Sometimes can come back from the dead. I read the above quote in another forum and paranoid that I am thought it was referring to me.Truth be told that is who I was just not long along. After 35 yers of living for training, competition and making the appropriate sacrificess to be as good as I could be I was done. Finished. Competition and training for such made no sense at all.
I still had plenty of training to be done, but it was saddle up for the rehab train for me. Or so I thought until I met Pavel and the RKC. Some may think my enthusiasm and devotion to this system over the top but it literally brought me back from the dead. Literally. I had nowhere to go with my training as I was wrecked all over from very little work I could even do in the last few years and almost no where to turn. KB training, specifically the RKC KB training saved my life.No work capacity, no endurance, little mobility and my strength was going fast.
Way too many years of loading a bent frame had caught up to me and it looked like the Piper was going to collect his due. But the kb swing, and snatch, and clean, and windmill and press brought me back and let me slowly but surely re build my endurance and function. ANd when I say function I mean FUNCTION. Walking around doing your daily life function.
When i thought I would never be able to do any cardio work again the snatch and swing showed me I could sweat and train hard again.
When I thought a knee replacment was an inevitability the strength endurance and functional carryover from all those swings and cleans gave me the strength to walk again and get out of the horrific pain I was in.
The ballistics gave me an alternative to just high tension workouts and a connected body that reminded me of how I felt when I was a gymnast. I could swing again and a swing is a swing is a swing. Visions of rings and hi bar and pbars danced in my head again as I could move once more.
All this from a methodology as sound and logical as any WSB any produced and for which I am eternally greatfull.People who have not lost the basic functions of life truly can't appreciate how sweet they are and how amazing it is when they return. This return to life has been surreal to me an my family. ANd I have seen this countless times now with my clients.
People who had virtually given up on being able to withstand any significant loading are now doing 5000 pound plus workouts and in the best shape of their lives.Peoples whose backs, and shoulders and knees were shot and not allowing them to train with any intent or intensity who can now conjure both.
This blend of strength with endurance with mobility is a winning combination for me now as I approach the half century mark and I know as well for those 78 MILLION people my age and older than NEED a simple,safe and effective exercise system that works. Not to mention giving me a seriously fit,strong, toned and skinny wife!
Some may argue that using a sport to get into shape is the way to go but most of the great trainers I know understand that one gets in shape to do sport, not the other way around.
Now I am just a healing ex athlete who is walking better every day.
I still had plenty of training to be done, but it was saddle up for the rehab train for me. Or so I thought until I met Pavel and the RKC. Some may think my enthusiasm and devotion to this system over the top but it literally brought me back from the dead. Literally. I had nowhere to go with my training as I was wrecked all over from very little work I could even do in the last few years and almost no where to turn. KB training, specifically the RKC KB training saved my life.No work capacity, no endurance, little mobility and my strength was going fast.
Way too many years of loading a bent frame had caught up to me and it looked like the Piper was going to collect his due. But the kb swing, and snatch, and clean, and windmill and press brought me back and let me slowly but surely re build my endurance and function. ANd when I say function I mean FUNCTION. Walking around doing your daily life function.
When i thought I would never be able to do any cardio work again the snatch and swing showed me I could sweat and train hard again.
When I thought a knee replacment was an inevitability the strength endurance and functional carryover from all those swings and cleans gave me the strength to walk again and get out of the horrific pain I was in.
The ballistics gave me an alternative to just high tension workouts and a connected body that reminded me of how I felt when I was a gymnast. I could swing again and a swing is a swing is a swing. Visions of rings and hi bar and pbars danced in my head again as I could move once more.
All this from a methodology as sound and logical as any WSB any produced and for which I am eternally greatfull.People who have not lost the basic functions of life truly can't appreciate how sweet they are and how amazing it is when they return. This return to life has been surreal to me an my family. ANd I have seen this countless times now with my clients.
People who had virtually given up on being able to withstand any significant loading are now doing 5000 pound plus workouts and in the best shape of their lives.Peoples whose backs, and shoulders and knees were shot and not allowing them to train with any intent or intensity who can now conjure both.
This blend of strength with endurance with mobility is a winning combination for me now as I approach the half century mark and I know as well for those 78 MILLION people my age and older than NEED a simple,safe and effective exercise system that works. Not to mention giving me a seriously fit,strong, toned and skinny wife!
Some may argue that using a sport to get into shape is the way to go but most of the great trainers I know understand that one gets in shape to do sport, not the other way around.
Now I am just a healing ex athlete who is walking better every day.
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9 comments:
Rif,
You might be interested to know I will have an interview on my blog with Brian Oldfield in the near future.
Randy
Rif - that is an encouraging post. I've had back problems in the past and it is only when you lose basic functions - sitting on the toilet, walking, whatever - that you really appreciate normal movement.
Any exercise system I believe should first and foremost work to maintain and preserve normal functional moves before you seek to enhance them. The basics - Chek lists as (if I remember) bend, push, pull, twist, lunge, squat and gait. If you can't do these things your life becomes a trial. As a younger athlete these aren't important...but with age and/or injury these msut become the foundation of what we do, a foundation on which we can build performance, but a foundation that must be there first.
randy great. I used his picture to illustrate the cost of really laying it on the line in your sport or profession and having to pay a huge cost.I;m sure the fact that Brian has a knee that is for shit doesnt discredit his discus and weightlifting training methods to the millions of fans he has in the sport. when you compete and train to be the best you can, shit happens.Cant wait to read the interview.He used to train at my gym in campbell right before we bought it. I've heard some CRAZY Big O stories.
Chris,
thanks man and you are so right. Only those that have gone through that or been close to someone who has can really get it ,I think.
as we age performance becomes much more relative and all those young bucks better realize their time to "perform" at their peak is really small compared to the time they will have to deal with being a regular person and the trials that come with age and injury.
the single arm kb swing is the best thing that ever happened to my back. I can say that with confidence.oh yeah, and remembering how to stretch,lol
Amen to that brother. Living a life in functional body is a blessing as you already know so well. hurting,not being able to move well and lack of strength are not a fun state to live in. The RKC system applied intelligently is as good of a system as I have ever experienced and taught. As Chris said as well, Paul Chek's primal movement patterns are essential to life and you really are in DEEP WEEDS if you cannot perform them.
Great post, bro. I too am an example of this. I was up the creek this time last year. I had to come to the point where I accepted that FUNCTION was a priority over PERFORMANCE.
geoff I agree, whenever you sacrifice function for performance it is a fools trade. wish I had grok'd that earlier.
Well put Rif, and as usual, my once broken body echoes your sentiments.
thanks will you know I understand what you are going through.
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