Wednesday, July 25, 2018 Morning Total Gym Sun Taijiquan Yang Taijiquan Evening No JKD Mrs Xue had things to do so I had to be home Sun Taijiquan Yang Taijiquan Internal MA exercises/training
Wednesday, July 25, 2018 Morning Total Gym Sun Taijiquan Yang Taijiquan Evening No JKD Mrs Xue had things to do so I had to be home Sun Taijiquan Yang Taijiquan Internal MA exercises/training
Thinking of making some changes to the regular workout for a couple reasons 1) I get bored easily, generally I'm good with a routine for 6 to 8 weeks, then it is time to change or I will stop 2) the back spasm thing has me concerned.
Came to the conclusion that there is nothing, at least for me, that helps strength more than lifting weights. Not yoga, not body weight exercises. HAve to figure out what is causing the minor back spasms when I do the little lifting that I do.
August 03, 2018 Not a typical entry, mostly just me babbling on about what should be or might be Been doing a lot of thinking lately about age, condition, exercise and diet. And I think some of this is due to my return to JKD. Jeet Kune Do always seems to have a positive psychological impact on me. There has been a lot of… “DANG!!!! I’m in my late 50s, what the heck am I doing” and “I’m too old for this” going on in my head for a few months. Also, due to my past injury induced hiatuses I am in horrible shape. 6’1” tall at 250lbs. I was at 267lbs when I returned to working out after the first retina issue (#1 was considerably more serious than #21, but neither was fun) and I got down to 230lbs..before the 2nd detached retina hit me. In my youth, I considered my fighting weight to be 225lbs. But these days older with less muscle mass I should probably be shooting for 215lbs. Charts tell me 180, but I was 180 once and to me I looked like I was a victim of a famine. I have been experimenting with workout routines, weights, cardio, martial arts, and yoga to find what works best for me and I have been looking at my diet, but for some reason there I am having a much harder time than I did, prior to the 2nd retina issue, with willpower, so the diet is rough. And for the most part, due to Mrs Xue’s work schedule, I am Mr Mom so when I come home I must get dinner and I too have to eat, but there is where a motivational issue occurs. I get all the things done that are required of getting food for everyone, including clean up. I have worked all day, worked when I got home and then I take a break and sit down. This is where I can get lazy, or fall asleep, or talk myself out of things, or make myself believe I need a desert. As much as I like my recliner, it is not my friend at that time of day. Would be a good time for some Lite Yoga though, going to have to see if I can get myself doing that instead, but I am afraid I will his savasana and it’s goodnight Xue. I also have been thinking about retirement lately, this is new to me by the way. A few months back I realized I was getting close and that I can retire in less than 7 years. Started to wonder what and I going to do and I began to think; “well heck, teach Taijiquan” but then JKD popped back into my life and the thought “Why not teach Xingyiquan too” showed up. I also want to help old folks, like I am becoming, to stay in shape and be healthy. This of course means I must be as well if I am serious about this. So that means exercise, proper diet and possibly pursuing an ACE fitness certification…. Realizing if I do that I will likely be the oldest guy in the room taking the test. But then I was the oldest guy in the room at my first JKD school (actually 2nd, just the same lineage and still the oldest guy there) and I am the second oldest guy in the room where I am now, I was the oldest last class. All this is in the early stages, could run smack into another health issue that takes me out of training again, who knows. I'm pushing 60, out of shape, arthritic and likely out of my league, but at least it is something to think about, and I just wanted to throw that out there in a hope that if I write it down and post it for all to read that it might just motivate me a bit to go through with all or part of this. Additional Retirement Note: I plan on restoring old motorcycles too…. I started my work life as an auto mechanic and fixed a few bikes in my day as well.
