by Dmitri on Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:49 am
For what very, very little that's worth, -- I don't think specificity of exercises is what really matters. I.e., with all due respect to everyone's experiences, I disagree with the "your foundational practice is fake, only Teh True Jibengong (TM) is the true jibengong!" mantra. (I may be misreading it, so I'll happily stand corrected if that's the case.) IMHO what you practice (from young age/over long period of time) matters substantially less, when compared to the fact of you practicing, -- as long as the practice has a few key attributes, most notably -- perseverance (i.e. going past the "Mommy! I just can't do another repetition! I'm gonna die!!" point), and awareness of what you're actually doing with/to your body (i.e. actively involving your mind into whatever it is you're doing). Even lifting some weights, or simple squats, pushups, jogging, etc., etc., when done properly and mindfully, and taken well past the point of "comfort", can do a LOT more for someone, compared to mindlessly and casually going, for a few minutes, through some very counter-intuitive, sophisticated, secret, authentic, esoteric, etc. exercises.
(I'm talking only about foundational practice here, not the actual IMA practice. With the actual IMA practice, what you practice matters just as much as how you practice it.)
Also... even if you didn't have ANY training in the past and have "rusty pipes", to reuse Ken's earlier metaphor, -- IMA training itself can help you fix those pipes before running water full-force through them. Won't be as easy of course, because your mind and body won't be as flexible as when you were a child, but IMHO quite doable. I've seen some people without any MA experience or any substantial "physical" background, in their very advanced age, display (after a lot of tai chi practice) some very potent "IMA attributes" in their movement/ability.
Last edited by
Dmitri on Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:51 am, edited 1 time in total.