Pushing the Limits

Pushing the Limit is a NY Times series of articles and multimedia profiling athletes who confront an opponent that must be mastered, not beaten.

I found this week's article really encouraging. It is about a runner that has gotten better with age, not worse. Matt Carpenter's training philosophy is similar to ours. "Go out hard; when it hurts, speed up."

Link to Article

Unsolved Mysteries

This week I dub "Unsolved Mystery" week. If you had read my previous blog entry, you would know that I mysteriously hurt my back and was quite unable to explode my chi to the fullest during forms testing. What was even more weird was that on Wednesday night, while I was sleeping, I managed to seriously sprain my ankle. I woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating ankle pain. It felt like someone dislocated my ankle by dragging me across gravel road with a 4x4 truck. I couldn't walk for most of Thursday and Friday. I had really wanted to train Level 1 on Thursday and Friday. I tried to do a gong bu during the day and it nearly killed me.

I haven't had any Shaolin injury till this week. I definitely haven't sprained my ankle for well over 10 years. I am an avid runner and cross country runner. Our ankles are made of steel. We train them to be.

This leads me to believe that there is something happening to my body that I am not aware of or I am doing something wrong and my body is rebelling. One thing led to another and I believe it is a combination of the way I am stretching and how I regulate my chi. For all the extension we do, I don't nearly stretch enough before and afterwards to maximize strength, flexibility, and enhance recovery. All that is going to change. I bought a really cool stretching book that shows all the anatomy of the muscles so you can understand to stretch better. It's actually been really helpful for my back. I never realized that I haven't been stretching my lower trunk at all!!

Here is also a helpful link for everyone about cause of injury and preventive exercises, i.e. stretching.

Stretching Reference

It's a good read and as you can see, Hamstrings Inflexibility, Gluteus Maximus or Adductor Magnus Inflexibility, and Hip Flexor Inflexibility all can increase Lower Back Injury.

I have also uncovered another "Unsolved Mystery", it is "the Shaolin Butt Sword." This topic has been talked about quite a bit, and I believe it is the Adductor Magnus muscle. Here's one stretch that may help prevent and alleviate the infamous Shaolin Butt Sword.

With my newfound knowledge, I will be stronger than before!! I am going to stop blogging and go stretch!! :D

The Air Up There

Lately, I've been noticing that my jumps on 雙腿屈膝跳 (Shūangtŭi Qūxītìao) and 騰空後撩腿 (Téngkōng Hòlíaotŭi) are getting higher and higher. For some reason, without specifically training for it, my vertical leap has increased. After doing some internet research, I was reminded how beneficial Shaolin training is.

Vertical Leap Training 1

Vertical Leap Training 2

I couldn't believe how similar those exercises were to some of our forms and stances. It makes complete sense. Shaolin or Kung Fu in general have a need for its practitioner to have a high vertical leap. Without it, some of the moves will always be not as powerful or beautiful. I want my 騰空雙飛腳 (Téngkōng Shuāngfēijiăo) to be able to reach someone's face. And not just be able to reach their knees.

Most of us don't have the benefit of training as a professional level athlete, therefore, most of us will never achieve a 48" vertical leap. But, with the almost 1 year that I've been training at the Temple, I've found that my reflexes, speed, and now my vertical leap has improved. There's no guarantee that I will be able to dunk like Michael Jordan, and like Cheng, I can't wait to see what one more year will do!

Ummmm.....Ohmmmmm....?

After a great class Saturday, (and my first number 1 soup!) Ji, Richu, Shen and I went and took a yoga class up on Astor Place. It was a lot of fun and felt great after training harder at temple. Though I think it was a low impact class by yoga standards, it definitely still took a lot of chi; I was sweating buckets by the end and sliding all over my mat. Today, (in a class of 15!!) my arms were feeling fairly sore; all those downward-facing dogs from yoga were talking to me through my shoulders. I've always felt like they don't get the same workout in training as my legs do, and I'm in an eternal debate over/search for the perfect cross training for me. If I had the time/money/energy, I'd do it all: gymnastics, yoga, chi kung, join the gym, cycle, and do some mixed martial arts on the side. But obviously that's not going to happen, so I want to find the right fit. Yoga seems like a strong contender. I'm always looking for flexibility and it still works on strengthening as well. I think I'll start trying other classes at various studios to see if I find a winner.

Today after class Heng Nai showed up so he, Billy, Rob, Ji, a new visiting student named Adrian, and I went out for food. Adrian is from L.A. and here on business. He talked to Ji on the phone yesterday and at her recommendation, after he flew in this morning, he came and trained before even checking into his lodgings! That's chi! So we had a really interesting conversation about the different kinds of training Adrian's done, what Nai is doing out in California, Billy talking about how he's started chi kung, and a lot of discussion about cross training and the different ways to go about it. The general consensus was that cross training is important not only for improving your kung fu but maintaining the health of your body. The intensity of our training is pretty high-impact on our bodies, especially Level 2, and it's good to balance that with something more restrained to help strenthen your body without stressing it. So maybe yoga would be a better for that than gymnastics. But as Adrian also pointed out, when we were comparing the differences in his forms and ours, kung fu is like a person's handwriting; just as everyone's writing is different, there are also equally unique methods of training that suit each individual. There's no ultimate perfect form or best way to train; there's what you find works for you. So I'll keep looking for my perfect cross-training, and the next time I go to yoga I'll bring a towel.

Cross-Training

There's something about the beautiful weather that makes me want to get out of the apartment and do as much as I can possibly cram into the weekend, especially activities that are high chi. I hate the idea of sitting around in my apartment like a slug, wasting away the sun and the warmth.

Saturday, after a four hour seminar, I went with a friend to McCarren Park in Brooklyn and played some vigorous badminton and frisbee for a few hours.

Sunday morning, I made it to Temple for a small class of less than twenty. Shifu worked us really hard -- making us hold the last position in yiluquan for an eternity. And both sides! I also got some love from him when we were practicing forms, and he and Heng Mo corrected the last bit of erluquan that I've been working on for the past month and a half.

Then Sunday night, I met up with my dude for a swing dance with live music by Billy and the Blue Vipers. I was concerned that after the rough morning of kung fu that my legs would be spent for the dance, but surprisingly, I had loads of chi. I might have sucked at all the twirling around and stuff, but for the most part, I just focused on the fun and didn't worry about looking like an idiot -- I think a lot of that lack of worry had to do with how we carry ourselves during training.

I had an opportunity to play a softball game in Central Park on Sunday afternoon; I opted against it so I could be refreshed and showered for the dance in the evening. I wonder how I'd feel if I had just done it!