The Grand Ultimate Question

Student asked me "When is the best time to train my T'ai Chi?"

-In the morning
-before you eat
-after an argument
-as you sit in "going nowhere" commuting traffic
-before paying bills
-in the shower
-if you are ill
-noontime is always good
-before you pick a fight
-when they are no cats around
-as you fill you gas tank up
-during class
-watching any of the Friday 13th movies.
-just before bedtime
-right after practicing T'ai chi
-after you eat
-while petting puppies

by Gbro910

The student then interrupted me with, "So I should pretty much be practicing all the time?"

I reckon so.

DarkArashi

Injury FREE!!!

No, not really.

I am usually plagued with one injury or another.  But as a martial arts teacher, I am expected to be injury free.

First, a definition of injury...tweaking of oneself to the degree of not being fully mobile and functional.  Yeah, this means if you break a fingernail you are technically injured.  Minor injuries are like bruises, or cramping.  Something that heals up with a day.  Tougher injuries are strains, pulls, concussions were you may need to rest for a day.  Major injuries are like having a leg ripped off.  Kinda puts you at a disadvantage in your next "Butt Kicking" contest.

Due to my workouts being long and stressful it is real easy to earn an injury.  When you do three hundred pushups, whether all at once or spaced out, it only takes one wrong pushup to strain a wrist, or forearm or upper arm.

I know, yeah but as a teacher you should have mastered the exercise.  Well, you lose focus on just one rep and you lose structure...BOOM an injury.  You get tired and strain the wrong muscle group to compensate and BOOM an injury.  You lose vigilance for a second and this is when injuries occur.

We have all been there.  Driving and your attention is distracted to the right as the fellow in front of you jams on their brakes.  Someone offers to shake your hand and sneezes into theirs a split second before you grab.    Now you are sick.  This is why I like ear punching.  I never caught a cold for socking someone in the ear.

Recently, I was recovering from right upper arm strain and tendon strain of the left elbow, as well as, serious stiffening in the lower calves and Achilles tendon.  I was not moving at 100% and but still scrappy.  During a demo, I performed the Hua Fist.  It is one of our longer and more robust forms.  At part I just finished covering 21 feet in 3 bounds and then reversed my momentum to leap backwards.  As I landed on my left leg, I felt my calf muscle twang like the big "E" string on a guitar.  There was a dramatic pause that everyone thought was me forgetting the form.  I was waiting to for the damage to register.  Nothing, so I continued.

When I landed, I had very little strength in that leg and if I straightened the leg...TOTAL AGONY!!!!  I had severely pulled my left calf muscle.  It was two days before I could begin to walk normally.  Folk thought nothing of it since I went on to teach another class and attend a three hour seminar after that.  I had been reduced to 20% effectiveness.

Martial arts has taught be to still be able to move when injured.  Keep going.  My long grueling workouts set me up so when I am at 20%, I am still more the 400% of the physical level of common folk.

Injuries are not to be ignored.  They are great lessons in being eternally vigilant so they never happen again.  Perfect lessons for continuing to move and adjusting for your weakness.  And as my wife says, valuable lesson in learning to rest and heal.

Yes dear!

Injuries are inevitable, just like taxes.  Do you best when you are 100% to be ready for when you are not at your best.

Good Training,
DarkArashi

Boning up on health

I pose you a question; what if I had a pill for you.  It would protect you from illness.  You would never get sick, get cancer and never suffer from the sniffle of allergies.  Pretty cool, right?

And this magic pill had only one side effect...frail bones.

It would be great to never be sick again, but you couldn't lift a gallon jug without snapping the bones in your arm.

Oh come on, there is no such thing...now get on to the post.

Actually, there are drugs like this.  They will protect you from one ailment at the cost of your health.  We seek ways around what is really necessary...working out.

There is no substitute.  No pill, no fat loss system, no meditation that can produce the same results as constantly stressing our systems.

Working out is a great way for improving one's health and stamina, but what about bone strength?  Bone Strength?  You do not strengthen bones like you do muscles.  Dufus!!!

No you don't.  Strengthening bones comes from repeated trauma along the length of the bone.  Meaning if you walk, you will be strengthening the lower half of the Tibia and Fibia.  The more you can jar the bones and then rest, the stronger they become.

WHAT?! This is all to easy.  Why don't more people do this?

It takes time and effort.

I train in a specific protocol called Iron Bone Conditioning.  It starts with striking a heavy bag to build the bones, then you progess to the Makiwara (a board wrapped with padding.)  Then to wooden beams and then concrete. 

By Mike Deodato

Imagine having bones as strong as Wolverine's adamantium bones.  Nearly unbreakable.  How cool would it be to jump off the roof with your great grandchildren and not shatter every bone from your ankles to halfway up your spine.

Crazy you say, I have spent more than three decades practicing Iron Bone.  Students shake their heads as they watch me punch beams and cinder-block walls. 

Like anything else, this takes time and continual effort.  Time to start your training is now.

Oh, and no grandbabies were hurt in the typing of this blog.

DarkArashi