Taiji Tidbits – 11/18/08

November 18, 2008 in Taiji | Tags: , , , | No comments

This whole ‘tidbits’ thing is kind of fun and a nice way for me to kind of document and track what I am doing.  Anyhoo, last night was kind of a rough night packed with a tight schedule.  I wanted to catch up on my episode of HBO’s True Blood but at the same time I wanted to be more ‘productive’.  So, I decided to do my zhan zhuang while watching the episode.

Is doing zhan zhuang during a TV program cheating? Maybe, but I did it anyways. In fact, back in the day, this is exactly how I started out doing zhan zhuang. I would do standing, stance work, push-ups, sit-ups, you name it, during TV programs.  While not ideal, I believe I was still able to benefit from the physical aspect of zhan zhuang.  In fact, after about 20 min into the session, I began feeling quite a bit of soreness at the outer upper thigh region.  The funny thing was touching my thigh, it was not hard, but felt soft to the touch, yet the pain was there. I worked on trying to melt the pain, but after no such luck, I decided to sit down on the edge of the chair and sit.

This morning after waking up, I noticed some pain in my left knee. Maybe the blanket was too heavy causing some torque in my knee?  Who knows, but I decided to switch shoes and put on some newer shoes as my older pair of Ecco Shoes are due for the trash. They have a slight split in the sole and the orthopedic foot pad may also need an update.  Luckily my newer pair of Ecco shoes has pretty decent arch support. I’ll see if changing shoes makes a big difference.

Tidbits – 11/17/08

November 17, 2008 in Meditation, Random, Taiji | No comments

Last night, I upped the breath count to 25 per posture instead of 15. The transition was pretty smooth and didn’t notice any troubles maintaining my awareness for the additional 10 breaths. I did notice some extra tension on the outer edges of my shoulder in addition to some tension in the upper-most thigh region.  I just worked on the melting imagery more and eventually the tension went away.

After completing the 3 zhan zhuang postures, I did some basic training exercises. I basically did some straight line drills of the following postures: Part Wild Horse’s Mane, Repulse Monkey, Ward Off, Cloud Hands. After the drills, I went directly into the first section of the Yang long form.  Overall, it was a good session and definitely something I will incorporate into future sessions.

Also, I potentially found a new training spot after clearing up some room in the basement. My son’s play area is down there, but there’s now some more room were I could definitely ‘do the form in the space of a cow sleeping’ type of training ;)

This morning while taking the little guy to daycare, I felt some nerve tingle in my left knee and then on the way to the car, I felt another slight tingle in my left shoulder.  It must be the change in weather as the temperature dropped about 20 degrees F or so overnight. On the other hand, just got some antibiotics and working through a spout of bronchitis and potentially some whooping cough (most likely from son’s daycare).  I’ve been sick for the last like 3-4 weeks and it’s not very fun.

On a far side note, I wish wordpress would allow the posting of an entry WITHOUT a title. Like define some random number or whatever if there isn’t a title. I guess I could do that myself, but I’d rather not.

Taiji Tidbits – 11/13/08

November 14, 2008 in Taiji | 1 comment

While waiting at the printer, I caught myself going through a couple repetitions of ‘part wild horse’s main’. Most people in my work area are used to me busting out some taiji stepping or movement practice from time to time, so it’s not that strange. In fact, one of my coworkers will stand outside his cube and practice his golf swing with an imaginary club!

After dinner, I began going through some beginning sequences of forms. I started off doing the first couple movements of Chen style, really sitting into the stances and then changed and did some Yang work.  When I ‘bust it out’ I like to do the ‘hotel style taiji’ which is basically the first 5 or so movements of the long form, either up to single whip or white crane. I like the feeling I get and can easily practice some movement and intention work in a very short amount of time and limited space.

While my wife and son were watching some TV, I did some a bit of the Liuhebafa (LHBF) raise hands and dragon form. I really like working on some of the LHBF material because it really emphasizes the open/close of the body, especially the 3 joints of the back.  By doing the moves slowly with emphasis on open/close, you can really feel the qi pumping.  I remember mentioning this to a LHBF buddy back in the day and he was like ‘Of course! The opening and closing of the lower back acts sort of like a qi pump and it can really get the energy flowing’. Duh!?!??

Right before bed, I did a session of zhan zhuang. To work things back up, I held 3 postures for 15 breaths each.  During the wuji posture, I would feel a couple of fingers on my right hand starting to twitch a bit. I felt a slight tingling in the upper right shoulder.  I guess this is a sign that I need to work on relaxing the right side of my body more ;)

To finish things off, I did the first part of the Yang long form up until white crane. This felt very smooth and calming and did not take much effort at all. It was a really nice way to finish the evening and I felt quite calm. Feeling the energy in my hands, I rubbed my palms together for a bit before massaging my calves, knees, thighs, arms, shoulder, etc. I then rubbed the outer edges of my eyes a bit and then clamped the palms of my hands over my ears to create a slight suction, after which I used my fingers to gently tap the back of my head, causing slight vibrations in my ear. I was ready for bed ;)

Recommended Reading

Being Effortless With Fong Ha
The Transmission of Touch
Pizza from Chen Xiaowang
Test of Solitude
Learning the Apps
The Inner Smile
Cranking Widgets and Taiji
Why Stomp?

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