Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare, Adventure Wilderness & Physical Training Principles Danielle Chevalier. Revised May 2024.
Sometimes called adventure therapy (AT), wilderness therapy (WT) or outdoor behavioral healthcare (OBH), these programs use the outdoors as therapy. Recognizing nature’s depth of benefits, the fitness industry also takes training outdoors.3 Sources
(Kohl & Murray, 2012) (Buckworth & Dishman, 2002).
(Brymer, Davids, & Mallabon, 2013) (Gladwell, Brown, Wood, Sandercock, & Barton, 2013).
(Spears, 2017) (Twist & Shiels, 2011) (Webster, 2007).
(Phillips, Sassaman, & Smoliga, 2012)
(Werhan & Groff, 2005)
(Russell, 2012)
(Dawson & Russell, 2012) I adapted to include WORK-
(Moote & Wodarski, 1997, p. 5)
(Martin & McCullagh, 2011)
(Jelalian, Mehlenbeck, Lloyd-Richardson, Birmaher, & Wing, 2006)
(Blanchette, 2010)
(aee.org/tapg-practioner-guidelinesfor adventure activities, 2017)
(Priest & Gass, 1997, pp. 77-83)
(American Council on Execerise, 2010)
(Ed: Bryant, C.D., & Green, D.J., 2011)
(Phillips, Sassaman, & Smoliga, 2012)
(DeMille, Comart, & Tucker, 2014)
(Green, 2015)
(Blanchette, 2010, p. 43)
(DeMille, Comart, & Tucker, 2014)
(American Council on Exercise, 2010)
(Ed: Bryant, C.D., & Green, D.J., 2011)
(Ed: Bryant, C.D., & Green, D.J., 2011) (American Council on Exercise, 2010)
(Ewert, 2014, p. 161)
(Shooter, Sibthorp, & Paisley, 2009, p. 70)
(Nathanson, Young, & Young, 2015, p. 57)
Campbell, et al., 2015, p. 41
aee.org/tapg-practioner-guidelinesfor adventure activities, 2017
(Ewert, 2014, p. 161) (Blanchette, 2010, pp. 74-76) (Moote & Wodarski, 1997, p. 6)
Tucker, Widmer, Faddis, & Randolph, 2016
Jelalian, Mehlenbeck, Lloyd-Richardson, Birmaher, & Wing, 2006, p. 32
American Council on Execerise, 2010
Buckworth & Dishman, 2002, p. 269
American Council on Execerise, 2010
Werhan & Groff, 2005, p. 26
Introduction:
It is no secret that being physically active improves both mental and physical health. Science supports the notion1
Scholars and eco psychologists have also proven that exercising in nature further enhances the benefits.2
But how is the outdoor recreation field furthered by the latest findings in exercise science?
If personal trainers understand the training needs of rock climbing and other sports4, why wouldn’t outdoor recreation facilitators the basics of health and fitness?
Many OR/WT/AT programs are designed to provide a physical challenge to produce positive health benefits5 Drawing the line between too much and too is complicated.
Physical training principles should not be an afterthought. Someone on the team should have a base knowledge of health & fitness training principles to reduce incidences of injury.
This booklet explains these training principles. We'll answer the question:
How do wilderness therapy programs incorporate the components of health & fitness?
SO YOU can integrate the wisdom of both. The fields of Exercise Science and Outdoor Recreation will optimize your own performance.
Why Wilderness, Outdoor and Adventure?
Nature provides unique opportunities for physical activity by providing
Environmental Affordances
Termed in 2013 by wilderness adventure researchers Eric Brymer, Keith Davids, and Liz Mallabon, ""p193.
Each different element, ei. a climbable feature or a varied surface are affordances: opportunities for physical action that can be programmed to have more and less challenge.
Each action has the potential to be “an expression" that can improve physical and or mental health.
Assessing whether a physical challenge is optimum requires having some language and criteria to do so. As will be shown here, physical training principles can easily be applied to OBH/WT/AT.
