Hey Christian,
I was wondering about my scores. I wasn’t a natural athlete but I learn things very fast. My imagination is very big and I daydream about living in a fantasy world. Besides that, I didn’t play sports in a team setting as a kid and only started when I was 14. I sometimes overthink certain things if it is really important to me. Otherwise I like to sit and relax. Do you still think I am a 1A? Thank you for reading this.
Hey lonewolf23,
I’m not CT but I’ve studied his neurotyping courses. Are you open to opinions of others? If you aren’t, that’s fine but if you are, this might help:
“I wasn’t a natural athlete but I learn things very fast. My imagination is very big and I daydream about living in a fantasy world.”
This really sounds like a type 1B because if you learn fast and you have a vivid imagination (= creativity) that means you have high acetylcholine levels. It could be that your true type is 1A but your anxiety goes up a bit everytime you learn new stuff that is relevant to you, making you move to the right of the neurotyping spectrum. A possible explanation could be that you produce more acetylcholine in situations you perceive as stressful. This could be a coping mechanism of your brain to be able to learn fast and reduce anxiety aka overthinking.
On top of that, your type 3 score is not high but it’s not low either so that might explain why you tend to overthink things sometimes. The fact that you otherwise like to sit and relax can be a sign of high gaba (on or off mode), which is the case for a type 1A and 1B.
your type 2A score is relatively low which leads me to believe you’re more sensitive to dopamine and don’t overproduce adrenaline because of higher acetylcholine levels.
Your type 2B score is relatively low which means you have low glutamate production, a typical trait of a type 1A (type 1B is a bit higher but fairly low).
Here’s a question: do you respond better to heavy powerlifting or explosive movements? And how much volume can you handle? If you recover well from heavy lifting but you can’t tolerate a lot of volume, then you’re most likely a type 1A. If you can tolerate lots of volume and lift heavy/explosively, then you’re more of a type 1B.
I’m also curious about CT’s answer, it could be I’m missing a couple of pointers here.
Hey lou_smeets, thanks for your response. I honestly don’t mind any help at all so everything is appreciated. As far as the creativity goes, learning is fun for me. I mean I literally will try new exercises and learn more about things to improve, not just because I have to. Overthinking happens for me, but usually on a high carb diet. For some reason when I eat a lot of carbs I have a higher tendency to be sensitive to what others say to me, even if it’s a joke.
In my honest opinion, I do in fact like lifting explosively. For example,I did explosive med ball pushes for 10 seconds to see if that would increase my punching power. After progressing and either increasing the weight of the ball or the distance I throw it I saw a huge improvement on my punching power. Afterwords I did strictly only benching which killed all that power. Volume wise I can’t take a lot of super slow heavy lifting, as I burn out in 3-4 sets. But I could do depth jumps forever and it feels fun.
Personality wise, I have never cared what people think of me. I played basketball and was known as a shooter even though I started playing late. But there are times when I will stay up at night and can’t go to sleep. There will also be times where I hear one of my friends insult me(as a joke) and I take it pretty personally. I get angry very fast but cool down fast in 95% of cases. I also am extroverted in the sense that I will talk to anybody, no matter who the crowd is or what have you. But I honestly enjoy time on my own and am very happy with that also.
I’d be interested to see your perspective on this as well @Christian_Thibaudeau @lou_smeets . Thank you.
"As far as the creativity goes, learning is fun for me. I mean I literally will try new exercises and learn more about things to improve, not just because I have to."*
This is typical 1A or 1B behaviour. Instead of getting anxious, these guys actually can’t wait to start learning new things they’re interested in because they get so excited. Even if it’s a competition, it’s really fun for them and they get in the zone real hard.
“Overthinking happens for me, but usually on a high carb diet. For some reason when I eat a lot of carbs I have a higher tendency to be sensitive to what others say to me, even if it’s a joke.”
