November 30, 2007 by jleeger.

Balance…

The easiest way to effect balance is to close your eyes. Today, we’ll do the classic “blindfold training.”  Let’s take the same exercises we did on day 1, but this time, do them with your eyes closed.  Be careful!

Situps

Pushups (side-to-side if you feel up to it)

Bodyweight Squats (1-leg if you feel up to it)

Handstand or Handstand Pushups

Pullups (or chinups)

Go through for 4 rounds.  If you can, go through the entire four rounds with your eyes closed, or with a blindfold on.

Good luck!

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November 29, 2007 by jleeger.

Rest and Recovery, or Recuperation.

This is one of the most important acute variables to consider in a workout program.  Just as the rest between sets determines the effect of a particular workout, the rest between workouts will determine the overall training effect.  Too much rest with very little stress, and you won’t see any results.  Too little rest with too much stress, and you’ll suffer from overtraining.

While it’s tough to “overtrain” with bodyweight alone, it is possible.  The 5-minute Burpee Challenge, done several days in a row, is enough to burn out most people quickly.

The key here, is to listen to your body.  It knows when it needs to rest.  Pay attention to nagging aches and pains, and take a day off.  Take a hot bath or get a massage.  Go for peaceful walks in the woods (in a circle).

The muscular system is not the only thing that suffers from too much stress.  The nervous system suffers as well (they’re all really just one system - YOU).  Your brain needs a break from time to time.  I know that tradition is against this, but I really feel like this applies to my Bagua practice as well.  When I practice continually for months, and then take a week off from practice, I come back fresher, and usually with a greater sense of the movements I’m performing.  I feel like the time off gives me perspective on what I’m doing.  I could be wrong, though!  And what works for me isn’t for everyone else…

Anyway, have fun with your training, but listen to your body.  Take the time to rest when you need it.  It will help you in the long run.

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November 29, 2007 by jleeger.

First, the workout:

20 burpees

Max bodyweight rows

Max pushups

Max chinups (palms facing you - if you can’t do this, do underhand bodyweight rows)

Max dips

Max bicycle situps

Repeat 4x, then do

Side plank - 1 minute ea side x 3

Prone superman - 1 minute x 3

George mentioned that he’s focused a lot on pre-hab/re-hab these days.  I think most of us over the age of 30 are in that boat, having had injuries in the past that nag us or threaten to, and in general not recuperating as quickly from things as we did in our teens and twenties.

There are so many types of pre-hab/re-hab out there, it’s impossible to sum up.  One of the easiest and most accessible forms for both pre-hab and re-hab is massage.

If you can’t afford to get a massage on a regular basis (and I don’t know anyone who can), you can experience some of the benefits by working on yourself.  The best time to do this is right after a workout.  You can sit down and just start kneading your flesh from head to toe.  If you find sensitive or sore spots, use your best judgment.  If it feels like a knot, work on it a little more.  If it feels sore because of muscular stress (working out), be gentle, it’s trying to heal.

If you want to go a step further, invest in a foam roller - http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_4279_A_CategoryID_E_363

There are plenty of instructions you can find online for using them.  Essentially, you roll different parts of your body along the roll, which massages your muscles.  It’s good stuff.

Another good tool for pre-hab/re-hab are bands.  They’re basically rubber tubes attached to handles.  They provide instability around whatever joint you’re using them with, causing the stabilizing muscles for that joint to work harder, and your CNS to learn how to stabilize the joint more effectively.  Any “unstable” form of training is good for this - pushups on a stability ball, practice on uneven ground, whatever…

The thing to remember is, with pre/re-hab tools, the goal is pre/re-hab, it is NOT to get super strong doing those movements.  Stabilizing muscle groups and their accompanying tendons and ligaments around a joint are generally very delicate and sensitive.  The last thing you want to do is damage them while you’re trying to help yourself.  So go light, and be moderate.

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November 28, 2007 by jleeger.

I realize that the periodization info seems a bit much…but in the near future I’ll apply the same principles to your daily Bagua practice.

One thing I do want to add, is that periodization should reflect your level of experience with conditioning.  People who don’t have any experience with exercise typically need to stick with a program for 6-10 weeks to see the training effect.  Folks who have trained for 1-2 years consistently can typically see results from a program in 4-6 weeks.

Finally, people who have been training for more than 2 years consistently can see results from a training stimulus in as little as 2 weeks.  In fact, for people with a lot of experience, spending too much time in one training stimulus will lead to over-training in short order.  Most well-trained individuals will not see any additional benefit from a particular training program after 6 weeks, and will start to see signs of overtraining/overuse after 8 weeks.

