cool quote on benefits of stretching

[Yoda]

I'm on Bill Bodri's email list from meditationexpert.com and he had a nice piece on stretching. Here's the best section of it:

 

Learning yoga or Pilates with videos and dvds is a great way to start stretching your whole body, getting in shape and help with dealing with learning how to sit cross-legged in meditation. No, yoga is not meditation itself but the flexibility exercises will help in all sorts of beneficial ways. Meditation-wise, by stretching the body and even-ing its chi flow, you help cultivate a stable personality and emotions that makes it easier to succeed on the path.

 

Here's the real key, though, and the reason that learning martial arts can also help you cultivate. People often wonder why, and here's the real reason from Master Nan: Practicing martial arts or stretching exercises makes it much easier for you to succeed than an ordinary person simply because you'll already open some of your chi channels through the practice, and if they're open and you're healthy, it's then easier to conquer sexual desire. As a result, then it's easier to practice meditation "without leakage" and open all the unopened chi channels whereupon you'll be able to experience a taste of emptiness and can experientially realize the real meaning of Buddha's enlightenment teachings.

 

Emphasis added. Interesting stuff. Reading Advanced Yoga Practices opened my eyes to this effect and now before I do any practice, I'll do a bit of stretching just to help open the channels first. The AYP mini stretch workout is to touch the toes, to arch back, to look right and left, to do a vaccuum breath or two and then you are set for energy practice and/or meditation.

[neimad]

i do intu-flow before meditation.

 

and yoda.... i can't believe you said it wasn't necessary to upgrade from ww to intu-flow.... are you joking?

 

intu-flow is awesome.... from going back to beginner again i have learned so much new stuff about my body in just a few days of practice. i love how it's simpler yet more sophisticated at the same time.

 

my respect for scott sonnon only increases.

 

and i still think that this kind of stretching is the best... makes sense intuitively.

normal stretching is not fun.

although yoga is ok.... but not as fun as intu-flow.

[Yoda]

I, personally, am fairly remedial at this sort of thing so actually I haven't changed my WW workout that much since getting intuflow except that I've added the clubs.

 

I agree that Intuflow is a superior product and presentation; and for somebody more advanced than I the difference would be pretty big.

[Yoda]

A vibe from Bodri's article is that it doesn't really matter what sort of stretching... yoga, sonnon, pilates, MA, etc just do something. I'd say Sonnon's mobility stuff is definitely the funnest.

[neimad]

I, personally, am fairly remedial at this sort of thing so actually I haven't changed my WW workout that much since getting intuflow except that I've added the clubs.

 

I agree that Intuflow is a superior product and presentation; and for somebody more advanced than I the difference would be pretty big.

 

 

i haven't started working with the mini's yet.... keen to, but it did say to wait till advanced.... still i'm so impatient so it's likely i'll start anyway.

 

after all i did get to advanced with ww, and i'm going back to beginner now cos it's fun to learn all the new little bits and pieces scott has added!

 

also if you do intu-flow every day, yoda, be amazed in 6 months time at how your body begins to move.... i can't imagine yet what several years of this practice combined with body-flow, etc is going to do for me!

[karen]

I'm looking at Intu-Flow and am very impressed. Am nudging a friend of mine to buy it . What Scott Sonnon says about flexibility following naturally from ROM makes a lot of sense to me.. so where do other stretching methods fit in, like Bob Cooley's stuff? Does Intu-Flow replace all that?

 

Karen

[neimad]

replace... combine... coordinate... supplement

up to how you feel about what you are doing.

 

something i have been doing is trying all kinds of exercises, etc. when i find good ones, i keep them.

 

bob cooleys... is that the meridian stretching? it looks very good.

 

i really dig intu-flow and scotts whole approach to the body. so i keep it.

[Yoda]

Scott's system is the most entertaining, so it's more my thing than other systems.

[mYTHmAKER]

Thanks to Yoda I investigated Bob Cooleys Meridian stretching.

Have been doing it for about a month.

I bought the book and DVD.

Well let me tell you this is the greatest system I have ever tried.

In less than one week I was able to do the hero pose supta virasans

where my shoulders are about one inch off the floor.

Before I started I could hardly get my elbows to touch the floor.

BTW this is not one of the stretches at this level.

I do the stretches and then try some poses to see if anything happened.

My palms now touch the floor.

I do have to say that I made my greatest gain in the first week.

At some point I will try the next level of stretches.

When I finish the routine I feel like I'm really in my body and have

a sense of well being.

Before investigating Bob Cooley I tried yin yoga.

I found a class and attended one session to get the basics.

Twelve positions five minutes each. Nice but for now I'm sticking with Bob.

[neimad]

i haven't started working with the mini's yet.... keen to, but it did say to wait till advanced.... still i'm so impatient so it's likely i'll start anyway.

 

oooh a bump.

 

 

well in regards to this i have found the mini's to be so awesome. i don't use them as per xtension at the moment..... rather i am using them in active recovery days.

 

i'm finding that active recovery is so deep, if you are intelligent about it effects are enhanced dramatically, DOMS is non-existant, energy levels soar....

 

good good fun

 

 

never did look at meridian stretching even though it looks great. i got my plate full at the moment.