An intro from Mal

[Mal]

Hello there,

 

Nice community you have here. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone.

 

My main interests are Tai Chi and Kung Fu. I'm also interested in "The 5 Tibetans", "Mat Furies Combat Conditioning" as well as M. Chia's sexual energy techniques, although I've never really tried to practice them they do have a lot more appeal now that I'm 33 as opposed to 18 when I originally found his "Taoist Secrets of Love-Cultivating Male Sexual Energy" book.

 

I'm from Townsville in Queensland, Australia. I've been practicing Tai Chi, badly , since I started High School. Our Art teacher use to lead the entire school through a short form during morning parade. Everyone use to make fun of Tai Chi, but I loved it. I tried to keep learning from books and various teacher over the years but I have only made good progress since I found my current teacher in 2002. I'm also learning Tong Long Kung Fu from him.

 

The reason for my post is that my new years resolution is to practice "The 5 Tibetans" in the morning and after Kung Fu practice (I've practiced daily since 2003) and "The Kings Court Exercises" from Mat Furies Combat Conditioning.

 

I've done these exercises previously but I've always found the kings court exercises too intense and I've really only been able to keep doing them for a month before I giving up. So this year I'm increasing my reps a lot more slowly, aiming at just enjoying the exercises everyday rather than trying to get to "x" amount of reps in "x" amount of weeks. So far so good (I'm up to 20 reps, started before new year) and I'm enjoying them a lot more this time too.

 

I'm also doing the 5 Tibetans, basically as an experiment to see if can take advantage of it's "youthing" properties to fill in a developing bald spot I've done these previously too, but not on a daily basis, I find the "spin" exercise quite enjoyable and unique. Also my partner believes they actually do thicken up my hair!!! So I thought I'd give them a proper go and see what happens

 

I think that's enough rambling for now

[sean]

Hey man, welcome aboard.

[Mal]

Hi All,

 

Practice of the 5 Tibetans (T5T)and the Royal Court (from Mat Furies Combat Conditioning) is progressing well.

 

Started doing 7 reps of T5T this week. I'm enjoying doing these first thing in the morning. I do notice increased tenderness in my lower back (always tender anyhow) on the day after I increase the reps but it's not "sore" this time. I'm only increasing the reps by 2 every week and it's putting a lot less strain on my body. Last time I tried these I increased the reps too quickly (thought I was too young and fit) and strained my back and had to stop and recover

 

The Royal Court is going well too, for the first time ever I'm actually enjoying doing these in the afternoon I'm up to 20 reps but I've only been increasing them one a day (only if I'm feeling good) for one week (max increase 5 in a week) and then just doing that number of reps for the next week.

 

Again being focused on just doing the exercises rather than pushing myself to be doing 31 reps by the end of the month is working much better. So much so that I've actually been practicing the Royal Court on my rest day (was going to take one day off a week) and my body isn't getting more sore and exhausted day after day like it was last year.

 

I'm starting to feel my body posture "align" as my mussles become stronger and I slouch less. My spine's flexabitity is also increasing and I'm basically feeling good.

 

Mal

[cloud recluse]

Greetings Mal,

 

Just thought Id breifly emerge from seclusion to say hello to another Downunder Daoist

 

Regards,Cloud

[Japhy Ryder]

Greetings, Mal:

 

Like you, I've worked with both the Five Tibetan Rites and Matt Furey's Combat Conditioning exercises. I found the former to be an good stand-alone cultivation on mornings that I didn't do a full-fledged workout and a fine warmup on mornings when I did work out. I liked spinning, too, but gave it up when I found it was redundant to my qigong--I wanted to try other stuff in the morning.

 

You're very wise to "make haste slowly" with the Royal Court. Several years ago, when I switched over from weight lifting to bodyweight workouts, I increased my repetitions too quickly and developed joint issues. These days, when I do pushups or other calisthenics I do them slowly, contracting the working muscles through the entire range of motion. By limiting the number of repetitions I do to ten or fewer, my concentration is better and body and spirit are much more satisfied. As you've seen, making a god of increasing repetitions is a recipe for dissatisfaction. In fact, I'd like to get to the point that I don't count reps at all and simply work by "feel."

 

How's your bridging coming along?