August 04, 2018 Push hands this morning Swimming in the afternoon Taijiquan (Yang & Sun) in the evening
August 06, 2017 Yang Long Form Sun Short form August 07, 2018, morning One of the many Taijiquan warm-ups I have learned over the years. Yang Long Form Wuji Standing Sun Short Form and the triumphant return of Chen Shi Chan Si Jin (Chen style silk reeling) Avoiding weights this week due to back strain last Sunday
August 7, 2018 Evening Wuji standing (Yang version) Yang long form Yang fast form Wuji standing (Sun version) Sun Short Form Wuji - Yang version (Yang Chengfu in Wuji posture) Wuji Sun Version
August 13, 2018 Due to twisting my back and hurting a knee a little while ago, I took some time off from weights and treadmill. Now that things are doing better I thought I'd give it a try this evening. Morning Crunches Yoga Sun Taijiquan Evening Dumbbell work, upper body Treadmill Sun Taijiquan Yang Taijiquan Discovered that there was something strange about my posture while doing bent over one arm rows and bent over triceps work. This appears to be where the mid back discomfort was coming from. Decided that I should confine that to the total gym
August 14, 2018 Morning Sun Taijiquan Short form Chen Silk Reeling Yang Taijiquan Long form Crunches a little Yoga Evening Got home, felt great, got dinner for myself and the youngest, ate and then...all my energy just vanished. Ended up asleep in the recliner later, Yoga Note: something just seemed to compel me to return to yoga, working on a new routine. I will post it once I have it all worked out. Also something seems to be lightly pushing me away from Xingyiquan and towards Dachengquan. Have no idea where that will go, I have considerably less background in Dachengquan as compared to Xingyiquan. And as far as I can tell the only teachers worth gong to in my area are 4 hours away..so.... time will tell
8/21/2018 Trying to figure out a routine that will fit everything into my overly packed day; Taijiquan, Xingyiquan, weights/total gym, treadmill, yoga Also realizing my knees have been hurting a lot lately and it is all since returning to JKD...go to class this week and see how it goes
August 27, 2018 Morning Push hands Evening Sun Taijiquan Yang Taijiquan August 28, 2018 Morning Yoga Sun Taijquan Afternoon Yang Taijiquan Evening Sun Taijiquan Xingyiquan Yiquan Not a bad day
I have not been as diligent at entering my workouts of late. But I have been doing the upper body dumbbell routine with some total gym regularly. But I noticed something over the weekend....I feel like I'm getting weaker. I looked into possibilities as to why and it is most likely my muscles have become use to the routine. So I did the bowflex routine this evening, it is based on a body weight routine with a chin-up bar. And it also shows just how wimpy I have become. Going to mix the upper body routine, TotalGym Routine, BowFlex Routine August 27, 2018 Morning Crunches short Yoga routine Sun taiji Evening BowFlex Routine Sun Taijiquan Yiquan standing and stepping routine Yang Long Form Yang Fast Form Bowflex routine, 2 rounds, bars set to 160lbs (not as impressive as it sounds), 10 reps Shoulder width pulldown, underhand grip Hands together pulldown, underhand grip Shoulder width pulldown, over hand grip Shoulder width behind the neck pulldown Hands together pulldown, overhand grip Dips on Total Gym - 15 reps Push ups -15 reps Squats, narrow stance - 15 reps Squats, hores stance - 15 reps Yiquan standing forst nigt doing routine, short on time and did not want to push it yet All stances only held for 1 minute 1) Body building stance (Standing like tree/hunyuan/Zhan Zhuang) 2) Attacking stance right 3) Attacking stance left 4) Santi Shi right 5) Santi Shi left 6) Modified Santi Shi, right, Yiquan 7) Modified Santi Shi, left, Yiquan 8) Wuji, Yiquan 9) Bear Stance 10) Tiger stance 11) Ride Tiger stance 12) Wuji, Taijiquan The only stance there I have not officially been taught, that I am working to figure our ate the "Attack stance: and the "Modified Santi Shi, Yiquan" I use to do a routine that can be foind in Lam Kam Chuen's book "Chi Kung Way of Power" When I was doing these I was holding all posture 10 minutes each posture. But the last time I did this was about 10 years ago 1) Wuji 2) Bear standing 3) Holding the Ball (Hunyuan) 4) Extending to the side 5) openning outward 6) sealing Note: the routine I did this evening would never make it to 10 minutes a posture, I simply do not have that kind of time. If it continues it will get divided up
August 28, 2018 Morning Yoga Sun Taijiquan Yang Long Form Evening Sun Taijiquan Yiquan Stepping - basically a V-step..kinda sorta Yiquan version of Piquan...kinda sorta Stance training; 2 minutes per stance Wuji - Sun Style Variation Hunyuan (Most call Zhan Zhuang) Wuji - A yiquan variation Santi Shi right (Xingyiquan) Santi Shi left (Xingyiquan) Bear standing (Xinyiquan, Xingyiquan, Yiquan) Attack stance right (Yiquan) Attack stance left (Yiquan) Tiger stance (Yiquan) Ride Tiger right (Xingyiquan, Yiquan) Ride Tiger Left (Xingyiquan, Yiquan) Wuji - Yang style variation
August 29, 2008 Morning Crunches a little Yoga Evening Total Gym Workout Sun Taijiquan Yang Taijiquan Yiquan stepping August 30, 2008 Morning Crunches a little yoga Sun Taijiquan Evening Sun Taijiquan Yang Taijiquan Yiquan Stepping Yiquan stance training Xingyiquan 5 elements
Went to push hands today Did push hands with a CMA guy who is also a grappler stated off push hands but then he took me to the ground I believe out of habit I actually did not end up in a bad position it was purely accidental I assure you It was very cool.... I was also very happy I opted for the Semi-rigid knee brace today