The 4 components of Adventure Therapy | |
Nature | The great outdoors |
Active Self | physical agency |
Group | socializing with others |
Reflection | thinking about how it went and what's next |
The concurrent model for Adventure Therapy acknowledges 4 program components: Nature, the Active Self, the Group, and Reflection6
Active Self infers that participants are physically challenged.
The other relevant component is the Group. The Group teaches pacing, encouragement, support and respecting participants learning comfort zones.
Participants may have low levels of base strength at the beginning of a program, but working together as a team, everyone expands their skills and builds self-efficacy.
We'll consider Reflection in a later chapter.
How can you heed health and fitness guidelines and have the best possible outcome?
First, let's look at the background of OBH and define physical training principles and the health components of health & fitness.
Second, metabolic pathways for using energy as it relates to OBH standards.
Lastly: the kinetic chain, how we can prevent pain, reduce injury and how the individual and teams can balance challenge and skill.
PART 1
Background/Sharing Interdisciplinary Language for Outdoor Recreation:
What's your intention? You may move or build programs that focus more or less on a spectrum from either pure recreation, as educator, as facilitator for personal growth development, or as therapeutic facilitator 7
Work | PURE RECREATION | EDUCATION | PERSONAL GROWTH | THERAPY |
<Productivity | Simply for Fun | also for learning | development | healing > |
Learning by doing is important to every part of that spectrum and “adventure-based activities and programs operate from the model of experiential learning”8
Whether we are having fun- "pure Recreation", learning about the environment "educational", improving yourself "growth" or using nature for healing purposes "therapy" OBH/AT/WT always means actually learning by doing.
Dr John McCullagh & Peter Martin compared physical educators (PE) teachers and outdoor educators.
Both PE and outdoor educators teach experiential knowledge thru physical activity. Both set up, encourage, and facilitate lifelong learning.
Outdoor educators in addition to everything that physical educators do, teach about and contend with the environment9
What then is expected of the adventure therapy professional, who falls at the end of the spectrum? They use adventure activities explicitly as treatment intervention for behavioral, social or psychological problems 10
The outdoor educator is expected to teach environmental education in addition to physical education, but in therapeutic recreation the licensed OBH provider is expected to have mental health professionals on their team as well 11
Adding mental health to the demands doesn't mean dropping the importance of physical considerations. In fact they are intimately integrated.
We still need knowledge of basics of Health & Fitness in each of the pure recreation-education-personal growth and therapeutic spectrum.
Whether you're planning for yourself or others, consider your intention but ultimately, and regardless of intention your health & fitness matters.
The Association for Experiential Education (AEE), have developed guidelines for practitioners across the spectrum. They state: adventure programs “use physical activity to teach responsibility, cooperation, relationships, social skills, and resiliency”12
Priest and Gass clarified competency areas and specific technical skills for leadership in adventure programming. They divided activity instruction into the categories of:
backcountry travel
rock-climbing
mountaineering
challenge/ropes course + group initiation
caving
paddling
bicycling
cross-country skiing.
In each of these categories, except backcountry travel, instructors are expected to “assess clients overall physical fitness and psychological readiness for participation”13
If they are expected to assess fitness levels, then they should have the necessary fitness concepts and terms to do so appropriately, even if it adds an extra layer of demands for the team.
By understanding the principles of volume, specificity, progressive overload, and reversibility we can see how OBH/AT/WT do challenge safely, though it may be more intuitive, and the terminology is not necessarily yet a part of their dialect. But it should be.
Principles of Fitness Training:
These 5 key principles of training are Volume, Intensity, Specificity, Progressive Overload, and Reversibility can improve clarity, safety and simplicity in programming.
VOLUME is how many total reps over the course of a day, days or weeks.
Volume is the total whole of frequency, intensity, type, and length of time an activity is performed. The purpose is a measure to help gauge needed recovery times and to decide what activities should follow.