The workouts I’m posting are really General Physical Preparedness (GPP) routines (Crossfit and those type workouts fit into this category as far as I’m concerned).  After a good amount of time, you’ll want to switch it up.  If it means going out and buying a kettlebell, or a pair of dumbbells, or joining a gym, so be it!

Your body and mind adapt.  And the better they get at adapting, the faster it will happen.  Change it up to keep your body and mind learning and growing!

Next up…REST AND RECOVERY

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November 28, 2007 by jleeger.

Hopefully this post isn’t too deep, or too confusing.  I want to emphasize that, if you are training, you should always try to get the most out of your time.  People spend years going to the same aerobics classes, and end up looking like they did after their first 8 weeks in the class.  They aren’t changing their training stimulus.  I had a ton of clients like this when I was a trainer in VA.  They were in phenomenal shape cardiovascularly, but they still had their “spare tire,” that just wouldn’t go away.

Their body had gotten used to the “aerobics class” stimulus.  It didn’t need to burn the fuel around their midsections.  They didn’t know this, so they continued to go to more aerobics classes…wearing their joints down, wasting their time, not getting what they wanted.

To get what you want, you have to decide that you want it!  Then you have to make a plan to get it.  Periodization is part of that planning process.

Periodization is the breaking down of the sport-training year into distinct phases, each with a distinct purpose, that all build up to the day of the competition.  Usually, we talk about a Macrocycle (e.g. one year, or the time between tournaments), a Mesocycle (smaller increments within a Macrocycle, that focus on the development of specific strength qualities or strength skills - usu. 2-6 weeks), and a Microcycle (which breaks down the Mesocycle into manageable blocks - usu. 3 days - 1 week).

The challenge, at a certain stage in training, becomes maintaining or increasing gains in different energy systems in the same phase.  For example - If you’ve built up your cardiovascular endurance in Phase 1, and want to build Max Strength in Phase 2, how do you maintain your gains in cardio endurance while still having enough recovery time to devote the energy needed to building Max Strength?  Because you’re training for specific strength-qualities whenever you train, this becomes tough.

For an athlete, periodization is very simple.  They have a specific target date by which they have to be at peak-performance levels.  The rest of the year is organized accordingly.

For many MMA athletes, they have no such year-long Macrocycle in which to prepare.  They have to be ready to go at any time (pretty much).  This is the professional conditioning situation that most closely approximates that of the general populace.

Ross Enamait (www.rosstraining.com) has adopted one solution from Mel Siff, which is called “conjugate periodization.”  It involves cycling different strength qualities on different days within a Phase, increasing the overall intensity as the Phase moves on, with all exercises adding up to a cumulative training effect (i.e., all the exercises on different days should complement each other - you don’t want to do leg extensions on Max Strength day and Leg Curls on Endurance day…that’s not complementary).

I think with some serious consideration, this is the best method.  But I think you have to be very careful about exercise selection, and separation of distinct energy systems on different days.

It would look like this:

Monday - Max Strength Training

Tuesday - Proprioception/Cardiovascular Endurance

Wednesday - Endurance Training

Thursday - Proprio/Cardio

Friday - General Physical Preparedness training - obstacles, running + calisthenics, etc.

Saturday and Sunday off.

Even with this breakdown, your max-training day would have to be very focused and very intense to have a cumulative effect over time, what with the full 6 days between training sessions.  It’s almost a little too much recovery time.  However, there is so much nervous system stimulation in a program like this, that you definitely NEED one or two days completely off to recuperate.

One thing to consider, when creating your own training program, is what you’re after.  If most people really stopped and thought about it, they’d see that hypertrophy (bigger muscles), and max strength, have limited applications in their daily lives.  Internal martial artists have to balance this very specifically, since the aim of Neigong is to “move a thousand pounds with one ounce.”

Staying relaxed and loose when you’re constantly training yourself to be tense outside of practice gives the body/mind mixed messages.

As you can see, having your goal clearly defined becomes of primary importance!  As I said at the beginning - you’ll get whatever you really want.  If you don’t decide what you want, you’ll get whatever’s left over.  Seriously consider your training goals, for physical conditioning and Bagua.  Decide what you really want, no matter how insane, and write it down.  Post it on a wall or mirror where you’ll see it all the time.  Make a plan to get it.

