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.
Oh man Robb, I’ve been curious to see what your physique looks like after listening to you for all of these months. Ol’ Richard broke out with the action shots. Where are yours?
Chris- I’m shy! I’ll try yo get something up from the weekend.
Chris!
I’m shy but I’ll try to get something up of me soon.
Thanks for these posts. I too am getting some coaching that is taking me out of my comfort zone, it’s like fun, only different. 😉 Making sure my coaches read this.
Can you talk a little more about the skills that you are learning now and how that will change, or not change, your programming in a more traditional S&C environment.
I once worked near hwy 19 and 60 in Hico, WV, super green and lush. Good times…
Saul- will do, I’ll post that in a day or two.
Extremely excited to hear more about “Erwan put us through a session exploring “Perception”. This information would be so valuable to coaches and trainers and the folks in their care. Using various exercises we were able to get people aware of points of contact between themselves and the environment. This applies to everything from climbing to running to lifting logs. People that I would call “natural athletes” intuitively understand these concepts but some of these drill seem like a fantastic way to help people train and improve their natural abilities.” These ideas seem to fall perfectly into helping people rehab, especially those who are not so moto-coordinated prior to injury.
Mark-
it is basic but very effective. You know that I’ve really hammered my ankles over the years. The work I did this week completely changed how I’m working from the knees down. it’s wacky. Next tiem you are in Chico we can tinker with it.