Intensity: how hard are you pushing within the task- easy, mild, medium, high intense
talk test, level of fatigue
Specificity is the idea that if you practice something, anything, you will improve your capacity to continue doing so.
SPECIFICITY means doing the thing or something similar to the "thing" if you want to get good.
Reversibility, sometimes referred to as the use it or lose it principle, shows us that over time if you do not practice certain skills, though you may cognitively understand how to, you lose the physical capacity to do them.
For example, you may have biked 20 miles a day in the summer, now it’s winter and you still know how to ride a bike, but you do not have the physical stamina do so in a day. If you haven’t kept up or haven’t been doing another activity, or combination of activities that is similarly taxing, then demanding as much physically will cause damage.
Unless you’ve been keeping your muscles strong through biking (specificity) or using the same muscle groups in other activities, it’s not possible to do so safely.
Progressive Overload is that we gradually increase the challenge so that we have maximum gains in strength, endurance, and flexibility without doing more harm than good. OBH facilitators use these principles in planning without necessarily having the same language.
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD: step by step we improve incrementally gaining = +10%/week
RECAP:
Physical challenge is a big part of adventure therapy and OBH programs, instructors need to know the fitness principles of
Intensity-How Hard
Volume - How much total work /activity
Specificity - what body movements are you actually incorporating?
Reversibility - how long has it been, if ever since they've done it?
Progressive overload - has there been enough rest & recovery time in btw and are you slowly building incrementally and optimally pushing limits?
INTENSITY | HOW HARD |
VOLUME | HOW MUCH |
SPECIFICITY | WHAT EXACTLY |
REVERSABILITY | USE IT OR LOSE IT |
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD | SLOW STEADY GAINS |
Health Components of Fitness Training
There are also 5 Key HEALTH components that every BODY and certainly every health care provider should be very familiar with. It’s important to understand both the fitness principles and the health components, each of which can be harmed or helped thru adventure activities.
The fitness components of health are cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
Cardiovascular endurance is the capacity for your heart to move blood through your body efficiently.
Muscular strength refers to your onetime maximum capability for a muscle (or group).
Muscular endurance is the ability, (not necessarily at max capacity) over time. Muscles work best together when they are optimally flexible. A muscle that is too tight cannot function properly. This is the component of flexibility.
Body composition refers to the ratio of muscle mass to fat mass. Both are necessary but it’s important to have more muscle mass for health.
There are also fitness components of skill that should be built on within a foundation of health fitness components14 They are agility, speed, power, & balance.
Adventure activities require fitness skills. It can be dangerous to push physical limits without understanding foundational health components and how they impact the capacity for fitness skills.
PART 2
Metabolic Pathways & Programming Standards
OBH standards make sure participants are properly fueled for recovery. Understanding how the body uses fuel and then how OBH programs are designed.
There are three metabolic pathways that your working muscles use to access energy to function. They are: #1. creatine phosphate and #2. glycogen stored in muscles (both anaerobic) respectively used for efforts under 30 seconds and efforts lasting between 30sec and 2 min.
The third mechanism for getting energy to the working muscles is circulating blood from the cardiovascular system (aerobic-no air/O2). Your heart pumps blood and also fuel throughout your body- it needs also to be pumped thru your lungs to be O2 activated by your breathing expanding lungs.
Whenever you move your body for more than two minutes at a time YOUR energy demands increases. That means for any effort over 2 min. in length you are conditioning your heart muscles and increasing your metabolic demands 15
Different activities have varying ratios of demand type. For example, climbing requires relatively more anaerobic capacity than other activities16 Regardless, all activities require refilling stores, which means getting the necessary food in your body.
Fueling for recovery is critical. As is screening for potential heart attack risk factors and carefully designing progression of programs so the cardiorespiratory system can build strength without being overwhelmed by demands.
