Lessons from animals

Hi guys,

I am in bed from a week like a whale stuck on a shore cause my beautiful appendix has decided to get inflamed. Fair enough, I am spending many hours in good company: books, a pen, a notebook and my girlfriend’s intellect.

Now, I want to share in this space some reflections and thoughts about some mechanisms that got clearer in my mind by looking at the consistent effort my two new cats* are putting in growing up.

I believe valuable lessons can be dragged from animals.

They are filtered away from social / behavioral conditionings and they are in a much better position to fully connect with their instincts.
I am fascinated by the ability to fully be immersed in their actions, reacting to life in a continuous fashion as moment after moment was revealing itself infinite possibilities.

They are still too young to freely wonder around the open world so we are sharing a space 24/7 and I am experiencing every stage of their evolution.

Just to make this clearer I will break it down into paragraphs:

Task orientation

Everything they do is to solve a task, therefore they grow faster. Working with a goal in mind, has been more functional since the age of times in learning a skill, period.

I'll give you the scenario. The cats are on the floor and they need to reach the top shelf of a closet. They follow a procedure I am trying to isolate here.

Phase 1: Territory scan and options discovery

They will spend all the time they need looking at the motor problem from all the possible angles; observing it with maximum care, with all the senses they need.

Phase 2: Option choice

-       Simple over complex

-       Low risk over high risk

They will always choose ground level over height, stable flat surfaces over unstable round surfaces and the path of least resistance. If pressure gets in the game than it all breaks down, favoring task completion in the least amount of time.

Phase 3: Operative choice

Once the choice is taken - they operate.

This is the algorithm in a mindmap:

Of course, if they do not have a scenario ready in the matrix, they'll create it. That still clip on the floor becomes a running rat animated by their paws. “Get it or you'll starve!”

Live and fail fully

 
My cats engage in every activity as if it was the last thing they are going to do in their life. They

fight each other fiercely; they hunt with no other thought running in the background; they stay still staring at nothing for minutes and minutes and they lick themselves as if they wanted to eradicate the worst of the evils from the fur.  Emotions are NEVER out of the game.

Overall, they give everything they can.

However, if they don’t succeed in their tasks, they fail and they try again ..but.. here comes the most interesting part:

the adjustments they do in their failures are quite random in a trial and error fashion, but the information they recollect from the reaction to their actions, is not random AT ALL.

                                               

They get better every day at selecting the variables that are useful for the progress; rejecting those that are useless. Once they get the correct movement and it produces a positive impact: bang! They reinforce it and here they go, already looking for the next task.

In this view, learning is an error-selection process, where the collection of information from the playground is more important than the actual outcome.

Basically, they fail better day by day, by filtering the information and placing the attention in the right place.

Many empty spaces

The first impression that I had, since I was in contact with animals was that they take time. They constantly take time for themselves. They are hungry, they eat. They are tired, they sleep. They have a boost of energy, they use it. And all these fluctuations in needs provide the body a variety of stimuli, that are the ones useful to live a healthy life.

They also take a lot of time to do absolutely nothing – call it: otium, resting, immobilism, meditating. Whatever, but they do it. And they never do anything “useless”. Those practices are beneficial. There is much more going on in the body; more than what we can actually see, and much has to be discovered yet. So, who knows what truly lies behind emptying some space in our lives (longer happier existences?).

Teaching is a physical-relational process

“Never trust a person that wears gloves”.

Our society is trying to disconnect ourselves from our physical being, trying to put barriers to physical contact and encounters. I say this living in Italy (the reign of hugs and handshakes), outside it’s much worse.

When we teach we should touch, feel, connect with the student.

I believe it has value to stay side by side, hands in the dirt. Same level, but different at the same time. You do something wrong in a game, I hit you (not with anger, with positive intent, but I hit you). You do something great, I shout and hug you.

Pedagogically speaking, it has a lot of value.

I can see this happening with every stage of development of my kittens. I do something wrong, she/he bites me, scratches me, screams at me and so on.

So, I do the same physically 100% leaving no space for words. And guess what in return they listen and care about me as well.

It just works better. It’s a bit like playing a zero sum game**.

Layering

As a last thing, I want to talk about this curios phenomenon I noticed in my cats. They get stressed if they can live only on a single layer. What do I mean? For example, if they have an empty room with just the floor, they get more aggressive and upset for anything. If you add chairs, tables, closets and so on (that they can climb), this improves their characters. Why? I guess it’s because it opens up possibilities, but actually I am not sure, it’s quite a mistery.

