Warrior Wellness™ rate of advancement?

[Arluk]

Received Warrior Wellness™ tapes 5 days ago. I've done the beginner series every morning since. My question is what kind of mastery should I experience before moving on to intermediate and advanced. I know that most people, including myself on many occasions, desire to jump too fast in to advanced work. I do not want to get ahead of myself, but I would like some advice concerning my situation.

I've been practicing Hanna somatics for about 8 months, a few MA's and Qigong for a couple years, so my kinesthetic awareness is fairly high in comparison to the average American. My Warrior Wellness™ experience has captivated me. I tried the beginner set without the video for the first time yesterday. My level of concentration on the movements was much higher, obviously because I didn't have to focus on my visual senses as much. I found that being able to add my somatics and Qigong theory and skills increased the rapidity in which the movements effected me. I realized my first mistake had been to push the movements a little too hard, I was sore after the third day. My shoulders and knees voiced their indignation with my desire to advance by popping and grinding during the movements. I found that if I consciously relaxed my whole body into the movement, the grinding and popping resided and I could feel my mind/body creating new coordination patterns. I integrated these thoughts and sensations into the whole set and my overall performance improved greatly. My real surprise came the today when I realized that my knees, which have constantly popped ever since dislocating my kneecaps 8 years ago, were not popping at all and felt overall more stable than I can remember them ever feeling. My shoulders, which at the time of starting this program were a little painful, are now pain free and much more supple. My feet are distributing weight much more evenly. Also my major problem area, upper back, is more supple and is making minor self-adjustments more freely.

My question is this, given the above circumstances how long should I keep doing the beginner program? Should I keep to the whole thing until every movement feels (perfect is the wrong word but...), or should I start to integrate a few more advanced movements when I feel confident in one area? My intuition tells me that following the proximal to distal/superior to inferior advancement pattern, I should at least "perfect" the first movements of the beginner series before moving on to the first movements of the intermediate.

"Perfect" a movement:
The movement is performed with the most complete awareness currently possible of the entire body’s involvement in the movement, and all currently perceptible unnecessary tensions are removed.

Looking foreword to swinging some iron in circles!!!

[Randell Waddell]

Morning Marty,

Just had a look back through some of your history (eg Upper back/shoulder advice thread), and "crikey", has your body had quite a journey to date !!!!!!!

I know that most people, including myself on many occasions, desire to jump too fast in to advanced work.

... All too true - I think everybody does this at times.

My intuition tells me that following the proximal to distal/superior to inferior advancement pattern, I should at least "perfect" the first movements of the beginner series before moving on to the first movements of the intermediate.

I think you have nailed it on the head here .... I love how my Clubbell® swinging feels really, really good when I can get into my body ( as in Gratification Flow), so perhaps look at this phase of your WW Beginner training as special prep also for the clubs.

Cheers
Randell

[rbibbs]

Great questions Marty. As a kind of FAQ post/reply:

Yep, the 'clean slate' principle, or waiting to build the framing until the foundation is sound. The 'big' steps might be thought of as:

(First, any outstanding medical issues should be fully resolved, and your physician has OK'd restorative exercise.)

1) Assessment. Quantify your overall musculoskeletal health. Be objective--don't exaggerate abilities or inabilities), and don't attach 'coulda/woulda' issues. If you've been very active, note any overuse injuries... 'small' ones like 'tendon pulls' are significant. If you've been very inactive, note the issues that motivated you to regain full comfortable motion. Define what you'd like to improve... call them goals, wishes, intents, whichever term you find most motivating.

2) Unloaded cardinal motion. Movement in the basic planes, up/down, left/right, in/out. These are built into WW beginner 'as needed' (like neck motions) and incrementing to.....

3) Unloaded circular motion. Full ROM explores/develops joint function. Circling joints re-acquaints motor neurology with the sequence of tensions and relaxations used in 'handing-off' loads from one muscle set to the next (why we do everything both directions). This phase is very foundational, don't scrimp or rush. 'Average' time to complete, 3-6 months. Basic ROM/comfort issues have to be well-resolved, to progress to.....

4) Unloaded complex motion. At the intermediate and advanced levels, we're working on neurological resolution. The circles get smaller, turn back upon themselves. We develop motion-predictive neurological patterns (maintain joint integrity under torsional/non-cardinal loads). This latter ability is required for safety and progress in the next phase....

5) Loaded cardinal motions. Simple Clubbell® exercises like swings. Further develop neurological resolution; the ability to precisely proportion muscle contraction/relaxation to follow the relatively-unyielding ballistics of an off-center-of-gravity weight, and to flexibly counterbalance peripheral loads throughout the MS system.

6) Loaded complex motions. Develop the ability to generate power in any vector (proportionate force x direction in any set of planes).

And you're spot-on about proximal/distal, Marty. Example: We use elbows a lot, so even 'inactive' people have pretty good neurological resolution around this joint. But doing elbow figure-8s requires a high degree of compliance in the shoulder, which in turn is awkward with a rigid core.

Folks are going to be adventurous with this stuff, it's rather designed to encourage that, and you can't go too-far wrong "doing what feels good". Stick with the program, develop each phase fully in your regular practice. At the same time, you might explore the next phase 'experimentally'... each person is different enough to where a 'rigid' schedule of advancement couldn't possibly apply to 'everyone'. Part of the process is finding your rate of advancement. Just don't rush.

(Now, do eye-circles to relieve the strain of reading all that .)

[Arluk]

Thanks for the cleaning the slate breakdown, definitely helps me.

My body has been down a short hard road so far, I haven't been seriously injured in a couple years though so I'm doing much better. Most of my injuries have been at max range of motion because I was young, stupid, strong, flexable and daring.

I've done some consideration. I think that my best course of action is to watch all three videos to get a sense of what my progress will look like. Following the proximal to distal model I'll explore more advanced work as I feel I need to.

Moving the eyes in circles, sounds like systems integration to me.