Hey all, Friday 10.3.17 Loosening exercises standing postures stationary stance translation exercise (vertical circle). Translation means to shift ones weight between ones feet. This exercise teaches a circular path rather than a linear one. It's also in preperation for push hands patterns that you can also practice this vertical circle between the legs. Fixed step push hands patterns x 8, both sides and including some transitions. 4 x 5 minute rounds of fixed feet free pushing. 2 x in orthodox stances both sides. 1 x morror stance, changing sides half way through, 1 x parallel stance. evasion/ defense sparring drill vs. striking. focus: Moving off line and always making our position more awkward for the striker, rather than staying put and making it easier. Then the same only adding some adhering/ following, structure manipulations/ off balancing, seizing/light qinna. Looking to get into and maintain advantageous positioning. warm down Saturday 11.3.17 Had a Private I Liq chaun session this morning with instructor. Was great to catch up. We went through some basics, conditioning exercises, focus on the '13 points'. For partner work we went through all 8 of the spinning hand 'operations', a much cooler word for patterrns me thinks. Only downer was I went and got myself a parking ticket, ouch (£65). I'm thinking of appealing as there was no signage. Incidently I read an article later that day how such a high percentage of parking tickets were not upheld after appeals. Something ridiculous like 40%. It doesn't surprise me, money grabbing chancers!!
Hey, Hasn't been a great week for training. Following on from being ill last week it has been my wifes and little girls turns, both are on anti biotics. My poor Mrs was diagnosed with both laryngitis and tonsilitis, my little one with Scarlet fever ! Though we're a bit dubious about that. She was having temperatures and we think we may have overdone the nuerofen and she had a reaction - basically coming out in loads of redness/rashes all over. It mostly dissapeared right after the doctors visit. But anyway as I'm off training most of Saturday too, training has been on the back burner this week. I did a little bit, would have spent more time last night but for my little monkey crying for me at the back door.. Monday Stretching/ yoga/ foam rolling Thursday ILC basics/ neigong: (no particular order) condense/ expand saggital plane exercises up/down forward/back side to side concave/convex (open/close) horizontal plane foundation exercise frontal plane foundation exercise 'bobbing' and 'spinning'
Hey, Friday Stretching And ILC I covered the directional planes more fully in particular the saggital plane. Each plane of movement has 8 variations/ exercises to it. 3 circular planes; frontal, saggital, horizontal. I've had difficulty with saggital for some reason on 4 of the variations. I kind of focused on the others, but I have to work on them now as I feel I 'get' the others and they all feel ok. These problem 4 still feel a bit awkward, but I think i've got my head round them now and it's just a matter of the physical practice to get them in the muscle memory and they should stop feeling so wierd.. Saturday ILC workshop Good day in Hatfield. Covered some footwork and lower body work. This mostly involved an exercise called 'grinding', largely because you make use of the floor - little like grinding a pestle and mortar. Using friction and resistence for feedback, as well as laying a foundation in the legs it's (the particular exercise) also a way to training Peng jin. Or to put another way the feet supporting the hands; the feeling is like one of buoyancy. We also did some spinning hands to push and pull and other basics solo and partner. Had some hands on with the main man which was great.
Tuesday morning.. Bit unusual for me, but I hope I can make a habit of it. Did some running this morning along with a little meditation and some stretches.
