To give context to a rather interesting breakthrough I had today I need to mention one of the movement screens we did first thing yesterday. In addition to hanging and squat mobility we performed a simple jump and land exercise that involved jumping from a 2”x4” piece of wood to another piece. The distance between the boards ranged from 2 to 6 feet. I had a hell of a time with this exercise yesterday. I would land squarely on the board…and bounce off. I have performed exercise like this in the past and was pretty good at this, even with a running start. Not yesterday, I sucked. I’m pretty sure this was an outgrowth of ankle injuries I’ve have and some wickedly tight hips from writing the book. Much of yesterday was spent doing, for lack of a better term, balance beam work. Walking forward, backwards, squatting, hopping, turning around, crawling on all fours…we did a ton of work. It was hard and it required an enormous amount of focus and attention and perception…in my feet (keep in mind this is all going down barefoot). Keep this in mind.
So, today we warmed up with a rapid session on the balance beam and then transitioned into a ton of macro-climbing. We looked at how to get on top of about any object. If the muscle-up was tough/impressive to you there is a whole other world of efficient climbing awaiting you. We then did a couplet of log-clean and jerks + a muscle up variant on tree branches that are 4-6 inches in diameter. Really nasty on the grip, especially given it was raining buckets on us! We rested a bit and then did another workout that built on concepts we played with regarding lifting odd objects, walking on a balance beam and jumping off an object and sticking a landing on a small surface. This is what I was struggling with yesterday, but with some coaching and I believe the proprioceptive work from yesterday, I was spot on. The wood we were jumping to was wet, and muddy. As were our feet so this was NOT an easy exercise…but my body was responding completely differently than the previous day, and this while doing a far more challenging drill. I’m impressed.
The training is challenging but it differs markedly to other systems I’ve trained in that movement quality is paramount. There is no 20% slop. Capacity is built from volume and intensity layered upon technical movement. It’s fun and safe.
We wrapped up the day by hiking down to the lake (about 4 miles), swimming and just having fun. We ran most of the way back (uphill both ways?!) and wrapped dup with an epic dinner: Ribs, yams, veggies. It was awesome. Erwan gave a presentation on Paleo Nutrition that was spot on, very impressed. The man knows his stuff. Here are a few pictures from today. Apologies for the disjointed reports as I have little time between sessions to get this out.
Those standing jumps ARE difficult, especially as it’s easy to get ‘psyched out’. And with wet targets, well that’s just an additional chance to get some SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands) training! In other words, learning to adapt to the specific conditions with which we are often faced.
Thanks Robb for the brief updates. And have fun!
Robb, just wanted to say thanks for all you do man. I’ve been wanting to get to one of these workshops for awhile. keep the daily course summaries coming bro! Cheers
Was anybody stung by hornets? LOL They’re right at the beginning of that trail past the big standing stone.
David-
Just Erwan. We ran fo the bushes!!