This could be due to an increase in glutamate and an imbalance in your dopamine/serotonin ratio. Carbs (especially a lot of carbs in one sitting) can increase the conversion of glucose into glutamate in the brain. Glutamate is an emotional amplifier so under normal conditions if someone’s makes a a joke about your character, you wouldn’t be offended. Higher glutamate levels however make you more likely to take things personal. Besides that, a high carb diet is not ideal for your neurotype because serotonin levels that are to high, can bring your dopamine levels out of whack.
It might also be a hint that you’re more of a type 1B because they naturally have more glutamate than 1A. Therefore they have more empathy and can take things other people say into consideration, even though they generally are not affected by the opinion of others.
"Volume wise I can’t take a lot of super slow heavy lifting, as I burn out in 3-4 sets. But I could do depth jumps forever and it feels fun."
That just sounds so much like a type 1B man. If you have the ability and the skillset to learn things fast and you are naturally explosive, that is a great indicator of a type 1B. Maybe the burn out feeling could be due to eating a lot of carbs, especially pre-workout. Try to stick to mostly fats and proteins preworkout/during the day and move carbs to the evening to calm down. See how that influences your training performance.
“I get angry very fast but cool down fast in 95% of cases.”
This is textbook 1B behaviour.
“I also am extroverted in the sense that I will talk to anybody, no matter who the crowd is or what have you.”
This is 1A,1B and 2A behaviour, except the 1B’s and 2A’s are more capable to adapt their behaviour to various people and situations. If that sounds like you, this could be another clue.
The more you say, the more I feel you’re a type 1B. I could be wrong, but if i’m not than you are one lucky bastard mate. 1B’s are the rarest and have the best potential to be great at almost anything.
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@lou_smeets hey man, I really do appreciate what you have said for me. I just finished doing 20 sets of depth jumps and it’s variations for today’s workout lol. I don’t even feel tired from it. On heavy lifting days( 97-100% max)I’m often not doing too well. I will try low carb and see how good I feel afterwords. I also feel the contraction better with a fast eccentric the I do with slow eccentrics. Thank you for helping out.
No worries mate. Glad I could help you. Helping others also makes me feel good so it’s a win-win LOL.
“I just finished doing 20 sets of depth jumps and it’s variations for today’s workout lol. I don’t even feel tired from it.”
This really hits the nail on the head because 1A’s are really not built for volume and explosive work.
“On heavy lifting days( 97-100% max)I’m often not doing too well. I will try low carb and see how good I feel afterwords. I also feel the contraction better with a fast eccentric the I do with slow eccentrics.”
“Type 1B’s are more explosive than they are strong” - CT
I think that concludes it. 1B’s are more dependent on the stretch reflex (lowering the weight fast and explode up) to maximally stimulate the muscle fibers being used. Slow eccentrics are not really effective for them. They rely greatly on acceleration to lift big weights.
Unless you’re chronically overtraining and your diet is completely off, then you are a type 1B IMHO.
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I’m not sure 97-100% is sustainable repeatedly even with a type 1A. Sure intensity is dandy, but that doesn’t mean that it’s suitable to grind up against your absolute limits always even if that’s your preferred mode.
Granted, it’s the type I know conceivably the least, but here’s what I’d guess,
- 5-6 workouts/wk
- Short workouts, 45-60m
- Four, maybe five lifts
- Potentiation
- Main lift
- Secondary exercise (target weakness/overload)
- Tertiary with drastically lower neurological demand
- low number of work sets. Long rest.
- Four, maybe five lifts
- Frequent deloads, every four weeks.
And I’m not sure every intensity fiend would program this way intuitively. In fact, I imagine having a predisposition to burning the candle from both ends will lead them down a path where they go balls to the walls and try to combine that with doing it a lot.
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@Voxel what’s up man. I completely get where you are coming from. But what I really mean is that after the session I feel off. I might not wake up sore but I will wake up lazy and often mad. I just woke up from the plyometrics workout I had and I’m just a little sore in the calf complex lol. I have a hard time getting sore from even hypertrophy work. But I do feel off from it and even bored. Hope that clears anything up. Again, thanks for all of your guy’s help.
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