Licensed OBH organizations are required to have participants get medical exams prior to program start, to provide weekly nurse check-ups while on trips, and to have any medical problems referred out to a physician17
Screenings for cardio risk factors are used in OBH by physicians who perform pre-participation medical exams for participants18 State standards for OBH mandate that programs have:
Individualized treatment plans.
Regular medical check-ups.
Supervision by licensed mental health professionals.
Safety Procedures.
Nutrition requirements19
Having these mandates in place helps assure participants are physically challenged appropriately and get the proper nourishment so their bodies can get stronger.
In Utah the licensed OBH is required to provide a minimum of 3000 kcal, with additional increase depending on increase in volume per day and weather/climate stress. Underweight participants get extra protein20
Steven DeMille, Casey Comart, and Anita Tucker looked at how OBH participants’ body composition changed over the course of treatment programs. They were able to show gains in muscle mass for most participants.
By measuring muscles mass before, during, and at the end of treatment programs a standard for healthy outcomes can be set. In their study they looked at more than 2000 participants in different organizations, the average treatment lasting 73 days, the main activity intervention being trekking for an average of 4 or 5 days a week and 3 to 10 miles a trek.
The group who were underweight at the start of the program, had a mean gain of 7.5 pounds muscle mass. Their article highlights some potential ways for monitoring that could be used to prevent overtraining.
PART 3
Understanding Kinetic Chain Stability
The human body works best when complimentary muscles and muscle groups work together and are optimally both strong and flexible. Without adhering to these principles, trauma and pain to the muscular skeletal system will increase.
Most often its lower back, knee or shoulder and neck pain21 If you or an activity instructor (or someone else on the team) does not know this, there is an increased risk of doing more physical harm.
Understanding the kinetic chain basics of hip/lower back stability, shoulder girdle stability, balance of strength and flexibility in muscle groups helps to prevent injuries.
The kinetic chain foundation goes from bottom to top, beginning at the feet, then to ankle and all the way to the top of the head. If one joint, muscle group, or level in the chain is off then those that follow will be set off proper course22
There is an optimum where the body can be performing at maximum effort without having muscular skeletal damage and ensuing pain.
Kinetic chain stability refers mainly to the core base of strength around the hips, where the gluteus muscles and thighs appropriately support the skeletal body and to the core base of strength at the shoulder girdle, where the mid and upper back muscles appropriately strengthened, set a foundation for the surrounding smaller muscle groups.
Mobility refers to the ability for a joint to move through its appropriate range. If certain muscles are too tight then mobility is hindered, increasing the risk of injury. This is kinetic chain stability and mobility23
Every individual body is unique. An individual in their own body can best gauge their own limits. But if someone on the team is not aware that having one muscle group over trained in comparison to another will increase the risks of pain and injury how are they able to prevent or even talk about pain with participants?
Without this basic kinetic chain knowledge it's very easy to over do it and cause more pain.
Ecopsychology published a study on adventure experiences for military veterans. They stated that overall higher challenge levels seems to maximize results24
With an effort to maximize challenge how do adventure programs balance pushing physical limits without causing injuries?
It’s done by having a team approach for program design, by matching client needs to activities and by being careful to use risk and challenge appropriately.
Programs are designed around a team from many disciplines including sport specific instructors, wilderness medical staff and mental health professionals.
Shooter, Sibthorp, & Paisley designed a model for adventure programs that puts the organization’s mission and goals at the center and the necessary skills required to safely implement a program are filled by a variety of employees from different backgrounds. They divide necessary competencies into the categories:
technical skills
interpersonal skills
judgment skills25.
Not everyone needs to understand the full scope of anatomy and physiology in order to have physically challenging courses. It can still be a part of the core principles through the use of varied staff and if your building your own program, and you're not familiar, consult with people who are.
What that means for you is that You don't personally need to know every aspect-but you need to Build your team. Find support and work with others who can help you develop your weaknesses.
