Why My Body Forgot Running but Remembered Movement
- Selim Jamil
- Apr 16
- 3 min read
Hey Transformers
It’s been a minute since I’ve written. To be fair it’s also been a minute since I’ve seriously trained. I hope that I will be able to train very seriously for the coming spring and summer and be able to share more frequently.
Last summer when I was training really frequently I had made an ambitious set of goals. By the end of the year I was going to have successfully done a Cossack Flow set and an unassisted handstand. By working on two skill progressions, upper and lower, I was going to build my body and take care of business! All plans have to start somewhere and this is my less than stellar beginning.
My plan was to workout 4x a week over the summer and the following year and develop these two movements.
Then life happened.
I had to take extended time off GST to care for family. I was terrified that I would lose all my gains. I saw it immediately when I tried to do the Cossack squat when I returned to training in early April. I could barely move without hearing the ‘snap, crackle, pop’ of my hips and ankles, reminding me that I am less of a “silver fox” and more “a man of a certain age.”
I didn’t expect anything when I came in to work out with Evan on Thursday April 16th. I was going through our routine; cat/cow, lunges, seal rocks and then right into the cossack squat. But today it just…worked. I was able to do the cossack squat and do a full set of the flow. I didn’t fall, I didn’t need to use my hands to support me. I just… flowed.
But I did it! I accomplished one of my goals! It was almost a year after I set the goal but I accomplished it!! Woo Hoo!!!It was honestly surreal. I felt like I finished a marathon but I didn’t even know that the finish line was close by.
I’ve spent the day thinking about why this happened today. I hadn’t been practicing and I hadn’t been consistently working out for at least three months. I’ve gained at least twenty five pounds since I had consistently been coming to GST. Despite that, my body moved incredibly well today.
I’m not an exercise science specialist but I am pretty sure that the best explanation for this is that GST is fundamentally a set of skills.
When you’re doing a Cossack flow you are developing a neuromuscular pattern, practicing balance, coordination and joint articulation. Your body remembers neural activities far longer than it retains strength. We don’t ever forget to learn how to ride a bike because that activity literally changes your nervous system.
This doesn’t mean I’m going to have a great cossack flow all my life, but I can safely say that I will be able to continue to do the cossack flow far more fluidly than I would be able to bench press after taking months off.
I think there is something valuable here that I want to think about - I might not have worked out as consistently as I would want but that doesn’t mean I was taking backwards steps. Learning complex things demand a lot out of you but they seem to stay with you for a long time. That seems like a better formula for lifelong physical development than training for a particular event like a marathon and then losing all your capacity when you stop running.
Not that marathon training is bad. It’s just different. We can think of weight lifting and running as activities that emphasize physical capacity. Strength, VO2 Max, mitochondrial density. These things fade quickly unfortunately which is why you need to perpetually train them - you use it or you lose it.
GST seems to fit more under coordinated skills. We are training physical capacity but we are training coordination, fascia, mind-body connections. These don’t fade as quickly.
In the ideal you can train both - but life doesn’t always give you the luxury of time to work both. I’m glad that I am building something that will last here with you all.
I am so excited and so grateful to Evan, Nick, Paul and the entire team who has supported me. Everyone at Transform has encouraged me and has had more faith in my development than I did.
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