Daily routine? Help!

Discussion on the three big Chinese internals, Yiquan, Bajiquan, Piguazhang and other similar styles.

Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby gretel on Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:43 pm

I "skip" sitting meditation all the time. I don't think it's a good idea to do so, however. It's not for stress reduction particularly, it's more about learning the ins and outs, nooks and crannies, tendencies to rationalization, how you talk nonsense to yourself on a regular basis -- of your mind. It's mind training. Standing meditation like Zhan Zhuang will probably do the same thing though. And 15 minutes is not really long enough for a useful session of sitting meditation.

The idea of working short periods of training throughout the day is a good one. It's also good to accept a discipline, something that you're not going to skip when you get busy. Like getting up early for 30 minutes of form practice every single day. I should take my own advice.

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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby Darthwing Teorist on Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:01 pm

Once you start to understand the basic principles of your art, integrate them in your daily life: sometimes you can practice breathing, other times you can move according to your art's principles. You can practice awareness, intent. Observe the people around you. Read books on martial arts and self-defense, watch some educative DVDs. If you spar or do drills, see what your problems are and then work on fixing them one by one at home - this is for setting goals.
И ам тхе террор тхат флапс ин тхе нигхт! И ам тхе црамп тхат руинс ёур форм! И ам... ДАРКWИНГ ДУЦК!
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby Samoobramba on Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:55 pm

BTW, I also planned to go once (or maybe twice) a week to study Chi Kung in a local school. I have the possibility to choose between the B.K. Frantzis school and the Mantak Chia school instructor. Any recomandations? I expect to learn more about internal power, internal martial arts usage, meditation and sexual qigong. I also opened a new topic about this.
Last edited by Samoobramba on Thu Aug 28, 2008 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby Fubo on Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:47 pm

Samoobramba wrote:Bao - My goal is good health, above the average strength and superior martial skills. :-)

Fubo - I added the "sitting meditation" because I heard that is an essential practice of the internal martial arts and maybe can also help with stress reduction. I don't know how it is effective or if is useful.


Samoobramba,

If I had a limited amount of alone time to train weekly and my goal was martial effectiveness, I would want to focus my time on things that would have more of a direct effect on gaining fighting ability. If you are already doing Zhan Zhuang, I personally feel that your extra 15 minutes dedicated to sitting meditation would be better severed doing something else. I have known people that gained amazing abilities in the Internal martial arts that have done little to no sitting meditation in their lives. Sitting meditation is not essential to learning IMA.
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby klonk on Thu Aug 28, 2008 9:16 pm

I you are all that jammed up for time to practice, devote eighty percent of your time to exercises for body awareness, stress control and health, such as zhan zhuang, qigong, whatever. You are more likely to die of a stroke than from not knowing the latest combat drills. Put first priority on good health and equanimity.

Good basic qigong framework will carry you through a certain amount of physical mistreatment all by itself. In the time left over, whack a punching bag.
I define internal martial art as unusual muscle recruitment and leave it at that. If my definition is incomplete, at least it is correct so far as it goes.
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby klonk on Thu Aug 28, 2008 9:22 pm

Samoobramba wrote:BTW, I also planned to go once (or maybe twice) a week to study Chi Kung in a local school. I have the possibility to choose between the B.K. Frantzis school and the Mantak Chia school instructor. Any recomandations? I expect to learn more about internal power, internal martial arts usage, meditation and sexual qigong. I also opened a new topic about this.


I would say the other topic has brought you good answers. I don't have firsthand experience with either teacher, but some years ago, Chia's Iron Shirt instructions found their way to me in first edition form. I hope what I read has been improved in subsequent editions.
I define internal martial art as unusual muscle recruitment and leave it at that. If my definition is incomplete, at least it is correct so far as it goes.
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby RayPina on Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:08 pm

At home basic conditioning

Push ups to failure
Sit ups to failure
Chin ups to failure (you can get a door chin up bar at Walmart)

Do three sets of these back to back with little or no rest.

Another good exercise is to reverse grip the chin up bar (one palm facing you the other turned outwards) and pull your knees to your chin. When you develop your abs, then pull them to your chin while twisting.

If you have a pool, local pool or live somewhere where its warm and there's water swimming is also excellent for shredding weight and remaining flexible.

None of these are enough by themselves. I train 8 hours of BJJ a week and 4 hours of boxing a week. I also surf every morning.

Know what you want. To stay in shape, swim and do that routine and you'll tone up for sure.

To be a real martial artist today, to be at today's standard (which is growing by the day) you have to train really hard.

You have to train to prevent the throw. Might as well train to throw while at it. You need to known how to defend the lock. Might as well learn how to lock. And then you have to be comfortable dealing with and delivering striking.

People don't want to hear it, but there ARE A LOT OF US who train that way. If you want your art to remain relevant you have to train harder.
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby Samoobramba on Sun Aug 31, 2008 11:40 pm

Thanks for your suggestions!
My main aim is a good shape, above the average strength and good combat skills. Good health is obvious. But for the strength conditioning and combat skills I know how to incorporate them in my daily routine. I am not sure about the "Chi Kung" part. As said here the essential part is Zhan Zhuang. Any other Chi Kung / Nei Kung exercise is worth to incorporate in daily routine (for busy people;-)?
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby Samoobramba on Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:55 am

What about doing tha Taijiquan Slow Form instead the Zhan Zhuang? Or maybe Bagua Circle Walking? Is Zhan Zhuang so superior to others IMA exercises?
Taiji and Bagua use mainly "movement", Xingyi use mainly "stillness" to develope Internal Strength. Is prolonged stillness essential or is good also the "slow" motion?
What does Zhan Zhuang that other exercises can do (so effectively)?
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby klonk on Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:30 am

A lot of people who post here (but not all) are impressed with zhan zhuang. My own opinion is that it produces greater results in less time than anything else you can do, if what you are looking for is balance and body awareness. For other purposes you will need other exercises. I don't think anyone says it is the only thing you need.

Something a little bit sneaky about my recommendation: Once you understand ZZ you can do it without adopting an obvious qigong or martial stance, so you can steal moments of training out of your day, for example when waiting for a bus, or even when sitting at a desk.
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby Samoobramba on Tue Sep 02, 2008 7:43 am

I agree that including the right principles (like looseness, balance, coordination,..) in the daily activities is the best thing.
As I understand the ZZ practice is highly recommended (and also essential) for IMA practicioners. And there is no other drill/exercise (like slow form or circle walking) that can fully replace it (especially in terms of effectiveness).
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby Harvey on Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:49 am

If you are planning to go to one of the local schools on a regular basis, ensure your practice and their syllabus don't comflict. Talk to the teacher, find out the relevant work in that system, find out at what level they introduce the different aspects of training. The only proviso I would make is that if the teacher doens't suggest at least 20 mins of ZZ, Santi or Cirlce Walking in your practice routine (built up to of course) then think twice about studying there, there isn't one teacher I have encountered worth training with who doesn't quote the "more standing/walking" mantra
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Re: Daily routine? Help!

Postby Samoobramba on Wed Sep 03, 2008 4:54 am

I agree that ZZ is probably the "core" practice of IMA systems. Also not all schools do it. However I found that the most "successful" schools use it. Probably the inclusion of the ZZ in the curriculum is the thing that says you if the school is good or not.
However I found that no all IMA schools (or its variations) use ZZ practice. They use "slow" motion movements. Probably that is not such effective but works (maybe only slower results).
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