Achieving Physical and Mental Balance, Part 6

Hello mind-body students! Glad you are back to read more of the series on Achieving Physical and Mental Balance! You can find the last five installments in the series here: Part 1 & Part 2 (Flexibility), Part 3 & Part 4 (Strength) and Part 5 (Experiencing your mass and weight).

This week, we add the last two exercises onto the third part of the series: Experiencing your mass and weight. I talked last week about how important it is to have a feel for your body's movements and weight, and how beneficial it can be in a situation where you lose your balance. Today, we're going from the beginner level techniques of the last post to more intermediate level techniques that will improve our balance and our ability to move in a smooth and controlled way.

1. Tai Chi Walk - This exercise might remind you of the duck walk, but it has a very different "feel" when you do it. Where the duck walk uses small leg movements and strains a lot of your quad muscles, Tai Chi walking (also called "The 50 Steps") requires big, exaggerated movements that activate more stabilizer muscles. Both are necessary for great balance. Move lower and perform the walk slower over time as you improve. You should do 50 steps a day.
2. Moving Down to the Floor and Back Up Safely - Lastly, we are going to practice actually going to the ground and getting back up in a safe and controlled manner. This is not supposed to be done quickly, but it does need to be repeated many times to imprint this reaction into your brain. Once you have done it enough, you'll automatically fall more safely than before. Do this ten times a day, alternating the side that you support yourself with.

Did you catch that tidbit about rolling that I mention in the video? If you did, good! That means you were listening closely. And now you've gotten a sneak peak into what I'll be showing you next week: how to roll correctly for martial arts.

Rolling is not an exercise for older people looking to improve balance, but I want to include it at the end of this series for younger mind-body students who are looking to achieve better performance in their athletics.

See you next week,

Happy Stretching!

Achieving Physical and Mental Balance, Part 5

Welcome back to the series on Achieving Physical and Mental Balance! To see the previous installments in the series, look here: Part 1 & Part 2 (Flexibility), Part 3 & Part 4 (Strength).

This week, we kick off the next and final section of this mind-body prescription: Experiencing your Mass & Weight.

Keeping your balance and protecting yourself from harmful falls is not all about being strong or limber. Plenty of strong and flexible people fall down and injure themselves every day. There is a third piece that is as important as the other two, and that piece is about experience. You have to be familiar with the experience of being off-balance, or shifting your center of gravity, if you are going to react appropriately in dangerous situations.

Our natural instincts when we lose balance can help us, but they can also hurt us. Think: when someone slips and falls, their arms often flail outward in all directions. This can be good if there is something around to catch ahold of. If there isn't, then this could be bad. Many people have broken an arm or wrist because they landed on it with their entire body weight.

What we have to practice doing is feeling off balance, and then moving our center of gravity in a controlled way that gets us safely to the ground (if that's where we need to go).

So, without further ado, here are the first two exercises in the third section: Experiencing your Mass and Weight.

1. Stand on One Leg - The easiest way to simulate being off-balance is by standing on one leg. We all have a different level of balance when we start off, so you may be able to do this easily, or you may need a lot of support to keep yourself up. Start wherever is safest for you, and work your way to the free-standing version of the exercise. Do this for 1 minute on each leg, twice a day. (See the video below).
    
2. Duck Walk - This funny-looking exercise is about controlling your center of gravity and your balance as you get lower to the ground. It also builds leg strength while you do it. Do 50 steps twice a day, and try to move lower over time.

That's it for Part 5! See you next week for Part 6!

Happy Stretching!

Achieving Physical and Mental Balance, Part 4

If you haven't checked out the flexibility portion of this routine, you can see it here: Part 1 & Part 2. Once you are all caught up on the stretching, start the strengthening portion of the routine with Part 3.

To finish up the strength section, we present two other exercises today. The first one will be new to some of you mind-body students, and the second is an old favorite.

Make sure you are paying attention to the number of repetitions and sets you should be doing, and be sure to keep your deep breathing and empty mind going as you do these techniques.

1. This new technique will help strengthen your calves, the muscles that sit at the back of your knees and stretch all the way to the bottom of your feet. This muscle pair is incredible important for stability while walking, climbing stairs, going uphill, and more. It's time to lift those heels off the ground! Build up to 30 repetitions every other day.
   (See the video below)
    
2. Wall Push-ups - you should all know this one by now. Remember that there are two sets, one with elbows in, and one with elbows out. Build up to 30 of each type every other day.

