Just so there are no hidden agendas: I am an avid girevik and
practitioner of Zdorovye, or Z-Health, as it's now known, and
have been for the past three years. Between kettlebelling and
Zeeing (my verb), my herniated discs and chronic lower back pain
disappeared after PT proved ineffective and my doctor told me
surgery was about all that was left. Zeeing made me realize that
my "bad back" was largely due to limited ranges of motion
in my hips and pelvis, not just the fact that I was approaching
an age where invitations to join AARP were showing up in my mailbox,
even if I couldn't afford it (retirement, that is). But despite
Z-Health's ability to put grey panthers in the pink, I wasn't
quite sure what else it was good for. So when I had the chance
to attend Eric Cobb's Z-Health Seminar in Seattle, I gladly hopped
in my jeep and put up with the 3 hour plus, non-stop rush hour
traffic clogging I-5 between Portland and the Emerald City.
Mind you, I'd been through the "Zdorovye Encylopedia,"
the five volume video series from RMAX, as well as Warrior Wellness,
Maximology, and recently released Body-Flow series featuring Z's
originator, Scott Sonnon. The core principles behind Z derive
from Scott's training in Russia during the 1990s. Driving up,
I had my suspicions about what I was going to learn from Doctor
Cobb, who I knew had trained with Scott. I mean, what else was
there?
First, he's a great speaker and has the kind of personality that
makes everyone in the room feel good, even cranks like me who
hate it when people make them feel good. Second, he's a chiropractor
by profession, admitting he got a degree in bone manipulation
and spinal adjustment only to learn more about the body to make
his martial art more lethal, something he'd been since age five.
(Eric is probably in his mid-to-late 30's.) Third, he provides
"train the trainer" training (say that 6 times while
Being Breathed) for Tony Blauer's combatives organization. Considering
I'd just read Jeff Martone's endorsement of Blauer's SPEAR program
on the digital pages of PowerAthletesmag.com and had a similar
recommendation from RKC Tom Furman on the Dragon Door Board, I
was ready to pay attention.
The doc knows his stuff. He really does.
He took a diverse group - five men of different ages, build and
ethnicity and three women who, from my vantage point, appeared
to be on decidedly different rungs of the fitness ladder- through
a series of movements I knew from the tapes I mentioned, working
from the neck down to the ankle - sort of your basic Warrior Wellness
warmup. Then he moved into more "sophisticated" movements,
such as the Cossack Squat (Scott's not Pavel's), which really
makes aging bones like mine - and the joints and tendons connecting
them as well as the muscles - shake, rattle, and…whoa…roll.
Felt mighty good to do it right. And to know what assistance movements
would work in the event my body told me I wasn't doing it right.
What really impressed me was Eric's consummate attention to the
minute details of each component movement. He took us through
each movement very s-l-o-w-l-y and t-h-o-r-o-u-g-h-l-y. I know
a few, if not most, of the people attending the seminar had never
heard of Cossack squats or shin boxes before they came, let alone
the whole notion of bio-mechanical exercises and kinetic chains.
Not to worry. Eric not only demonstrated but guided participants
slowly and patiently through each component movement, establishing
a rhythm of accomplishment.
But what about the "effective efficiency" Eric made
us realize was the characteristic of each great athlete?
We moved into "position-specific," or sport-specific
enhancements. Pointing out that all sport is essentially movement,
breathing, & structure, Eric took the middle-aged, former
college baseball pitcher and, asked the seminar participants to
analyze where his throwing motion needed "adjustments"
to get his pitching groove back. Literally a few shoulder and
neck rolls later, he was bringing the heat.
Eric went through the same process with a female tennis player.
A different set of "recovery" movements later and her
back swing had recovered too. By adjusting a martial artist's
hip torque, Eric put more snap-and crackle -- into his punch.
I could feel the pop halfway across the room.
. As a finale, Eric and special guest Scott Sonnon, aka "Monkey
Man" according to Eric (he also rightly described him as
a "kinesthetic genius") demonstrated advanced kinetic
chains. It's one thing to watch this kind of floor acrobatics
on video, quite another to see it in person. White men may still
not be able to jump (this white man didn't work on that), but
these two guys can move. I mean, really move.
Eric and Scott pointed out that the sport value of such bio-mechanical
movements consisted in being able to move just beyond the typical
range of motion for a given sport. They cited studies showing
the measurable impact of dynamic isometric exercises extended
10 to 30 degrees for each joint and muscle involved. They also
discussed the proprioceptive effect such movement had in waking
up what for most of us were long dormant parts of our body, and
igniting new areas of the brain via the central nervous system.
A wake-up call for the body and brain - no wonder this kind of
movement has a tonic effect.
After the seminar, I spoke with Eric briefly about sport-specific
programs he might be developing. While he didn't want to tip his
hand, he did mention a recent seminar in Phoenix where the host
was a girevik and they had discussed a kettlebell/Z program -
which I immediately signed on for - as well as programs for hockey,
golf, baseball, tennis…just about anything involving breathing,
movement, and structure. I'm there.
Seriously, if you get the opportunity to attend one of Eric's
seminars, go. He has two Z-Health Seminars at the end of August
in Grants Pass, Oregon, and one in Atlanta coming up in September.
For details, check http://www.rmax.tv.
So I'll give the Seattle Z-Health seminar my two thumbs up, moving
10 to 30 degrees beyond their "normal" range. Abnormalities
in behalf of effective efficiency? Sounds like Zee plan for enhanced
performance.
