Movement Adventures, Stretching & Monkey Springs

Movement Adventures

My own personal movement practice called me into a nomadic life full time earlier this year.

I sold my home and most of my possessions to venture off in a  caravan and be more fully immersed in nature and the open road.

Balancing this with my solo parenting duties for my 2 wonderful kids has been a challenge and adjustment.

I've encountered several unplanned obstacles to my vision recently that I'm now making my way through.

For example, I assumed that in a Caravan you have the freedom to go anywhere you want!!

Turns out, this assumption is only true in some of the nicer parks if you have the privilege of being able to book sites a year in advance (not exactly how I like to roll!).

Caravan life is way more popular than I realised. Older retired people from the colder southern Australian states book the warmer beach front parks for 3-4 months of their year creating a no vacancy situation that has hindered some of my plans.

To adapt to this I have started venturing to more colder locations and just do the opposite of the crowd.

This approach is rewarding me with some uncrowded magic locations. 

The latest being the Granite Belt in South-West Queensland which offered some incredible hiking and a few unusual places to move.

For anyone that might be interested in travelling to the Granite Belt, I made this longer Vlog style video to showcase the unusual stones, the kangaroos and the incredible hikes that are available in this region.

My Travel Gym

I take basic equipment with me everywhere I go including a portable pull up bar, rings, a few lighter weights, some P-Bars, rubber bands and yoga blocks. 

You can check out my bar and ring set up in this video where I demonstrate just a few of the skills you can learn in my online Ring Flow course.

I keep it all in my van and in the back of my truck so I can continue to progress in my current personal movement practice and also continue creating learning resources & coaching materials for students.

Stretch of the Week

This QL stretch is one of the best for really getting into those hard to move hip and side sections of the body. The relief this stretch brings to me personally is immense. 

Just take it easy when getting into position on this one as it can come on strong on the obliques around the rib cage need a gentle entry.

Skill of the Week

Back handsprings may seem completely unrealistic to learn as an adult without a Gymnastic background, but what if I told you there is a safe way to progress towards this on your own at home?

I give you, the Monkey Spring.

The Monkey Spring is a series of monkey flips (aka Macaco) which you can organise together to give yourself a warped wonky around the corner version of the back handspring. 

It may not win you any awards at the Olympics, but it can be straightened out later and turned into a Handspring as you build the confidence to lose sight of the ground, or can be just a cool soft acrobatic low risk skill to practice on its own.   

Dealing with Golfers Elbow

Having recently increased some of the pulling work in my current training both on Olympic Rings and on the Chin Up Bar, I began to sense an old elbow problem begin to resurface. 

Years ago I had chronic Golfers elbow (a sharp stabbing pain on the inside elbow tendon), which came on after a phase of weighted chin ups.

So, it's an inflammation issue I've had to manage carefully after rehabilitating it initially.

My initial rehab worked by applying frequent eccentric loading to the specific tendon in question. I made a longer video about this some time ago to explain that process which you can watch here.

After rehabilitating the issue, I found that continuing to deliberately apply loading to the elbow tendons (in various directions) has helped prevent any tendonitis from returning. 

I can sometimes sense a little aggravation when I overdo things.

For example shooting my Ring Flow course required an abnormal amount of Ring training in a concentrated period of time so I was very diligent in doing pre-hab on the elbows a few times a week while I was making that program and this prevented any acute pain from returning.

A great pre-hab drill anyone can do using a simple broom stick is the Elbow Clock. An ideal rep range is 10 for 3 sets at a length that challenges the elbows but does not cause you acute pain if you do have issues there. Doing this 2-3 times a week is highly practical for general elbow pre-hab.

Another method I have recently been finding success with is a belt tied to a small kettlebell like this.

Everyone is a little different when it comes to recovery from tendonitis, but as a general rule "tendons love load". So finding a drill that loads the tendon with just enough to help strengthen it but not so much that it aggravates it to much is key which takes some personal experimentation.

Upcoming Projects 

I will be sharing more locomotion in the coming weeks as I prepare to teach a guest workshop on retreat in Bali in October which is sold out.

As always, be sure to check out my online course Locomotion Flow 2.0 for more learning resources on those skills. 

I am also currently building a membership site for time-poor adults who want to learn "movement" covering bodyweight strength & mobility, handstands, rings, locomotion and some of the internal practices that have helped me so much over the years.

That creation will be ready in the coming month or so. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, if you've been curious about improving your upper body strength then be sure to check out my Ring Flow online course.

Until next time, happy moving! 

 Aaron