Episode 19 - Neuroplasticity: 3 Questions To Change Your Brain

Are you actually rewiring your brain—or just repeating the same patterns with more reps?

In this episode of Three Questions, I share the three questions I wish more people would ask before trying to retrain their brain. We’ll unpack what neuroplasticity really requires (hint: it’s not just doing the same thing over and over), why some days you’re better off reinforcing what you can do, and how your sensory system holds the key to unlocking meaningful change.

I break down:
 ✅ Why “just doing more reps” doesn’t guarantee neuroplasticity
 ✅ How to tell if you’re in a “go” state or a “flow” state (and why you need both)
 ✅ How sensory input, not sets and reps, might be the real driver of progress

Whether you're a movement professional, a neuro-nerd, or just someone trying to move through life with less pain and more agency, this episode will help you rethink how you measure progress so you can train your brain as intentionally as you train your body.

Resources mentioned:
Episode 9: Want To Improve Your Experience With Sleeping
Episode 15: Now What? What To Do After The Breakthrough
Neuro Studio Advanced Neuro Techniques For Movement Pros
Connect with me on Instagram
Connect with me on Threads

Chapters

• 0:00 Neuroplasticity: 3 Questions To Change Your Brain
• 1:20 Expectations and Realities of Neuroplasticity
• 8:48 The Role of Failure and Challenge in Neuroplasticity
• 18:47 Measuring Repetitions and Sensory Input
• 28:59 Final Thoughts

Transcript

Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions where critical thinking is king, and my opinions and research are only here to support your learning and deeper understanding. Hey, I'm your host Meghann, and I'm so honored you clicked on Three Questions today to talk about neuroplasticity. Now, if you've heard of that term before, you might.

Already understand what it is, or maybe it's kind of brand new to you, but let's just kind of get on the same, you know, playing field here. So in the past there were like thoughts that after a certain age our brain wasn't able to adapt or change. Like there's a saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Well, that has been disproven and we have found that you can make changes in your brain throughout a lifetime. Now, I always like to be really clear our brains are a little more adaptable and plastic when we're kids, and it is a little bit harder to do as your adult, but for me it's, you know, stop saying things are impossible just because maybe we don't want to do it.

So, kind of let's dig into this idea of neuroplasticity, what it means. Should we really care? How focused should we be? And you know, how can we fit it into what we already do? So let's get right into question one. What are your expectations of neuroplasticity? And maybe a, I don't know, maybe a better question would be, or is, are you in a place where you're focused enough to see it through?

I'll let you sit on that for a sec. So something I say to clients all the time, and I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record. So I don't know. I think I'm gonna change it because although they hear me, I don't think it's resonating in the way I want it to. I say this a lot, listen, I know you want to fix your low back pain, bad foot spasticity, walking patterns, but learning a new movement patterns, like learning a new language, and would you expect me to teach you?

French in an hour session and they're like, no, absolutely not. So it's easy to understand that learning a new movement pattern is in fact very similar to learning a language. It's difficult. It takes focus, you've gotta practice it, you've gotta make mistakes. But here's where I think the difference comes in.

I don't wanna say all of us, but many of us have been moving our entire life. Now if you're like a natural athlete or a superstar that comes really easy to you, you're naturally born with great body awareness, which is a combination of excellent proprioception and sensory integration with your visual vestibular and other senses that your brain is, um, taking in.

And then you might be someone like me who was like, you know, coordinated enough, but movement did not come easy to me. My brain was always protecting me. I mean, I feel like if you ask some of my coaches. I would complain like, oh my back hurts. When we would do stretches and they're like, you are six. You don't have a low back injury.

But when we were stretching our hips, I wasn't really able to differentiate my hip from my lower back and it would make my back hurt. You know, I didn't have the words or the understanding that I do now, but at that time, because it didn't feel good, I just didn't do it. Okay. So when we think about neuroplasticity from a movement perspective.

