You Against Gravity

One of the most profound relationships you have during your lifetime is with Gravity.  How much effort you use in your daily battle with Gravity has huge implications for so many other facets of life.  A lot of people are working harder than necessary just to stand up, sit, walk, move, etc., and they don’t even know it. In addition to wasting valuable energy, this can result in a less productive attitude, poor posture and bad habits that slowly become ingrained and lead to permanent structural issues.  The classic example is the infamous “Dowager’s Hump.”

One of the techniques I’ve used to improve my relationship with Gravity is getting myself to the edge of losing balance while maintaining relaxation.  When your body senses it is about to fall, there is a natural protective reflex that will trigger to brace and protect you from a potential impact.  Your shoulders will raise up, head and neck scrunch down, tension rises in the body and you tend to “ball up” towards fetal position.  This reaction is very important and is responsible for the survival of the human race at a fundamental level.

Your body will respond this way to a loss of balance and also to a threatening shock, such as a sudden loud noise.  Anytime a fear response is triggered, at some level your body is moving toward a protective brace.

In modern society, there are tons of low level “threats” happening all the time, some physical, but many are merely psychological.  I say “merely” to make a point.  We tend to underplay psychological challenges and give more credence and respect to more tangible forms of threat.  But psychological threats are often more potent than physical threats in our modern world.  The tension that creeps in from these constant “threats” can be so ubiquitous that a “new normal” is constantly being defined – one that is tense and not fluid and relaxed.

Using physical balance challenges is one way to “hit the reset button” and “refresh” your machine.  Approaching a threatening situation, such as the very real threat of falling from a balance challenge, and learning to override the protective reflex so that you maintain an attitude of “solution seeking,” rather than bracing, can help you wipe the slate clean and rid your body of unnecessary tension.

The key is in finding the right balance – experiencing a threat that is real, but not overwhelming, that enables you to employ the relaxation strategy in the face of your natural protective reflex.

This is why I love eyes-closed training on the BOSU dome so much.  Knowing that you can open your eyes and step off the dome anytime you need to gives you the confidence and assurance of safety.  But because the dome surface is changing with infinite variability, you do lose your balance for real – especially when you’ve taken your vision out of the equation (and head turns/tilts will certainly help you lose your balance for real, but in a controlled setting).

The late Cheng Man Ching stated regarding the practice of Taijiquan, “Invest in loss.”  When you invest in loss with balance training, you allow yourself to lose balance but seek to regain balance by “letting go,” rather than muscling it.  This is difficult to do because it is against your body’s natural protective reflexes.  Letting go enables you to “get underneath the fall” with your center.  The fastest path down is controlled by gravity.  You cannot “pull” your Center-of-Gravity (COG) down faster than Gravity will take you down.  Unnecessary tension in your body will effectively raise your COG – which will slow down your body’s movement capabilities and make your balance worse.

Seeking to regain balance while maintaining minimal effort/tension in a controlled balance challenge is a great way to enhance your relationship with Gravity.

Another thing that must be stated is Attitude is everything when it comes to posture and movement.  Anything you can do to better overcome fear responses and improve confidence will energize you and enhance your relationship with Gravity.  I love to climb up to a high place and move to a position that scares me, but is still sensible and safe.  (I’ve taken some real risks as well in “no fall” situations, but these situations are dangerous and not appropriate for everyone).  You can however, find a situation that begins to make you feel uneasy without incurring undo unnecessary risk.  Practicing the “investing in loss” as per above will give you greater awareness and sensitivity, which will make this exercise easier and more productive.

You can also engage in psycho-social challenges to create a stressful situation that enables you to experience overcoming the threat and facing fear.  Find the opportunity to stand up in front of a group of people and speak on a subject.  This is terrifying for many people and so worth it!  The confidence you build from going through these situations will make you stronger in a profound ways and you will find that posture and attitude improves.

I’ll write more on this subject because it is so fundamental and it fascinates me.

DW

Three Days, More than 1,000 reps down

Yesterday was tough rolling the big Monster Rope(TM).  My forearms, shoulders, hands in particular, (but also my entire body), were tired from the 300 reps each way on the first day.  I also Rolled a long piece of the Big Monster Rope (8-feet long) that I have in my office.  By the time I got home from work, I still had to Roll 170 reps in each direction.  Jen and I put the kids to bed and I went out back before dinner – we’re talking about 9 PM – to complete my Rolls.  With 50 Rolls to go each way, I decided to finish up with the smaller Monster Rope (3-inch diameter instead of 4).  If I’m going to make it to 10,000 reps, I have to stay healthy and not tax myself too much.

This morning I Rolled the Big Monster Rope 100 reps in each direction without stopping.  This was exhausting.  I then Rolled the smaller Monster Rope continuously for 200 reps each way – 100 reps right, 100 reps left, then sets of 10 each way until my total was 200 reps in each direction.  Exhausting.  By the time I’d finished my workout, which included more than just the Rolling, my entire shirt was drenched.

I then played around with the Big Monster Rope and smaller Monster and discovered a new maneuver.  In just 3 days, I’ve put in more than 1,000 reps Rolling in both directions.  Simply doing the reps is what its all about.  The muscle memory I’m developing will make Rolling the Monster Ropes second nature.

I hope to be capable of Rolling 300 reps continuously in both directions at some point.

