Physical condition

[Pranaman]

I have sciatic nerve pain at the moment, it inhibits me from running. I also would like to lessen the body fat that I have. i'm about 5' 10" and weigh 160 lbs. not much muscle. I exercise about an hour everyday, two to three hours mon/wed. I've noticed more muscle tone and size, my weight has generally stayed the same so I guess I got to be losing some fat. I would be running, but my nerve won't let me. Any other way for me to lose unneeded body fat? My stomach isn't big, but it does make a certain yiquan stance more difficult, it is an expression of my lack of optimal health, which is my goal.

[松永道]

How is your diet?

[mjjbecker]

We've been here before...

 

Your belly isn't holding you back, your mind is.

 

http://www.emptyflower.com/xingyiquan/cros...wangshujin.html

 

I've said this before to you. You let yourself be distracted. Your attention flits between this and that. One another thread you comment that you feel some real benefits to your zhang zhuan practice, yet you talk about Spring Forest qigong and doing that. Why? Why? Why?

 

Instead of adding more to what you are already doing, you need to be doing more of what you are already doing. It is as easy, and as difficult as that.

 

An hour or two of zhang zhuan, an hour or two of drilling and repeating the basic movements, an hour or two form practice.

 

You already have the keys, you need to use them. Less internet, more training .

 

In the immortal words of the Nike slogan, 'Just do it!'

 

Best,

 

Mike

[qirin]

what kind of exercise do you do now? breaking a sweat is usually a good indication that you are burning calories, so if what you are doing makes you sweat, you could just try doing more.

 

I lost a lot of weight a few years back by bike riding. another way to burn a lot of calories is hiking up hills, but your sciatica might get in the way of either of those. you could try swimming, bodyweight exercises (a.k.a. calisthenics) or circuit/ballistic weight training. also playing sports and plyometrics, but those are probably out. there's also dancing, but it doesn't burn a lot of calories unless you do it very vigorously.

 

for info about calisthenics, try http://www.combatfitness.co.uk or http://bodyweightculture.com. things like burpees, mountain climbers, and push-ups.

 

a "circuit" is when you cycle from exercise to exercise, each using a different muscle group. an example using bodyweight exercises would be:

 

burpees - sit-ups - squats - windmill - push-ups - mountain climber

 

you do each exercise for like ten repetitions and then rest for a minute and then start again at the beginning.

 

if you have weights, you can do a cycle like

 

shoulder press - squat - curl - weighted crunch - bent-over row - lunge - side bend

 

do the reps quickly and use a weight light enough that you can keep it up for some time. the general recommendation is 50% of the heaviest weight you could use for that exercise.

 

ballistic weightlifting, which can be done with regular weights or kettlebells, means hoisting weights using your whole body. if you're interested in that, google crossfit or olympic weightlifting.

 

the key to burning calories is pacing yourself so you keep your heart rate up. keep sweating, and put in a good thirty or forty minutes with your heart rate at at least 130 bpm. if you know how, you can also do yoga sun salutations at a good clip.

 

however diet is key. when I lost weight from cycling, I was really watching my diet. mroe recently I have been getting a lot more exercise but haven't lost weight at all because I just eat as much as I am hungry for. if you burn a lot of calories, your body is going to want you to replace them, so you really need to make sure you dont overeat and end up shooting yourself in the foot.

Edited September 30, 2008 by qirin

[Pranaman]

hahahahahahaha, i actually laughed out loud. It's funny because you are right.

[mjjbecker]

hahahahahahaha, i actually laughed out loud. It's funny because you are right.

 

Once you take your qigong practice beyond an hour per session, you will be surprised at the difference.

 

A half hour is good for health and general well being, but an hour and over, well, see for yourself.

 

Best,

 

Mike

[Vajrasattva]

Once you take your qigong practice beyond an hour per session, you will be surprised at the difference.

 

A half hour is good for health and general well being, but an hour and over, well, see for yourself.

 

Best,

 

Mike

 

 

this is so true.

 

Also try to do Chi Kung like 15 min every hour in a 12 to 16 hour period as you do your normal activities. just like one would take a cigarette break take a Chi Kung Break!

 

Peace

 

S

[松永道]

...You let yourself be distracted. Your attention flits between this and that. One another thread you comment that you feel some real benefits to your zhang zhuan practice, yet you talk about Spring Forest qigong and doing that. Why? Why? Why?

 

Instead of adding more to what you are already doing, you need to be doing more of what you are already doing. It is as easy, and as difficult as that.

 

An hour or two of zhang zhuan, an hour or two of drilling and repeating the basic movements, an hour or two form practice.