What are your expectations? Are you expecting to go to a workout class once and nail a routine or, you know, uh, exercises? Are you saying, okay, I'm gonna do it three times a week for six months to achieve this goal and then stop? I'm not judging any of your expectations, but we've gotta be clear. What do you wanna get out of neuroplasticity?

Do you actually want to take the time to learn that new movement pattern and make it efficient, making it more efficient than maybe old movement patterns that either didn't serve you or weren't getting you to your goals? I mean, I'd like to speak multiple languages. I often joke, but it is not a joke. I can barely speak English.

I mean, I'm serious, but I have trouble with. Pronunciations. I even had trouble saying that, but it's just not how my brain works. So I always ask people, am I saying your name right? Can you say that word for me so I can hear it, so I can replicate that sound? Now, that might surprise you because I excelled in school.

Doesn't mean I'm smarter than you. It just means I excelled in school because it was fit to my learning style. But through all that, I still have trouble with reading and comprehension. Meaning sometimes when I read, because I'm actually a speed reader in my eyes, kind of taken the full picture, not word by word, I can sometimes get lost and something that annoys my business partner, although she's very patient with me, I am a terrible editor her because I see the full picture and not individual parts as well.

I miss errors all the time. So we now joke that I put errors in our email sequences to make sure she's paying attention. That's not the reason why. Maybe you're thinking, oh my God, my brain's like that. Or you're like, I don't know, that doesn't resonate with me at all. Well, we don't have the same brain.

Lucky for you, trust me. So going back to question one, what are your actual expectations? I think all of us have goals in mind. Some of them might be less popular. Like I feel like you're not allowed to have weight loss goals anymore. I mean, if you want to lose weight, that is your business. None of my business, if you want to get stronger, that is also great.

If you wanna be more flexible, if you just wanna live without pain, these are all great goals, so don't let social media or anybody tell you your goals should be something different. All right. That's number one. So when we think about our goals, I want everybody right now to think of a movement goal they have.

It could be like big, it could be small. Put it in your brain right now, and I want you to think if you wanna use neuroplasticity to get there, well, here's some of the technical things that need to happen. Now. I am not going to go through all the mechanisms of neuroplasticity in the brain chemicals, frankly, because I don't know them all, and it changes so much.

There's been even new research coming out about dopamine. That. Yes. And it does this, but something else, a part of the brain I'm obsessed with is the cerebellum. And I get so annoyed when I see people doing these cerebellar assessments and saying, that's targeting the cerebellum. It it, it's actually, those assessments are actually testing something completely different.

A role that the cerebellum takes, but the cerebellum also does other things. Why does this annoy me? Well because I research it and have some knowledge pe other people don't. Is that their fault? No. Because sometimes when we hear something for the first time, we think it's new research, but really be careful.

It, it's something, I mean, maybe it's 'cause I'm writing a dissertation and doing my doctorate right now, or I don't actually think it's it. That's it guys. If I'm being honest, I just never wanna say something that I don't know for a fact is true. Not because I care about backlash, but I would feel really bad.

I have like a guilty conscience. I was like a terrible liar as a kid, but I wouldn't wanna steer you in the wrong direction and think you're like really getting something. And to find out 10 years later, I was completely wrong. All right. So a lot of times in my courses I'm like, this is supported by research.

This is what I'm thinking. This is where we need more research. So it's limited. All right, so that gives you kind of a little of the backstory with how much brain science is changing. So if I could be so bold to say, take everything what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. This is what we know as of today.

What's today's date? Oh, it's August 1st, 2025. And be excited. Be curious. If you find any new research, you better hit me up and tell me. All right. Don't be an ass on social media and be like, bitch, you are wrong. No. Educate me. Tell me. I wanna know. So in order for neuroplasticity to occur, we need epinephrine to release.

