy in what they're doing, they're still in that cognitive phase. So I'm like, okay, they're still a beginner. They haven't done enough thousands of reps to get this done. Or then you see like me or you will walk into the gym and I don't, when I'm doing, let's say I'm doing an incline press. I don't think about it. I get on the bench, I grab the bar, I set and I go, but, and then everything looks nice and smooth. But that's the difference between looking at like that beginner cognitive phase of an exercise versus someone who's done that exercise so many times that it's just like riding a bike. So when you went and did your deadlift, that reflexive phase just turned back on. And it was just like riding a bike, except the bike is a deadlift bar. Yeah. And this is why it's so important to not skip steps. You need to build all of this. Exactly. It's not about the results. It's about building the results, the process that it's doing the things, getting better at the things, and then doing the things again until it becomes a ritual, like you said, and it's just chasing more. And I relate this to habits and habit memory. Because just like muscle memory, if you've had a habit that you only just developed, you're going to lose that really fast as soon as you get sick. And then it's hard to get back on track again. But if it's something you've been doing for like half of your life, as soon as you get like finish your little sick period, you're back to it straight away. It's the same concept. And this is going back to what I wanted to say about coaching and interaction and one-on-one and form videos. Like this is the shit that creates the physiques that you see online that are like, wow, it's not downloading programs. It's like program design in itself is overwhelming for people. But even when you download programs, people expect radical physique changes. They don't push themselves enough, number one. But then if you get a form video from them, I'm sure you've had people that have done all the downloading apps and then they finally join your coaching or your group training and then you see their videos and it's like you just have a puzzled face on you like you need to fix all of these little things and you're like you can add probably another 10 kilos to that and then you start progressing them properly with a strategy month well not month to month but like program to program there's like strategy to the progressions it's not just random stuff