Ido Portal

[Bhassler]

What's the deal with Ido Portal's work? I tried to research it a while back and saw a bunch of proclamations like "squatting is a basic human function and not an exercise", but if you don't squat well already, the stuff I've seen from him is if anything even less accessible and useful than just a typical weight lifting article on squatting. Is anyone familiar with this method, or can anyone point me to substantive resources on what it's all about? His website is a nice brochure but decidedly uninformative.

[Taste of Death]

Here is his YouTube channel and facebook page.
http://www.youtube.com/user/portaldo
https://www.facebook.com/portal.ido

He did capoeria for many years and now combines that with gymnastics, yoga, crawling, rolling and even Olympic weightlifhting. He likes movement.

[yeniseri]

Just do (IT)!
I like his work as he seems more in tune with 'natural stuff" especially with the sensuality of low body movement and its similarity to basic stuff that happens close to the earth, the ground that gives us balance. Intellectualization on his art will surely destroy the impetus of his goal for the individual seeking intellectual information instead of the experience of what he does.

Sorry! stuff is all I can come up with as a naming tool for what he does!

[Taste of Death]

There are other body movement enthusiasts. Tim Anderson, coauthor of "Becoming Bulletproof" and "Original Strength", is one.

http://originalstrength.net/
http://www.youtube.com/user/tasfitness

[Patrick]

His method: Mixing gymnastics (ring work, hand balancing, coach summers stuff), mobility and lifitng (Charles Poliquin)->all geared towards moving freely around many planes.
Take his writing and his marketing with a table spoon of salt. While Ido Portal´s skill is awesome, rather read this before you follow his methods:

http://www.maxwellsc.com/blog.cfm?blogID=125

[fuga]

I appreciate Steve Maxwell's approach as well.

[Bhassler]

Thanks for all the replies. The Maxwell article is very much along the lines of what I was thinking.

[Taste of Death]

Steve Maxwell is well regarded in the strength and fitness world and a BJJ world champion.

[I-mon]

Actually he started with Chinese martial arts - Hung Gar I think - before getting into Capoeira. His videos show mostly spectacular stuff, but his interest and skill go way beyond that. The dude puts in serious training time, in all sorts of disciplines, hangs out with and learns from all sorts of great movers and trainers, and is very creative. Interesting guy.

[middleway]

Ido Portal became well known for his 'self dominance' stuff. But by all accounts his methodology has become a very well rounded systemised practice. The guy trains many hours a day and has a decent following.

One interesting aspect of his method is that he teaches work 'out of alignment' That is to say with improper alignments.







I love the guys stuff, just starting his squat rehab stuff to see if it changes anything for me. He is a truely excellent mover and no mistake

[vadaga]

Thanks for all the replies. The Maxwell article is very much along the lines of what I was thinking.

I am both a regular crawler on floors stander on hands and recreatonal squatter as well as a doer of slow count pullups, there is room for both. I do like Maxwell's point about his strength training vs. fighting technique- I had a similar experience last summer where my rock climbing improved dramatically when i focused less on pullups and more on swimming, relaxation can pay big dividends

[NoSword]

I am training with a student of Ido's right now. I showed him the Maxwell article a few weeks ago and it started a lively conversation.

I can definitely agree that learning tricks for the sake of tricks will not do much for your overall fitness, let alone for your skills as a martial artist. But there are certain movements for which there actually is a very broad transference, especially if you're starting from zero.

Getting a handstand alone will do wonders for your overall physicality. It takes a while to learn but then once you've got it it doesn't take a lot to maintain, and in maintaining it you will kill many birds with one stone. If you're looking to get lots of bang for your buck, it definitely pays to learn certain basic gymnastic/acrobatic maneuvers.

Ultimately, it all boils down to specialization vs. generalization -- even if your goal is to be a specialist, it still pays to generalize to a certain extent, and vice versa.

AK

[Bhassler]

Dan John has a lot of writing on goal setting and training as it relates to longevity, sport, etc., and it dovetails nicely with what Maxwell wrote. Maxwell, of course, has his own opinions, but I just like the article for it's clarity. It's good food for thought.

There's no doubt that Ido Portal moves well and knows a lot of stuff, but for most people what the question comes down to is how well it works if you're not Ido Portal. What's in his method that could be applied by a 40 year-old with no particular athletic ability who can train 3 hours per week instead of 5 hours per day? If the answer is "nothing", that's fine. There's not much of benefit to the average 40 year-old who wants to lose 20 lbs without working too hard in Parkour, or Judo, or a lot of other really great methods. It's easy to see what Mr. Portal can do, I'm just curious as to how he goes about getting others to do it as well.

[Patrick]

His examples for the results of his methods are ridiculous. "Look what a man can do only after three months of my coaching" (the man in question was a former Olympic Athlete). He picks super athletic persons, trains them a bit in his methods and Makes outrages claims.

[I-mon]

Yes his marketing is intense, but he's quite up front about preferring to train with people who are already healthy and motivated and will thus get good results. He's a smart dude, understands how to create progressions to achieve any (realistic) goal for any person whatever their starting level. We're lucky to have him.