386: Sam Wuest on Elasticity, Tension-Relaxation and Keys to Athletic Longevity

Today’s podcast is with Sam Wuest. Sam is a licensed acupuncturist, jumps coach and teacher of internal martial arts residing in San Jose, Costa Rica. Sam combines modern strength & conditioning with Traditional Chinese Medicine/movement arts in his movement practice, and is the creator of the “Meridians Move” system. He is a former Division I athlete and coach of NCAA national champions and national medalists in track & field. I first met Sam at a “Be Activated” seminar, and he has been a two time guest on the podcast in the time afterwards. In the world of movement and athletic performance, we spend a lot of time learning about muscle tension, force production and how to maximize outputs. At the same time, we spend very little time learning about the opposite end of the spectrum, how to relax muscles, optimize resting tension, breathe and recover. Even if we spend a smaller portion of our training time on the recovery aspect, it still is critical to understand the “soft side” of movement. If we don’t spend time on it, we will move more poorly, take longer to recover, and impede our movement longevity. We occasionally see those athletes who are able to compete at a high level of movement skill, and even power output into their late 30’s and early 40’s, but we don’t spend much time considering the factors behind their performance. On today’s podcast, Sam goes into the ideas of movement quality, elasticity, stress, breathing, therapy, and more that can help us achieve better movement capabilities, later into life. This podcast is also a lens by which to observe the entire process of training, but seeing both ends of the tensioning and relaxation spectrum. Today’s episode is brought to you by Lost Empire Herbs, TeamBuildr and the Plyomat. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to lostempireherbs.com/justfly. To try Pine Pollen for free (just pay for shipping), head to: justflypinepollen.com. The Plyomat is a functional, intuitive, and affordable contact mat for jump and plyometric training and testing. Check out the Plyomat at www.plyomat.net TeamBuildr is an online software for coaches and trainers. I’ve continued to hear great things about the Teambuildr platform, and whether you are looking for an in-house training portal or an online training hub, be sure to check out Teambuildr training software. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Timestamps and Main Points 3:00 – Details of Sam’s move to Costa Rica 7:30 – Factors that contribute to athletic longevity 16:30 – Using an approach to training that offers more expansion, relative to heavy compression 22:00 – Balance and proprioception in the scope of both athletic ability, and longevity 28:45 – Teaching movement based on reflexes versus cognitive control 34:00 – Community and its role in longevity 38:00 – Movement practices to keep up good tissue quality over time 52:00 – QiGong practice that can easily be integrated into athlete populations for the sake of recovery 1:08:00 – Sam’s take on long isometric holds, and how to use them in the scope of the longevity process Sam Wuest Quotes “The things that you did to make you super athletic are not the same things that you need to keep doing (to maintain longevity across a sporting career)” “I don’t see the return of heavy Olympic lifts being the same for me, at a different stage of life” “The person who is perpetually injured, they have a different muscle tone, or certain adhesions in certain areas” “You find that people will restore qualities, when they can turn tissue off, instead of turning everything on all of the time, which is what our training leads us towards” “Fascial responds best to steady, slow, calm, gentle, and expanding movements” “I think sometimes in the West we focus on one thing and producing a lot of force in it, and we don’t realize that by finding a lot of things that are very similar to that one thing, or different ways to do that one thing, or ways to make that thing novel (are very helpful in improving athleticism and longevity)” “Conscious cognition is never going to be as fast as a reflex” “Countries where the main sport is soccer, the passing allows everyone to play longer (than sports that are more 1 vs 1 or intensive)” “By 2-3 years on average, the racquet sport athletes were outliving the endurance athletes” “It’s known that you lose some elasticity; and so there are certain herbs that can help promote circulation, and nourish the fluids in the sinews” “I like isometrics, holding tension in lengthened positions, because that influences the way that collagen is put down” “I like reflexive actions, I like small doses of higher dose plyometrics, and higher doses of lower intensity plyometrics; even going for a run feels like fascial remodeling… doing things at different levels of intensity is huge” “Stillness is a basic human need. It is a basic animal need. If we do not get that we cannot listen to our own bodies, because that is the best check engine light we have” “A lot of the mobility is an element swinging that decompresses” “We use the breath to control the mind, but we also control the mind as a tool to control the breath” “There is a reason that a lot of athletes who do their sport for a long-time mention stretching in the conversation” “Can we make (tension and relaxation) more differentiated, rather than being one muddled mess in between that makes us slow and injured” “One thing we don’t fully realize is how our internal organs effect our movement” About Sam Wuest Sam Wuest, L.Ac., M.Ed. is a licensed acupuncturist, jumps coach and teacher of internal martial arts in San José, Costa Rica. Sam creates integrative movement & therapy immersions in Costa Rica for athletes looking to take their performance to the next level or fight back from injury, in combining the best of modern strength & conditioning and Traditional Chinese Medicine & movement arts. Sam is the creator of Meridians Move, an online program created to teach Chinese Medicine in Motion to athletes and coaches, he strives to make this rich world of medicinal, movement and meditative arts accessible to modern athletes & coaches, both online and with retreats in the mountains and beaches of Costa Rica. A former Division I athlete and coach of NCAA national champions and national medalists in track & field, Sam will be launching an Eastern Movement/Medicine Specialist for trainers, physios and coaches later in 2024. You can keep up with these programs at wayofsam.com or on IG: @way_of_sam.