Okay, now that sounds easy enough. Why epinephrine? Well, it increases arousal, alertness, and it signals the brain to pay attention. Get ready. Something important is about to occur. That's how I see epinephrine. Now what's interesting is in research supports that you need failure or a significant challenge to actually trigger epinephrine.

How many of us like to fail? Mm, I don't like to do anything I'm bad at, I'll be honest. Okay, I said it. Um, I work with a good friend of mine, Justin. Um, uh, shout out to, I believe his business is live, more human. I always screw it up. I'm gonna have Joe put his Instagram in the show notes. He doesn't do a lot of Instagram, but he's great with weight training Kettlebells.

And I work out with him because I'm like, yo, Justin, I need you to fill the sensory gaps that I'm not filling. So we kind of, our sessions are always working together and him and I always walk away and we're like, oh, that was awesome. So I encourage you to find a Justin. Okay, now number two. Justin is the kind of dude.

Who will like tinker with something until he figures it out. Like he can't figure out that movement for jiujitsu or soccer or whatever the hell he's doing. So he just keeps at it, oh please, I am not that person. I'm like, bitch, give me all the information. Tell me all the rules. Show me what it should look like, and then I'm gonna try it.

And if I don't think it's possible in my body, I'm gonna do something else. Not because I'm a jerk, but because it feels so bad to my body when I can't do it. And I not don't mean from a mental standpoint because how my brain reacts is with tension and tightness in the joints. If you're hypermobile your or EDS or connective tissue, your body probably responds completely different.

But just remember all our bodies respond differently. So I'll say to Justin, it's a flow day, not a go day. Now, what do I mean by that? I'm going to answer question one for you. It ain't always about neuroplasticity. Some days aren't a go day. Some days I am not in the place to really focus on a, creating a new movement pattern.

I am hanging on by a thread. Let's do movements I can do comfortably and reinforce those patterns. Those are flow days and not go days Now, flow days always. Always, always end up in a go day later, because if we were trying to create a new movement pattern and make it efficient every day, ew, what would we be doing to our brain?

We're never gonna kind of get to a deeper understanding or realization of a certain thing. And I don't really, I don't wanna be an expert at one thing, and I like to be curious. Obviously, hello it's my podcast about, but I do like to tinker with things for a little bit, so. Are you in a go state or a flow state?

When you're in a Go state, I want you to try something that you fail at. It's gotta be a challenge, but research also shows if it is too much of a challenge or you don't see the value, like Meghann just said, it is not gonna trigger epinephrine. How do we get into that sweet spot, that zone? Ugh. I believe it's called balance.

Ew. I like hate. I feel like balance is like a concept that is like an earworm to me. You know? It's what I do for work, but like isn't the true goal in life to have some kind of balance between things. Anyway, that's a different podcast episode. I believe it's the episode right before this where I talk about balance.

So think about every movie montage you see when it's sports related or even um, uh, what do you call those romantic comedies. There's a challenge. The person fails, so rocky, he loses a fight, but then something happens where he finds that motivation again to beat the Russian. And he goes, and he, he boxes against meat in a, a frozen locker.

This is, I believe, Rocky four. And then he ends the Cold War. And if you don't know what I mean, go watch Rocky four. But that's what the montage is. It's overcoming that frustration. But let me tell you, Rocky thought he could beat that Russian. If he didn't, none of that would've carried through. He would've never had that kind of motivation and neuroplasticity to get stronger or reinforced his patterns.

I don't really know what Rocky needed. He doesn't answer my calls. Two, reach his goals. Okay, so think. If you are in a place to focus on neuroplasticity, if your expectations are, I need a new movement pattern, I'm in pain, I'm struggling. There's two ways out of this. Either I get focused on making a change or I'm going to be in pain for the rest of my life.

That's a tough spot, and if you're in that spot, I just, I wanna send you out positive energy. Reach out. If there's anything I can do to help, please trust I will. Um, but anything's possible. And if you're at that bottom where you don't think it's possible, me saying that might piss you off. I can't control how you receive my words.

