Weightlifting and cultivation

[Gerard]

Internal cultivation will work both internal and external. Try any of the internal martial art styles. They will also develop your physique especially Xingyi and Baguazhang. Weighlifting creates too many Qi blockages, which will hinder your progress (if you are serious about your practice).

[Encephalon]

Internal cultivation will work both internal and external. Try any of the internal martial art styles. They will also develop your physique especially Xingyi and Baguazhang. Weighlifting creates too many Qi blockages, which will hinder your progress (if you are serious about your practice).

 

I do remember my meridians opening up dramatically right after I took a month off from work at the gym and the workouts. Do you think that holds even if you're stretching routine is extensive? It seems to me the right combo of strength and relaxability is the key to feeling the current.

[Upfromtheashes]

I do remember my meridians opening up dramatically right after I took a month off from work at the gym and the workouts. Do you think that holds even if you're stretching routine is extensive? It seems to me the right combo of strength and relaxability is the key to feeling the current.

 

I have a feeling that intention and balance - moving energy - emotions - subtle shifts in posture as well as effort while lifting also play a huge part but still playing with all of this

[Edward M]

Thanks for all the replies and advice!!

 

Gerard, have you ever tried weightlifting and created blockages for yourself? or you just heard it?

 

I would have thought Z-health or something similar would unblock these blockages.

 

 

Cheers

 

Ed

[sifusufi]

Most inspiring TTB reading in quite some time!

 

Thanks all for the inspiration

[Ya Mu]

Here is my perspective.

An Internal, External, and Energetics Program for Health & Awareness.

[onlyindreams]

Here is my perspective.

An Internal, External, and Energetics Program for Health & Awareness.

 

Thank you.

[Gerard]

Deleted.

Edited May 11, 2011 by Gerard

[Friend]

Edited November 16, 2011 by Friend

[Encephalon]

Back when I was working out heavy I would bench 350 until I got tired and then go out and make out with one of the cheerleaders staring at muscles.

Then I'd do a few lines of coke and do a few jump squats with 375 on my shoulders around the pool for a few minutes.

Then I'd move on to my deadlifts and just use my manager's Hummer, and then go kick someone's ass and maybe hit on Wesley Snipes' girlfriend.

I'd come back and do a couple dozen one-arm pull-ups with this hot yoga instructor wrapped around my waist.

I'd speedball and then I'd do walking handstands down Ventura Blvd to Encino, do some script consulting for Emma Stone and spend the night at her house.

 

At the time I weighed 103 pounds with 8% bodyfat.

Edited May 11, 2011 by Blasto

[JohnC]

I think yes you can do cultivation and weight lifting. In fact I think they can be beneficial to each other, majorly.

 

When you exercise it is complimentary to your health. Not a detriment.

 

I don't think building muscle increases qi blockages.. if anything I think it opens them up. Which is why things like physical rehabilitation work.

 

It also makes you wonder why shaolin monks develop themselves physically.

 

Everything in balance.

 

John

Edited May 11, 2011 by JohnC

[Aetherous]

Starting this: http://stronglifts.com/

[WHITEROOMENERGYMINE1]

GET SWOLE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZqfUzax3kE

[Aetherous]

"There is simply no other exercise, and certainly no machine, that produces the level of central nervous system activity, improved balance and coordination, skeletal loading and bone density, muscular stimulation and growth, connective tissue stress and strength, psychological demand and toughness, and overall systemic conditioning as the correctly performed full squat."

- Mark Rippetoe

[WHITEROOMENERGYMINE1]

"There is simply no other exercise, and certainly no machine, that produces the level of central nervous system activity, improved balance and coordination, skeletal loading and bone density, muscular stimulation and growth, connective tissue stress and strength, psychological demand and toughness, and overall systemic conditioning as the correctly performed full squat."

