EP 93: Tom Herbert (Part 2) —How to Relax to Improve your Passat Reserves, and Tom’s Life Story

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

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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Show Notes:

thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/tom-herbert-part-2

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