Oh dear my heavy bag nearly fell down last night! I was planning to spend longer on the bag, but I went a bit too hard before long maybe 2/3 mins I see smatterings of plaster coming down. I stop and take a closer look and one side of the bracket has come away from the ceiling. Anyway, back to the session. Wednesday Opening standing meditation swings martial body (method) exercises chi gung tai chi long form, medium/slow Standing posture, hold the ball working on bowing and breathing methods (natural and reverse) in conjunction with eachother a bit more. Focusing on the force from centre to extremities, extremities back to the centre. Then inside cloudz mini kwoon for some more physical type work. Wall walk to hand stand hold - bit better this time, quite happy with the improvement. KB Turkish get ups, did more on the left, felt better than last time on that side. Kettlebel Arm bar; this is a floor exercise with the KB that is purportedly good for shoulder rehab. I still have a very slight issue with my right shoulder from sparring late last summer. It was fairly bad last year and for a while I avoided certain things. It's much better now but I can steel feel it's not 100% sometimes so this might help. I think this might be the point I switched to the bag for about maybe one round, kicks, punches and elbows, footwork, switching stance, head/ body movement and an extra dose of POWAH! oh dear.. truth is I was in a filthy mood (had a work related confrontation..) and went berzerker mode. that'll teach me. Press ups mountain climbers Finished with a bit of stretching / yoga/ foam rolling Closing standing meditation
Hey, Session with my coach last night: Thursday warm up and loosening exercises 3 x body method / body co-ordination exercises 2 x standing postures 2 person push and pull exercise 4 x push hands patterns with transitions fixed feet free striking hands drills (da shou), done at slow to medium pace and light touch contact. evolving to include some control elements: keeping the partner in an awkward off balanced position mixed with the strikes and the occasional 'na' (joint attack). Begining with one side attack the other defence (striking) then onto defending attacking together then adding in a few other of the elements described. 2 rounds of fixed feet free pushing 2 rounds of pad work; mixing up combos of punches then mixing in knee and elbow striking and at (most) times dealing with stuff coming back before, during and after combos. some exercises to warm down
Hi, hope you all had a fine weekend. Sunday Stretching Loosening Standing Meditation tai chi long form, slow/ medium neigong exercises foam rolling
Wednesday 30.3.17 stretching loosening standing postures moving neigong, various tai chi long form slow/medium
Saturday 1.4.17 Standing meditation loosening exercise Neigong tai chi long form, medium Wall walk to handstand press ups planking sit throughs roll to knee lunge (from back) kettle bell alternate swings kettle bell figure 8 swings running stability ball - got it out on the grass and basically rolled and spun around on it stretching Sunday Meditation, loosening, posture holding neigongs, static and moving tai chi long form x 2 (1 medium slow, 1 medium fast) stretching/ foam rolling
Friday 7.4.17 Stretching, waist down Session with coach: loosening exercises push hands drills; pattern, posture testing/rooting drill, free pushing drills, uprooting drill crawls and rolls sparring with takedowns; 16oz gloves and mouthguard pad work more loosening exercises
Tuesday 11.4.17 standing meditation loosening exercises hold the ball posture a few neigong exercises, static and moving A few rounds of Tai chi form (medium/fast) and some solo movement line drills - slanted flying being a favourite. standing to finish. Left shoulder has been a bit painful, I think from the crawls on Friday. One variation was reverse crawls in a backwards direction, I think that's the one that got me.. I'm hoping it won't linger too long.
Friday 14.4.17 standing meditation loosening exercises Tai chi long form, medium/slow neigong stretching low planks reverse plank bridge from back-roll up to knee lunge balance ball work shadow boxing sprawling on balance ball combination drill - shadow boxing with sprawling (balance ball) cross stepping/ jogging/ sprints
Hey, I think that's all folks for this log atm. Just wanted to thank you for reading it. I have a house move in the pipeline as I have just agreed a purchase and have some other projects and work, so busy times ahead this spring - summer. Training will continue of course. Some good months some not so good. It feels like a good time to take a break. Best wishes to my pals and the cool folks. See you next time out. Let the Tao be with you!
Hmmm, it is a pity for a nicely started log (when you are still planning on continuing your training). Anyway, you probably have your reasons. And maybe you will be in a mood to update your general progress occasionally Anyway congrats on the house purchase and good luck with moving!