[TwoTrees]

There are some photos in the Gallery section, that you two may enjoy, that were submitted by Sean and Lezlie, in relation to these exercises.

 

Also, there are some in Plato's webpage that you may find helpful and interesting ... which hopefully someone can stick in here because I don't have it at the moment, my computer was recently wiped because of spamming viruses. Unfortunately, I'm still using a dinosaur computer until next week. Then I will have brand new whipper snapper of a machine. Yay!

[Mal]

another Downunder Daoist

 

Regards,Cloud

 

Cheers, always nice to hear from a fellow Aussie

Edited January 17, 2007 by Mal

[Mal]

You're very wise to "make haste slowly" with the Royal Court. Several years ago, when I switched over from weight lifting to bodyweight workouts, I increased my repetitions too quickly and developed joint issues.

 

How's your bridging coming along?

 

Hi JR,

 

I had a similar problem, basically I was working too hard and burning myself out without enough recovery time. I use to lift weights too (a long time ago) and I'm finding there is a big difference in the way you train when doing traditional western exercises 3 or 4 times a week and doing eastern practices everyday (chi gungs etc.) My Sifu talks about Tai Chi "increasing" your energy levels. He teaches it to us because his teacher said it is needed to counteract the "depleting" effects of Tong Long Kung Fu

 

The bridging is going well, I learnt to bridge a few years ago when I was doing Brazilian Jujitsu (good fun but too many injuries at the club I trained with) My Bridge is only to the top of the head (that could be why I'm going bald perhaps one day I'll get my forehead closer to the floor, I try

 

I'm lucky as I'm short and stocky with a short, heavily muscled neck. So my body really suits this exercise. I'm a bit worried as my training partner wants to do bridges too and he is a lot taller and lankier than me. I'm not confident that bridging is a safe exercise for everybody.

 

 

There are some photos in the Gallery section, that you two may enjoy,

 

Thanks Two Trees, I didn't know they were in there, Cheers

[Mal]

Hey man, welcome aboard.

 

Cheers Sean, great site you have here.

[Japhy Ryder]

Mal:

 

I completely agree with you about the value and safety of neck bridging. For all the stories of people whose back problems were cured by it, there are also stories of people who injured their backs and/or necks due to it. I hope your friend is careful.

 

I worked quite conscientiously on neck bridging over several years and gave it up, concluding that my long torso and short legs don't suit me to it. I've found that gymnastics bridging (with hands on the floor, holding the top position of a reverse pushup) provides similar full-body benefits without compromising the neck. For building neck strength, self-resistance and isometrics are much safer, I think.

 

Your sifu's right on about the need for a daily energy practice to counterract the depleting effects of other practices. I realize now that in running 70 + miles per week, I was attempting to use running as qigong. I gave up running years ago, and I much prefer doing qigong.

[Mal]

Another week

 

T5T is going well, up to 9 reps and everything is feeling really easy and effortless. I'm actually enjoying getting out of bed to do these in the morning and I am NOT a morning person. But unlike last time I'm not going to jump up to 21 reps like I did last year and hurt myself, slow and steady.....

 

Combat Conditioning is going really well too. I'm up to 25 reps. The best I have ever done previously for the hindu push ups is 10 reps.

 

All in all very happy this week, although that could also be from having a slight amount of "success" trying the big draw in the last few weeks

[Japhy Ryder]

Mal:

 

Looks good. When I was doing the Five Tibetan Rites, I started with five reps per Rite. I added one rep per Rite each week week until I reached 21. That was the progression recommended on the website where I found the instructions, and it worked perfectly. After all, the Rites are about learning to move energy and feel comfortable in one's own body, not about creating overload.

 

At some point, you may wish to apply a similar principle to your Hindu pushups and squats. It's easy to reach a point of diminishing returns where you're expending more effort with less benefit. I enjoy doing slow-motion pushups, tensing the working muscles throughout the entire range of motion and really "thinking into" them. This way, I get a good workout with ten reps or less. This technique won't build great muscle endurance, but it works well for strength and development purposes.

[Mal]

Mal:

 

Looks good. When I was doing the Five Tibetan Rites, I started with five reps per Rite. I added one rep per Rite each week week until I reached 21. That was the progression recommended on the website where I found the instructions, and it worked perfectly. After all, the Rites are about learning to move energy and feel comfortable in one's own body, not about creating overload.