Matching Challenge to Ability
Keep in mind that in a Wilderness Programming setting, expeditions are often tailored to weakest member in moment and a graduated increase in pack weight for example or using hiking poles if necessary to take the weight of hips26
Another way that protects participants from physical trauma is by using pre-participation medical exams and partnering with wilderness medicine professionals. Wilderness medicine shows it’s important to match fitness to skill.
The key of pre-participation exams (PPE) is to determine between actual fitness level and expected demands and to educate the individual or agency if necessary27
Pre-participation medical exams can be used less as a screening tool and more as communication and education tools.
Programs choose an activity based on client assessment, needs and proper sequencing to maximize benefits.
AEE guidelines for adventure programming highlight two important criteria that should always apply to activity choice. It should be based on
The limitation to practitioner’s inherent ability in the activity
The application of choice of activity must be matched with client assessment and needs28
This relates back to the particular competencies for specific activities. For example, in either rock climbing or paddling there are sport specific skills and abilities that the facilitator can only use as intervention if they are knowledgeable and competent themselves.
In addressing client needs use challenge and risk strategically.
CHALLENGE BY CHOICE
Two key ways that they do this is through what is termed challenge by choice and by properly sequencing to build on strength skills29
Challenge by choice recognizes that people have different comfort levels in terms of learning and beginning new activities. If people are pushed outside of their comfort zones they can learn and begin new behaviors.
However, if they are pushed too far outside their comfort zone, beyond their learning zone, into areas where they have too much fear, then more harm will come than good.
Challenge by choice allows the individual to decide where their comfort levels stand, and sequencing allows for safe progressive overload. This is also a great opportunity to teach the participant strategies for learning and creating their own boundaries, listening to their body’s needs and challenging themselves without pushing too far.
FLOW
OBH/WT/AT also uses the principle of flow in program planning and implementation30 Flow happens when maximum challenge is appropriately matched with skill level.
In a study, adventure therapy showed an increase in locus of control which increased levels of physical activity31
This is compatible with the American Council on Exercise views on getting people active32 With experience facilitators can see how fitness levels impact ability for skill development. However, having certain measurement tools allows them to check their intuition and back up what they might be sensing.
One particular tool is ratings of perceived exertion (RPE). Instructors can use it as education and as a way of measuring for safety. It can be used to assess participants’ physical challenge intensity levels and as a way to open up the conversation about flow, challenge by choice, or mindful awareness of the body’s senses.
Three levels of intensity are correlated with personal discomfort levels as it relates to how hard a person is physically challenging themselves.
The three levels are:
movement
discomfort tolerance
noxious pain avoidance33
These are each applied to a 10 or 12 point scale34
whereby the active individual and activity facilitator can moderate by staying within a certain range.
video talk test ? table from med fitness green yellow red
Conclusion:
It is important to “design programs with the amount of daily physical challenge required to produce positive health”35
OBH can do this by partnering with wilderness medicine physicians and by aligning with health and fitness professionals.
The American Council on Exercise personal training guidelines are consistent with OBH values:
1. Create Mastery. This means working with clients where they are, acknowledging their baseline strength and building up. For OBH it can mean focusing on AEE building on strengths and sequencing.
2. Provide Consistent and Clear Feedback. For OBH: in a metanalysis on adventure program evaluation a recommendation as an area to focus on in future process studies, it was suggested that “adventure programs increase the amount and quality of feedback that is vital to the experiential learning process” (Hattie, 1997, p.75).
3.Include client in all aspects of program design. This could be possible with more formal feedback-informed treatment program design “FIT” (Dobud, 2017) (Russell, 2017).
4. Empower with perception of control over their own participation and actually give client control. OBH challenge by choice even within captive participant situations.
5. Engage client ownership and involvement in the program by teaching self-sufficiency and autonomy to facilitate intrinsic motivation.
OBH fuels for recovery, works with the group by making pacing to the ‘weakest’ a priority, plans for proper sequencing, and uses a strength-based approach to instruction. Although pain and repetitive stress injuries are addressed using onsite medical staff visits and the pre-participation exam, someone on the team should understand kinetic chain stability and mobility to properly assess fitness levels, realize how specific activities impact pain, and to further prevent overuse injuries.
