Recovered very well from yesterdays session and the shoulder woke up feeling pretty loose. Knees were good too which is a good sign. Last time,a long time ago that I tried to do push presses and jerks my knees said no go before the shoulder. This is great improvement.Get some much needed quad work :))
It is a perfect Northern California sunny day; warm but not hot so it was z in the back yard under the sun. And instead of using a mirror to watch the reps I used my shadow. Even better feedback than the mirror as all I had to focus on was the outline and the symmetry. The Z routines are turning into some strange kind of yoga, tai chi routine,especially when I just listen to my body and go to the corresponding joint to work on that it tells me too. It "unwinds" me, which is exactly what the structure needed.That makes the corrective stretches/poses I do with rifga that much more productive.
One of my favorite parts in z is the lengthening postures done right in the begining.I get SO much out of just trying to put myself into square and neutral and then lengthen against gravity in that position. This standing meditation where you focus on just lifting out of the joint(s) while standing still is doing a lot to decompress things as well.Even the shoulders.
AND I get the strangest adjustments from just standing. By squaring up the left hip knee and foot the right shoulder 'moves'. something shifts and I'm more square with less tension.
Drills
standing lengthening
arms out to side
arms front
arms overhead
arms behind
lateral turns
lateral and medial ankle tilts
toe pulls
knee circles standing
knee circles swings
six position shoulder circles( this is where it gets out of 'order')
hip circles
elbow circles top and bottom( the bottom are the hardest and where my shoulder becomes most dysfunctional)
wrist and hand circles
full hip circles
thoracic circles
neck circles and tilts
Downward/upward dog
squat stretches wide/close/on toes
seated pike and straddle stretches 3 sides.
dats it feel much looser.50 sets of swings again tomorrow.
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7 comments:
Hey Rif, the more I hear about this Z-Health (from you and Sara), the more it sounds to me like a 'western science-ized' version of tai chi mechanics. I think it's time I looked into this myself. It sounds like it sure can't hurt!! =)
The long spine, neutral stance and focus on relaxed movement is exactly the same as taiji. The isolation, however, is opposite. I always do them both in the same session ~ works great.
got it aaron.makes sense. I'm getting a nice flow from move to move with the z and it almost feels less isolate that way.
howie,definitely check it out. Best $85 I ever spent.
Mark, the isolation exists in taiji, but it is addressed in the "still" practices like standing meditation and holding the postures of the form. In a nutshell, you scan your body using your feeling-sense and consciously attempt to dissolve any tension you feel through willful relaxation. The goal is a fully open energy system without blockages ~ aka a "unified" feeling and energy.
Movement practice is all about keeping this unified feeling and creating unified movement, so that each movement feels like and IS one "thing". I'm sure Z has the same goal.
The classics say, "From the feet to the legs to the waist, the whole body is integrated and coordinated with one breath." This is good, but misleading. The whole body also includes the hands and the top of the head, and everything else. And power is not expressed from the feet upward; it is expressed from the center outward in all directions, like a sneeze.
aaron,
really really good descriptions of the internal processes.I like this part a lot
"In a nutshell, you scan your body using your feeling-sense and consciously attempt to dissolve any tension you feel through willful relaxation".
thats exactly what I am aiming for.great stuff man.
well i've decided to take the plunge... i ordered z-health! i'll be sure to let you know how it works out. thanks.
great howie, let me know how it goes.
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