fitness

[wenwu]

hey guys

 

hope this finds you well and planning your april fool's jokes

 

fitness

 

how important is it to you? how do you work it in to your pracitces.

 

i study bagua, and the movements can be a little demanding but leans more to health than fitness, i like the challenge of pushing myself in circuit training and so on but in recent years i have slipped and gained a little more than i want to. these days a lot of my exercise is very low impact.

 

what do the rest of you do to stay fit?

Edited March 19, 2008 by wenwu

[freeform]

what do the rest of you do to stay fit?

 

FlowFit from Scott Sonnon

 

Short, intense workouts.

 

Involves structure, being breathed, flowing without thoughts, the movements cover the full range of motion and the complexity of the movements increases as you improve.

 

I really enjoy it now - I was surprised to have some emotional cleansing reactions when I first started though - this created some initial resistance to doing the workout...

[wudangspirit]

Wenwu,

 

I usually walk everyday briskly. I jog 10-15 mins everyday before my hard qigong workout (brutal), practice my wudangquan forms, and do taiji everyday. I mix that with good old fashion sit ups and I'm good to go. Diet is very important. Lowering the sugar intake and eating balanced meals.

 

Tao Bless,

 

Wudangspirit

 

hey guys

 

hope this finds you well and planning your april fool's jokes

 

fitness

 

how important is it to you? how do you work it in to your pracitces.

 

i study bagua, and the movements can be a little demanding but leans more to health than fitness, i like the challenge of pushing myself in circuit training and so on but in recent years i have slipped and gained a little more than i want to. these days a lot of my exercise is very low impact.

 

what do the rest of you do to stay fit?

[Ian]

Swimming (slowly), digging allotment, living at the top of a hill.

[Yoda]

freeform,

 

How long have you been doing flowfit? You must be a real gymnast by now! Very admirable!! I know everyone says that gentle stretching and yoga helps energy flow through the subtle channels but I've not seen a consensus about the flowfit type of stretching but I'd imagine that it would be similarly helpful.

 

Yoda

[松永道]

FlowFit from Scott Sonnon

 

Short, intense workouts.

 

Involves structure, being breathed, flowing without thoughts, the movements cover the full range of motion and the complexity of the movements increases as you improve.

 

I really enjoy it now - I was surprised to have some emotional cleansing reactions when I first started though - this created some initial resistance to doing the workout...

 

Sounds like a cool workout. I've been interested in Sonnon's stuff for a while, never tried it though. Does that incorporate arm strengthening exercises?

 

As a recovering over-thinker, I'm having a great deal of fun exploring my great interior frontiers. I mainly do Taiji these days and plenty of it. Forms in the morning before, gongfu in the evening, push-hands when ever someone's willing to push with me. My legs are doing great these days, though I would like to find more upper body stuff that doesn't involve going to a gym. For the past two years I've only done hard qigong and push hands. I'm thinking of bringing in some yoga or at least push ups and handstands. Any suggestions?

[Cameron]

Combat Conditioning and Martial Arts.

 

Long walks in nature, hiking.

 

Not smoking and rarely drinking alcohol.

[mentalground0]

i walk everywhere (that's the great thing about living in a walkable city)...to and from work, to the store, etc. and once a week I practice power yoga to work on my balance and flexibility

[rain]

..................

Edited April 18, 2008 by rain

[freeform]

It's only recently that I've been doing FlowFit in any sustained way - maybe 2 - 3 months (although I've been doing it on and off for about 2 years).

 

I often start with some dan tien pulsing before the workout - I stand, breathe slowly until I feel a rhythmic pulse and this often (but not always) leads into Winn's 'Ocean Breathing'. Eventually I transition into a deep bellows breathing style where my shifting posture breathes me - then straight into flowfit. This initial preparation makes a huge difference for me - the dan tien is warm, open, pulsing and leading the FF movements - the bellows breathing energises and makes it easier to 'be breathed' by the movements. I love not knowing what movement I will do next until I do it - without the preparatory practice I mentally pre-plan what movement I will do next - this stops the 'flow state'.

 

Altogether the whole thing takes about 30 minutes - the actual FF part is maximum 20 minutes - or until I hit the 'second wind' as Sonnon calls it - usually takes 16 - 18 minutes.

 

I dont see this as strength training - it certainly increases strength, but it's more about rehabilitating whole body movement and synchronising it with breath, structure and flow. For me it seems to incorporate strength, stretching, structure/coordination and an aerobic workout - but not focusing on any one in particular. It does tend to increase chi-flow and free up bound/frozen movement (accompanied by emotional releases!) - I'm really loving it, but I have a long way to go yet...

 

I've also done 6 months of combat conditioning - very quick strength gains, but quite forceful and rather than opening the body up, it seemed add more tension to the system... Saying that, initially it feels great, the chi starts flowing, strength gains are very noticeable and it's quite fun - but doing it over a long period of time, it seemed to have a negative effect on me...

[rain]

...............

Edited April 18, 2008 by rain

[Wun Yuen Gong]

What exercises you talking about in flow fit if its spontanious movement you can and should be able to flow from your martial arts or taiji. This from form to formless work!

 

I think what sonnon is doing is nothing new and takes from all sources IMHO!

 

wyg

[Yoda]

Freeform,

 

Thanks for the report!

 

Yoda

[Cameron]

I find combat conditioning helps my muscles relax.

 

Kettlebells made me tight though.

 

Sonnon's stuff is neat, but I like cc better.

[mantis]

body building

 

power training

 

strength training

 

cardio

[mYTHmAKER]

I find combat conditioning helps my muscles relax.