Daily Rhythm, Energy & Movement Remedy Options
Actions I would like to do in the next weeks. | M☾ | T♂ | W☿ | R♃ | F♀ | S♄ | S☉ | M☽ | T♂ | W☿ | R♃ | F♀ | S♄ | S☉ |
Monday Mv px | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
5min Breath | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
Walk Attn to Feet | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
Sun Sal or Joint Warm Up. | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
No phone before 10 am | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
Self Massage /Stretch 5min | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
Glute vs Legs on belly- or other- ex/px time | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
A Breath/ meditation Nap | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
Music Dance 1 song | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
Guided meditation audio | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
Dinner before 6pm | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ | ❂ |
Yoga = Gratitude, Intention + Connection to Source. Breath Body Union.
Use this table as a reminder chart & tracking tool.
Change the small actions on the left as they suit your needs and goals.
Print it and put it on the fridge or bathroom mirror.
Each day -in the morning or at the end of the day highlight the points you achieved
Sometimes crossover. The goal is NOT to do it all but see when, where & what exactly works, is easy and joyful.
After a few weeks you can evaluate and change accordingly for the next one. Add or subtract. Take what works and leave the rest.
Basic Health, Fitness & Longevity Recommendations:
Again this is to take the next couple months to work towards. Slowly, carefully, steadily making progress while maintaining allllll the other things you’re juggling.
This will, in the end, give you more energy.
Key is KAIZEN, the idea of 1% progress consistently over time.
Small tweeks helps prevent burn out & injuries.
We’re in it for the long haul.
Once you've explored bullet charting for few weeks or months then you can Make a more formal periodization plan based on your results.
Make an appointment with me when you are ready to work on it together.
How much is enough? Too much?
ACTIVITY | What How Long | How Often | Ideas for Plan of Action |
Cardio: Example: Arboretum Walk, Dance or bike etc.= Whole Body Rhythmic Movement -Lead Dogs Cardio | 20+min IN 10+ min increments | 5-7 days | |
Attention to Ex Px, careful, notice what your body is doing, protect vulnerable areas, challenge attentively and slowly. Hard or Soft | 10min + | Up to 7days | |
Breath Practice Soft | 1-5+min | 5-7 days | |
Start The Day Right: Hydration, Gratitude, Poop | Soft Easy. About the consistency and size of a ripe banana | Daily | |
Sun Salutations or warming up every joint in the body Cardio | 5-20min | 5-7 days | |
Belly Floor Ex Px-corrective exercise and attentive strengthening in weak area ei: lying on belly activating glutes first before and after legs Hard | 2-20min | 1-2 days | |
Self-Massage: with or w/out oil. Soft Lengthening and extra tight areas and muscles. Foam rolling, opposite muscle activation. | 1min-15min | Up to 7 days | |
Building Strength & Stamina ideas: lifting; wall push ups and variations of calisthenics; squats perfect form; painting; bird dogs… Hard | Resistance exercises or activities 8-12 reps 1-3 sets all muscle groups. | 1-2 days/week | |
+Greens & Veg | Half your plate | ||
Eating Times | About 10-14 hrs fast time- ei when sleeping 4hrs btw meals water only. | ||
Bed Time Range | 8hrs Deep Sleep | ||
Limiting Screen Time | |||
Sitting in Silence | You decide | ||
Sense Organ Care | Eyes Ears Nose Mouth Skin | Daily | |
Below are the keys we visit in our 1:1 sessions and in group movement classes. Some of these may not make sense yet. First is learning which can take a little more effort and time but with practice they become habit-through muscle memory.
SOFT
Soft is your gentle movement and anything that is easy for you in the moment. Because of changes in demands, changes in conditioning status, acute injuries, cycling hormones, lack of sleep and general stresses of daily life from things that are beyond our control what is easy one day for one person may not be on another.
