What I learned at the London seminar

Hi all. Thought I'd start a thread about what I learned at the London seminar. I'll just pop down some quick things now and try to update it a bit more later on (at work). I'll stay away from or post in the proper forums things are specific to certain courses or exercises.

 

( My thoughts and impressions of the seminar, not the gospel truth)

 

- You need to get to a seminar to get the most out of your Foundation courses.

- You can and should push alot harder than you do!

- We mentally shut down long before physically

- ALL of Foundation (1-4) should only take 1 - 2 years to complete

- My definition of hard stretching is what Coach considered daily limbering practice

- Having "only" iM as rest is a luxury

- F1 is the hardest of the Foundations because we are so lacking in strength, mobility and endurance.

- Mobility and flexibility is crucial to later success.

- There really is no point thinking you can start ring training before you at LEAST finish F2 even then it's better to focus on Foundation (not a rule, my thoughts only)

- A generall warmup for ring strength is already harder than any of our workouts (even if you are on F3/F4).

- A generall cooldown after ring strength is already harder than any of our workouts....

- NEVER sacrifice form!

 

You really need to stretch and stretch HARD. Bridge and pike is the most important to begin with.

If you can't sit comfortably in a wide (at least 90 degree) straddle with proper APT and elbows on floor you are a zombie.

 

Being at this seminar really boosted my motivation and opened my eyes to what is needed to progress and just how far we can and will go if we stick with it.

 

Anyone else who was at the seminar, feel free to agree/disagree with anything I said here.

 

Now, let's get this show on the road!

Thank you for typing that.   I really want to go; it sounds so motivating!  

Lol:

- My definition of hard stretching is what Coach considered daily limbering practice

- A generall warmup for ring strength is already harder than any of our workouts (even if you are on F3/F4).

- A generall cooldown after ring strength is already harder than any of our workouts....

 

Shows the gap and standards, isn't , also what we're potentially capabel of, that we may not realise yet.

 

Btw. I've came in for a minute on Sunday to say hello to Coach, Orench and other guys I've met before, bit shame on my side I didn't get to meet you guys.

Hi, my name is Niklas and I'm a zombie. This is something I already knew, but your small write up really hit home with me. Now, it's time to really clean my trail of #¤%& and free this body! Tack Christian!

- You can and should push alot harder than you do!      really really..?  after ,this is going out of control..  bad form for example. 

Hyggelig

 

Funny thing. We were supposed to do Press HS work on Sunday. But Coach first had us sit on a straddle and lean forward to see the level. Ended up we did not do any Press HS, just stretching as we were as a group waaay to stiff to really get anything out of Press HS work.

 

First things first.

strme said:

- You can and should push alot harder than you do!      really really..?  after ,this is going out of control..  bad form for example. 

 

This is one of the reasons a seminar is great. Yes, you don't want bad form, but yes you are not pushing hard enough. Very difficult to convey in writing.

Christian said:

Funny thing. We were supposed to do Press HS work on Sunday. But Coach first had us sit on a straddle and lean forward to see the level. Ended up we did not do any Press HS, just stretching as we were as a group waaay to stiff to really get anything out of Press HS work.

 

Same story in previous Lon seminar, Coach said something like "we were supposed to do some stretching for 15mins, but because most of you are zombies..."

strme said:

- You can and should push alot harder than you do!      really really..?  after ,this is going out of control..  bad form for example. 

 

Absolutely not.  Bad form is always unacceptable.   

 

That is simply an excuse that people use when they don't want to work as hard, and with as much focus, as they should.

 

As I have told my own athletes many times in the past, "Save the nonsense.  Bad form simply means bad attitude.  Plain and simple.  It means that you did not care enough to do it right."

 

And yes, you will need learn to work much harder while simultaneously maintaining quality of movement.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

and this is time to celebrate my 100s post..  todays forum was very productive and i think one of the legendary days  thanks for tips.  i hope see you in oslo.