Does this happens with humans as well? I say – a hundred per cent yes.

Do people realize this? I say – a hundred per cent no.

If we go to the mountains, populate trees, go on rooftops, sleep in caves underground and so on, we perceive a difference in our feelings and behaviors.

Got a crazy cat? Putting shelves everywhere will transform it from a Tasmanian devil into Garfield.

Ok, I am done for now, have a nice one!

Marcello.

*Cats' names: Sanementereng and Ekomo (a basic drum), two African words that are dear to me. The term literally represent an African dance that esemplificates their way of learning. That is: “you listen to the rhythms since the day you are born, so when you first touch the drum as child, you already know the rhythms and know how it SHOULD sound. Nobody ever has to explain anything to you, you just copy what you hear. That is why many African drum teachers do not explain enough and do not go methodically forward in teaching”– cit. rootsworld. This is the way I have decided to grow these two creatures.

** “In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain or loss of utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the utility of the other participants. If the total gains of the participants are added up and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero. Thus, cutting a cake, where taking a larger piece reduces the amount of cake available for others, is a zero-sum game if all participants value each unit of cake equally (see marginal utility)”. – Quote from the big W.

Parkour Wall Routine - Advanced block 1

Hi people,

Here we are with another routine I have been implementing in my trainings.

So before we go into it, a couple of words.

The elements chosen for the routines are structured in such a way that the pushing is balanced by some pulling actions. Each element has to be worked out singularly before implementing it into the routine itself.

Extensive use of eccentrics make this routine pretty heavy so I would decrement its use to once or twice a week max. The isometric holds are there to work on specific strength angles that are worth focusing on and they can be changed according to personal lacks and weaknesses.

Now, let's move into another theme. HsPu and pelicans are not parkour specific elements. The same can be said for L sits, shoulder stands etc. However, working towards them can build a considerable amount of strength without having to leave the environment you might be training in (without necessarily overloading your body).

Also since those are complex skills, maintaining them will help the body to keep its strength through the years with almost no effort.

For example, since I learned a climb up, I don’t need to train thousand of them anymore, I just do some, sometimes, and I know the strength needed to get them done will be there. By imagining it and briefly practicing it, I can maintain it.

Also a question I would love to hear the answer from many is: why do you choose certain exercises over others in your training? Is it just a ritualistic practice?
I.e. We can choose an extensive quadrupedal movement work to target resiliency. But this concept can be trained in many different ways: that was just one of the possibilities. Can a routine like this produce the same outcome and add something new to an advanced practitioner training?

Changing the tool while keeping the final result. If cutting a piece of paper can be done with a knife, a scissor, a sword, a sharp piece of glass and so on, why using only the bare hands each time? Opening up to new possibilities, makes this world an interesting place.

The point is, the more we progress, the more our bodies get used and tuned to certain exercises, becoming not a challenge anymore. No matter the volume of work you throw on the plate.

If we are interested in progressing in our strength training journey, as well as appreciating the process, we need to make some choices as parkour practitioners. We can choose among rings work and gst, weightlifting, powerlifting, calisthenics and all sort of ways to overload the body. What is the best choice? All of them! As long as they can fit all the attributes and principles we want to keep awake in our days.

Careful not to get dragged into a merely sportive setting, and keep the fire in the heart awake and pulsating. From my notebook: “Stay true to what you believe in, make sure is present in your practice, explore other perspectives, don’t be lazy”.

Now, off with the routine:

Parkour Wall routine - Advanced block 1

- Climb up into handstand into hollowback handstand push up x 1-3 reps

- One arm press handstand iso hold (hips in line with shoulders) 5/5 sec

- Pelican turn 1/1 - 3/3

- Climb ups with a false grip 2-4 reps

Let me know how this one goes,

Marcello.

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Music: https://gallerysix.bandcamp.com/album/blessing. The explorer - Gallery six. The track is written, mixed and mastered by Hidekazu Imashige.

Parkour Wall routine - Intermediate block 1

Hey guys,

To answer your questions about:

Regressing the routines.

 Yes, do regress each element if needed.