Hey.. what's up. It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you Without a strong rhyme to step to Think of how many weak shows you slept through Time's up, I'm sorry I kept you! Thought this might be a good time to throw a few logs on the fire Not so busy, have some holidays coming, plan to get some training in so all good in the hood. My main thing at the moment is following a bodyweight strength training plan. It's an 8 week thing and I'm in the second week currently. Weeks 1-2 are assesment and practice phase. Currently I am following a particular warm up before each session followed by 3 circuits of 8 exercises. In one cases there are 4 variations of holds (hollow body) and for all the exercises bar the broad jump there are progressions to get you there. There are a couple of holds in there, but this seems like a good place for a list: Broad jumps x 3 Shrimp Squat (single leg squat/ leg to rear) push ups bridge press ups chin ups inverted press L sit (hold) hollow body (holds x 4) I'll keep this pretty brief for now; I did a session last night and this is roughly where I am with it. For a few of the exercises the full progression has come into play but I'm not there yet so sticking with the progression I am comfortable with. In this program you also chart a couple of categories as you go so after each session you give yourself 2 ratings based on Quality and Ease. Bridge press up I struggle with the press up part. I can get up to my head. One of my issues is flexibility through my wrists and shoulders as well as feeling there's a lack of strength to make the press up part. Chin ups are tough the full progression came up and I'm not really there, so my progression uses a half jump to pull up, short hold and slow lowering phase. Shrimp squat I'm down to about 3/4 of the way and it's pretty shaky - I imagine I'll be on the [progression for a little while.. The rest are going ok, the ones I am good with, at the current level, are the jumps, push ups, inverted press, hollow body hold. L sit is also tough going at the current progression, so I think that will be a tough one to get to for me also. Tomorrow I'm planning hitting bjj class in the morning and Sunday tai chi chuan in the park, if my wife lets me out to play. ps. almost forgot, today is active recovery so planning some tai chi work, stretching. Also planning some shadow boxing, light bag work and floor to ceiling bag. I recently sorted my boxing stuff out at home (heavy bag/ floor to ceiling bags), so I'm eager to have a play around. cheers, happy weekend George
Thanks mate, Quick update: weekend went well, managed to do both classes/ sessions of BJJ and TCC. I'm pretty pleased about the TCC as this is an instructor who I've worked with before and one of the few I would train with long term here in London. He took his classes away from the North London area and I drifted to other things and people etc. As I'm no longer working a regular schedule with RaisedSpirit arts, it's a real boon that this guy has got a Sunday thing going at the Park that is Literally over the road from my house. I was due my strength workout Saturday, but I cheated and skipped it, Sunday was TCC . Took Monday as an off day so got the bodyweight circuits in Tuesday evening, and last night I stuck to a bit of Tai chi (exercises/form) on active recovery day. Tonight I start first day strength circuits week 3. Tai Chi: I have done Wu style before, but stopped practicing the form some time ago. I'm ok with changing forms, or changing focus if you like; I feel I've had good insights and success from covering more that one style of tai chi form. Anyway, the decision I'm at now is the form I have been using for my training I have pretty much developed it (it's practice) to about as far as it can go. Or perhaps that should be as far as I can take it; no, that anyone can take a (tai chi) form I beleive. So what I'll do as a rough outline is start over with the Wu form; this will replace my practice for slow frame I think. And I will specialise my CPL tai chi to a fast small frame expression. I feel like I might even be ready to show off a video of that .. I think I have thought that and even mentioned it before but not followed through, this time I intend to follow through so keep a look out if you like some tai chi with a bit of thunder and lightening about it
Last night got back into the strength program; it's switched up a bit this week. the focus has turned more towards power and endurence. Last night was geared for power, so longer duration but less exercises. So 4 exercise this time performed for longer; broad jump, shrimp squats, chin ups, L sit. protocol includes doing as many as possible in the timeframe. But rather than try for any progressions, rather pick one where your ratings reflect that you are fairly comfortable with the progression. In addition to this there were 3 rounds of sprints to finish up (on the spot). Afterwards I did a couple rounds of fast tai chi, then held some standing postures and finished with a couple holds; superman and hollow body face up. I worked shadow boxing/ heavy bag last week as I intended but haven't managed to set up a floor to ceiling bag properly. I need a couple of slip hooks which I plan to get today. So I''ll try and sort that out, it's something I really enjoyed when I used it at a gym. Something else that I want to try and use is jump rope, never something I'm any good at so want to have a play around and see how I get on with it.. They might be on the cards for todays active recovery, plus some tai chi/ CIMA/ yoga/ stretching stuff I imagine.. The next circuit is switching it up to endurence work and involves something called super sets. Not really stuff I know a great deal about atm. I get the feeling it's going to be the toughest session thus far.
Correction. Just catching up with my program: there are 4 days of circuits this week. So 2 on, 1 day AR then another 2 on, AR, then day off. I'll hit the second one today then and see how things pan out.