Why did you pick up CMA for health?

[Royal Dragon]

Take a look at professional athletes. They train for hours a day and are strong and fast in their youth. By the time they reach middle-age with weakening blood and qi, many of them suffer from various forms of sports injuries and even die young.

Reply]
Many just stop training when they are old too, which is the biggest problem. I know several weight lifters in thier 50's who are healthier, and stronger than most young people because they never stopped training.

The real problem with exercises related poor health has to to with excessive training, especially in one form or the other. Long distance runners look pretty sickly to me. In fact it has been proven that long endurance work outs shrink lungs, heart and other internal organs because the body needs to be extra efficient to perform continually for excessive durations. The opposite is true for pure strength trainers, they need massive amounts of explosive energy, and thus larger organs develop.

A gymnast, who needs explosive strength, but also good endurance to perform long 4+ hour training sessions 4-5 times a week, fall somewhere in the middle.

If you really dive into martial arts, there are elements of strength development through weights, weapons and various other resistance exercises, as well as cardio and flexibility. We develop a balance similar to a gymnast in that respect. It's that balance of over all rounded development that gives us the health benefits and longevity.

The real problem with health issues related to certain exercise programs is they are too narrow in focus, and are excessive in that focus to the neglect of every thing else.

The activity is not important, making sure we exercise in all ranges to a profound enough level to see results, but not to excess is what is important.

The body needs 3 major types of exercise.

1. Strength
2. Flexibility
3. Endurance (both cardio endurance, and muscular endurance).

No matter what you do, these 3 must be in balance with sleep, waking rest, recovery and recreation as well as good nutrition.

If you throw any one of these 8 points out of balance with the rest, your health will suffer. Age will magnify the suffering.

Qi Gong, although not really needed for optimal health and longevity, does have a profound benefit and can be included and probably should be included the list as a 9th point.

[kreese]

As someone who studied sports science, there are a lot of opinions on health and fitness being thrown around that don't necessarily have any basis in research. And trust that millions of dollars are spent on making better athletes and preventing the U.S. from wasting more and more money on preventable illnesses resulting from obesity, such as Type II diabetes, heart disease, stroke, etc. I'm no expert, but I had to sit through a bunch of lectures and look at the results of many, many studied that pointed to the same conclusions...

Sure, if you train poorly in any modality, you will probably end up hurting yourself. But there are plenty of people still maintaining high levels of fitness and activity even into their advanced years. I think it is a bit silly to assume that everyone who trains vigorously in an "external" way will end up injured, diseased, or exhausted. There is a strong correlation between intense, aerobic exercise and reduced risk of mortality from all the top 5 killers. If part of your training involves getting your heart rate up, your getting some benefit. The body is amazing in the way it adapts to the beneficial stress of exercise that is difficult, makes your heart pound and increases your rate of respiration. There are also cognitive benefits to vigorous, aerobic exercise. WIRED magazine ran a fascinating article on the prevalence of aerobic activity in some of the most successful people out there in the business world.

All that said, there is something to be said for the relaxation, structural awareness/self-correction, and overall body-mind unity that comes from proper MA practice. These things are hard to quantify, but it is obvious that they have a strong effect on many people's sense of wellbeing and health. But vigorous aerobic exercise also touts many positive effects on energy level, resistance to stress and disease, and even decreases in both state and trait anxiety as well as depression. Again, the answer seems to be a synthesis of traditional and modern training paradigms, internal and external integration, qualitative and quantitative benefits. If you always send your blood to the skeletal muscles, you may not be giving certain organs the chance to help you repair and recover. If you always focus on relaxation, slow movement and efficient movement, you may be cheating yourself out of the clearly documented benefits of vigorous exercise.

[Eisenhans]

When I'm thinking about health, I'm think about:

- Strong lung and heart through running.
- Small waist line through sitting up.
- Strong muscle through weight lifting.
- ...

A small waistline? Being slightly overweight is actually beneficial to longevity iirc. Strong lungs, heart and muscles is something you get from MA anyway.

CMA will not be on my health list for the following reasons. Even great CMA masters may not be able to:

- Run 24 miles none stop.
- have small waist line through form training.
- lift up 240 lb weight.
- ...

... but most can beat up guys that can do stuff like that. Who is more healthy then?
Or put a runner on the wrestling mat - he will run out of gas pretty soon. What kin d of strength, endurance, etc are we talking about anyway? Marathon endurance? What for? Weightlifting I can barely understand, but a small waist is just aesthetics imho. One could have a 40" waist of pure muscle, for example. Even the infamous Qi Belly ist not "fat", just very thick.

