In this video, David Brimacombe, a long‑term concussion survivor, explains why new symptom spikes after trying a treatment are not setbacks but the brain’s protective prediction response. He describes the brain as a high‑energy prediction machine that flags unfamiliar inputs as threats, keeping the body safe but often trapping the individual in a stagnant recovery state. Brimacombe introduces his 10‑minute "Belief Reset" audio designed to re‑associate new inputs (supplements, routines, therapies) with safety. He then provides a practical, step‑by‑step protocol: (1) rate baseline symptoms on a 1‑10 scale before an activity; (2) determine the symptom increase that signals a personal threshold (typically a 3‑point rise); (3) practice "subthreshold training" by performing the activity at 75‑80% of that maximum duration (e.g., walking 3‑4 minutes if 5 minutes triggers symptoms); (4) repeat weekly, reassessing and gradually extending the duration as tolerance improves. This incremental exposure retrains the brain to view the activity as safe, shifting its predictive model from sedentary to active. Brimacombe emphasizes empowerment through small, scalable actions and urges viewers to start today by identifying one activity, finding its symptom ceiling, and operating below it to rebuild capacity over weeks.
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What if those symptom spikes that come after trying something new in your post-concussion recovery isn't a setback, but rather your brain telling you it did not predict this, and therefore it is just trying to protect you? Hi, my name is David Brimacombe, and after 7 concussions over 20 years, I learned that their nervous system can respond to lifestyle changes, but that doesn't mean That those changes are actually causing you harm. In this video, I want to go through how the brain acts as a prediction machine and what you can do today to start changing that identity, changing how it associates those things that you're inputting so that you can alter that recovery trajectory. Down below is the Belief Reset. Now, this is a 10-minute audio that I've created that can start changing that identity, can start start changing that association your brain is making with those no new inputs, so that when you start adding new supplements, new routines, new therapies, it won't see them as a threat, but yet something that is actually trying to help it. Let's begin. Now, the first thing we need to understand is that the brain is simply trying to predict what is going to happen. The brain takes about 2 to 3% of your body weight, But consumes about 20% of your energy, and therefore it tries to be as efficient as possible. Think of the brain as the algorithm of your body. When you're searching something on YouTube, for example, the algorithm is going to help you find things that you have looked for in the past, have thought about, have talked about, and therefore it feels like that is something that you're going to want to see in the future. The brain acts the same way for your body. It is simply trying to predict what you're going to do, how you're going to think, how you're going to behave based on previous actions, previous beliefs and thoughts. Now here's the, here's the problem with the, this situation in your recovery is that if you are going from a place that you've been living in, in this recovery state where you've been stuck in bed, stuck with these, this mindset of I cannot recover, I am stuck in this body for the rest of my life. You want to transition to one of hopefulness, of optimism, of becoming the best version of yourself. Now, as much as that might seem like the brain should accept these new thoughts and these new actions because it is actually making you a better person, it is not here to optimize your well-being. It is here to keep you safe, keep you alive, and keep you breathing. So it will recognize these new thoughts, these new actions as actually something that could be dangerous. So therefore, when you add those layers of new treatments, of new supplements, it actually sees them as a threat, even though we know that those are actually going to help you and start to alleviate those symptoms. It sees in that moment, because it goes against that previous identity that it believes in perpetuity is going to be how you So this is the problem that we have to work through, and at the end of the video, I'm going to give you one simple way to start this process. For me, this was something that I wish I knew earlier in my recovery. For the longest time, I would have the ebbs and flows, the yo-yo of my recovery. I would try something new, become symptomatic, and feel like intuitively my brain must be telling me, my body must be telling me that this is not Right, this is causing greater symptoms. I'm going to stop. So I'd then go back to the start and wait, find something different, try it, and have that same reaction. It was a roller coaster that was getting me nowhere. I was stuck in a plateau that lasted for years because I didn't understand a simple principle: that your brain is just trying to keep you safe. And by keeping you safe, it sometimes keeps you stuck in that position that you want to get out of. Now here's the most enlightening, most empowering part of this video. And again, the whole premise of these videos is to create empowerment in you. You are the one who has the greatest say in your recovery. It might seem strange, those days that you feel like, I cannot get out of bed, I don't have the capacity, I don't have the energy, the motivation, the momentum to go ahead and start my recovery. Understand that by starting small and scaling later, you can do what maybe originally you thought was inconceivable, and you can actually initiate this process. Now, the biggest thing we need to understand here is that your self-sufficiency is a virtuous power that you have in your recovery. Now, the first thing we need to do if we want to change this prediction model in our brain Is that we have to let it know that what we're doing is actually safe. We have to convince it. Now, we cannot simply just tell it. One of the things we can do is that we