in lieu of Amish lifestyle

[Trunk]

I've been reflecting today on how much my leg-work has paid off, particularly airborne lunges.

 

Its so easy to do 'em any time: yesterday while gassing up the car, stood off to the side and did a couple each leg. Just that little bit, for me, converts the edgey little bit of built up force -> into pleasure. I feel increased circulation at the hip joints (that is the name for that joint, isn't it?), and it pays off with soothing bloodflow.

 

I feel like i really missed the boat by not getting into leg-work earlier, like it could've helped take the edge off of forceful build-up that was a problem in my practices for a long time. The legs are such a key lever to the LTT expressing force!

 

Modern urban lifestyle sucks. You grow up watching tv, then computers, freeways, office: all activities that are anathema to whole-body integration. Physical activity is in isolated slots of jogging, gym, sports (vs. through-out the day, as part of life activity).

 

Airbornes (or pistols, for you crazy yutes) aren't the same as if i'm spending the day workin' on the farm, but they help a lot. (thanks, Yodster)

 

T.

[Yoda]

A few airbornes a day will eventually lead to pistols! I'm glad you are having fun with them.

 

Another cool practice that the sungazing gang are into is walking, standing, practicing, gardening etc barefoot outside as much as possible.

 

-Yodster

[Trunk]

A few airbornes a day will eventually lead to pistols! I'm glad you are having fun with them.

Not sure if i ever want to do pistols.

 

I am having fun with a bunch of one-legged stuff though, starting with..

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sonnon8.htm

.. and adding qi gong, internal martial, tendon changing, postures to it - going really slowly and exploring various one-legged positioning. Applying the principles (posture, movement, yi, qi) of internal work.

http://www.golem.demon.co.uk/cia.html

 

There's variety of positioning beyond what Sonnon shows. I'm on the look-out, actually, for a good resource re: one-legged zhang zhuangs and moving work (either online, or other). If anyone knows of any - shoot me a msg.

 

..barefoot outside as much as possible.

Dig that!

Its been raining here for nearly two weeks straight! Had two days of no rain, now it started again. I'm about to go out and run in the early morning rain right now.

 

T.

[Yoda]

those Sonnan drills are great!! Those dorsal pistols are extremely cool. I'm surprised they hadn't occured to me before. I guess Pavel keeps the heel on the ground, and that was my initial influence.

 

I'm looking for good Taoist power yoga routines these days as well. One that I'm currently developing is the crane frolic--that's a good one to work in pistols, airbornes, hindus, etc. And maybe doing cloud hands while doing cossack squats, but that's as far as I've gone with it.

 

-Yoda 8)

[rex]

Haven't seen any Scott Sonnon videos but I've got a couple of breakdance videos that are an inexpensive way to learn Body Flow type kinetic chains:

 

http://www.howtobreakdance.com/order_video.htm

 

rex

[Trunk]

those Sonnan drills are great!! Those dorsal pistols are extremely cool.

Yeah, the Sonnon drills really got me started into a whole world of one-legged qi gong movement. Its difficult to describe in text, and i haven't seen any good pics of what i'm doing any where on the web, yet. Basically, you want to keep the kind of integral connectivity that qi gong postures and movement promotes - while exploring all sorts of angles and postures on one leg, slowly, slowly moving around while keeping integrity of form and root.

 

 

Those pics have some hint (really just a hint) of the sort of postural styles to explore, but apply the integral-qi-gong-body forms to the more extreme and varied angles of hip and leg in Sonnon's article. - and you really start to get some interesting results!

 

Its not really a strength-training drill, like pistols are, but a slow qi gong movement exercise that still does tap into the power areas of the body (legs, hips, tan tien, chong channel - 1 leg at a time).

 

The resulting increase in root, cnxn, blood flow in the legs, hips, and tan tien - have all been very interesting for me. Though, you've already gone really far with your leg work - probably won't be quite as dramatic for you.

 

T.

[GrandTrinity]

yeah lol. when i lift up my knee towards myabdomen i hear a "crack crack" in my hip. now it doesnt hut but its really annoying psychologicaly, i dont know what to do. I am thinking about getting the psoas book, is it worth it? Or Trunk, can you tell me the key points? Also I been doing some Tae Bo. Although that stuff appears basic its really a taoist practice from S. Korea...dank. So anyway, should I get into Sonnon's work first or Matt Furey. Also, I am about to work on certification from this dude:

 

http://members.aol.com/michaelrqi

 

also Im about hit up the 4 dimensional bodywork seminar at Dao Mountain and cop me some niu huang chieh du pien (herb for liver)

 

ahhhhhhhhh the future is bright...

[sean]

I believe everyone should seriously just buy Sonnon's Warrior Wellness Trilogy DVD ... It's only $50. There are three levels on it, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced ... I've been doing the Beginner semi-religiously for I guess six months now and have just moved on to the Intermediate. Really really incredible stuff.

 

GrandTrinity: although I have zero experience with Furey except hearsay, my two cents is to definitely go with Sonnon.

 

Great posts btw, Trunk. I'm going to explore some one-legged qi gong as you are describing... I feel a spontaneous inspiration (I guess you could call it) whenever I even just see images of forms similar to the one the guy on the beach in that little pic on the left is doing.

 

Sean.

[Trunk]

I dunno the answers to any of your queries in that post. Though it does seem that you're trying to do maybe too much at once. Plato would have better Sonnon/Furey comparison than i.

[Yoda]

I decided to reread Pavel's Naked Warrior to get more pistol tips. Great book, btw, but I'm not putting into the taobum library!!

 

One interesting thing Pavel says is that eastern martial arts teachers are notoriously such lousy communicators that students with few exceptions typically waste years of effort learning things that could have been mastered in weeks or months. Reminded me of Chia.

 

Pavel says a good Russian military standard is 10 pistols is a "pass" 15 is "good" and 20 is "excellent".

 

I would like to think that's special forces standards, b/c our marines can't do jack. I just met a infantry trainer who confirmed that suspicion. So I took a modified form of the test, I gave myself a chair to stand on so I wouldn't have to perform picture perfect, Russian form. I got 12 on my right and 10 on my left. My chair handicap would have sent me packing, but my goal is to get to 25 each leg, good form and 25 one arm pushups. (I can do 20r/18l one arm two leg pushups, not strict form)

 

-Yoda 8)

[GrandTrinity]

So plato, you agree I should cop that dvd Sonnon's Warrior Wellness Trilogy DVD next? or perhaps a different one such as freedom by degree? So much to learn, so little time!

 

Also, the psoas book? Im thinking I should get it. Is it worth i $22?