- Mark Rippetoe

 

Starting strength was my absolute favorite lifting plan, and I have fallen in love with the compound lifts ever since. Nothing better than getting below 90 on those squats

[Aetherous]

Starting Strength does seem like the best book for starting out, to me! The 3rd edition is great. I'm sticking with strong lifts since I already began (very similar, anyway) but using the info on proper form in the SS book at the same time.

[MERCELESS ONE]

when it comes to matters of the spirit and soul and energy cultivation, you have to have your whole being in order. by getting that confidence it will boos every aspect of your life. even your spirit practices. i started out as a skinny kid. even as an adult i was 185 in my early twenties at 6'3". im 29 and now im 225lbs of muscle and i meditate 2 hrs a night. what ever willl make your life easier. i feel better look better and can carry my wife up the stairs to make those romantic nights even more special . you will love it. go for it and the best of luck!

[i am]

I have an image in my mind of a healthy strong body, and another image of a "weight-lifter". Could be a cultural bias on my part, but there's a different kind of physique and muscle associated with people who max out at the gym and get bulk. The healthy, in my completed uneducated opinion, kind of physique is more like the olympic athletes you see (dead liftes aside). Or Bruce Lee. He was seriously muscular, and worked out a TON. But not at the expense of speed, flexibility, and all that. Swimmers, track & field, gymnasts. Those guys are strong, and flexible. I think a huge part of it is probably what's already been said, keep flexible, but also include lots of cardio. The typical beach strongman image I have of those huge weight lifters is not something I think it's possible to attain if you run or bike or do something similar a lot. You just can't get that bulky unless you neglect the endurance, cardio side of things. And that's a good thing...

 

But yeah, good exercise and muslce building in your 20s is a good way (as long as you don't overdo it) to build a strength foundation to rest on later in life.

 

And I think for most Westerners in the modern world, deep relaxation and meditation is not possible without first getting some serious exercise worked into your life. Whether it's lifting, cardio or both. You've got to have a clean, healthy body. I know that's not being debated here...it's weight lifting itself...but I think that everything up to and not including getting "huge" in the sense of the guys who can't turn their head without their whole body following, and can't even put their arms down at their sides they're so huge (some people are actually born with this physique; that's a different deal, obviously) is helpful to cultivation.

 

Everything in balance...I think you'll know, with how your body feels, if you've gone too far.

[Aetherous]

I'm with you, i am. The bulky bodybuilder look is gross and non-functional. Also, the wannabe bodybuilder look (fatface meathead caveman wheyshake protein eater...lol) is pointless. I aim for something like the body of a Greek god...pretty much just lean and strong.

 

Look at Medhi from Stronglifts (just in the picture of the video, not necessary to click play):

 

[i am]

Yeah, that's about right. I know I'll never be that sculpted, because I think you have to work specifically on certain muscles with specific exercises to get that actual look, but yes, I agree.

 

I hike a TON. I do zhang zhuang most mornings, if only for 20 minutes. I do exercises with a 9ft wood staff that I learned through xingyi and bagua, plus some sit ups and pull ups. That's pretty much it. The staff exercises in particular have made me strong in a way I never was with weights, since it really requires your whole body working together to do them. Good core strength, and then arm and shoulder strength as a side-effect/by product. But then I never really knew what I was doing when I lifted weights, I just "did some stuff". Pretty much sit ups, pull ups, push ups and some shoulder stuff with 15lb barbells. Nothing major, and I've never had a gym membership. I live in the Mountains! I'm lucky. Most machines in the gym are just trying to replicate things you'd be doing outdoors.

[Aetherous]

[chi 2012]

Also, the wannabe bodybuilder look (fatface meathead caveman wheyshake protein eater...lol) is pointless.

 

Mike OHearn has a bad case of Botox/HGH face.

[Aetherous]

 

Just kidding. The British guy has more of the look I was referring to, even though he doesn't have the fatface.

 

I don't know about Mike Ohearn's arms...he must rub and inject steroids into them constantly or something.