the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

How to you maintain the following abilities? Your thought?

1. Endurance,
2. Strength,
3. Flexibility,
4. Speed,
5. Balance,
6. MA skill.

Eat and drink healthy/nutritiously, avoid damp and windy conditions and practice and rest as usual………………won’t guarantee the maintenance of ones peak abilities………………But anyway I wrote something that sound as good advice.

Keep moving

1. Endurance = energy conservation and close power generation
2. Strength = proper understanding and use of leverage
3. Flexibility = foot work and positioning
4. Speed = sensitivity and distance
5. Balance = knowledge of center and weight placement
6. MA skill = all of the above

It is the reason we study internal, an external stylist will never understand.

johnwang wrote:How to you maintain the following abilities? Your thought?

1. Endurance,
2. Strength,
3. Flexibility,
4. Speed,
5. Balance,
6. MA skill.

1, You can improve stamina by jogging. But don’t over do it.
2, Strength. As a martial artist I think we look for explosiveness
3, Flexibility, active stretch ZZ
4, Same as 2.
5, Balance, ZZ, nothing do it better.
6, MA skills, HITT and ZZ

I roughly divided into three sections.
1, Explosiveness. Focus on drill with HITT three minutes per one set.
2, Stamina. This need to mutually grow with explosive power. So don’t focus stamina and explosiveness at the same day.
3, Mind body unity. Zhangzhuang ZZ if mind is not settled then do a form to unify body and mind. Work on fine motor control. This need to be done right after HITT and jogging every time when training. Xingyi called 收功 or cool down or remolding. Honestly for fine proprioception ZZ is really the best.

1. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
2. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
3. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
4. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
5. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
6. Isometric Zhan Zhuang


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D_Glenn wrote:1. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
2. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
3. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
4. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
5. Isometric Zhan Zhuang
6. Isometric Zhan Zhuang


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This is not exactly right.

If there is no fire, you cannot start alchemy.
If there is no water, you cannot continue alchemy.

If a person 八髎 blocked and pelvis tilt to one side slightly, ZZ is not good.
If you legs are cold, and you try ZZ, no fire.
If you are so exhausted after jogging. No water.

Keep sparring for as long as you can to maintain your reaction speed (both mind and body). Train just enough of your curriculum to maintain your Gongli, flexibility and conditioning. Find other ways to maintain your conditioning like cycling, swimming, etc. You will continue to improve because you spar, not because you become stronger or faster. Experience will win as long as you maintain the rest.

Maintenance requires continuing to do what you can do. How do you maintain the ability to run a mile in 5 minutes?
The reality is that there is only improvement or decline from the condition one is in. Aging means that one will have to do more to maintain, and improvement becomes more and more difficult. Inevitably there will be decline. Then, the question is how to maximize the abilities that one currently has.

Maintainence of ability without evolution of skill, is pause before stagnation.

Wanderingdragon wrote:Maintainence of ability without evolution of skill, is pause before stagnation.

Decline is inevitable; our cells (all if them, from hair to skin to muscles to neurons to...) will gradually perform worse and worse. So at some point your rate of "evolution of skill" will become equal to the rate of decline of your abilities, at which point you would, mathematically, reach "stagnation". It's gonna happen to everyone, no matter what they do or who they are. Furthermore, that trend will continue, so your skill will decline, with time. "Maintenance" is a really good choice of words for the OP; it doesn't put emphasis on improvement, but on retaining a reasonably functional set of attributes and abilities. And, your expectations of your performance would also need to be gradually "adjusted down" with time. The trick is to try and keep the rate of that adjustment as low as possible.
As a friend puts it, "I want to go out like a light switch, not like a dimmer".

My son commented the other day how most (healthy) old cats and dogs run around and generally appear to be fine until the very last couple of hours of their lives. I told him (healthy) old humans should be that way also. That's how my great-grandfather passed at 99 yo (I was 12), and then his daughter at 94, both in their sleep without hospitals or being pumped with drugs like they do in the modern society, and in the US specifically. He used to say "movement is life"and they both were actively living that line, every single day. (And I'm hoping I can too.)

Shih shui gung - 100 kgs - Aaargh!

Makiwara - flying fists - Huuuaahh!

Doorway - place head in between - slam hard three times...

johnwang wrote:How to you maintain the following abilities? Your thought?

1. Endurance,
2. Strength,
3. Flexibility,
4. Speed,
5. Balance,
6. MA skill.

1. KB swings. Soccer
2 KB swings
3. Stretching
4. Don't really.
5. Soccer, Tai Chi
6. Incidental push hands. Messing around boxing. Breakfalls. Playing goalie haha. Fucking difficult blocks.

In silence there must be movement, and in motion, there must be silence.
A small movement is better than a big,
no movement is better than a small
silence is all the movement's mother.
In Movement you should be like a dragon or a tiger.
In non Movement you should be like a Buddha.
--Wang Xiangzhai

Evolution is not a decline in skill, no matter your inevitable physical decline with age

johnwang wrote:How to you maintain the following abilities? Your thought?

1. Endurance,
2. Strength,
3. Flexibility,
4. Speed,
5. Balance,
6. MA skill.

I am worse now than I was previously at 1-4, working hard to keep 5 and better than ever on 6. I think that is the best we older fellows can manage.

The reason I think I am better at 6 now is that I concentrate on just a few things. I do not need 100 techniques to give the opponent variety to keep him guessing. I only need enough to play three card Monte.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kO_5cNF5k