Movement
Build Range With Neural Notches, From Our Motor Skill Specialist Course
From the FASTER syllabus: this article is taught in full in Motor Skill Application Specialist, where neural notching is taught →
In short: The Motor Skill Application Specialist course defines a neural notch as a place in a muscle where force can easily be produced, set by habit, skill and experience, and specific to each person's dominant skills. Body builders tend to have notches at shorter ranges and gymnasts nearer the end range. The course asks trainers to make a request for mobility specific to the task: a larger range of motion together with the strength and power to arrive at that place and leave it, consistently well.
A client says they want to be more flexible. A trainer hears "stretch" and reaches for the usual list.
The Motor Skill Application Specialist course has a gentler, sharper idea for this, and it has a name: the neural notch.
Key Takeaways
- A neural notch is a place in a muscle where force is easy to produce, shaped by habit, skill and experience.
- The course asks for a larger range of motion together with the strength and power to arrive there and leave again.
- PT Manager opens when you sign up, so you can build the exercise list for it straight away.
What a neural notch is
The course puts it with a belt. A belt has holes, and the holes are places you can fasten it and know it will hold. A neural notch is a place in a muscle where force can easily be produced: somewhere you can get to and know you have strength.
The word neural is there on purpose. These are not physical dents in a muscle. They are areas the central nervous system has defined, so they follow habit, skill and experience. Each notch belongs to the dominant skills of the person in front of you.
The course gives two pictures. Body builders would probably have notches at the shorter ranges of the muscle. Gymnasts would be the opposite, with notches closer to the end range. Different people, different belts.
Why "more mobility" is too vague to coach
The course lists the questions trainers keep asking. How do I create mobility? How do I stretch a client? What do I do with someone hyper mobile? Its answer is that each one is too general to answer well, and the first job is to make the question specific to the task.
Its own rewrite of the first one is worth keeping on a card:
"How do I create a larger range of motion, in conjunction with the strength and power to successfully arrive and leave that place, in a way that allows me to complete the task in hand consistently well?"
That sentence moves the goal. Range alone is no longer the target. Range that the client can get to, use and come back from, again and again, is.
A fact that changes how techniques look
The course adds a detail trainers rarely hear. A muscle will display only a percentage of its true length unless the sensory feedback from it is switched off, and an unconscious person shows more range than a conscious one. So range seen in the short term, from any technique, is partly a way of lowering the resistance to stretch.
Once that is clear, techniques can be judged by what they leave behind. Static stretching, dynamic stretching, foam rolling and trigger pointing all give the impression of doing the job. The course asks the trainer to weigh each against the client's task, because mobility is seldom required on its own.
Skill and performance pull different ways
The course also reminds trainers of the skill to performance continuum from the module before. Skill training can add small, marginal gains in performance, while performance training does not raise skill. The techniques for one are often contradictory to the other, so the first decision is which of the two the client's task needs.
Its answer to range is the technique that produces a specific skill at a specific level of skill: strength and power built where the client needs the range.
What this looks like on a Monday
A client who wants to reach the floor in a squat does not need a general programme of stretches. They need an exercise list that visits the depth they want, with load and control there. The next client, a gymnast-type with range to spare, needs the same idea pointed at a different belt hole.
That list is easy to make and easy to lose. This is where PT Manager helps: its exercise library holds a trainer's own exercises, filmed or linked, and it opens free the moment you sign up with any FASTER course.
What to do next
Neural notching sits in the Motor Skill Application Specialist course, alongside the exercise generator and skill clusters that put it to work. Like every FASTER course it is visual and interactive, with reading, listening, written answers or dictated ones, whichever suits you.
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Frequently asked
What is a neural notch?
The course defines it as a place in a muscle where force can easily be produced, like the holes in a belt: places you can get to and know you have strength. They are set by the nervous system, so they follow habit, skill and experience.
Is range of motion the same as mobility?
The course says mobility is seldom required on its own. Range matters because of the task it serves, so it is trained together with the strength and power to arrive at that range and leave it.
Does this replace stretching?
The course asks trainers to weigh each technique against the client's task and goal, and says the best techniques are the ones that produce specific skills at specific levels of skill.
When does PT Manager open?
PT Manager opens the moment you sign up with any FASTER course, and adding real clients unlocks once you pass a course.
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