Here is episode 38 for your enjoyment. Here is link for the Whole30 program version 2.0 that we discussed during the episode.
Show Topics:
Show Notes – The_Paleolithic_Solution_Episode_38
The Paleolithic Solution – Episode 38
Hey there, wanted to pass along the second interview by Kevin and Wes from Healthy Mind Fit Body, thanks again guys!
Also an FYI: The Arlington gig this weekend is sold out. We have several other locations for future events rolling out soon. Possibly even a combined Lalonde/Wolf gig. The world will never be the same.
And wrapping things up here is another photo from the MovNat Expansion Course. This one shows Bryan mid flight in some no-hands rock climbing. I managed this course with 2 fouls: one elbow 1 finger touch. It’s a lot steeper and longer than the photo indicates!
We got to bed late last night and were up early this morning. No breakfast but we did brew up some stout cups of Yerba Mate to clear the fog and get us ready for our final day’s challenge. We started off retesting our first day movement standards and everyone smoked their previous performance despite significant fatigue, bumps and bruises. After the retesting we spent about an hour working more self-defense concepts. This session focused on how to protect yourself if you should fall during a fight and how to safely stand back up if you should find yourself in this unfortunate situation. We practiced drills that were safe but were very demanding. After a brief break to grab water and we embarked on an hour and twenty-five minute odyssey through the forest. We jumped, climbed ran, crawled, lept and mud-bogged. I’ll be honest, elements of it were scary, painful and very hard but it was all good. I made it through because of camaraderie and coaching.
I’m not going into too much detail about this so future participants have a similar experience as I did, but I can tell you it is hard, but fun. It’s kinda funny but many people I told about this event related that it sounded a little crazy. Stomping around the woods in West Virginia, climbing trees and carrying logs to name only a few of the events. With the perspective of having finished the Expansion Course I’d have to admit these people were right in characterizing it as “crazy” but I would also say that a life without a little insanity, without a challenge that makes you seriously question if you can (or should) complete it…A life without these elements, at least occasionally is likely boring to the point of tears. I went into this event looking for more tricks to make me a better coach and athlete and I found these aplenty. I did not expect to be mentally and physically challenged in a way that I’ve never experienced. I have a feeling I will be a better person and coach because of this week.
BTW-If you are planning on the December course in Thailand, I’ll see you there.
I wanted to mention Erwan’s presentation from last night as I put up the day 3 blog post before I saw it. The topic was human metabolism and it focused on the interplay of hormones such as insulin and growth hormone in performance, health and disease. For me it’s refreshing to arrive at an event like the Expansion Course and not only get coaching that immediately improves my performance, but to also see a presentation on a subject near to my heart (paleo nutrition) and see it presented not only accurately, but well. Even with the French accent!!
This morning started slowly. We are all pretty sore and tired but another sturdy breakfast, some green tea and mobility work got us going. We started off with more balance work that built up to jumps and lands, this time focusing on split leg jumps instead of feet together jumps. I am frankly stunned with the progress I’ve made. I started off the course unable to effectively jump and land even the shortest gaps (about 4 feet) but progressed today to the second largest gap that was about 7 feet. And I stuck about 80% of the jumps. I am excited to tinker with this when I get home and keep developing this capacity. We worked on this skill until we saw consistent form breakdown. Then we stopped. Most smart coaches realize that driving or allowing trainees to continue to “rep-out” under fatigue and form degradation is just a recipe for subpar performance and increased injury potential.
So, once we saw an obvious decrease in performance in the jumps we worked an entirely different modality, in this case more climbing. This session focused on what to do once you are on top of a bar or other structure after performing a muscle-up or similar technique. We worked some challenging positions that would bring hands and feet on top of the bar…essentially in a position to then vault off the top. It was fun but certainly challenged my unease with heights. We had a quick lunch (and a nap) and then headed to the lake for some swim practice. Now this was not technical swimming, but rather techniques in free diving and how to locate and rescue someone under water. Our deepest dive was a little over 20 feet and for the drowning victim we had to start on the rocks above the water (about 7 feet high) swim out about 50 feet, dive down and collect either Erwan or Vic from bottom of the lake at about 10 feet of depth. It was intense, practical and fun. It is remarkable how much material is covered in this course, I’ll try to do a more thorough wrap up in a few days after our final challenge tomorrow. We wrapped up the lake session by climbing to the top of an amazing look-out where we enjoyed the scene and collected wild blueberries. We just had a huge dinner and are getting ready for a presentation by Erwan on Intermittent Fasting and I might give a quick overview of medical conditions improved by paleo nutrition.
Today started…a little late. Everyone is fairly beat up from training so we slept in until about 8:30 and then fixed an epic breakfast to fuel us through the day. After breakfast we did a very low intensity warm-up/mobility session. This was performed on the grass, in the sun and it worked the aches and pains out of my limbs remarkably well. From here we practiced more climbing, focusing on hip over’s as a means of efficiently gaining access to the top of things like a limb, bar awning. I’ve tinkered with this move in the past and felt pretty strong on this but we looked at some great ways to isolate pieces of this movement to improve performance. Some folks need some explosive pull-ups, others some integrated trunk strength but everyone found a way to tinker the move to improve performance.
Then we moved to jumping. Again. If you recall from I was feeling pretty good about the jump and lands from yesterday but this was from a moderate height to a platform beneath. Today we worked on jumping from one board to another…and I was really struggling with the move. I thought from yesterday’s improvements I’d see some improvements from my day 1 performance, but it was initially not much better. Then we did something that “should” have made the move harder: Jumping from a deep squat position, heels raised on the balls of the feet. For whatever reason, when I trained this I stuck virtually every jump. Erwan suspects that the amount of Olifting and plyometrics I’ve done has set up a reflex arc that makes it hard for me to jump and then comfortably land. This makes sense and it was nice to find a way to modify the movement such that I saw immediate progress.
We then took a field trip to a river and put that jumping to work in an alive natural setting. Erwan had several locations with rocks that were further and further apart. We had a spotter in the water in case anyone came up short but it was an impressive display all the way around. After we jumped ourselves out we did some open water swimming in a very cold river! Shrinkage was not optional! We worked with some rock climbing to get out of the water which turned into finding a few routes that lent themselves to climbing with feet only.
We stopped at a public playground on the way back to the camp and had a ton of fun putting together potential workouts on the equipment. I will be terrorizing the kids in our neighborhood as soon as I get home! We were all knackered at this point but we had one more module led by Erwan’s assistant coach, Vic. Vic is a former French commando and has an extensive martial arts and strength & conditioning background. Vic covered some basic self defense concepts and drills that were outstanding and very applicable.
Now we are cooking dinner…then I am going to bed!
