Tai Chi reduces tension headaches apparently!

As part of the study, the researchers conducted a 15-week Tai Chi
program and found that participating patients improved on a
quality-of-life based measurement called SF-36 and also on a test
called HIT-6TM designed to capture the effect of headaches. A 15 week
intervention of Tai Chi practice was effective in reducing headaches.
The patients also reported improvement in energy levels, emotional well
being, social functioning and mental health.

More Here

Furious Angels - Boondock Video

Furious Angels - Boondock

The finest MMA highlight video I have ever seen.
Blood, emotion, glory and crushing defeats; it touched me.
So much more than the uneducated and ignorant view that ‘it’s just two men fighting’

It may be, and perhaps should be, difficult to accept the notion that a prizefighter’s work merits the same kind of attention we lavish on an artist’s, but once we begin attending to and describing what he does in the ring, it becomes increasingly difficult to refuse the expenditure. The fighter creates a style in a world of risk and opportunity. His disciplined body assumes the essential postures of the mind: aggressive and defensive, elusively graceful with its shifts of direction, or struggling with all its stylistic resources against a resistant but, until the very end, alterable reality. A great fighter redefines the possible.

A word to the wise

Yesterday, after 3 months of doing pretty much nothing but chill, drink and party, I decided to get my shit back together and busted out a full set of 21 5 Tibetans…..
What a mistake that turned out to be! about 45 mins after I did them I felt very peculiar to say the least! Not in a nice way either, in fact I felt pretty bloody awful.
Today I had another funny turn for about 30 min of so as well….
Now it’s the evening and I decided to not be a twat and just bust out a very leisurely 10 reps…. Feeling a bit funny in the head after that now to be honest.

So, don’t just dive in there and bash out the entire set when you’re starting off. Treat these exercises with respect. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice and will start slowly with the rest of my Qi Gong / Meditation routine .

Why no updates?!

well, I’ve moved to a different country!! No more tearing it up in London for me .

There is a definite lack of any training at the moment. One excuse is that there really isn’t anywhere to train where I live (which will be fixed shortly when I get my ass some wheels) and the second is that .. well … I’m in a new country! Of course I’m going to be out making friends and getting drunk at every available opportunity! for the first few months at least … That time has past and the pendulum is swinging the other way. I’m starting to get used to things and getting my shit back in order. Expect more updates and I have a lot of stuff I’ll be trying out on myself over the next few months so hopefully that should make for some good reading

Which shall it be

From Sterling Hayden’s book, Wanderer: via

“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm
foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise you are doomed to a routine
traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen, who play with their boats at sea –
“cruising,” it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in.

If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the
venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is
all about. “I’ve always wanted to sail to the South Seas, but I can’t afford
it.” What these men can’t afford is _not_ to go. They are enmeshed in the
cancerous discipline of “security.” And in the worship of security we fling
our lives beneath the wheels of routine — and before we know it our lives
are gone.

What does a man need — really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in — and some form of working activity that
will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all– in the material sense.
And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?”

Gym Jones

These guys are without doubt - real men.
eg:
KNOWLEDGE
What you know does not matter - what you do matters. Physical training
produces physical memories - not simply muscle memory but a
psychophysical imprint, knowledge that is instinctual rather than
intellectual. This is useful knowledge. However, before you can forget
and allow the unconscious to take over you need to learn it by heart
and learn it well enough to write it in blood.

Go there and get a learning - Gym Jones

A training philosophy

I had a bit of an epiphany today: coming home from work and feeling hungry, I wanted to do some QiGong but also to eat. Bit of a dilemma as you’re not really supposed to eat before training, or is it after… or actually in some of the classics isn’t it no training an hour before and an hour after! So what am I going to do… I was thinking about this when I had the epiphany; simply ‘just fuck it -  train!’

Nothing too complicated there, but what has that brief insight done for me: I have now trained when I might not have done if I had allowed myself to be bound by someone else’s rules that might have suited them, I have got rid of the potential for procrastination and now I have the time available later to train some more. nice one

Extrapolating this concept, you get: I’m tired - fuck it train! I might not pay as much attention to my training because I’m a bit distracted - fuck it train! I’m in a rush - fuck it train! et cetera

I can’t help thinking that this is possibly a training philosophy that a lot of people use. clearly there’s a potential for over training, but remembering ‘moderation in all things’ will help out there, as long as I don’t start using some kind of limp wristed form of moderation as an excuse for not training when I can.

There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn
bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it
can lift men to angelship -
- Mark Twain

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ”Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.
- Muhammad Ali

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
- Winston Churchill

Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential.
- Liane Cardes

To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know of reaching a true introspective state. If you do it right, it can open all kinds of inner doors.
- Al Oerter

Three failures denote uncommon strength. A weakling has not enough grit to fail thrice.
- Minna Thomas Antrim

A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.
- Confucius

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Training log update

I’ve started back training in earnest so I’ve started a new 100 days log here
As an aside, I’d defiantly recommend Trackslife - it’s pretty easy to set up and use.

The Modified 5 Tibetans and new schedule

I’ve written about the modified 5 Tibetans before (Here) and I said that you really need to get this book:
UK: Your Hands Can Heal You, US: Your Hands Can Heal You
because it explains them, the Mentalphysics exercises and a large amount of other stuff you should know (see the other post). But what you don’t know is that I’ve been practising them.
The breath work and tension modifications to the Tibetans are superb and I can actually feel the difference between practising the originals and the modified versions.
I’ve got to admit though, that when they have been modified to be less strenuous on the bones/muscles etc. I usually ignore that and use the more hardcore old style version as I am a strapping young lad after all! I really recommend that you look into the Modified Tibetans as they are pretty effin’ effective.

I have changed my training schedule as well:
Morning: Modified 5 Tibetans
Evening (as soon as I get back from work): Modified 5 Tibetans, 8 Section Brocade
Evening (before bed): Meditation from the 100 days (yes, I completely failed to finish the book! Life just gets in the way! see the next post)

Quite a good article on the Bujinkan etc

Scepticism is a good thing, it’s a bit misplaced in this instance though

Go here