So what's the health benefit that you can obtain from CMA that you can't obtain from:

- Ballroom dancing?
- Tennis?
- Basket ball?
- ...

You can beat people up that want to make you an unhealthy pile of smashed bones and broken dreams. You get a lot more durable and smooth than any of these athletic games will make you (up to a certain level, but then again, how many Tennis pros or NBA players do we have here?).

It seems to me that regular health exercise can help CMA but may not the other way around.

I experienced the opposite, at least when I got serious about MA (not only IMA). If I did like my Dojo comrades (ie. Running instead of Sparring, Bench Press instead of Sanchin or Junbi Undo), i found the striking power, quickness, etc quickly deteoriating (sp?).

- After I had serious running training, I could feel that my solo form training became effortless.
- Even I was in good shape in CMA training, it still took me more than 6 months before I could even finish a 12 miles running nonstop.

Really? It sounds strange, because "shadowboxing" and stuff is a completely different set of endurance than running, at least ime. ESPECIALLY with grappling, where even a good runner will get pwned pretty quickly.

Isn't it common logic that "to wrestle better, wrestle more"?

Do you feel the same way or your experience are different from mine?

As I said above, pretty the opposite in my case and I never shyed away from powerlifting or running really hard when I was young. Martial Arts, however, were completely different in terms of what I needed. For example: Nobody in Boxing is impressed if you can bench 440 and nobody in Wrestling will bat an eye if you can run like a mofo. Completely different sets of skills.

Now, as to what is better for health - Depends on how you life your life, I guess. If you life in a bad neigbourhood or in the wilderness, MA is much better for your health and if you haul around heavy stuff all day, then probably dealifting is better for your back than doing the Beijing Form over and over.
Of course, you could argue that IMA increases your regeneration powers, so it's not that easy en detail.

The thing is - what do you want to do with your life? Looking good at the beach? Beating people up? Just live a long time?

[Royal Dragon]

Keep the 9 points I mentioned above balance. It really is that simple.

[Craig]

Take a look at professional athletes. They train for hours a day and are strong and fast in their youth. By the time they reach middle-age with weakening blood and qi, many of them suffer from various forms of sports injuries and even die young.

Reply]
Many just stop training when they are old too, which is the biggest problem. I know several weight lifters in thier 50's who are healthier, and stronger than most young people because they never stopped training.

The real problem with exercises related poor health has to to with excessive training, especially in one form or the other. Long distance runners look pretty sickly to me. In fact it has been proven that long endurance work outs shrink lungs, heart and other internal organs because the body needs to be extra efficient to perform continually for excessive durations. The opposite is true for pure strength trainers, they need massive amounts of explosive energy, and thus larger organs develop.

A gymnast, who needs explosive strength, but also good endurance to perform long 4+ hour training sessions 4-5 times a week, fall somewhere in the middle.

If you really dive into martial arts, there are elements of strength development through weights, weapons and various other resistance exercises, as well as cardio and flexibility. We develop a balance similar to a gymnast in that respect. It's that balance of over all rounded development that gives us the health benefits and longevity.

The real problem with health issues related to certain exercise programs is they are too narrow in focus, and are excessive in that focus to the neglect of every thing else.

The activity is not important, making sure we exercise in all ranges to a profound enough level to see results, but not to excess is what is important.

The body needs 3 major types of exercise.

1. Strength
2. Flexibility
3. Endurance (both cardio endurance, and muscular endurance).

No matter what you do, these 3 must be in balance with sleep, waking rest, recovery and recreation as well as good nutrition.

If you throw any one of these 8 points out of balance with the rest, your health will suffer. Age will magnify the suffering.

Qi Gong, although not really needed for optimal health and longevity, does have a profound benefit and can be included and probably should be included the list as a 9th point.

QFT~!

[Royal Dragon]

What does QFT mean?

[Eisenhans]

@Royal Dragon:
It means "Quoted for Truth"

[jkuo]

@Royal Dragon:
It means "Quoted for Truth"

Heh, all this time I thought it was "Quite F___ing True."

[SitYodTong]

lol, me too!

Man, I did an hour and half of taiji Sunday morning (after a hideously painful tuina massage from my gf the night before) and it fixed up all my little nagging pains from training the week before. I am so glad I picked up IMA again.

Now I'm all hurty again. Stoopid Muay Thai.

[Royal Dragon]

LOL!! All I could think of was Quite Fond of Titties.

[SitYodTong]

Damn it, why didn't I think of that?

[Royal Dragon]

You must be an ass man.