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Review | Methods of Modern Mobility Seminar with Emmet Louis

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I first came across Emmet’s work on Youtube via his videos on the illusive topic of Loaded Progressive Stretching a couple of years ago and since then have seen various other clips on his approach to gymnastic movements, progressions and protocols etc.

Since starting my own service of providing mobility assessments and programming to clients, I wanted to continue my personal learning around the realms of mobility, flexibility and all things stretchy. Partly for myself and partly for my clientele.
Cue Emmet’s Facebook advert; Modern Methods of Mobility Seminar in London.
His ad caught my eye for two reasons; the cover photo of a partner stretch which looked pretty intense, and his name attached to it. Immediately I was interested but price would be the deciding factor for me. How much a seminar costs will usually turn on my bullshit detector, as I know when someone is milking it in this industry. I was pleasantly surprised with Emmet’s Early Bird pricing option of €300 for 12-14 hours of instruction, split over two days. (Note; if someone is charging over £400 for a weekend seminar in the UK, on subjects relating to physical training, ask yourself seriously if it is worth it and what you are really going to learn in those two days.)

Emmet demonstrates a Pike fold partner stretch

Emmet demonstrates a Pike fold partner stretch

Although I had missed the Early Bird deadline by a day or so, I was even more surprised when I’d received a reply to my email (asking to see if I was still eligible for the original €300) saying ‘Yes, that’s fine, I’ve signed you up.’ Customer service at its finest.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the seminar to be honest but I did turn up with an open mind and ready to be put through a lot of physical exercises. I’d enrolled to learn theory but to also have a go at trying things and to be able to ask questions, lots of questions that I have built up over the last couple of years of self-experimenting. There’s nothing worse than enrolling for a seminar based on physicality, only to find you’re going to be stuck in a classroom learning format for two days.

I’m not going to break down exactly what we learnt because I have to respect the fact that Emmet makes a living by touring this seminar all over the world. I will give an overview, however, as I too read a review before enrolling and it was positive enough to encourage my choice of sigining up.

Day 1

Printed notes. Praise Shiva. Emmet and his team brought a workbook for us to scribble on and make our own annotations where necessary. This was a good start. The number of charlatans out there who do workshops and give you nothing in the form of paperwork is too high!
We looked at various ways and principles of mobilising the ankle joint, with a different approach to ways I had seen previously. Lots of testing, performing, then re-testing. Scientific method, right? The rest of day panned out into going through each of the progressions that eventually led to achieving a difficult gymnastic position. For example, a full Pike front fold and the Pancake / Side Splits. Emmet uses three protocols that repeat themselves through this list of progressions of each gymnastic position; Ballistic Stretching, Loaded Stretching and End-Range-Closing. The beauty of this system is that each progression has an accompanying protocol to go with it. Once you understand what is paired with what, which Emmet went through thoroughly, the system is very logical and easy to follow.
I actually achieved a full seated Pike fold, head to shins (with partner assistance) and was shocked I could even bend that far! Stoked. I then asked Emmet if I was going to have DOMS the following day, to which he replied ‘Oooooh yeah!’
It was an intensive day and I was pretty exhausted by the end of it but I had filled half my workbook with notes and stickmen diagrams, meaning it was exactly what I had been looking for. You know a seminar is good when you come away with enough knowledge that is going to take you the better part of the next six months to practice, perfect, digest and internalise. You also know it was worth it when you exceed your own physical expectations by a stage or two thanks to their instruction.

Day 2

Good gravy, my hamstrings! Emmet was right, the DOMS were horrendous! A theme that recurred in day 1 and day 2 was the idea that; eventually, we don’t want to have to train flexibility. I.e. the training we have done previously has now created a permanent adaptation in the body to a point where training to improve flexibility is no longer necessary. Another teheme was that performing joint rotations, daily, is pretty much the minimum effective dose and lowest common denominator, all in one. Do them daily and you’d be surprised what you will find. Emmet is no blagger. He dropped that he had tested these protocols on around 200 of his clients and I believed him. If you haven’t tested your theories on a large pool, at least 50 people or more, I don’t feel you’re entitled to say what does and does not work. Emmet’s legitimacy was backed up by the fact he was pretty damn rubberised himself, being able to hit many of the difficult positions ‘cold’. He told me his background was Circus, and I know first-hand those guys are ninjas. Day 2 was much of the same in terms of format, more going through the progressions and partner drills, testing and re-testing, this time the focus was on the Front Splits and Thoracic Bridging and the pathways to get there.
Towards the end of the day we had a great Q+A session, which is where I wanted to ask my most prized question, which I could not seem to find an answer to, anywhere.
“How on earth do you programme this stuff, over various time frames?”
And I received my answer. Which to me was probably this biggest result of the whole weekend, as in my opinion programming is the cornerstone of any decent training system.

Q&A session after the seminar

Q&A session after the seminar

Emmet is a very personable guy, casual in his delivery but accurate in his knowledge and process. If you get a chance to do the M3 seminar, I highly recommend it. I am currently testing and practicing the exercises and progressions from the seminar in my own training and have seen some results thus far. It’s a little too early to tell you what has really worked for me and what hasn’t but what I can say with confidence is that passive stretching really is only a tiny part of the picture. If you want usable range of motion in your joints then you need to employ the use of tension in various forms and protocols, such as the three given in the seminar. I’ve been ‘stretching’ for years and never really got any better or lasting progress. Now I know why.

Thanks to Emmet and his team, and for the Chainstore in East London for hosting the seminar. I look forward to learning more from Emmet and will continue to reach out to him as a wizard in this field.

 

The post Review | Methods of Modern Mobility Seminar with Emmet Louis appeared first on harrycloudfoot.


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