Bridging The Great Divide: An Interview High-Performance Coach Cam MacDougall

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A couple of years ago, Cam MacDougall went on an epic ride of 4,350km through the mountains of Banff all the way to Mexico in 30 days. The trail is called The Great Divide and it's one of the world's longest off-road mountain bike trails. Yet, this wasn’t just a physical challenge for Cam, it was a practice in spirituality.

Interview Host: Sachin Khona // November 2020 Listening time: 49 mins

Cam MacDougall is an International High-Performance Coach based out of Toronto, CA and Bali, Indonesia. When talking to him, he naturally ebbs and flows between physical and mental practices that set him and the people he works with up for success - and it’s a balance of both.

In this episode:

• Dispelling and shedding the “bro” culture of fitness
• The importance of spiritual practice in physical fitness and Cam’s One Mountain
• The power of mantras to fuel and guide you through challenging moments
• How your body has a “hidden code” that already knows what you need to do
• The importance of finding at least 5 minutes just for yourself a day
• How breath-work helps athletes achieve their goals

Quotes

3:21 - “Really tapping into [the] powers that spirituality can give you, it’s what conventional fitness seems to miss.”

10:08 - “To have people around you that believe in what you're doing and people that are going to take the torch when you can't carry it to let you recover, and then you take the torch when they can't carry it anymore is to really collaborate and do things as a unit.”

11:45 - I've always used mantras in fitness, especially when I'm going into something really challenging or even just trying to stay consistent.

12:54 - My one mountain right now is my spiritual practice.

14:34 - I'm a firm believer that your body holds all the codes to what you are to do and what you truly want to do, and your mind just complicates the shit out of everything.