I'm really looking forward to being able to attend a seminar once I get to and finish basic training and accumulate some leave time. Thank you for this info.

 F1 is the hardest of the Foundations because we are so lacking in strength, mobility and endurance.

 

 

nice to know

 

the exercies in f2 and so on look like fun

 

and im gonna start stretching harder and more frequently especially considering I sit around most of the day 

scary and exciting   
a lot of things to look forward to
FFF (form follows function - this i will never forget)
im not a bit surprised for someone who trains Olympians.   
that is why it is called Foundations (give respect to it)
i also want to experience it! -GB Seminar-
 

I'm a zombie! So what do I do about it? Stretch every day? For how long? What stretches? With weight? I'd pay for a foundation style flexibility course.

Murray Truelove said:

I'd pay for a foundation style flexibility course.

You already do. Use the later iM for a stretching session.

Murray Truelove said:

I'm a zombie! So what do I do about it? Stretch every day? For how long? What stretches? With weight? I'd pay for a foundation style flexibility course.

It's my mobility that really holds me back. I read that Kit Laughlin only recommends 2 hard stretching days a week and I am currently on the 4 day split so I am doing each iM twice per week already. It's difficult to know what to do. I don't want to overtrain like I have always done in the past and pick up various injuries but I don't want to not try as hard as I can.

I am probably in the best shape I have been in for years so I must be doing something right, but it could be a lot righter.

tfeal said:

It's my mobility that really holds me back. I read that Kit Laughlin only recommends 2 hard stretching days a week and I am currently on the 4 day split so I am doing each iM twice per week already. It's difficult to know what to do. I don't want to overtrain like I have always done in the past and pick up various injuries but I don't want to not try as hard as I can.

I am probably in the best shape I have been in for years so I must be doing something right, but it could be a lot righter.

I believe that Kit Laughlin would characterize most of the mobility work in Foundation as "limbering" and not "stretching". Kit recommends 1-2 PNF stretching sessions per week, where you actively try to achieve new ROM. 

ewethestuff said:

I'm pretty sure Kit's advice for beginners in that mobility thread was 1 hard stretch day a week, and limbering every day - which he described as something like "trying to explore the new range of motion opened up" (paraphrased).

That makes sense to me if I paraphrase it further as - do HARD stretching 1-2 times a week and daily DYNAMIC stretching.

If you're able to, substitute hourly for daily...

LateStarter@46 said:

That makes sense to me if I paraphrase it further as - do HARD stretching 1-2 times a week and daily DYNAMIC stretching.

If you're able to, substitute hourly for daily...

Hourly !!  ..... Whoa there !!

- The iMs are mobility work and are not considered a hard stretch; although beginners do indeed tend to confuse the two.  The London GBS students just learned the difference.  

 

- For beginners one hard stretch day per week is the perfect place to start.  One week because if you are not sore for most of the upcoming week, you did not stretch hard enough.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Ok, so feeling like a wrung out dishrag is normal then.    Gotcha. 

 

Edited to add:  I can't wait to go to a seminar.  I gotta figure out how to make this happen.

Awesome post.

Does anyone have or know of a specific once a week hard stretch routine to help achieve pancake and swivel hips?

I've been trying different things and experimemting, but I'd rather stand on the shoulders of giants.

Nash said:

swivel hips?

 

 

That one (without a partner) and the butterfly stretch are helping me towards a good swivel hips.

Nash said:

Awesome post.

Does anyone have or know of a specific once a week hard stretch routine to help achieve pancake and swivel hips?

I've been trying different things and experimemting, but I'd rather stand on the shoulders of giants.

I'm struggling to find a good stretch for internal hip rotation...external is not my limiting factor.

OK, do daily mobility work, how long should this take? Would this consist of doing all the IMs?

One hard stretch session a week (should this be using PNF/CR technique?). what should this include?

Suppose what I'm asking is "what do I really need to do to become flexible". I really need it spelt out.