And that's it for strength! Next week, we move onto the third section of this mind-body prescription: Experiencing your mass/weight. This part will be a crucial step in improving your stability and balance, mentally and physically.

Until then, Happy Stretching!

Achieving Physical and Mental Balance, Part 3

Last week, we finished up the stretching portion of our Balance-centered mind-body prescription. If you aren't up to date, you can check out part 1 and part 2 here.

This week, we begin the strength portion of the routine with two classic exercises that work your leg and abdominal muscles. In tai chi, there is a key pattern that underlies all of the techniques and movements that we learn, which can be summarized like so:

Force is generated by the legs, directed by the hips, and manifested by the arms.

In the martial arts application of tai chi, a powerful punch is much more about how your legs and hips move than it is about the arm that actually delivers the punch. A truly powerful punch is always delivered from a stable and balanced base. That base is your legs and your hips (and your hips are essentially the point of connection between your leg muscles and your abdominal muscles).

So to develop a balanced, stable base for our body, we must strengthen the legs and the abdominals.

With that in mind, here are the first two exercises you should perform for the strength section of this routine:

1. Up and Down - The key to this exercise, which helps to build bone density better than just about any other exercise, is to remember that there are two sets that you need to do. First with your legs apart, and then with your legs together. Build up to 30 repetitions of each kind, 3 to 4 times per week.
2. Sit Ups - Begin with this exercise on a chair if you need to, and then work down to the floor version of the sit ups over time. Build up to 30 repetitions, once every other day.

That's it for this week! Look out next week for the second part of the strength routine.

Happy Stretching!

Achieving Physical and Mental Balance, Part 2

In part 2 of our series on physical and mental balance, we give you the second half of the flexibility routine. If you missed part 1, check that out first.

As we move forward with this series, keep in mind the connection between our physical and mental balance, and how that affects us in our day-to-day lives. For children, balance in both of these areas is key to avoiding chronic physical or emotional issues. For young adults, mental balance helps with focus, whether it is for completing their studies, working hard at a new career, or keeping confident as they move out on their own. And for the older adults, physical balance becomes more and more important as our strength naturally fades, and the chance of harmful falls or accidents increases.

Think about the benefits you receive from this routine centered on balance, and use that mental image as motivation.

Flexibility exercises, set 2:

1. Outer Hip Stretch - People always forget this one! Do this stretch (either on a chair or on the floor) 2 times per day, for 3 minutes on each side.
2. Chair Twists - A great movement for releasing tension in your back and taking pressure off your organs. This one should be done 2 times a day for 2 minutes to each side.
3. The Rainbow Stretch - Try to keep your arm unbent while you do this one. 2 times a day, 2 minutes for each arm.
4. The 5 Musketeers - This is our new exercise for the week. You may have seen three musketeers in a previous video, but this new one has more information and a better angle to see the correct form. Go through all the positions 2 times a day, for 2 minutes in each. That's a total of 10 minutes, 2 times a day.

Next week we are on to strength!

Happy Stretching!

Achieving Physical and Mental Balance: Part 1

To improve your physical and mental balance, you have to train three aspects of your body.

1. Your flexibility
2. Your strength
3. Your ability to 'experience' your mass

How does this help to balance your mind? Well, exercise is very good for stress reduction and emotional stability. Also, having an unstable and imbalanced body sends unconscious feelings of uneasiness to your brain. If you eliminate the imbalance in your body, you help to take that extra stress off of your mind. So long as you follow my Rule of 80% Effort, you will find yourself becoming more and more balanced, without any pain or extra stress.

This week, we tackle the first half of the flexibility routine.

1. Hamstrings - Do the "Vitamin-H" stretch 3 times during the day, for 3 minutes each time.
2. Calves - Loosen your calf muscles with these stretches or these stretches. Twice a day, 3 minutes each.
3. Quads - Continue to relax the leg muscles with this stretch, or the heron stretch, if you know it. Twice a day for 2-3 minutes.
4. Hip Extension - Finally, use this new stretch video to learn the "flamingo" stretch for the hips. This stretch should be done twice a day for 2 minutes on each leg.

That's it for now! Next week we'll give you part 2, and the rest of the flexibility set. Then it's on to strength!

Happy Stretching!