I don’t know of anyone practicing at Zong Wu Men who couldn’t gain Tony Jaa’s “light body” skills (at least to a large extent…).  But to do that, you have to be very focused in your training.  You definitely shouldn’t be wasting your time on the WOD’s!  hahah…

If you want the 1-inch punch, you have to devote time to it.  You have to focus on bringing all of your power into a single compressed moment/space.  You need to practice every day, and have a plan that changes the variables of your training.

Most of all, your goals should be useful to you, and be in line with your life-values.  If you haven’t figured out what those are…start there.

All of this will lead to a richer experience of yourself.  And richer experience of Bagua.  It all leads to you becoming who you really are, instead of going along with who you think you might be, or who others thing you might be.

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November 28, 2007 by jleeger.

Starting out a new week, let’s do a workout that combines some of the strength-qualities we used over the last two.  Strength qualities, though they are really only one continuous functional quality, are broken out into three (or more, depending on your source) categories: Endurance, Maximal, Explosive

Endurance covers everything from running a marathon to isometrics to doing 12 reps of bench press.  The physiological definition is that you’re using Type I muscle fibers for most of the duration of the movement.  But muscle actually works in this fashion - it recruits the fast-twitch muscles first, till they’re burnt out, then recruits the slow-twitch fibers.  It can take anywhere from 10 seconds to 3-5 minutes to fully replenish ATP stores in your muscle.

Maximal strength is everything from a 1-rep max, to about 8 or 10 reps.  Its focus is really on the Type IIa (fast-twitch muscle fibers that have some endurance qualities, and IIb fibers), but incorporates the Type I fibers as well.

Explosive strength covers everything from starting off of blocks on a sprint (called “acceleration” or “speed” strength), to doing Olympic lifts like the Clean and Jerk and the Snatch.  Explosive strength relies almost exclusively on Type IIb muscle fibers, though some research points to the recruitment of as many fibers and fiber-types (I, IIa, IIb) as possible (another place you’d find the type of static-strength used by Pavel, etc.).

So today, let’s do this:

Warmup - 10 burpees with pushup

Legs

Explosive - 10, 3′ jumps - onto a table, picnic table, or other sturdy waist-height object

Maximal - 8 ea. 1-leg squats, the classic!

Endurance - 1 minute high-knee run-in-place

Upper Body

Explosive - 10 lap pushups (only do these if you can do at least 40 consecutive pushups)

Max - as many as you can  - handstand pushups

Endurance - 30 seconds-1 minute - medicine ball chest passes against a wall, or elevated pushups (hands on a table or high object)

Core

V-ups - bring your upper body and legs up at the same time, try to touch your toes.  Don’t do this if your back starts to arch.  You can modify it by bending your legs at the knees, and curling up with your upper body.

10 Hanging leg raises - hang from something and lift your legs up in front of you.  You can do it with knees straight or bent.

30 second-to-1 minute - Table (back to the ground, hands and feet on the ground,  lift your hips and make a table)

To get some back and external rotation, do this:

Bodyweight rows - overhand grip 10, underhand grip 10

Go through the circuit at least twice, preferably 3x.

Alternately, you can hit your whole body in the same fashion with only three exercises:

Warmup

As many as you can  - Burpees with pushups and jump to pullup

10 -  Pushup on Dumbbells-to-Bent row-to-RDL-to-Squat-to-Overhead Press

20 - Your choice tiangan

Go through 3x…it’ll be just as tough as the first workout, but get the job done in a little less time, with fewer concentrated moves.  It does require dumbbells for the second lift.  That’s called a “compound” lift, incorporating several different lifts into a single continuous movement.

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November 28, 2007 by george.

As I’ve started to try to write some of my thoughts down on this topic, I realize that although I have a good intuitive understanding of what I’m trying to get at in my own training, I am having a hard time conveying this understanding in writing. So as opposed to taking a concrete throw down the laws type approach to my first post on this topic, I will just try to get some general outlines, general ideas and general principles down first. I think opening it up to comment and criticism will help me to more fully form my thoughts on the matter.

I know that I’ve talked about much of this before in class. There are a few basic goals that I personally look to accomplish when I approach a conditioning type program to complement my Baguazhang practice, such as:

• Reinforce good body methods (I have a preference for exercise that will help to reinforce the body method I train)
• Accentuate strength along common and relevant paths of motion (jin training - tiangan for example – I want to become stronger and more aware within my common paths of motion)
• Reinforce weak points in the body and prevent potential injury (strengthen the joints and pre-hab – I’ve had some major injuries in my days and this is now one of the most important aspects of my supplemental training)
• Heal existing injuries and balance the body (I need to address said injuries and the effects thereof)
• Cardio (does a body good)
• Explosiveness / Plyo (I’ve never been a strong guy, but am always looking to improve)

I am hoping that’s a good list at what I’m personally trying to accomplish and what I believe I should help my students with. Naturally, my own interests in the arts do impact my training goals. And as I consider the Internal Martial Arts to be fighting arts, I’m looking to not only improve my abilities, but still look to be able to scrap progressively better into my 40’s, 50’s and beyond.