I can only control my intention of reminding you about neuroplasticity and things that are possible. Keeping in mind that pain is a huge disruptor to neuroplasticity and focus. So if you're living with pain right now, in order to get that epinephrine release, you need something to really, oh, sensory input that really releases epinephrine big.

And I might even hypothesize, and I gotta look at the research for this with chronic pain, I wanna look at the research. Somebody look into this, let me know. What does the research show? When you have chronic pain, I mean, for over a year, if. You need more sensory input or a more distinct shift to create that release in epinephrine.

Let's be curious together right now. Bad news, good news. I don't know. It's not all about epinephrine. That's only step one, guys. Step two is we need acetylcholine to be released from two locations, okay? Ish Now. This should all happen. The epinephrine, if we're kind of in the right environment, the right rules of neuroplasticity.

This is not so complicated, but, but think of, think of this, um, you know, the, the epinephrine is kind of like, get ready, things are about to happen and the acetylcholine is going to spotlight that neurological change or shift in your brain. Um, something that. Uh, people don't really know is the neuroplasticity.

The change isn't happening in the gym, in the Pilate studio. Um, during the, the initial bout of learning, that's where the epinephrine and acetylcholine spotlights it. And then when we're sleeping and resting, this is why sleep is so important guys. And if you're still having trouble with sleep, please listen to my episode on sleep and go find resources for sleep hygiene.

It's critical. I mean, dare I say, you need to figure out your sleep immediately. However, there could be a lot of disruptors to your sleep that you need to address first, but to me, guys, if you're not getting good sleep and you wanna work neuroplasticity, you need change. That should be goal number one. I know you might not hear it like that because you're like, no, no, no.

I want the change. I get it. But the change is not gonna really occur unless we have the opportunity for it. To happen. Okay, so I went a little technical there, but think about this. And the also bad news is measuring epinephrine in acetylcholine in a learning bout is pretty complex and needs to be done at a high level lab.

This is not what I'm doing in my studio. We are trying to identify other factors that increase focus and attention. Which I'll address in question two because we are not able to study the release of acetylcholine and epinephrine, so how do we know what we're doing in our clinic and studio is actually working Okay.

Once we've identified those, and I, I'm at this place where I've identified a few, but I, I'm, if I'm being honest, I, I, I'm, I'm not happy with it yet. I still, there's still some specifics I want to tune into because then we're gonna take that. And then study when those factors happen. What's happening with the rece, uh, release of acetylcholine and, um, epinephrine.

Okay, so I'm working on it. And if you're listening and be like, yo, that's super interesting. I'd love to talk more about that. I have some ideas hit me up. I am always looking for people to bounce ideas off of help with research. Um, a lot of my research is a one man show. I've got a great PhD, uh, that I work with.

Shout out to Brynn Adamson, who is at the University of Colorado. And, um, we do some work together, but she's a very busy professor doing her own research. So again, if you are listening, reach out. I feel like, um, this is like uh, indeed.com. I'm putting a job out there. Alright, let's get back on track now, now that you're thinking about your expectations of neuroplasticity.

And asking yourself, am I in a state of go or flow? How do we deal with this idea of repetitions? You've heard it. Oh, for neuroplasticity, you have to do repetitions. Okay, now I'll get to the how many and measure that in question three, but what counts as a repetition? Okay, let's, let's keep this simple for a sec.

Say you've got really bad low back pain and kind of every time you move your arms or legs, your back isn't able to stabilize because the back pain, or maybe 'cause you have some organ issues or there's, I'm not gonna go into the reason why right now everybody's different, but it's inhibiting your spinal stability, so you can't really isolate your lymphs from your spine.

And you didn't know that until you went to someone and go, Hey, when you're moving your arm, you're really shifting it. L1. And they're like, no, I'm not. It's like, no, I'm feeling it right now. Well, you didn't have awareness of that 'cause you couldn't feel it. That's normal. All you're feeling down there is pain.