 

You already have the keys, you need to use them. Less internet, more training .

 

 

Fantastic advice and I aspire to do a better job myself with it. By the way MJJ, any opinion on training sequence? Zhan zhuang, drilling, then form work? Lately I've taken to zhan zhuang and form in the morning to open everything up, gong and muscle stuff in the afternoon before dinner, and maybe a bit more soft, small frame form work before meditation and bedtime. But I'm still working out the kinks. This summer I stayed up later for drilling at night, which was fun, but too cold now!

 

Still looking forward to your thread on gongfu when you get the time.

[mjjbecker]

this is so true.

 

Also try to do Chi Kung like 15 min every hour in a 12 to 16 hour period as you do your normal activities. just like one would take a cigarette break take a Chi Kung Break!

 

Peace

 

S

 

Indeed. Practice can be broken up over the day. Proper breathing is qigong all day long!

 

Best,

 

Mike

[Gerard]

Any other way for me to lose unneeded body fat?

 

Fasting + intensive meditation = if you can.

 

 

Alternatively, can you swim or walk for long distances + healthy diet.

[mjjbecker]

Fantastic advice and I aspire to do a better job myself with it. By the way MJJ, any opinion on training sequence? Zhan zhuang, drilling, then form work? Lately I've taken to zhan zhuang and form in the morning to open everything up, gong and muscle stuff in the afternoon before dinner, and maybe a bit more soft, small frame form work before meditation and bedtime. But I'm still working out the kinks. This summer I stayed up later for drilling at night, which was fun, but too cold now!

 

Still looking forward to your thread on gongfu when you get the time.

 

Fundamentally do what you are comfortable with. Seems like you know what you are doing.

 

A hot drink, my teacher recommends tea, is worth having in the morning. It really does get the circulation going. The body needs time to 'wake up'.

 

I will do the other thread tonight, I promise. Just need to collect my sources and thoughts into a coherent whole. It is the summation of thoughts, ideas and experiences over quite a few years and remains ongoing. It will provide some interesting avenues of exploration for those inclined to do so.

 

Best,

 

Mike

[zanshin]

Try piriformis stretches- frequent cause of sciatic pain, may clear it right up.

 

http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/archi...is-syndrome.php

[Vajrasattva]

Indeed. Practice can be broken up over the day. Proper breathing is qigong all day long!

 

Best,

 

Mike

 

yes this what Dr. Morris taught me and it works!

 

 

 

Fasting + intensive meditation = if you can.

Alternatively, can you swim or walk for long distances + healthy diet.

 

yes and swimming long distances with Chi kung breathing!

 

Walking with small weight in hands doing slow motions & chi kung breathing.

[松永道]

I will do the other thread tonight, I promise. Just need to collect my sources and thoughts into a coherent whole. It is the summation of thoughts, ideas and experiences over quite a few years and remains ongoing. It will provide some interesting avenues of exploration for those inclined to do so.

 

 

Please take your time. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

 

I appreciate the effort. Honestly, I think this community has the potential to really become something should more and more people start the taking time to crystallize their experiences into some well thought out essays. Sources? Fantastic. Just a little bit of scholarship goes a long way for underpinning and supporting personal experience and intuition. For the amount of time some of the members here have put into internal exploration they should be PhDs. And there's also no reason they can't produce scholarship on the same level. Not only are such essays valuable to others but they're also exceedingly beneficial to the writer's own education.

 

Cheers! I look forward to the final product.

[mjjbecker]

Please take your time. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

 

I appreciate the effort. Honestly, I think this community has the potential to really become something should more and more people start the taking time to crystallize their experiences into some well thought out essays. Sources? Fantastic. Just a little bit of scholarship goes a long way for underpinning and supporting personal experience and intuition. For the amount of time some of the members here have put into internal exploration they should be PhDs. And there's also no reason they can't produce scholarship on the same level. Not only are such essays valuable to others but they're also exceedingly beneficial to the writer's own education.

 

Cheers! I look forward to the final product.

 

Just finished.

 

After reading your post I'm worried now it might be a disappointment! I hope not.

 

A lot of it is my thoughts based on what I have experienced and read over the years. There are some very interesting sources in the Dan Harden thread I referenced. Also, I hope some of my pointers might be a little help with some peoples training. It's basic stuff, but often neglected. The fundamental stuff done right really is the key though.

 

Best,

 

Mike

[Pranaman]

is fasting and rather intensive muscle work safe?

[zanshin]

I certainly wouldn't do both at the same time (fasting and intense muscle work).