On a parallel track, here are some general areas of Baguazhang that I try to carry over into my conditioning:

• Whole body movement
• Expanding one’s range of movement, power and mind
• Carrying one’s power and mind throughout the full range of movement
• Spiral power (or twisting I guess, I hate that term for martial arts, I’ll have to explain why later…)
• Balance in motion
• Balance in one’s body and mind
• Reinforcing good habits of motion while making attempts to not introduce bad habits of motion

Alright, enough for now on this, this is an OK outline for me.

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November 27, 2007 by jleeger.

Here we are…end of week 2.

Inspired by the Tony Jaa vids, I figured we could do a “light body” conditioning session today.

How do you develop the ability to jump 4 feet vertically?  You practice jumping.

While jumping and “light body” skills aren’t a part of our normal Bagua practice, they can help to develop better proprioception, which can help with Bagua as well.

So here it is:

10 Cartwheels

10 Vertical Jumps (swing your arms to get as high as you can.  Land softly, let your knees bend to absorb the impact)

10 Ploughs to Situps - Roll backward onto your head and shoulders, legs straight,  toes touch the ground or as close as you can get.  When your legs come forward, sit straight up, reach forward and touch your toes.

20 each foot, 2-foot Toe Touches - Find something in your house 2-feet (or more, if you’re brave) tall and do alternating toe touches as fast as you can.  If you have a partner, you can do the footwork-accuracy drill we do - ankles, knees, hips, elbows, shoulders.  If you have a lot of energy, try to push up with your ground-foot so that you are level with the object (i.e., so you’re 2-feet or more off the ground when you’re doing the touch).

30 Second Side Plank with Reach - click on “suspended side plank” for a demo here - http://www.fitnessanywhere.com/demos_exercises/index.php#

That’s it!  Do it again, do it twice, or don’t do anything at all!  If you go through this list twice, do the first round as slowly and with as much control as possible.  Then do the second as fast as possible!  If you go through for three rounds, do whatever you want!  You’re awesome!

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November 27, 2007 by george.

Frack…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iScFbXXFlGg

I didn’t even do them with a push up at the bottom, much less a push up and a pull up for 100 reps…

I gotta work out more…

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November 27, 2007 by george.

Check out this real demo, live at some event - no cut scenes, no 50 takes to get it right.

He can jump up to someone’s shoulder and then run on top of people. He can kick a pad that’s about 3-4 feet beyond his reach.

Seriously impressive.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6DhmD5iPJzg 

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November 26, 2007 by jleeger.

One of the best exercises for the strength of the legs, and balance in general, is the single-leg squat.  Let’s focus on that in our workout today, since leg-strength, speed, and power (not to mention balance) are critical to our Bagua practice.

If you don’t have a lot of leg strength, start by doing these off of and onto a chair.  Sit in a regular dining-room chair, pick one foot up off the ground, and push up with the other.  You’ll have to lean forward a bit.  Sitting down, stick your butt back as far as you can without falling into the chair.

If you can handle that, advance to the door.  Grab the door handle of an open door on each side.  One foot stays planted at the edge of the door, the other leg is straight.  Sit back and lower yourself as far as you can control.  Come back up trying to help with your arms as little as possible.

Once you can do 10 of those, move to free-standing single-leg squats.  At first it helps to have a table or chair nearby that you can use to help you balance.  But soon, you won’t even need that.

Here’s the workout:

1-leg Squats - 10 each leg

Mountain Climbers - 1 minute

Abdominal Hold - 30 seconds

Side-to-Side Pushups - 10 each arm

1-Leg Romanian Deadlift - 10 each leg - (you can use weight if you have it….good description of this move here - http://www.ptonthenet.com/capview.aspx?P=NTMxMzcgSlBIMjBCR0paVGUyeUVteU5XM1A5Zz09&m=439)  that’s actually a good workout/warmup…try it out

Pullups or Flexed Arm Hang - stop 2 shy of failure

Superman - 30 seconds - lay on your stomach, lift your feet and head off the ground and hold

Repeat, at least twice, but go for 5 rounds!

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November 25, 2007 by jleeger.