Here you are keying into your body’s limits and needs. Strike the balance between self-care and self-discipline. You do it by tuning into the body.
Soft practices help you align the subtleness.
Some examples:
Breath led movement
Joint warm up
Generally Qi Gong or Tai Chi
Breath Options:
Nadis shodena
Inhale down -Exhale elevator up slowly
360 *
4Q Pelvis
Back Body Breath *
Side Expansion *
Mt Slide/Climb
Mantra Breath
Whim Hoff
Box Squeeze Exhale
Sun Salutations
Mt
Cat Cow
Breath
Stance of Power
Pada Bhandas=whole foot
Stack Torso
Dwn Dog-pedal
WI- low or high
WII
Chair
Childs -lengthen along side body
Self Massage-Foam Rolling, Stretch
Focus on: different directions, different depth -Push + pull, side ways, up & dwn, deep and superficial.
Feel your way w/ what feels good.
EX PX:
Stacking Joints-knees, hips, torso, head
Stance of Power-Feet
Heart as alter to heaven
Chest high w/ ribs hugged in*
Glute Max Activation vs legs
Whole belly hugging (TVA): lower, mid & upper
Bridges Abd/ Add vs Rotation
Rib expansion -360 breathing*
Low back protection-awareness of pelvic tilt- back, forward or neutral
Lengthen hips down through torso tall to back of the head- neck long
Lower and mid Trap Act w/ upper + mid TVA + Ser. Ant.*
Hip hinge w/ hands-lengthened torso vs Squat
Cardio:
What do YOU enjoy that is Whole Body Rhythmic Movement?
No cardio=no life, no stamina, no vigor, all kinds of sickness.
You've got to find a way to move your body that is sustainable. Not getting the bare minimum 20mins of cardio each day has repercussions. has a similar downside as smoking cigarettes. No bueno.
HARD
Training for Muscle strength requires 2 times / week for optimum gains.
You only need sufficient resistance to fatigue the muscles- once you feel that- take a break or move on to the next.
Depending on how hard you push your body (total Volume) and what else you’re doing in your activities of daily living, you may need 24-72 hrs of recovery time for muscles to repair and come back stronger.
With time and conditioning what was once hard will become easy. We use it or lose it.
In order to maintain strength the muscles need to be pushed at least once / week for said task. Start with 8-12 reps.
If you can perform more than 12 then move onto something more challenging on a HARD day.
If you can’t do 8 then consider that it may be too taxing for your body -you should try something easier, or use supports- wall , floor…take it down a notch.
Glossary
Specificity: training same muscles in similar ways. Climbing stairs to train for climbing a mountain or climbing a mountain to climb a mountain.
Intensity: how hard are you pushing within the task- easy, mild, medium, high intense
Volume: Total length, time and intensity
Sets: cycle of reps
Reps: 1 exercise
Muscle Strength: capacity of 1 muscle action
Muscle Endurance: Capacity for repeated reps over time
Cardiovascular Endurance: Ability for heart muscle to work overtime
Flexibility/Mobility: Ability for muscles and fascia (surrounding tissues) to act within safe range of motion
Body Composition: Muscle to Fat Ratio-proportional =optimum metabolism. Not too much. Not too little. Safer more fat in thighs and butt vs front belly.
More Articles
WAYS To Move:
Swimming
Walking
Soft, easy ,slow,long
Uphill
Fast
Sideways
On uneven ground
Through mall
Parking lot
To the store
Biking
Dancing
Wrestling or Martial Arts
Sports
Yard clean up
Building-carpentry, painting
Gardening
Intro Bullet List Google Doc.
Bibliography
aee.org/tapg-practioner-guidelinesfor adventure activities. (2017, October 26). Retrieved from aee.org: www.aee.org/tapg-practioner-guidelinesfor adventure activities
American Council on Execerise. (2010). ACE personal trainer manual. SanDiego,CA: American Council on Exercise.
