The Ahn "push" movement is a great way to practice both stretching and releasing the bows, as well as Fa Jin. Focus your energy and direct it through your arms with your whole body.
Good Luck!
Rami's Blog
Like the Yin-Yang, Eastern Martial Arts and Western medicine are two halves of a whole. My mission is to preserve the ancient mind-body tools and pass them on to you.
Fa Jin - Manifestation of Power
Fa Jin (a.k.a. Fa Jing), or "manifestation of power," is great practice for controlling and moving your energy, stretching and releasing the bows, and improving your martial arts. The force of movement in Fa Jin is a good way to begin visualizing the movement of energy during your Tai Chi practice.
Good luck! And make sure you don't move too fast or too hard, and accidentally hurt yourself. Fa Jin is about control, not strength!
Na - Sensitivity Training - Listening with the Skin
When doing Na, or sensitivity training, you want to go slow and try not to compete but to be a good partner. Close your eyes and learn to sense with the skin on your hands. Go slow and start with one hand at a time and over time move to two hands simultaneously. Once you are comfortable with the physical movements then try visualizing your lower energy center while practicing Na. After that, work on the visualization of the 4 gates breathing while practicing Na; you can start with two gates, the upper ones, and over time add the lower ones as well. When you advance even further, you can do Na training on two wooden blocks (still visualizing the lower energy center, of course!).
Spring is a Time for Moderation
As the weather begins to warm and many of us emerge from our winter-long stay indoors, we need to remember to get back into our spring and summer activities slowly. You all know my Rule of 80% by now. Being active at a moderate level is key to avoiding injuries, and helping your body adapt to new routines and experiences. So if you are getting back into an exercise routine soon, don't push it! Build back up in moderation.
But moderation isn't just about exercise. Many people (especially in New England) want to run outside and bask in the sun all day in that first week or two of warm spring weather. But if you expose your skin to too much sunlight all at once after a whole winter of being indoors, you're asking for a sunburn. Or even worse, an increased chance of skin cancer. Wearing sunscreen if you are going to be out for any extended period of time is very important. Equally important is allowing your skin to rest and properly react after sunny weather. You should only be in direct sunlight for at most an hour a day during the first two sunny weeks.
If you can begin with half an hour during the first week, and work your way up to an hour, that is even better.
A good rule of thumb is that you should already see a healthy (not red and burned) change in your skin color a few days before you start going out for more than an hour. If you have a darker complexion or your skin just doesn't change color much with sun, two weeks of at most 1-hour a day is still a safe bet.
And how about breathing? We all love to take deep breaths of that fresh, warm air after winter. But many of us walk around with a runny nose or congestion once the flowers and trees start to bloom. That's because you are getting too much pollen and fresh air too fast. You have to use a similar strategy with air as you do with sunlight so that your lungs and sinuses can adapt to the new environment.
Begin with a few deep breaths of outdoor air each day, before things start to bloom. Work your way up to a minute of deep breathing, then two, then three, etc. Don't immediately open all your house windows and let the air through, because then you won't have anywhere for your lungs to rest! Save that for when you have already been breathing the outside air for a couple weeks.
If you have serious allergies, then this deep breathing advice comes with a grain of salt. Consult a doctor before doing anything that might aggravate a preexisting condition.
Happy Stretching (in moderation)!
Centering for Martial Arts and Partner Massage
Today we introduce you to centering, an important technique for anyone interesting in martial arts, and also a great exercise for two people that naturally massages the internal organs and increases torso flexibility.
Training the Yang Circle
This week, Rami demonstrates how to do the Yang Circle movement with a partner, and solo. This technique is great for practicing the integrating techniques like the bows and empty/full moon, and also for preparing for surgery as well as strengthening the upper body for martial arts training.
And if you want to make the most out of this new daylight and warm weather we have, why not use my Sunrise and Sunset Tai Chi books to start a mind-body routine that you can practice in the summer, and have memorized by winter?