can remind it when we become symptomatic that this is not a sign that I'm broken, it is a sign that I need to retrain this part of my system. You're reminding it, you're telling it, you're reminding yourself. That's one phase. But if we don't layer in actions that associate and reinforce that statement, okay, that will become moot, and your brain will start to think that you're delusional because you're not acting in line with your beliefs. So here's what you need to do. I want you to think of one thing that if you could improve your well-being, improve your recovery state, that you would like to improve. For me, it was always adding movement. I felt like the hardest thing during my recovery was that I was I'd become completely sedentary. I deconditioned my body, deconditioned my mind. I was just sitting in a bed, okay? I had no capacity, no energy to do anything. And as someone who was an active being, an athlete for an entirety of his life, a physical education teacher, I felt like this was stripping away at my core of my being. So the first thing I wanted to do is get back some kind of movement. I didn't need to run a marathon or be able to lift extensive amounts of weights. play sports. I just needed movement. Movement I knew was going to increase blood flow, which is, which is going to enhance my autonomic nervous system, which was going to better my recovery state. So what I realized is that I had to figure out what was the threshold, what was my brain— that, that limit that my brain was therefore going to send off those symptoms. That is the first thing I needed to figure out. So when I would move For me, I would try to go for a walk around the block. I could last 5 minutes and then I'd become symptomatic. My symptoms would go from something that was minimal to that's something that was going to cause me to have to sit down, to stop, to basically go home at that point. So I knew 5 minutes was my maximum. That was the bar that I needed to set. Now, my next part that I have to understand was that I could actually train and practice below This threshold. This is called subthreshold training. I'm going to go ahead and expose myself to the very thing that is actually causing my symptoms because that is going to retrain my brain that this is safe, I am supported, that this is not actually the thing that is causing me harm. The, the activity that you think is actually going to cause those symptoms is not the problem. It's the capacity in your system, and it's the extent to which you're doing that activity. So for me, I had 5 minutes. I knew that was my maximum, but I wasn't going to always push up against that ceiling because if I pushed up against that ceiling, I was always going to become symptomatic. So here's the thing that I want you to do today. So if it is exercise, fantastic. If it's going to the grocery store, if it's being able to do any kind of mindfulness, whatever it is, find out what your maximum is. So find out what is going to cause those symptoms to So, the first thing you're going to do is before you start that activity, what is your symptom score? Rate it from a 1 to a 10, 1 being very limited, if any, 10 being extreme. So, let's say I start at a 3. I have a baseline of 3 before I start walking. Now, if those symptoms exceed a 3-point increase, so if I go from a 3 to a 6 or a 3 to a 7, I know that's my limit. I need to stop. If they raise by 1, that's okay. Raise by 2, I'm starting to think I'm getting close to that limit. But I raise by 3 or 4 of a perceived exertion or a perceived understanding of where I'm at. That is my max. So again, you're going to go ahead, you're going to try that activity. You're going to go ahead, in my case, I'm going to go for a walk. I start to feel my heart rate quicken. I start to feel those symptoms stir at around 5 minutes. I stop. That is my cap. Now, for the next week, I'm going to practice this activity, but I'm going to go 75 to 80% of my max. So for me, it's 3.5 to 4 minutes of walking. Now, what this does is I'm going to go ahead, I'm going to walk for 3 or 4 minutes. I'm therefore likely not going to become highly symptomatic. What this is doing is it's telling my brain something. Exercise is no longer directly associated with symptoms. It is no longer associated with me becoming that person who feels irritable, anxious, his heart rate quickens, and he feels like he can't do it anymore. Exercise is not the problem, my tolerance is. So, I'm going to go for 3 or 4 minutes for a week. If you miss a day, that's fine, try not to miss 2. The following week, I'm going to therefore test again. I'm going to start that first day of the week, I'm going to test what is my new tolerance. Has it increased? So if I'm now at maybe 6 minutes, I maybe got to 7 minutes, I can then go 75 to 80% of that. So maybe now I'm walking for 5 or 5 and a half minutes. You see how this escalates over time. This is not a quick recovery tool, but every week that I'm actually retraining my brain without those symptoms stirring, I'm convincing myself that I am safe, I'm supported, I can do this activity. And over time, This is something that is going to scale, and eventually you'll be able to do 10 minutes, 15, 20 minutes of walking without symptoms. And your brain will understand that this is the new person. This no longer needs to become symptomatic. This is changing that prediction model. I'm now predicting myself to be someone who is active as opposed to someone who is sedentary. That gap between where you are and where you want to be, is difficult, but you need to start by small scalable actions. But the biggest thing is you need to start today. I hope you found some value in this video. I hope you found something that resonated that you can try today. So when you stop watching this, you're going to figure out what activity do I want, want to reintroduce into my day. And you're going to go ahead, what is my maximum? I'm going to work 75 to 80% below that. Capacity. You're going to improve. You're going to become the better version of yourself, but it will take time. But it is possible. Thanks for your time and energy today. I hope you have yourself a great day.