Blanchette, A. W. (2010, Sept 14). The clinical theory and practice of outdoor behavioral healthcare. Regent University. Virginia Beach,VA.
Brymer, E., Davids, K., & Mallabon, L. (2013). Understanding the psychological health and well-being benefits of physical activity in nature: an ecological dynamics analysis. Ecopsychology, 189-197.
Buckworth, J., & Dishman, R. K. (2002). Exercise psychology. Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics.
Campbell, A. D., Davis, C., Paterson, R., Cushing, T. A., Ng, P., Peterson, C. S., . . . McIntosh, S. E. (2015). Preparticipation evaluation for climbing sports. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 40-46.
Caulkins, M. C., White, D. D., & Russell, K. C. (2006). The role of physical exercise in wilderness therapy for troubled adolescent women. Journal of Experiential Education, 18-37.
Dawson, C. P., & Russell, K. C. (2012). Wilderness experience programs: a state-of-the knowledge summery. USDA Forest Service Proceedings.
DeMille, S. M., Comart, C., & Tucker, A. (2014). Body composition changes in an outdoor behavioral healthcare program. Ecopsycology, 174-182.
Ed: Bryant, C.D., & Green, D.J. (2011). ACE'S essentials of exercise science for fitness professionals. SanDiego, CA: American Council on Exercise.
Ewert, A. (2014). Military veterans and the use of adventure education experiences in natural environments for theraputic outcomes. Ecopsychology, 155-164 .
Gladwell, V. F., Brown, D. K., Wood, C., Sandercock, G. R., & Barton, J. L. (2013). The great outdoors:how a green exercise environment can benefit all. Extreme Physiology & Medicine, 2:3,1-7.
Green, G. A. (2015). Setting, structure, and timing of the preparticipation examination: the wilderness adventure consultation. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 4-9.
Jelalian, E., Mehlenbeck, R., Lloyd-Richardson, E. E., Birmaher, V., & Wing, R. R. (2006). 'Adventure therapy' combined with cognitive-behavioral treatment for overweight adolescents. International Journal of Obesity, 31-39.
Kohl, H. W., & Murray, T. D. (2012). Foundations of physical activity and public health. Windsor, ON: Human Kinetics.
Martin, P., & McCullagh, J. (2011). Physical education & outdoor education:complementary but discrete disciplines. Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 67-78.
Moote, G. T., & Wodarski, J. S. (1997). The aquisition of life skills through adventure-based activities and programs: a review of the literature. Adolescence, 143-177.
Nathanson, A. T., Young, J. J., & Young, C. (2015). Pre-particpation medical evaluation for adventure and wilderness watersports. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, 55-62.
Phillips, K. C., Sassaman, J. M., & Smoliga, J. M. (2012). Optimizing rock climbing performance through sport-specific strength and conditioning. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 1-18.
Priest, S., & Gass, M. (1997). Effective leadership in adventure programming. Champaign,Il: Human Kinetics.
Russell, K. C. (2012). Theraputic uses of nature. In S. D. Clayton, & P. E. Nathan, The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology (pp. 428-442). New York,NY: Oxford University Press.
Shooter, W., Sibthorp, J., & Paisley, K. (2009). Outdoor leadership skills:a program perspective. Journal of Experiential Education, 1-13.
Spears, S. (2017). 6 reasons why nature maybe the best gym. IDEA Fitness Journal.
Tucker, A. R., Widmer, M. A., Faddis, T., & Randolph, B. (2016). Family therapy in outdoor brhavioral healthcare:current practices and future possibilities. Contemporary Family Therapy, 32-42.
Twist, P., & Shiels, D. (2011). Take your training outdoors. IDEA Fitness Journal.
Webster, S. T. (2007). Outdoor training options. harnessing the power of the outdoors. IDEA Fitness Journal.
Werhan, P. O., & Groff, D. G. (2005). The wilderness therapy trail. Parks & Recreation, 24-29.