Scale down the exercise choosing a variation that is appropriate for your current level and go into harder variations throughout the weeks.

 i.e. a full position in a shoulder stand is too hard? Good. Start with a tuck, then move to an advanced tuck, then into a straddle and then finally into the full position.

Progressing the routines.

The routines are disconnected one to the other. That means that repeating the first routine will not automatically unlock the next one. The elements in each one will mostly be new, more complex and will have a higher mechanical leverage.

Each new bit needs to be perfected before integrating it into the plurality of motion of the routine. The quality needs to remain high!

So, let’s move into our second routine:

Parkour Wall routine – intermediate block 1

- Straight arms overgrip climb up x 1-3 reps

- 90° lean dips x 1-3 reps

- Bent arm planche x 5 sec

- V-sit x 5 sec

- Alternating archer wall pull ups x 1-3 reps per arm

How to place it in our programming? Let me write again the prescriptions.

Go for 4-6 sets with a 5 mins rest in between.

Frequency: 2-3 times per week for 4-6 weeks before a deload, depending on how your body will react to this.

Small conversation between the determined kid (K) and me (M) in the video:

M: Hello.

K: What are you doing?

M: I am training.

K: Parkour?

M: Yes.

K: Well, I also train in parkour.

M: Oh really? Where?

K: I don’t know yet, I did not choose yet. I just know I will do parkour.

Approved.

If you want to know the prescription to use it as an assistance work or as a maintenance tool, check my previous post. Next week the advanced routine will come, with an in depth explanation of why I chose these exercises and in this order.

Questions welcome,

Marcello.

                                                                                                                              

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Music: Gallery Six - EPV_083 - 01 Connect with Gallery Six. The track is written, mixed and mastered by Hidekazu Imashige.

Parkour Wall Routine - Beginners block 1

Hi guys,

Today I am posting the first wall routine of this series. I believe this is an extremely valuable tool for building a specific capacity in the body that can later be spent when working on isolated elements without fatigue in between.

 Routines are a good implement in anyone’s training because they can be applied to many people at once and they are easy to be scaled down – so for all the coaches out there, this can be applied straight away to most of your students at once and get excellent results.

Strength endurance is a key quality to be developed in parkour training since it allows a person to utilize the skills when needed. Same goes for long durations trainings i.e. discovery / exploration scenarios where the problems to solve can be various and continuative.

Getting the mind and the body ready to handle subtle coordination patterns under stress will ingrain those movement in the body and that kind of strength will stay with that person¹. Thus, longer than just building a general capacity through more general tools.

Basically, if you want to get better at manipulating your body on a wall, guess what, you need to manipulate yourself over, around, under and beyond it. The challenge is to add exercises that are complicated enough to put the right stress on the body and promote adaptation.

Parkour Wall routine – beginner block 1

- Overgrip grip climb up x 1-3 reps

- Support legs slides x 5 reps

- Shoulder stand x 5 sec

- Feet on wall reverse wall dips x 1-3 reps

- L-sit x 5 sec

- Iso holds top / middle / low x 5 sec each one

How to place it in our programming? Good question Palozzo, then, it’s a tool so as such it can have different prescriptions:

- Use it to build strength endurance in a period where you are working on building a basic capacity for the body in parkour training - go for 4-6 sets with a 3-4 mins rest in between – frequency: 2-3 times per week for 4-6 weeks before a deload, depending on how your body will react to this.

- Use it as an assistance routine after your main strength work, to target some specific endurance / vary the stimulus in your training – go for 3 sets with a 2-3 mins rest in between.

- Use it as a maintenance tool - go for 3 sets of max reps – aim to reduce work:rest times to a 1:1 ratio – frequency: 1-2 times per week for 1-3 months before switching it around.

- Use it as a warm up - go for 1-2 sets to get your body tuned and ready.

As a small note, this is not even close to the best thing you can do if you want to build pure strength, strength speed, speed or similar qualities. For that I would suggest stepping back and leaving the routine aside when you will have different goals in mind. Make sure you can perform the single elements before integrating them.

Questions welcome,

Marcello.

                                                                                                                              

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1.  Stone, M. H., et. al. (2000). Training Principles: Evaluation of Modes and Methods of Resistance Training. National Strength & Conditioning Association, 22(3), 65–76.

 Music: Led by the dress colored in red - all tracks are written, mixed by Sami Bro and Hidekazu Imashige mastered by Hidekazu Imashige.