September 17, 2018 Just wanted to post something here that will hopefully help keep me motivated Since I have had the time (again) due to my knees (again)…and now my right wrist…I’ve been doing some thinking about martial arts, training, exercise, diet, health. I realized my injury prone time started about 10 years ago… broke my ankle and then blew out a knee, and then another knee and spent a couple years on crutches, using a cane and wearing knee braces of various support strengths. And since then in an effort to get back to where I was with martial arts and health I have been all over the map (not meaning Martial Arts Planet ), in order to regain what I had lost and what I was trying to attain, and along the way reinjuring myself much more often than I should have. Various exercise routines; various strength routines, cardio, yoga Etc. Assorted diets; balanced low calorie, Vegan, Vegetarian, Lacto-ovo-vegetarians, Lacto-vegetarians, Ovo-vegetarian, Pollotarian, Pescatarian (Pescetarian), Flexitarian, etc. And assorted styles of martial arts too; JKD, Sanda, Yiquan/Dachengquan, a dash of Krav Maga, a return to Baguazhang, a return to Wing Chun, even started working with my old TKD and Long Fist kicks at one point. Considered BJJ, MMA, Hapkido, Ninjutsu, Aikido, Judo and even a return to old school Jujutsu of my youth (think early 1970s). Some of those that I considered, when I visited, I realized the school and I did not fit, or my schedule did not fit the school or my arthritic knees and hips simply could not sit that way. But after all this jumping around trying and looking I do feel I have befitted to various degrees, but I really have not gotten all that far, or at least not as far as I feel I should have after all that. When I broke my ankle, I was a Yang/Chen Taijiquan guy and a Xingyiquan guy too (truth be known I was addicted to Xingyiquan), but even then, I tried different styles to see what I thought. But after the injuries and way to long recovery time with the addition of arthritis, Chen Style was out of the question, some Xingyi postures were difficult and overall Yang Taijiquan and Xingyiquan lost a lot. I want to say here, that in most cases, I blame the re-injury more on the workout routines I was doing and not so much on the other styles of Marital arts, although I did get a detached retina training Wing Chun. So, I started looking around to see what would get me back to where I wanted to be. I also now realize I was trying to shortcut the problem and not put in the needed time and work I should have been doing to achieve my goal. Although I will admit JKD did show me a lot and get me back on the path in the very brief time I trained it, JKD opened me up to a lot of possible applications within Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and Yiquan (what little I know of it) that I had not thought of before and I do not regret any of the martial arts training I did and I am especially pleased with JKD. However, the push hands group I am in has shown me I have lost a lot of the full body usage and the feel of a “Internal” marital arts guy (internal used for clarification purposes. I do not put a lot into the separation of internal and external). All of this is a long way around to saying I am looking at a different approach to exercise that is based on research I have been doing as it applies to exercises old guys should consider doing and not doing, some things I have seen from Ken Gullette, some things I saw Paul Andrews of the Xingyi Academy, in England, doing and a bit of exercise gear I want to try to see if it fits the bill. I will talk more about this after I give it a try to see if it does what I hope it will do as it applies to full body unity, fitness and health. I will still be doing some things with the Total Gym (Don’t want Chuck to come after me if I quit ) and of course the treadmill has to return, although running is something I have been told not to do, fast walking (approximately 4mph) seems to work ok. Basically, being much closer to 60 than 50 and having a much longer recovery time, limited time to do everything I want to (as has been proven to me by my failure to keep up with the program I designed), and in an effort to not reinjure myself, I am looking to center all of this around Taijiquan, Yiquan and hopefully Xingyiquan (knees still a bit of an issue there), in an effort to improve and these styles and understand them and apply then as it concerning health fitness and martial arts. With a goal of being a competent, at least what I consider competent, teacher of these arts when I retire in 7 to 10 years. Additionally: I have located a Xingyiquan teacher who appears to be very good who is 2.5 hours form my house and I have located a Yiquan teacher that is supposed to be very good who is also 2.5 hours from my house. Most unfortunately, they are in opposite direction from my home, one east one south west. As for diet, looking back I had the most success and felt the healthiest when I was a Vegetarian. However, I feel, nutritionally speaking, that Flexitarian is the best way for me to go. But no red meat at all, stomach can’t handle it anymore Once I start the Taiji/Xingyi/Yiquan centered workout I will let others know how it goes and if it helps or not. Enough of my rambling. Note: Flexitarian; A semi-vegetarian or flexitarian diet is one that is plant-based with the occasional inclusion of meat.