Today’s workout is a goal-setting workout.  Let’s start getting more specific about structuring a good on-going program for yourself.  If you’ve done the self-test and found weak points in any of the movements, you want to prioritize those movements in your workouts - i.e., do those movements first, when you have the most energy.

Pick two opposing movements that you really want to focus on developing, and write them down.

For most people, the most important priority is lower back/abs.  Doing the stabilization exercises first (Cat/Dog Stretch, 4-Point TVA with Reach, Child Pose + Crunch Hold) won’t detract from your core stability during your workout, and will help to make sure you have enough time and energy to get those done every day.  So write the core stabilization routine of your choice above your two movements.

The next thing to consider is recovery.  For most major muscle groups, allow 48-72 hours for complete recovery from a workout session, depending on the intensity.  You can pile less-intense workouts on top of each other, day after day, but at some point you’ll need a full day or two of rest.  If you do a really intense, focused workout on one muscle group, don’t work on that group for at least one day, but probably two.

It’s a fine line between recovery and loss of  skills/strength, so listen to your body.  It knows when you’re ready to continue.

Most important of all - have your plan and follow it.  You can follow the WOD’s, but you should really start to formulate your own goals and priorities at some point.  Figure out your goal or  priority, then set out your workouts (including rest days) for about 2-3 months in advance.  Make sure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound (i.e., there’s a deadline).  I always like to use Excel or another spreadsheet program for this.
The goal can be anything, but do try to focus on balance throughout your body.  For example, most folks are weak in the Pullup area.  Not surprisingly, they’re also weak in the Handstand Pushup area.  But a lot of people will pick just one of the two (usu Pullups, bc Handstand Pushups are awkward at first).  Eventually, you’ll become imbalanced this way.

Another great example of this are the people who like to do nothing but pushups.  There’s nothing wrong with having a pushup goal, but you have to balance that with bodyweight rows, or some type of pulling movement.  And in actuality, balancing that way will help you achieve your pushup goal faster.  This post is already too long to get into the reasons, but take my word for it.

Hopefully, we’ve made a start today at generating a personalized workout program for you.  We’ll go through step two tomorrow.  And I’ll throw a workout in to boot.

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November 23, 2007 by jleeger.

“Girls only want guys who have skills!” - so said Napoleon Dynamite, and he was right!

Napoleon’s observation goes deeper, though. Everything you do, every day, is a skill. Most people have forgotten this, or don’t really stop to consider it, but it’s true. Every habit you have, good or bad, is a skill you’ve acquired through repetitious practice. The part that makes it a “habit” is that the skill now occurs without conscious thought on your behalf.

Bagua is a skill, and we have to practice a lot to get better at it. But so is physical training a skill, and your body will remember what you do and adapt to it accordingly. That’s why we have to be so careful when we choose what type of stimulus we give our bodies.

That being said, today, focus on some skills you may not have done in a while. Here’s my recommendation for a good workout:

10 pushups

10 forward somersaults or rolls

10 burpees

10 backward somersaults or rolls

10 pullups

10 steps on your hands, forward or backward

10 falls, from whatever height you’re comfortable with, and in whatever manner you’re used to falling

10 ploughs - this is a “yoga move” where you lie on your back and bring your legs straight up and back, overhead, to where your toes touch the ground

Repeat as many times as you please! Feel free to change the number of repetitions of any of the exercises to suit you. However, try to get really comfortable doing the tumbling portion of this workout. Tumbling used to be a daily staple in strongman workouts and routines. In fact, the original “muscle beach” in Venice, CA (check out the photo at the bottom of this page - http://www.pbs.org/weekendexplorer/destinations/california/santamonica/fitness.htm)…strange that the bodybuilders of the 60’s and 70’s lost that habit.

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November 23, 2007 by george.

LOL!

Here’s  a video that someone put up on youtube of the latter part of the legendary fight between Yang Luchan of taijiquan fame and Dong Haichuan of Baguazhang fame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfIi-CCaBtY

Here’s another scene from the same television serial that shows Dong Haichuan proving to Yang Luchan that you can have such good sticking and sensitivity that a bird can not fly away from your own outstretched hand! This is it folks! Proof is in the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BknaeKZImg

I miss Asian TV!

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November 23, 2007 by george.

I’ve been asked a few times to point out some of the videos that I originally posted a while back about a former school brother who is apparently now teaching independently. I found his stuff on youtube, so here’s a sample video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2-MQAo2VM0

You can then click on the user name who posted the videos to youtube to find the rest of the stuff.

Best,

George

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