IT REALLY WORKS! Reboot

I am a little giddy and but feeling like a snake oil salesman.  This thing really works.

(recap)

The voice of my imaginary Master would scold me and tell me to be more persistent.  I know, I know.  I started the regimen in April 2012 and kept at it for more than two hundred days.  A log documented my daily 20 minutes of stance routine, mostly in the evening.  I would have continued but it seemed to be exacerbating my shoulder pain. 

On a streak of cold morning, May 23, I started again.  I decided to lengthen the session to 30 minutes.  Supposed the duration would increase the effectiveness.  Well, even if it was a kind of lesser than focused effort, I stood in front of a computer screen reading, I felt more energetic all day.  I felt a warmth in my body throughout the day and not bothered by the cool breeze.  It was good.  I did not lasted the whole 30 minutes though.  I stopped at around 25.

The 2nd day, I did it again and felt my legs sore.  I think I will try every other day.  30 minutes each.

Revisit from a Long Pause

For this whole year, I have not been doing the Stance.  Not at all.

I stopped mainly because I had hurt my left shoulder and the movements that I do as I stand was not helping the process.  The pain started probably before January 2013, but I marked January as the start.  It did not go away like most pain did.  I exercised it and it got worse.  A visit to doctor's office did not draw any conclusion.  After much research, I concluded that I got a "frozen shoulder".  It was so painful that the range of motion of my left shoulder got progressively more rigid.  After about 3 or 4 months, the pain somewhat lessened, and I would try move it a little, more.  Now in November I am able to reach the back of my right shoulder with my left hand.  It is about 80 or 90% but I still feel it.

When I stand, one of the post I usually do is raising my arm straight up, like holding the sky up.  I feel the stiffness when I try doing that with my left arm.  And then I feel it more after I did the movement like in the following day.  Do you think my body is trying to tell me something?

I do miss doing it though, especially when it is cold.  Last night, I just started squatting down without timing myself.  Then I went lower, with proper inhaling and exhaling, before I knew it the "fire" got ignited and started radiated upward.  It was ... good.

Mentally I want to come up with a coherent ... rational about this working on the whole fixes the problem of the back.  This is a continuation of the last blog.  I want to think this through.  There is some truth that is begging to come out.  And I think I am the only one who can crack this.

Wish me luck!

Reflection on a Triumph, a Theory

Day 170

Not long ago, bending over to work on the back of the MR2 for any amount of time was a crude and unusual punishment for me.  Even washing and waxing the car tired my back easily.  Well, last Sunday, I spent a couple of hours working on the MR2 and I was surprised that I could do it without pain.  And now after 48 hours, I do not feel any "delayed onset muscle soreness".  This is remarkable.

This was not a scientific experiment, and my activity was not documented in detail, but I did serious work on Sunday.  More than a couple of parts were removed, including air cleaner/cover, some hoses, and the heavy battery.  I did not hunched over continuously the entire hour, but I definitely hunched over a lot.  And then I had to lift the battery a few times because it did not went on right.  I thought nothing when I was doing it.  But I think I should celebrate this.

What changed?

I rode bicycle on and off about twice a week, then and now.  I used to stretch nightly before and now I pretty much stopped stretching completely.  I did little or no strength workout before and now.  No crunch, bridge, no push up was performed.  What I do is the 20 minutes of Stance nightly.

With conventional wisdom, I did zero exercise to target the abdominal and back.  Yes, the stance works the core and the leg.  But how did the back get strengthened?  Really?  It does not make sense.

I have a theory!

I think the back problem, or any movement/posture problem, really should be thought of as a system problem and not a component problem.  If your back hurt and you strengthen the back, then you are trying to fix the part.  And we have seen examples after examples, you can fix the part but the problem comes back.  The back hurt because something or many things caused it to be over-stressed.  It can be a weakness somewhere, a stiffness somewhere, or the combination of the two that leads to a bad back.  And now we started to look for that stiffness or weakness...  There we go again, we begin to look for the problem part.

