EP 93: Tom Herbert (Part 2)
November 1, 2021
This is part 2 of my conversation with Tom Herbert. Tom shared some clarifications about part 1, we talked about the nervous system and the mind-body connection, how to relax before a session to improve your performance and power, how to turn off in the evenings to optimize recovery, and Tom shared about his childhood and ongoing struggle with anxiety from a chronic bladder issue.
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Listen to part 1 here.
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Andrew Huberman (Huberman Lab podcast)
Books Mentioned:
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Boulders Mentioned:
‘Burden of Dreams’ V17, Lappnor, Finland
‘Eternia’ V11, Upper Chaos, RMNP, CO
Tom’s Links:
Nuggets:
4:35 – Tom’s anxiety about this conversation, my bleached hair, and red bush tea
7:30 – Clarifications from Part 1, more carb considerations, and keeping a training journal
18:12 – What Tom is currently working on with Aiden Roberts, and reducing fiber to drop water weight
24:45 – Alpha GBC supplementation for vegetarians and vegans, Tom’s experiment with climbing 30 days in a row, and lessons about hydration
29:44 – The mind-body connection
33:21 – Anxiety, butterflies in your stomach, falling in love, and the physical pain of heartbreak
36:27 – Examples of working with clients with fear of specific foods, the mathematics of fat gain, and intellectual vs. emotional conversations
39:49 – Phobias, catastrophizing, pain research, and looking upstream
44:21 – Referring clients out to therapy
48:31 – The hamstring test, and the connection between breathing and relaxation
51:35 – “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, belly breathing, and the significance of climbing in a defensive (tight) state
55:18 – Reset send, and how to relax before your climbing session to increase your passat reserve
59:32 – “You have control over your mental state through your body”, the bidirectional influence of the nervous system, and heart rate variability
1:03:05 – How the parasympathetic state opens up opportunity, and the effect of imitating different postures (the Shawshank pose)
1:08:48 – Belly breathing for more passat
1:11:23 – Bracing vs creating tension
1:15:09 – Practicing turning tension on and off
1:17:31 – Strong First and creating inter abdominal pressure
1:18:43 – Sending the appropriate signal for your session, and how to prepare for powerful climbing
1:24:41 – Replenishing the creatine phosphate system
1:26:40 – How to turn off at the end of the day, and improve recovery
1:31:07 – Tricks for sleep, sleeping posture, and self-massage (knuckling)
1:35:15 – Tom’s foam roller ab stretch
1:37:37 – Where your mind should be during the evening breathing practice, and rewiring your brain patterns
1:40:35 – EMDR and brain spotting, and moving your eyes during your climbing session
1:49:39 – Opening our field of vision, and why we feel relaxed in nature or at the ocean
1:51:26 – How to increase power by marching in place, and climbing open
1:53:09 – My plans to try EMDR on Eternia
1:55:05 – Tom’s childhood
2:00:21 – Moving to the UK to become a techno DJ, and getting into debt
2:02:31 – Living off of milk and protein powder, getting kidney stones, and urinary urgency
2:04:52 – Trapped in a small world
2:08:20 – Empathy and patience for others
2:10:50 – Life is chaos, losing his sister, and turning 40
2:15:35 – Causing ripples and creating freedom for other people
2:19:10 – Doing things just because they are fun
2:21:07 – Going back to pole dance
2:22:54 – Good days and bad days, and moving in a better direction
2:24:45 – Hoping to start working with people in person again, and 2022 plans for usefulcoach