 

Kettlebells made me tight though.

 

Sonnon's stuff is neat, but I like cc better.

 

Cam

I remember you posting re Max telling you to have your hands touch

your leg when you stand and you didn't know why.

I can't find the post so will respond here.

When you stand and you relax your arms at your sides your hands/ arms

will turn in slightly to touch your thighs. In this position your back will naturally round

slightly, shoulders widen forward and your chest will curve- sink inward.

This is a relaxed posture which allows chi to flow. wu wei

[Cameron]

Cam

I remember you posting re Max telling you to have your hands touch

your leg when you stand and you didn't know why.

I can't find the post so will respond here.

When you stand and you relax your arms at your sides your hands/ arms

will turn in slightly to touch your thighs. In this position your back will naturally round

slightly, shoulders widen forward and your chest will curve- sink inward.

This is a relaxed posture which allows chi to flow. wu wei

 

 

He teaches specifically to have the middle finger touching the leg, where the seam of your pants are, not the whole hand.

 

Cam

[mYTHmAKER]

He teaches specifically to have the middle finger touching the leg, where the seam of your pants are, not the whole hand.

 

Cam

 

My bad description. You don't press your hand to your side.If you relax the middle finger will fall into place.

If you move any of the other singers to touch your leg where the seam of your pants are you will feel tension.

[Cameron]

Ok,cool, let's not turn the fitness thread into the standing thread

[wenwu]

wow so many varied replies thanks guys

 

I suppose i better stump up, don't want to feel left out

 

walking, lots and lots of walking

baguazhang

the plank most nights

various sledgehammer movments

streching

 

 

for those of you who do taiji and the likes, do you find tht any of your other sporting activities, are contra productive to your taiji. if so how?

[freeform]

What exercises you talking about in flow fit if its spontanious movement you can and should be able to flow from your martial arts or taiji. This from form to formless work!

 

I think what sonnon is doing is nothing new and takes from all sources IMHO!

 

wyg

 

Hi WYG

 

I agree Sonnon may not be bringing any new techniques to the table - flowfit, as far as I can tell is based on yoga and breakdancing

 

What Sonnon does manage is to create a functional framework for collecting and then communicating complex principles in a way that you and your body can understand without having to rely on a highly experienced teacher for your every workout. I'd prefer the teacher, but time, money and availability are prohibitive for me.

 

I also do Sonnon's IntuFlow - a joint mobility exercise - I've not found anything as thorough as this anywhere (yet).

 

I understand that some treat Sonnon and as some kind of all powerful guru, and others see him in a bad light - this matters very little to me - I'm not concerned with politics...

 

I dont do Tai Chi or martial arts...

[yatzhong]

I practice yiquan and taijiquan. They seem to be enough.

[VCraigP]

Taiji

Qigong

Kettlebells

Walks on the beach when I can get em.

 

Strangely enough I have been working out with Kettlebells since last september right after I started training Taiji more intensively (after learning the first 1/3rd of the form in retreat).

 

What may seem strange since we are talking about a weightlifting regimen, is that as a whole my hips have opened up more from doing the kettlebell workouts. IN addittion my grip has increased tremendously, not to mention very significant upper body strength improvement and core strength improvement which can be attributed to KBs and Taiji I think.

 

I also learned a VERY vigorous Qigong form called 28 lunar mansions qigong which has some very interesting isometric like aspects to it and even a couple of moves which are almost precisely in the same groove as kettlebell lifting.

 

so the Taiji and qigong is a great warmup for kettlebell lifting and the kettlebell lifting actually has helped to open up my KWA more.

 

Also recently have been practicing all TaekwonDo poomse (Taeguk 1-8 and WTF BB Forms 1-5) more as an intellectual pursuit. Recently the governing body of TKD in Korea has made a new "standard" for all forms which requires me to change ALL my stances, some of my movement chambers, etc. Rain - those details are for you since you mentioned Poomse practice. It has been kind of fun to revisit TKD training because learning and practicing those forms is so SIMPLE compared to Taiji!!

 

Not doing any "cardio" training per se. but anyone who has done kettlebell swings knows they are great for resistance training and cardio at the same time "without the dishonor of aerobics" as Pavel likes to say.

"Train like a man not like a hamster" is also one of my favorites from another kettlebell trainer.

 

In the end my level of fitness will be tested by how well I can practice taiji and qigong everyday for three weeks and how well I survive hiking up Huashan. I'll get back to you all at the begginning of May.

 

Craig

[Yoda]

I just discovered that they are selling kettlebells at Target and Play It Again Sports, etc. Nice that word has gotten out.

[VCraigP]

I just discovered that they are selling kettlebells at Target and Play It Again Sports, etc. Nice that word has gotten out.

 

I can only recommend that you get Dragondoor Kettlebells. I have heard there are some issues with other brands. I trust in Pavel, the party is always right. Anyway I suppose you can do just fine with some of the immitators, but I prefer to put my money into John DuCane and Pavel Tsatsoulines pockets. I can afford it and I think they have integrity. Also Dragondoor was/is Master Wu Zhongxian's publisher.

 

BUt yeah, you are right it is cool that the word is getting out. KB's are just tools. The master level training for how to use them well resides with Pavel IMO. So even if you opt for the cheap tools I strongly suggest one go for the good info. Pavel really knows his stuff. I have been getting tremendous results from following his programs and doing my internal work together.

 

Enough plugging already.

 

Happy easter, though it is only a stolen Pagan holiday which passed two days ago.

 

Craig