Re: Getting science on your side
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 5:09 am
Appledog wrote:willie wrote:Recently, I've been involved in many debates which I believe to be non-constructive.
I have found that most of those debates were filled with faulty information. (Especially taiji and weightlifting).
Seeing how it is impossible and undesirable to approach non-approachable people, I've decided to make video's that are
backed by science instead.
"Faulty Information" and labeling people you disagree with as non-approachable seems a bit over the edge. People (and myself) have tried to explain to you why this isn't a good idea in Taiji, that doesn't mean the information is faulty or that we can't be reasoned with. On the contrary, weightlifting and so forth can be valuable forms of exercise. But something seems off about this whole "science on your side" thing.willie wrote:I really cant figure out why this topic isn't part of the main discussion. Every martial artist will benefit from resistance training, Yes, even Taiji.
...a reasonable question would be, you've been training now for x amount of years, what do you know about the mysterious part that you can be absolutely sure of?
...science is not caught up enough to explain the mysterious part of Tai Chi or Qi Gong.
...Giving the impression you don't know much about 'the mysterious side' of Taiji, and not that it matters, but to the point you seem to be setting up two sides of a same coin, a scientific side and a "mysterious side", and never the twain shall meet.
In the sense that you are being "scientific" you are and you aren't. Stuff like OTM training, protein synthesis and so forth, you are getting closer but you don't seem to have the conviction and knowledge of a professional trainer. You seem to be talking around the subject and there are some obvious holes in your knowledge. Nothing wrong with that. We are all amateurs I suppose but there is some glaring stuff in that what you are doing isn't as functional as it could be. I admit that leg press machines are a bad example of what I am trying to say because I'm not aware of a more functional version of it. A smith machine would be a better example. DB or KB military press is a better functional exercise WRT martial arts. It's a fact that unless you practice freestanding lifts as well you will hurt yourself trying to lift the same as you do on a smith machine. And especially WRT Taiji you can easily set up bad pathways, you can and will hurt yourself doing semingly unrelated moves. I have seen and experienced this many times before. So right off the top I am wondering what you are doing with a leg press machine.
I find this so much in line with everything's comment "For the "mysterious" stuff in taiji, qigong, and TCM, I don't believe scientific studies will be able to explain certain phenomena related mainly to qigong and TCM for a long time." In the sense that sides have been set up and we are choosing sides, you certainly have all of the trappings of modern professional weightlifting and you have obviously done some MMA training as you say, again nothing wrong with that. But other than the obvious lack of functionality applied to Taiji, there is a very real opportunity cost you are going to run into doing stuff like this. The fact is if you are going to play with things like burnout and sustainability you are going to run into problems when you do your forms. In the end, it comes down to, how do these exercises, functional or not, compare with simply doing the form and the qigong and the jibengong at a reasonable pace?
I've experimented with farmer's caries, KB swings, Military Press and so forth. Frankly it doesn't help your Taiji. There is an apparent initial benefit, and it's true you need to "know what strength is", to a point. But it just seems like if you wanted to get good at Taiji you would surround yourself with all the trappings of doing taiji and not all the trappings of sport weightlifting and MMA.
I would say in the end the opportunity cost will ruin your Taiji if nothing else. It would be way too difficult to balance. Second, not everything needs to be "scientific" in the way you are presenting a "scientific approach" here. Third, there are already very many scientific studies on TCMA, qigong, etc. Fourth, I disagree with you and everything's approach to scientific verification. It can be done, the problem being the length of the study. In this regard I think it will not help us in our lifetime to do such a study and that it would be better to listen to the wisdom of the teachers.
Actually perhaps we are all living this study now. Write down and publish everything you can about this willie. It will be a valuable record for the future. If it works it works, and people will need to know. Finally though if you find yourself making a break with taiji per-se, you should also post that. Let people know if it works out either way, and why.
Interesting.
There's nothing wrong with using a leg press as example. It works the same way for them all.
Holes? Not really. Although I think that the video's could have been set up much better. i just did them naturally.
Ruin my taiji? I don't think so. My taiji is pretty good...
Something off about using a scientific approach?
By the way Apple Dog. Not on a professional level? The professional trainers at my gym which there are several of them, either do not have the information that I put in these videos or do not follow the advice of science. Even when they have paying clients, they don't even show their clients how to properly set up the safeties inside a squat rack. Apple Dog, I remember my last argument with you. Remember you accused me of making up stories of helical gears? Not that you needed to thank me for posting the correct information. But the outwardly accused me of making it all up? Perhaps you can find it in your heart to thank me for the information before you criticize it.