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Class News

CST ICS Day 2

Sunday, 17 August 2008

Overload, more mental than physical. I got a good nights sleep, crashing about 10:30 while trying to read the manual for the course. I got up about 7am and discovered that breakfast was nothing but carbs and bad sausage. Blechh. I ate it anyway, gotta have some fuel for the day. Oh and 2 cups of hotel coffee, gotta caffeinate!

We started at 9 by doing more JM work and went into the newly created Clubbell Fitness and Physique program. We spent some time going through each of the drills. There were 10 exercises I think, but I didn't write them down and they would be impossible to explain here. Wait for the DVD that is sure to follow.

We had a break and switched to lecture mode where Scott went into some detail about deconstructing a movement and figuring out how to pull out pieces and create a corrective movement that can help "fix" an issue using open and closed chain exercise components. This is similar, but way more in depth than Gray Cook's FMS that I learned last week. Combining both methods is going to make a huge difference in how I work with new clients and make me pay more attention to the subtleties in the movements of my existing clients. The CST principles apply to ALL movement patterns, not just Clubbell swinging or yoga, as does the FMS.

After the lecture we went back to the Fitness program and did it as a workout. What was supposed to be 5 times through with 30 secs rest between circuits was cut to 3 due to lack of time, darn. It was, not hard like Newport or Smokin' Ladders, but say challenging. I wasn't trashed by the end but I knew I had done some work. It is a good routine, but there are a few movements I didn't care for, mainly the lateral raises both moving into side lunge and on Swiss ball.

After lunch we started in on some key Clubbell lifts: the swing, the clean the front pendulum, rockets, swipes, mills, hammer swings. We went through each breaking them down into the basic parts and working them, then putting them back to make the whole exercise. Along the way we looked at common issues and some options for correcting them. It was a LOT of volume. I did finally get to use some 20 lb clubs and they felt just right. I have 15s and 25s , the former are a tad to light, the latter too heavy unless I'm doing low rep strength work. So I'll have to drop some more $$ to get a pair of 20s.

To finish off, as if we hadn't done enough already, Coach Wilson decided we needed to do some Flow Fit and work on leg swoops, the bastard, I'll get him tomorrow! (j/k Coach)

Although I know I did a ton of work today, I felt ok leaving. I had to buy a new bag to carry my Clubbells home. We had to either bring a pair or buy a pair. I didn't feel like lugging my 15s on this cross-country adventure. No telling where they would have shown up since my regular bag missed the switch from Chicago to St. Paul, I probably would have never seen the clubs again.

So, I got the bag and found a place that served sushi, Pad Tai. I walked in and was greeted by lots of non-Japanese waitresses (no Furman, not that kind of place).The decor was decidedly non-Japanese as well. I think the chef might have been. Oh well. The Sashimi was decent, but the presentation was lacking in artistry. If you know anything about Japanese food preparation, you know that it is all about the presentation. It is an art form.

As I write this the work load is sinking in and I will probably be sore tomorrow, which promises to be almost as tough as today. We have to do our Trial By Fire which is 130 2 Clubbell swipes, 130 mills with each hand and 65 hammer swings in each direction all with 15lb clubs. I've done it at home, rested, in about 30 minutes, not pushing it. I should be able to do it under an hour tomorrow, even fatigured. We can set the club down when we need to and switch hands whenever, but can't move to the next exercise until we complete the preceeding one.

We are also supposed to work on Prasara yoga some more, which I suck at and somewhere in there we are supposed to work with "victims" in Pavel speak and assess them and come up with corrective strategies for them in 7 minutes or less and then we have to present what we found and what we did to correct it. That will be the hardest part of the weekend.

The instructors were all great. Once again they showed their mastery of what they were teaching us and did an excellent job of conveying tremendous amounts of information. Coach Wilson is a nut, someone needs to keep him away from Starbucks. Coach Steer was excellent in his presentation of the 3 Trial By Fire lifts and the other Coaches were excellent as well.Scott has surrounded himself with some top notch coaches. I hope to reach lthat level myself down the road.

As I was working with the Clubbells today, it dawned on me how much more complicated, or perhaps we should say sophisticated, Clubbell work is comared to all other fitness modalities, even kettlebells. There is a lot of nuance, subtlety that is not present in most other forms of fitness. Olympic lifts have a lot of technique, kettlebell lifts have a lot too, but we are only working in two dimensions. Clubbells allow us to move in 3 planes and six degrees of freedom ( I will write about that later) which increases the complexity of the movement manifold times.

Now it's time to pack, but the Sashimi is wearing off, I wonder what I can find to eat......

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