 

It sort of depends how you do it- a light fast can be beneficial, part of the reason people have difficulty with diets is we put our bodies into starvation made, especially when you eat sporadically, when you eat like that the anthropological program is to think food is scarce and you should really put on reserves when you get some, better to eat regularly don't starve yourself, eat small frequent meals healthy food and increase your activity level, you want your body to think there's plenty of food, but be ready to run from tigers

 

Same with intense training you can get good results you can get injured easily too, explosive techniques and power lifting- if you're an elite athlete you might need them to break thru plateaus, but for health and fitness a slower safer approach might be better. You can get repetitive strain injury continuing to exercise well past fatigue with running swimming whatever so you need to listen to your body. All the above holds true even for young fairly healthy people of course if you have health problems more complicated and more precautions.

[mjjbecker]

is fasting and rather intensive muscle work safe?

 

Now what do you think? Hmm?

 

Now I will say this. Don't drink Coke before you go to bed. Even if you do practice qigong. It will still cause insomnia .

[qirin]

is fasting and rather intensive muscle work safe?

 

gotta disagree with mjjbecker et al. here. my opinion is that people tend to be overcautious about these kinds of things. your body is very resilient and can withstand large amounts of stress for short periods of time.

 

one of my problems with qigong and TCM, at least as I have been exposed to it, is an infatuation with doing things the "right" way, which parallels similar trends in Japanese and American culture. feldenkrais, conversely, taught that there's not right and wrong ways to do things, just different ways that have different consequences. if you are healthy and balanced, doing something "the wrong way" for a short period of time doesn't matter. it's only when you do things habitually that are detrimental that you will have problems.

 

human beings evolved during a period when scarcity was common, and scarcity would most often be accompanied by hard work. when the snows came, you had to march, you had to hunt for food, etc. people often talk about having "the right diet," and talk in terms of what you should eat each day, but I think that's misguided. our bodies don't need to be fed like babies. we don't need to eat every three hours. we don't need meat and bread every day. it's okay to go several days without eating. the point is to maintain balance over time.

 

you might be interested in ori hofmekler's warrior diet, which involves alternating periods of controlled undereating (and exercising during those periods) with periods of controlled overeating. he even gets into, a little, the idea of having lighter and heavier days.

 

as you can see, I am a firm believer in cycling, both for intellectual reasons and because that's what my body seems to prefer. I encourage you, too, to make your cycles coincide with changes in the world. eat less during the week and more on weekends. when you get a new job, eat less for a few days. after a big workout, celebrate with a healthy lunch. fast on the equinoxes and solstices. during the summer, eat smaller meals and more leafy vegetables. during the winter, eat less often but more at a time. that's assuming you live somewhere that has a winter; I live in southern california where it's June all year long

 

the bottom line for losing weight: eat less, move more. just staying on your feet all day can burn some calories.

Edited September 30, 2008 by qirin

[mantis]

check this out

 

http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Bu...ns/lesson01.htm

[Gerard]

is fasting and rather intensive muscle work safe?

 

 

Definitively not a good idea. Fasting is a very demanding thing on your body & mind. You'll shock your body and place too much stress on your nervous system. Don't even try fasting while you are working either.

 

Best is done at meditation retreats or during your holidays, if you got nothing to do.

[rodgerj]

Edited August 30, 2009 by rodgerj

[metzu]

When I had sciatica pain on my right hip and down leg. Hot baths and walking. Took the pain away and it never returned.

Joe

[Unconditioned]

Indeed. Practice can be broken up over the day. Proper breathing is qigong all day long!

 

Best,

 

Mike

 

Don't take this the wrong way please!

 

How do you find that kind of time?? I don't think my job would allow me to leave my desk that often nor is there a place to practice at work.

[mjjbecker]

Don't take this the wrong way please!

 

How do you find that kind of time?? I don't think my job would allow me to leave my desk that often nor is there a place to practice at work.

 

No offence at all .

 

Proper breathing, most importantly from the abdomen, not the chest as many people do.

 

If you don't already breath this way, you can learn how to by practising qigong and doing so until the breathing becomes a habit.

 

I 'learned' how to breath from the abdomen by practising the 18 step Taiji Qigong exercises, and there is a thread on them currently active.

 

I would add that this is normal breathing, not reverse breathing. In and out, from the abdomen.

 

You don't have to be standing or sitting cross legged either. On your chair, let your thoughts just fall away-no force-and think about your dantien. Breathe. There you go.

 

Best,

 

Mike

 

P.S. One of the reasons I have long stopped doing crunches are because they screw up the ability to breath properly. There are better ways to condition the midsection.