Z-Health Frequently Asked Questions

We have put together some of the questions we often get around Z-Health and our training principles, doing as best to answer any questions you might have.

What is Z-Health?

Created by Dr. Eric Cobb, Z-Health® is a cutting-edge exercise system that helps people improve their health, alleviate their pain, and maximize their athletic performance.

Who is Dr. Eric Cobb?

Dr. Eric Cobb is the creator and CEO of Z-Health® Performance Solutions, LLC.

A chiropractic physician, Dr Cobb has a degree in human biology and has done post-grad studies in a variety of areas, including kinesiology, musculoskeletal trauma, and advanced soft tissue techniques.

Dr. Cobb was born with two passions: fighting and fitness. He started training in martial arts when he was five years old, read his first weight-training book at seven, and has never stopped — training or reading. Driven by his desire to learn more about health, fitness, and maximum performance, Dr. Cobb devotes the majority of his “free” time to ongoing study and research.

Z-Health is a neural training system that provides the missing link — one that most people don’t realize they need — for lifelong health and performance. Dr. Cobb’s primary responsibility is to spread the word about Z-Health, traveling the country, teaching workshops and certification courses, as well as working with select individuals and athletes.

What makes Z-Health different from other mobility programs?

Z-Health is about learning to speak the language of movement with total fluency.

Z-Health focuses on Dynamic Joint Mobility (DJM) for nervous system re-education, while our competitors center their training on DJM for improved joint function.

Programs that focus on mobility for improved joint function use large, less-specific range-of-motion exercises for the joints. They typically emphasize speed and a high number of repetitions. If the aim is to increase circulation and lubrication around a given joint, this training works well.

Z-Health focuses on the whole-body approach with training principles that have the goal of re-educating the nervous system for maximally efficient movement patterns. Z-Health is very precise, uses a low number of repetitions, and emphasizes the perfection of movement skills. As a result, the program will help you improve joint lubrication and function AND will teach you how to eliminate poor movement patterns that may have developed over time.

As you master the principles of Z, you will see dramatic changes in everything you do.

Why does Z-Health focus primarily on the nervous system?

The nervous system manages your entire body. If you would like to make changes in pain, range of motion, strength, coordination, speed, agility, or any other physical attribute, the fastest path to getting there is to adjust your nervous system.

The nervous system has three vitally important characteristics:

1. It is the governing system of the body. In other words, it runs the whole show.
2. It is the most stable system of the body. Research has proven that the nervous system can continue to learn and adapt at ANY age, which means you can improve your body at ANY point in your life by focusing on the nervous system.
3. It is the fastest system of the body. Your nerves communicate throughout the body at lightning-fast speed. What is wonderful about this is if you impact the nervous system correctly, you can make nearly instantaneous changes in the body.

How does Z-Health “target” the nervous system?

Z-Health targets the nervous system through very specific joint range of motion exercises called Dynamic Joint Mobility drills or DJM. When performed correctly, DJMs offer a powerful pathway to making your nervous system function much more efficiently.

Why does Z-Health focus on the joints and not some other part of the body?

Specific joint movements are one of the best ways to communicate with the nervous system. The reason for this is that the joints have a very high concentration of nerve endings surrounding them that provide direct feedback to your nervous system.

This feedback tells your body where it is in space, how fast it is moving and what movements are safe. By re-training and “waking up” these nerve endings through specific joint mobility drills, you can help your body get out of pain and learn how to perform at your true genetic potential.

Can you tell me more about the joint exercises?

The Z-Health path to the nervous system is dynamic joint mobility or DJM. It is, in our experience, the missing link for almost everyone: from “regular” moms and dads to world champion athletes.

DJM training is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a system of joint specific exercises designed to not only improve joint function, but overall body coordination, agility and control. Done correctly, DJM training can make you stronger, faster, and more flexible and mobile more quickly than you would believe.

But, here’s the critical point: DJM training must be specific and it must hit every joint in the human body for maximum benefit. Our bodies are completely integrated systems that are all interdependent, so you have to train the whole body to be mobile and coordinated.

So what does Z-Health look like?

