Tag: Ben House

Costa Rica Beginner’s Mind 2019 Retreat Review

Where can you combine learning, disengaging from life, connection, beach, sun, hiking, and so much more? That’s what Ben House has created with his Beginner’s Mind Retreat at Flō Retreat Center. A place where one can achieve all of the above and more. This trip marked the second time I’ve been here, and for good reason. It gives me the opportunity to personally recalibrate from the hectic work lifestyle I’ve grown accustomed too, while taking time out to better myself in more ways than one. This year’s retreat brought together several bright minds in the health and fitness realms, discussing topics ranging from training, mitochondria, stress, and more. The retreat is set up into two different weeks. The first week was functional medicine-oriented. After a three day break of chillin’ like Bob Dylan, the strength and conditioning week finished things off. The best part of this retreat is that learning is only one component. The lectures took up the morning, then the rest of the day was yours. You get time to train, go to the beach, hike, jump off of cliffs, eat good food, or just chill and play board games. The best part of this retreat is the people you encounter. It can be hard in our industry to find like-minded folks who live the lifestyle that fam like us live. But at Flo, healthy living is the norm. The people I’ve met at Ben’s place are people who I consider to be friends for a lifetime. That’s

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Movement Analysis and Breathing Strategies for Pain Relief and Improved Performance

Chris, a high level mountain biker, at first didn’t believe someone could help him move better over the internet. He had back issues for a hot minute, what the heck was an online consult going to do? A couple consults later with me, and Chris is pain-free, back to doing all the wild and crazy things he was doing before without issues. Chris was so juiced up about his results that he wanted to learn more about my thought process and what I do that he had me on his podcast. Chris Kelly is the owner of Nourish Balance Thrive, a really cool site that brings several great practitioners together to help clients remotely with whatever their goals are. Despite Chris technically not being in the field, he’s one of the best interviewers I’ve had the pleasure of podcasting with. He asked some great, unique questions, and we got into a wide variety of topics. Here are some of topics we discussed on the podcast: Ben House and Flō Retreat Center in Costa Rica How I got into physical therapy. The influence of Bill Hartman. Working with NBA basketball players. The influence of Dr. Bryan Walsh. Sleep and performance How to treat pain Assessing movement Movement variability The online assessment process Pain vs. tissue damage How we improved the host’s chronic lower back pain The importance of the pelvic floor What is considered normal breathing How to promote behavior change in our clients Applying the principle of minimal effective dose

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Top 10 Posts of 2018

At the end of each year, I like to see what you beautiful…sexy…outstanding people liked. What the fam….recognized (fam). This year, it seems like errbody was loving all of the movement-based work that was discussed. You want practical application as a coach or clinician, you got it! I also loved how all the guest posts I had this year made the top 10. There were some rock solid contributions from my fellow colleagues. Guess I’m going to need more album features if you know what I’m sizzlin’. I want to thank you, the fam, for making 2018 an outstanding year. It has been all the comments, questions, stories, and praise that keeps me outputting content for you. I think we will keep doing this another year. Why not? 😉 But enough rambling. Let’s check out the top 10. First off… 10. The Reckoning: Part Deux Course Review This was an excellent seminar that was run by two of my favorite doctors in the game: Pat Davidson and Ben House. The topics covered were a great variety of areas I needed more exposure in. If you want to learn how our movement limitations are evolutionary, the ins and outs of hypertrophy or fat loss, blood sugar regulation, you’ll just scratch the surface of what this course covered. If you ever get a chance to hear Pat or Ben in person, do so. In fact, you can hear Pat, myself, and Seth Oberst in February.  9. Why You Need Sun Exposure My man Iordan

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The Reckoning: Part Deux Course Review

I recently had the opportunity to attend The Reckoning: Part Deux, a course taught by Dr. Pat Davidson and Dr. Ben House. The host was my boi, Mike Ranfone. This course focused on two concepts: understanding evolutionary history to influence programming (Pat’s talk),  and discussing all things hypertrophy, fat loss, health, and nutrition (Ben’s talk). I’ve heard Pat speak in the past, and always appreciate his drawing from many aspects of science to influence programming. His evolution discussion led to many light bulbs going off. What had me really excited was to hear Ben speak. I have several colleagues who speak highly of his work, and given that nutrition/functional medicine is a weak point in my game, I wanted to hear his perspective. Let’s just say, neither of the doctors disappointed. There was an excellent mix of theoretical and practical application, and both fellas approached performance from such different angles that the Reckoning as a whole was beyond comprehensive. If you get a chance to hear either of these guys talk, sign up yesterday, you won’t regret it.

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