I get that. So how are we, so if I'm looking at you and saying, all right, listen, we can't sub, I'm not gonna say don't move your limbs. Well how? How are you gonna get around? I need to say, okay, how can we create a new movement pattern? At the neuro studio, we say this a million times. We add, we don't subtract.

Okay, so how can I differentiate that arm movement from the spine and how can I measure those repetitions? Because if they're doing an arm exercise, say they're just reaching, because reaching is pretty important in life, in the gym and in life. So what happens every time they reach in the gym in my studio, their back moves with them.

It's not stabilizing in the way it needs to for that exercise. Shit, that rep doesn't count, right? Because that would be reinforcing the pattern that's making the back pain worse. Well, well, how do we measure a good repetition? What am I gonna say to my client? You're only allowed to reach when my hand is on your L1 vertebra, and I need you to do that 400 times a day.

Well, how much would that cost, Meghann, for you to just stay with me all day and put your hand on my back? Well, my hourly fee is 1 95. You do the math. That's ridiculous. Ridiculous. So this is actually my true obsession. This is where my work really lives, this idea of repetitions. And my question to you is how are you measuring your repetitions?

Think about it. How are you measuring your repetitions? Are you just. Doing okay, I've gotta strengthen my lats. I'm gonna do 15 lat pull downs. I'm gonna do three sets of 15. There we go. There's my reps. That's fine. But how do we know that that is that neuroplasticity, is that ghost state or is that flow state?

You're just gonna be reinforcing the pattern you currently have. If that pattern's causing you pains, pain, inhibiting your date cycle, or doing whatever. Well, we need to change something. How are you measuring your repetitions? And I don't like to say good versus bad. How about we say this versus that?

I'm waiting answer. I'm listening. Now how I measure repetitions is I'm just gonna go there. I use the idea of accuracy and precision. I talked about this in other episodes. And this is something I go into great detail in, um, the Advanced Neuro Techniques course. I teach for the neuro studio. Apologies.

Willie is really, he is barking because, um, he's a beagle, so who knows? But anyway, how I use this concept is I'm looking to always improve my client's accuracy of a new movement pattern. Okay? So I am looking at sensory input. So when you're doing your lat pull down. We are going to analyze how you're currently doing it and how we can give a sensory approach to change the motor output.

From there, how we measure repetitions is not by doing the lat pull down exactly the same is saying what was the sensory input that created the change? Let me give you an example. I might give a distal cue to the feet. Why would I give a distal cue to the feet? Well, I need the hip to stabilize because the lat connects the lower quadrant to the upper quadrant.

Starts at the top of your pelvis, meets your tho clumber, facia your lower back. It grabs your shoulder blade and attaches on the arm. So if the hip joint isn't stabilizing, we're not gonna really get those lower fibers of the lat to really, uh, do what we need to do. This is why a lot of people have trouble with pull-ups.

Okay. Now, if your legs are hanging in a pull-up, that's kind of open chain. So their legs, their hips might not be stabilizing. They might be hanging outta the joint, drawing all that tensegrity. Down. And this way the lat can't fully do its job. This is why you ever see people with pull-up bands. Yes, it's offsetting your weight, but it's not giving you a close chain environment that would be foot on the floor, but it's giving sensory input into the foot to help the hip stabilize better.

Okay? Most people aren't using it that way, but um. You know, I should do an Instagram post on that. I think it might be helpful, maybe not. Anyway, so say we find a distal sensory cue, I might have them maintain the pressure at their foot, or I might have them do a foot mobilization first and just keep their foot in a footprint.

Okay. Deal with a specific sensory input, and then they'll do their lap pull down. If that changed the game, their back doesn't hurt, whatever their goal was. Okay, so this client's getting shoulder pain during their lap pull down. When I give them a distal foot cue, their hip stabilizes, their movement pattern changes.