People say it looks like a lot of things — from yoga to martial arts to dance to stretching and every other “named” system under the sun. We don’t consider this unusual because the body can only move in so many ways. What makes Z-Health different from so many other systems is not the exercises so much as how you perform them.

The depth and specificity of Z-Health makes it very different from many other approaches to mobility. Plus, the actual training techniques of Z and its focus on the neural components of the process make it extremely fast and effective.

I’ve seen some of the Z-Health exercises and they look too simple to really work!

This statement is such a strange response from people in a society that is always looking for a magic pill. However, with regards to this question all you need to remember is this: simple does not mean easy.

Z-Health DJM exercises are, especially in the beginning, about mastering your body. As you build coordination, agility, and body-control through the simple movements of Z, you will be amazed at how your body and your performance changes.

Because of his martial arts background and real-life experiences, Dr. Cobb has spent virtually his entire life working with and around some of the most dangerous guys on the planet. After 20 plus years in that environment, he has learned that the best of the best in every activity are “simply” really good at the basics of their craft — whatever that may be.

In Z-Health, we want you to become a master of the craft of movement and the key is developing good movement basics.

You keep talking about joints. Why should I care about my joints if they don’t hurt?

Just because you are not in pain does not mean your joints are functioning properly. In Z-Health our simple rule is that if a joint is not functioning properly the muscles that attach to that joint will not function optimally.

In practical terms, this means that if you have “low-grade” or non-painful joint problems they are still impacting on your performance by creating muscle weakness or poor coordination. This relates to what researchers in the nervous system call the arthrokinetic reflex system of the body: reflexes that are initiated by joint motion.

From a neurological perspective, trying to train with less than optimal joint function is like driving with your brakes on. You can do it, but the ride will be choppy and you are guaranteed to have problems sooner rather than later.

I have heard of people getting results in just minutes, is this really possible?

When you target the nervous system correctly it is not only possible but expected.

Strength coach Pavel Tsatsouline is famous for saying: “Your muscles are already capable of lifting a car they just don’t know it yet.” If you know what to do, you can create dramatic, near instantaneous changes in the body by showing people how to take off their neural brakes.

The nervous system is an integrated web that runs throughout the body and operates at astonishing speed. This means if I can ask the body the right question through a specific exercise to elicit the positive change I’m looking for, I’ll see a result immediately.

After all, it only takes one movement to get into pain — doesn’t it makes sense that one movement could get you OUT of pain?

Can you give some real world examples of results with various kinds of athletes?

One of our favorites is a high school basketball player who put 3 inches on his vertical jump with one series (about 2 minutes) of our foot exercises. We get these kinds of changes in power and strength all the time with more anaerobic athletes — football players, soccer players, fighters, etc.

As for endurance athletes, we recently helped a world-class middle distance runner shave nearly a full minute off her 5k time in two weeks of training. (We had her doing only 1 exercise 3x’s a day so it qualifies for the 3 minute rule!) She subsequently made the US World Cross-Country team and placed very highly in international competition. While we could go on and on with similar results, the truth is, we expect these types of changes every time we work with someone — especially if they are new to this form of training.

Z-Health is such a powerful and productive system that whenever Dr. Cobb or a Z-Health Certified Trainer works with you — whether you’re a pro athlete or a weekend warrior — we expect these types of results in performance or pain relief beginning in the first session.

However, our favorite stories come from people who have never had any professional training in Z-Health. They’ve simply purchased our products, put in the time and had amazing results.

Can Z-Health benefit just normal, non-competing people?

If this system only worked for elite athletes, it wouldn’t be of much use. The reality is that your nervous system and the nervous system of the world’s fastest man both run the same basic software. Since our focus is on the nervous system it doesn’t matter if we are working with a 75-year-old man, a 15-year-old high-school athlete, a gym rat, or a weekend warrior. All of us have the same potential for tapping into our best performance ever when we focus on the nervous system.

What we normally tell people who are new to Z is to give us 10 days of consistent effort. Whether you are an athlete or an office worker, we guarantee that you will see changes in how well you move and how you feel!