It all started with Zhoug: my journey with WildStrong

Our Head Coach Andrew talks to Dr. Skog (or “Skogy”), a long term member of WildStrong Pangbourne and now a WildStrong Coach. Oh yes, and he’s also an anaesthetist and a father.

Andrew: WildStrong Pangbourne has recently introduced un-coached sessions. These are the apotheosis of everything that we do - which is just to get people to come together and to work out. And to do it in a way that gets away from the old bootcamp model of one person telling everybody what to do. We restrict these sessions to experienced members only, they are informal, allow us to play with new movements and formats and allow our coaches to get a workout in too. 

And in a lot of ways, the uncoached sessions are a lot more like what the original sessions were. There's a really nice simplicity and purity to them. They don’t scale up but that’s fine. But you’ve been running a few of them lately, can you tell us a bit about how they have been going?”

Skogy: When Gill asked me if I could step in to run the uncoached session initially this is something I wouldn't have had the confidence to do a year ago. And I would have found a reason not to do it. 

But it was that moment and my mind flicked through making sure I've got everything ready - did I have some music to play? I wonder if other people want to listen to music on the Sunday? I was comfortable with the movements, it was a nice small group. 

And actually, rather than running a session where people are looking at you to be something, in the uncoached sessions people understand that we’re in it together, we've warmed up the muscle groups, we've done this, we've done that, we’re ready.

And it was five rounds rounds for time. After the first round, I was done. I was bent. I was really done. 

And then you look around and see the others, the only people who know what we're doing now is us and the trees, we can walk out and nobody will know. 

I could stop here, because I'm done. And then you realise, actually, it's not me coaching these other people, and then somebody starts the next round, and they look at you as they cheer you on. 

And even though I’m the person leading the uncoached session, having people in the same place, having an awareness of each other, pulls you on. 

We had one person who had only started jumping recently. I thought, I’ll keep an eye on them and encourage them to make a good decision. So when they switched to step ups, rather than jump throughs, I felt really proud. 

I realised at that moment all the skills I’d been taught around how to anticipate problems, how to scale movements and they just sort of slotted in. 

And then the music was on but it wasn't intrusive. And a song which I personally hate came on but then somebody else just went, “Oh, it's this!” And they got something out of that piece of music. It just added some joy. 

We were all talking about recent significant things that were going on in our own lives, one talked about going to a funeral. And actually, you end up in the middle of a workout, all just being in the same place, doing something nice with friends, hearing about the important parts of their life. 

The session is so meaningful rather than just working out. 

As we did the last round there was that general sense that we all wanted to hug each other. 

And once we’d all left, it was just a moment of introspection for me, I just relaxed instead of feeling like it was fakery. 

I'm not trying to lead a session. You're not trying to tell everybody what to do. Just like in a board game and I know the rules but everybody can then just jump in and enjoy it and you're just doing it together. There's a mutuality to it. It was meaningful and fun. 

When I got home I went back to all the individual steps that I've taken to get there; from being invited to your house, to you being in the kitchen making zhoug, to me making zhoug for you. All the steps from meeting someone to making a community; working out with my wife here, learning the movements, doing the Level 1 course, and then walking out the course and saying to somebody, you know, whatever I can do I want to help. I bought into it, I get it. 

And instead of just trying to persuade myself, I can do it. I just went through the steps and I now just go there, relaxed, and enjoy it. There wasn't any pressure or stress. It was just undramatic and calm.

Just being in the same place with people that you like and you care about and you know where they are now. 

And if we want to stop and have a chat about what you did last Friday that's absolutely fine. We'll just have a chat. Everyone's in their happy place and you get your breath back. And we can enjoy that.