It no longer hurts their shoulder. So I'll say, okay, pause. I want you to do as many reps as you can to quote a friend, three sets of a million with that sensory input. What that sensory input, maintaining whatever it was, maintaining the pressure at your foot. Maybe it was an isometric at the leg, whatever it was.

And I'll say, don't take breaks for your lat take sensory breaks. Your brain is gonna get dull to the sensation at your foot. So move it around every five reps, then reassess it, then go back. So we're using a specific sensory focus that changed the motor output. And you're gonna do as many reps as you can while focusing on that sensory input.

Now, when I'm there, I'm looking for mistakes. Anytime I see a motor mistake, and when I say a motor mistake, a different movement pattern or something that might go back to our old pattern, I'll say, Hey, do a heel raise and then tune back into your foot. I'm giving them the sensory break. I'm not saying you messed up.

Do it again. And what I'm testing here. My hypothesis is their cerebellum. By bringing them back to the sensory input, I want their brain to trigger a response. It got a break in the sensory input, and now it's back. Now we're back to reinforcing that pattern. So yeah, how do I measure repetitions using a specific sensory input that triggered the change, giving sensory breaks, and telling my client to do that as many times as they can throughout their lifetime in different exercises.

Hey, can you reach up and grab something off your shelf and bring your elbow down, which is kind of a lat pull down without changing the pressure at your foot. Bring the same concept in the same sensory input throughout their day. Can you brush your teeth without changing the sensory input on your foot and reach your arm up and bring it back down?

So yeah, I'm changing the movement a little bit, but I wanna reinforce the pattern. Now. If I lost you on all the technical shit, let it go. What I want you to think about is how are you going to measure your repetitions? Now, question three is, how many repetitions? I said three sets of a million. I was kidding, but not really.

I don't know how many repetitions I Research does show that 400 to 600 reps a day. 400, 600 reps a day with a new movement pattern. Yh. That's a lot. Now, my hypothesis is, hypothesis is is that is because not all those reps count, and I'm putting air quotes up because some of those repetitions might be a different movement pattern or reinforcing an old pattern.

My hypothesis is you have to do less reps when there is clear sensory focus. Focus is one of the key components of neuroplasticity. Focus, alertness, repetition. Think about it. So if it ain't a go day, stay in a flow day. Just move. Do things that make you feel good and rep them out. Get your body moving.

Get blood flow. Get nerve conduction. I mean, it might not be the most groundbreaking workout. Who gives a shit? People who work out every day hardcore are all injured. Do you wanna be injured? To me, the best way to get weak and be in pain is to get injured. So maybe use these concepts of neuroplasticity and take it out of the movement arena.

Maybe you wanna learn a new skill. Well think about, am I okay with failing? Am I going to see the value of the results? Am I gonna push myself? Am I gonna stay focused? And what is the sensory environment and thing that focuses me enough to get in my repetitions? I want to do as many repetitions as I can, but how are we measuring repetitions?

So to close up shop today, when you're thinking about neuroplasticity, I'd like you to focus on question one. What are your expectations? What are your goals? What are you looking to learn and achieve? How will you get the needed repetitions to make that new movement pattern, that new language, that new skill, more efficient than what it's replacing?

And last but not least, have some fun because life is hard enough. Learning should be fun. And if you feel like you are not learning, that doesn't mean you're stupid or a bad student. It means your teacher. Is not good. I will die on that hill. I put the blame on teachers all the time. I am a teacher. Being a teacher is the hardest job second to being a parent, but being a parent is like a teacher, except you have to go home with them.

Ugh, I'm just kidding. So think about as teachers, how can we adapt environment and help every person we work with feel that they have the ability to learn and grow. So I really hope you enjoyed this episode. I, uh, did my best to be concise, give you some technical stuff with trying not to let your head explode because again, I want you guys to critically think and see how this fits into your life.

Hit me up if you have new ideas. Um, excited about research. And again, thank you all so much for supporting Three Questions and I'll see you next time.