Designing an Effective Cognitive Training Plan

This article explains how to create, structure, and adapt a cognitive training plan using Soma.

Each step builds on the last, from identifying what to train to tracking how your athletes adapt over time.

Every effective plan starts with understanding what the brain needs to improve.

You’re not choosing random tasks — you’re choosing what mental demand to train.

Common Cognitive Demands:

With Soma, you don’t need to find the “perfect task.”

You can adjust intensity using training modes to match the desired cognitive load.

Soma allows you to filter tasks by cognitive demand, making the process faster and more efficient. Most athletes will benefit from training all demands, but you should prioritize the ones most dominant in their sport, the areas where split-second focus, control, or decision-making matter most.

The task is not what creates adaptation. The load is.

A Flanker, N Back, Stroop or PVT will always provide some cognitive demand, and different tasks stimulate different areas of the brain, but the task itself does not drive improvement. It is not the deciding factor. The load is.

What drives adaptation

The key load levers are:

These determine whether adaptation happens, not the specific task chosen.

Why tasks alone do not decide the outcome

The same task can produce completely different results depending on the load:

A low load Flanker does nothing.

A high load Flanker creates adaptation.

The difference is not the task. It is the load applied to it.

You do not need a special task.

You need enough load applied to any task.

How modes increase load

Modes allow you to take any task and increase the load.

They remove the need to constantly switch tasks and instead allow you to progress the load within the same task.

Modes add pressure, speed, fatigue, chaos, accountability or automatic scaling so the athlete continues to adapt session after session.

Tasks provide the stimulus.

Load creates the adaptation.

Start with a baseline to see where each athlete stands. This gives you measurable data on strengths, weaknesses, and overall capacity.

Recommended setup

→ Duration: around 30 minutes

→ Tasks: 3 to 6 tasks (around 4 is ideal to avoid overload)

Example baseline

→ PVT-B 3 minutes

→ Posner 10 minutes at 80 percent

→ Attention Switching 10 minutes at 80 percent

→ Task Switching 10 minutes at 80 percent

→ PVT-B 3 minutes

Tip: If an athlete performs well in decision making but struggles in inhibition, prioritise inhibition-focused tasks in their next phase.

An athlete reports that they lose focus late in games. Instead of assuming attention is the only problem, you run a baseline that measures all demands:

The data shows that attention performance drops sharply under load, while the other demands remain stable. The athlete’s perception is now confirmed by objective data, and the plan can safely lean more into attention without guesswork.

A sport places high demands on attention and inhibition. You still test everything. The baseline reveals that inhibition collapses under fatigue while attention remains acceptable. Both demands are trained, but the plan leans harder into inhibition because that is where performance breaks.

Every sport places different demands on the brain. Some require sustained attention. Others require strong inhibition. Some demand fast decision control under fatigue. The goal is not to test everything randomly. The goal is to test what the sport actually asks the athlete to do.

The baseline confirms which demands are already strong and which ones break under load. Once you know this, the training plan is built to match those demands. Strong areas are maintained. Weak areas are trained more frequently and with higher cognitive load.

This moves you from guesswork to targeted development. The sport sets the demands. The baseline reveals the weak link. The plan builds capacity exactly where it is needed.

Once the baseline shows you where performance breaks, the plan should place more load on that weakness. A simple way to do this is ratio based programming.

Use a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio across the training block. This means the weak demand is trained more often than the stronger demands.

There are two practical ways to apply this. You can design the block so that more full sessions focus on the weakness while occasional sessions maintain the strengths. Or, within each individual session, you can simply choose more tasks that target the weakness than the strengths. Both approaches work. The goal is the same. The weakness consistently receives more load until it improves.

Once the athlete’s weak areas have improved, the ratio can change. At that point, the plan can shift toward training all demands more evenly if the sport requires balanced development.

Important: Universities often run pilot baselines several times to refine task selection. The more you plan, the smoother the process becomes. Your baseline is not just for assessment. It is also the reference point you use to confirm whether the athlete adapted to the training stimulus at the end. Include some of the same tasks in both the baseline and the training plan so you can compare results accurately.

Once the baseline is complete and you begin building the plan, decide where Soma will fit within your athlete’s training routine. Cognitive training can be integrated before, during, or after physical sessions — or combined across multiple stages for a more complete adaptation.