At some point, you may wish to apply a similar principle to your Hindu pushups and squats.

 

Hi Japhy Ryder,

 

Thanks, it seems that taking these slowly is really important.

 

My lower back has always been weak and a bit sore, that's why I wanted to learn tai chi years ago. And I find that rite #2 is quite hard for me. Actually hard isn't the correct word, it's just that it is dificult to do without putting too much strain on my spine. If I just lift my legs my spine will "click" and can get sore after a few reps. I have to concentrate on raising my legs "with" my breathing and mind which makes the movement effortless.

 

This time because I've only been increasing the reps by 2 a week and only started at 3 reps I've been going o.k. last time when I got to 9 reps I started to feel really good (like now) and I increased them to 21 in a week or so which was too much, except for rite #1. I kept doing 21 reps of it on and off for months now, I really enjoyed it and it's the reason I decided to try T5T again.

 

I've also convinced my Dad to give them a go. Any suggestion for overweight 60 year olds who are having dificulity doing #4 and #5, apart from "Just hang in there and don't try too hard"

 

As for the combat conditioning. Not too sure exactly what I'm aiming for with it yet They certanly increase my aerobic fitness faster than anything else I've tried, but because they are quite strenious I find it's easy to burn out from trying too hard. So I'm not doing them Furey style i.e. really hard this time. I'm taking them easy and increasing by one a day for a week and then staying on that number of reps for a week to "recover." I'm not really intrested in getting to "X" amount of reps in "Y" weeks but I would like to still be doing them at the end of the year. I can do 100 squats so 25 is really only getting me breathing but I want to try to keep the same number of squats and push up's, last year I ended up doing 50 squats but could only manage 2x 10 reps for the pushup.

 

I'm more focused on the combat conditioning for the back bridge as I find it really helps my lower back and I enjoy sitting upside down just breathing, it's almost getting a bit meditative (even if it's only for about 30 sec) Have to keep trying to get my nose down................. perhaps one day

[Mal]

Thought I would bring this one back to life, with some results

 

The 5 tibetans: Doing 21 reps first thing in the mornings. Every now and then I will sleep in for an extra 10min and only have time for the "spin" but basically I've found these to be a really enjoyable practice. I often stay up late and have trouble feeling awake with only 4 hrs sleep, these do make me feel good at the start of the day rather than exhausted.

 

An intresting side effect was that I now want to going back to Uni for some post graduate education. Will have to wait till next year but it's a change, I haven't felt motivated to do that for years. As for hair regrowth, nothing yet

 

 

Combat conditioning: Intresting experience. I got up to 30 reps practicing everyday, lost a few kg's and got under 100kg for the first time in years. But once I had acheived that goal I found it very dificult to motivate myself to keep doing these everyday.

 

At the moment I'm doing 70 reps for the squats, 35 for the pushups and I have changed the neck bridge for a normal gynmastics bridge (10~20 seconds) I felt trying to get my nose to the floor was overstretching my neck, a bit painfull sometimes, and now that my arms are strong enough to do a gynmastics bridge I prefer to do that. I'm doing them a fair bit slower than "fury speed" much more like astanga yoga. I'm also nose breathing and stoping when I start to puff.

 

Not "sold" on the combat conditioning.

+ They are very good at building strength and removing fat

- so hard to do that I eventually hate doing them and stop

 

At the moment I'm probably doing them every 2-3 days.

[Japhy Ryder]

Hi, Mal:

 

I'm glad you're doing well with the Five Tibetans; it's an excellent first-thing-in-the-morning practice, but probably no substitute for getting so little sleep.

 

It takes courage to return to school, especially if you've been away for awhile. My wife earned her Bachelor's degree over twenty years ago and started grad school last year. She'll have her degree by Christmas and I'm inspired by her.

 

As for the Combat Conditioning, it looks like you've reached a plateau. At this point, you may want to experiment with doing fewer reps but under greater tension. To learn how to do this, check out John Peterson's books Pushing Yourself To Power and The Miracle Seven as well as the forums on his website: http://www.bronzebowpublishing.com.

 

Take care.

[Mal]

Hi Japhy,

 

Thank for the link, I'll check it out. Nice to hear from you again too

 

Mal