Also doing other exercises with the Monster Rope and loving it. Simply handling the Big Ropes makes your body so strong and what incredible conditioning.

Watching Steve get his 300 is also great to see.  He’s making discoveries that can only be made with reps over time.

We will be shooting the Intro Instructional DVD soon.

DW

10,000 Reps

Many people have recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book “Outliers”, where they’ve learned of the “10,000 hours to mastery” theory Gladwell outlines and describes with his typical brilliance.  Prior to hearing this theory, one of my professor’s in Acupuncture School (TCM – Traditional Chinese Medicine) and co-founder of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, Alex Tiberi told me about the ancient Chinese version of a “10,000 theory.”

The story goes like this: “From the One (the Tao) comes the Two – Yin & Yang.  From the Two comes Three.  And from Three come the 10,000 things.”  In this case 10,000 represents the infinite, mastery – all things.  That story always stuck with me for some reason.  I appreciate the power of metaphor and symbolism to convey profound meaning, where literalism often falls short.

So back to Gladwell.  10,000 hours actively engaged pursuing an endeavor is a lot of time, but it is the only way to achieve mastery and true greatness.  With exercise, 10,000 reps (which takes considerably less time to execute that 10,000 hours) is when you reach a level of muscle memory for that particular exercise (or movement), and it starts to become second nature.  Discoveries are made after 10,000 reps that lead to breakthroughs, where real creativity can happen.

Today (actually last night) I decided to embark on a 10,000 rep journey Rolling the Monster Ropes.  300 reps a day (in both directions, right & left – so 600 Rolls if you’re counting both) for 33 days gives you about 10,000 reps.  Within the next 33 days, I will have Rolled the Monster Ropes 10,000 times in each direction.  Perhaps I’ll do even more, but 10,000 is my minimum goal.  I’ve Rolled Monster Ropes before, but not a concentrated quest for 10,000 reps like this.

Today I’ve Rolled my “300″ reps both ways.  I’m tempted to do more, but I will wait on this until I get a few days of 300 under my belt.  I Rolled the big 4-inch Monster Rope and will see if I can continue to keep up this pace with the big Rope.  I’ll be doing all of my other training on top of this of course.

Will be posting as I go…

DW

Steve Maxwell

Steve Maxwell is the real deal.  I met him several years ago at a stretching workshop and was really impressed by his physical skills and training knowledge.  He is a man who is much younger than his years for sure.

I came across this video he happened to have uploaded yesterday, which shows Steve putting Xande Ribeiro through a Steve Maxell BOSU Ball Balance Training Complex.  I love the patient determination and careful attention to detail in this clip (listen carefully to Steve’s cuing, which is great):

Balance is the foundation upon which all else is built.  Thanks Steve for posting this inspiring clip!

DW

Tai Chi Ball

Just started Rolling my wooden Tai Chi Ball.  Looking forward to a lot more training with this wonderful tool…

Happy 4th!

DW

The Ring is In and Monster Rope Demo

The Gym is almost done!  The Wing Chun Dummy is installed and we’ve got the boxing ring up too.

Here’s a little demo of Rolling Ropes with a Monster Rope!

We will be taping workouts very soon!

Peace,

DW

Punching

My name is Steve Froehlich and I work for David Weck and BOSU Fitness.  I’ve been friends with David for a few years and he asked me to come on board to help him with Rolling Ropes (which is amazing) and his Sophisticated Warrior Training.  This is my first post on his blog.  My posts will be signed “Frosu,” a combination of my last name and BOSU; this nickname was bestowed upon me by my lifting buddies, who only lift for bodybuilding.

Because of the Soft-Fist Education Training, my punching is becoming more natural, effortless, rhythmic and accurate.  I feel like my fists are finally an extension of my center, my core, my brain, and not just some goofy things on the end of my arms that thought punching extremely hard was an efficient way of ensuring accuracy.

Today I went for a run, and it’s been awhile because I have a sore achilles.   I’m talking 6 months, which is driving me crazy.  So I went for  2.5-miler, which used to take me 19 minutes, but I knew that it would be more like in the low to mid 20′s, because I didn’t want to push the injury.

So I decided to practice my punching, my combinations and doing circles like on a punching bag, while I was running!  I’ve seen people do it before, and thought they were weird, but when I was doing it, I knew people were looking at me and thought I was weird, too; but I didn’t care!  haha  It was an awesome run (although I had to stop about halfway through and walk the rest of the way).

I rolled my punches forward, backward, with combinations and hooks, and shovel punches, jabs, straights with my elbow tucked in on my center line, crosses with extreme rotation, punches with my body rotated to the right, then over to the left side to Balance on Both Sides (BOSU Training, baby!).  I changed my gait to allow me to be in a righty’s stance, then southpaw, with my body rotated perpendicular like a wrestler.  I really explored my flexibility, rotation, structure (by keeping my elbows tucked in and dropping my shoulders down below my hands).  I wasn’t really tired trying to keep my arms up because it wasn’t that tiring.  It was really fun and that’s what I focused on.  So even though my punk-ass achilles wanted to rest halfway through, I continued to do the punching while I was walking.  There are so many homeless and deviants around here that I know people thought I was one of those guys with Tourettes walking around all crazy, haha.  But really I am in training.

And it sure was fun!

Frosu