All integration methods work and are backed by peer-reviewed research. We recommend starting with pre-training or post-training sessions. As your athletes get used to the routine, you can introduce intermixed sessions if they fit better with their workflow. Pre and post setups are simple, effective, and scientifically validated starting points.

Now it’s time to build the plan. Start by filtering each session by cognitive demand. This makes the process faster and more focused. Use your baseline results as your guide. If a clear weakness shows up, lean into it using a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio so the weak demand is trained more often than the stronger ones.

Once you know what to target, select 3–6 tasks per session. Focus on the demand, not the task name.

Key point:

The task is not the stimulus. The load is.

Any of Soma’s 80+ tasks can be effective if the load is right.

If a task looks too easy:

• increase intensity

• extend duration

• add a training mode (time pressure, adaptive, task switching)

The example below shows how a session can be structured with tasks, durations, and modes. With this layout you could start at about 70 percent intensity, then increase the load by around 10 percent each week across a 4-week block. These three sessions are repeated across the month, and the intensity is adjusted week by week. You can also use an undulating pattern if needed.

For example:

Week 1: 70%

Week 2: 90%

Week 3: 60%

Week 4: 100%

Both approaches can work. The goal is steady progression without overwhelming the athlete.

Session 1

→ PVT-B, 3 minutes

→ 2-Back, 10 minutes, ADM mode

→ Attention Switching, 10 minutes, TSM mode

→ Task Switching, 10 minutes, ADM mode

→ PVT-B, 3 minutes

Session 2

→ PVT-B, 3 minutes

→ Dots Task, 10 minutes, ADM mode

→ cMSIT, 10 minutes, ADM mode

→ Numerical Inhibition, 10 minutes, TSM mode

→ PVT-B, 3 minutes

Session 3

→ PVT-B, 3 minutes

→ Posner, 10 minutes, ADM mode

→ TLDB, 10 minutes, ADM mode

→ Colour–Shape Task, 10 minutes, TSM mode

→ PVT-B, 3 minutes

Once you’ve selected all the tasks for each session, the next step is to adjust the load each week to periodize the plan.

We’ll walk you through two ways to periodize your athletes’ cognitive training and show different ways to manipulate load, with example graphs below.

This approach gradually increases demand each week to promote consistent adaptation.

How to apply it:

This method creates steady progression while keeping training balanced and effective.

Task Intensity

Session Duration

Session Frequency

If you prefer more variety, undulating periodization alternates the load rather than increasing it linearly. This keeps the brain adapting by introducing constant variation.

How to apply it:

This method prevents stagnation and promotes ongoing adaptability by keeping the brain challenged in new ways.

Task Intensity

Session Frequency

Session Duration

Building an effective cognitive training plan with Soma is simple when you follow the right steps.

Start by running a baseline to identify the athlete’s strengths and weaknesses.

Then focus on the cognitive demand you want to train, filter and select tasks that match it, and apply modes to increase the overall load. From there, build the plan, periodize the load, and let it run for four weeks.

The first week often feels messy. That is normal. By week three, adaptation usually starts, and by week four, the athlete has fully adjusted.

After the cycle, analyze the data, make adjustments based on the results, and repeat the process.

This simple loop (baseline → build → periodize → analyze → repeat) keeps training adaptive, effective, and aligned with your athlete’s evolving performance.

Let the plan do its job. You do not need to constantly change it. You need at least nine sessions to see a clear trend. The more you repeat the process, the easier it becomes. For added confidence, include a PVT-B before and after the session and track lapse count. This is the best indicator of whether the cognitive load is right.

If you have set the load correctly, post-session data will show slower reaction times, lower accuracy, higher variation, and increased lapse count. This means the brain has been pushed enough to adapt.

→ Cognitive Training Templates

A collection of ready-made baseline tests, session tasks, and mode recommendations so you can build full cognitive training plans instantly.

→ Soma Cognitive Priming Protocols

Short, high-intensity pre-training neural activation plans designed to sharpen speed, focus, and readiness without adding fatigue.

→ Quick Guide to Cognitive Data

Learn what high and low values really mean in Reaction Time, Speed, Accuracy, Variation, and RCS so you can read patterns fast, spot fatigue, and make clear training decisions.