In the western society, in this age of science, and in me, we are so ingrained in this way of thinking.  We are constantly analyzing, breaking things apart, looking for the cause and origin... It is actually very uncomfortable to throw that away and find something else that works.

So my theory is, by doing this Stance, somehow the weaknesses and stiffness somewhere in the body gets strengthened and mobilized, the whole body is actually working together better.  As a whole the body is stronger, not just the back.

Like the Nike slogon:  "Just DO IT!"

Masslessness

Day 160  Being Massless

This is going to be very difficult to articulate this .... sensation I have in these couple of days.

There is a sense of ease or freedom in how I go about my days, doing the things I do at work, at home. It is not so much about what I do but how these things are done.  I simply do what I think.  That is it, so simple, with no hesitation, with no contemplation.  I flow from one thing to another.  Sometimes, I stopped and changed into something else.  But I felt no resistance.  There are the usual pressures and obligations but they seems to flow right past me.  It is definitely not about slacking off, taking it easy.  In fact I get more done.  Because little time is wasted on changing gear, changing direction...

Am I making any sense?

How did I get here?  I think it was the change in my routine.  Instead of doing 20 minutes of the physical part of the stance, I started with cleansing/quieting the mind.  And that 25 minutes became not just stance exercise but also a meditation.  I emptied the stray thoughts and just stayed with myself.  I wonder if other people experienced this.

Day 33, Micro-movement

At the beginning I did not want to over-thinking this.  I mean, the whole point is about just DOing it, not about thinking about it.  But being me, I tried to find something related to this Stance.

(There was a connection with isometric exercise which led to Charles Atlus.)

(Continued 09-12-2012)

I don't know anyone else in the world is doing this.  There is something probably not natural about moving so slowly.  Try do a plie', stand then bend the knees.  Typically in a 8 count movement, 4 counts down, and 4 counts up.  Now do the same 8 counts but go down only half as far.  Then reduce the movement even further.  Now you are barely moving up and down still the same 8 counts.  Try that for a couple of minutes and what are you feeling?

Do you feel some kind of pulse, or vibration in your legs?

x
x
x
x

Starting ...

At about Day 155

Yesterday a young friend spoke with me enthusiastically after she went home and practiced what I showed her.  For some reason, she was not feeling well today.  hmmm......
I hope she is alright.  And I hope she did not overdo the exercise.

After doing the stands for so many days, at times I was not sure if I have learned anything or found anything important.  Well, I think I need to address something.  The Start.

It is still true that the most important thing is to just DO IT EVERYDAY, regardless of how exactly you do it.  But HOW you do it, does matter.

Like more things one do in a day, we have a tendency to rush.  My wife and I would do the stance 20 minutes just before we go to sleep.  I hit the timer, Go.  Then we stopped when timer chimed.  But does it has to be like that?

I often asked myself why am I not progressing mentally or spiritually.  Well, this might be why.  I did not cleanse myself when I begin my stance.  Thus I did the exercise with just my body but not the whole being.

This is what I suggest.  Like being in a dance class, just take a minute to CENTER oneself, and check your body.  Say hello to each part of your body and see how they are.  Stand neutrally tall, about shoulder width.  Relax the eyes.  Let the arms drop and just breath generally.  Just relax for a minute.

When ready, move the feet laterally a little, and begin by reaching and lifting the arms toward the front of the body forming part of a ball.......

.
.
.
.
.
Do you feel the difference?

Day 52 , Looking back and Forward

The 20 minutes a day Zen Stance has definitely improved myself physically.  Just a few short years ago, I was having some difficulty getting in and out of the little Toyota MR2.  Thought I was supposed to accept the fact that I was no longer young and have to change the way I get in and out of a car.  It made me learn the "correct" way of getting onto a low sports car.  --> Open the door and enter the car with the buttock touching down on the seat first.  Then pivot about the buttock, bringing right then left legs into the car.  Now I realized that it was because my left leg not having the strength to support my body.  This is no longer an issue.

It was my wish to also strengthen myself mentally.  Initially I thought the stance could do that.  Now I am not so sure.

So what is it that trains the mind as well as the body?