Exercise, what do you do?

Johnno

Johnno

The Living Force
I've noticed a lot on topics on stuff iingested, inhaled, cures diseases and diseases in general. There hasn't been much on exercise so I'm wondering what various people are doing to keep the old ticker in shape.

So I'll start it off.

I swim 500mtrs daily. Sprint 25 mtrs slow 25mtrs which has seen a improvement in my overall fitness. This was a modification of some football training in my younger days where we'd sprint/jog/sprint/jog to get stamina up in short order. I recall the story of an old clay tablet found some years ago, translated it described a Greek(?) horse trainer who used a similar sprint/canter methods to get his horses fit.

I started with the brief goal of 150mtrs (that first lap I thought my heart would explode out of my chest) and added a couple of 25 mtr laps each day thereafter. Now the first lap is very easy and the 500mtrs is over in around 15 minutes. I'm actually enjoying it now and the swimming is a little gentler on my joints.
 
On a regular basis, I like yoga, tennis, jogging, walking. Recently I did a trek in the Andes mountains in Chile for 8 days....literally hiking straight up mountains and volcanos, and down, over, snow, sand, and rocks, crossing roaring rivers on horseback.... Incredible...you will never see places like that if you don´t walk at least 3 days. And the best part is...no cell phone towers, no sounds of traffic, no nothing except the occasional sound of free-roaming horses galloping by in the night and southern sky´s constellations twinkling above.

After this, my body was functioning better that it has in years in every way...sleep, digestion, no pain, strong muscles. I felt so alive and clear. Highly recommend it for those up to a challenge...I´ll pass on info if anyone wants it. An awesome guide with horses to carry supplies...or to carry you if needed.

Tree
 
Tree, I've never had the chance to do things like that, sounds like heaven, I do enjoy going hiking from time to time, but this is my usual schedule:

I practice one and a half hours of Qi gong when I first get up, then walk down to work which takes about half an hour. During my one hour lunch break, I perform tai chi at an exceedingly slow rate so the form takes me about 30- 40 minutes to perform instead of 5-10 minutes. I walk back home, then play around with my staff for a while, this is so afterwards I am relaxed enough to do some Zhan Zhuang Qi gong and IMS meditation. If I have 5 to 10 minutes to spare anytime, I'll squeeze in some tai chi form practice or punching/stepping drills.
On Saturday mornings I go to tai chi classes, but I tend to take it easy that day. On Sundays, I go to the woods with a few friends to have a good old fight, which trains speed, technique, application and body sensitivity, that can lasts up to 2-3 hours, I'm normally all beaten and bruised by the end of it, but I'm training to get an iron body anyway...
 
Tree, def email me the info, id love to do that in the summer or fall.

Excercise wise i tend to be pretty slack. I get in 20-30 mins of cardio 5 days a week, push ups till i can't do em no more (about 30-50 depending on my mood) after the cardio. I stretch daily, legs, arms, chest, lower back and anything else that feels tight. I throw in rock climbing every so often (have a membership @ a local rock gym) and wrestling/push-hands/sparring with my friends whenever we get in the mood. Mostly my excercise is sporadic and not based on a schedule. I've been trying to get back into going to tae kwon do, but havent found a local dojo i like yet. Currently its winter where i live so the cold tends to slow me down, thus the slacking.
 
tree said:
On a regular basis, I like yoga, tennis, jogging, walking. Recently I did a trek in the Andes mountains in Chile for 8 days....literally hiking straight up mountains and volcanos, and down, over, snow, sand, and rocks, crossing roaring rivers on horseback.... Incredible...you will never see places like that if you don´t walk at least 3 days. And the best part is...no cell phone towers, no sounds of traffic, no nothing except the occasional sound of free-roaming horses galloping by in the night and southern sky´s constellations twinkling above.

After this, my body was functioning better that it has in years in every way...sleep, digestion, no pain, strong muscles. I felt so alive and clear. Highly recommend it for those up to a challenge...I´ll pass on info if anyone wants it. An awesome guide with horses to carry supplies...or to carry you if needed.

Tree
Click to expand...
I had some friends that did the Andes and reported similar results. A couple of years later they did Nepal, the acclimatization to the thinner atmosphere took some getting used to, though I'm told. And there were no horses on the Nepal trip, these amazingly fit and strong Nepalese did all the carrying.
 
Exercise and movement

Hi everyone,
I decided with a little feedback to start an exercise thread. I find so much attention is given to healing, purging, letting go, mindfulness, diet etc but as is often the case in life, movement and exercise is simply forgotten. In my work as a massage therapist I often advise people don't come and see me start moving and doing strength work. Yes thats right, lift something heavy and learn to do it well. I work with people when they can't move or can't move without pain. I see my job as helping the body to realise it can move then it is up to my clients. Good quality strength training will do more for relieving pain than alot of body therapies. Our bodys are not stimulated to be strong anymore from our lifestyles so we need to ensure we include that in our selected activities.
Thats all for me for now. I am interested to hear what people think and what their challenges may be.
 
gottathink said:
Hi everyone,
I decided with a little feedback to start an exercise thread. I find so much attention is given to healing, purging, letting go, mindfulness, diet etc but as is often the case in life, movement and exercise is simply forgotten. In my work as a massage therapist I often advise people don't come and see me start moving and doing strength work. Yes thats right, lift something heavy and learn to do it well. I work with people when they can't move or can't move without pain. I see my job as helping the body to realise it can move then it is up to my clients. Good quality strength training will do more for relieving pain than alot of body therapies. Our bodys are not stimulated to be strong anymore from our lifestyles so we need to ensure we include that in our selected activities.
Thats all for me for now. I am interested to hear what people think and what their challenges may be.
Click to expand...


Hi gottathink, that's interesting. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that body therapies are the way for trauma releasing and by learning to do strength bodywork right, we won't have to go to therapies?
Can you tell me something more about it or maybe give us some researches, or explain more experiences you had in your practice? I'm really interested in that.

About exercise, I've started yoga about six months ago. I do some basic exercises and do it about 30 minutes a day. I usually do yoga before EE and I think it goes very well together. For me, the most important thing in exercising is to be safe and comfortable. My biggest challenge in the beginning was pain. I've notices in the beginning, no matter how much I try to be comfortable, conscious and don't push myself too hard, I still had lower-back pain. So, I've decided to find-out more about anatomy and yoga.
I've found these short videos very helpful _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCumylkQGeg&list=UUAIZp528tWnRksxR7STjAHw and they opened a new world for me and made me rethink what my goal in exercising is. I think I pay more attention right now and try to explore different ways of moving.

Recently, I found out about embodiment so right now it is something very interesting to me. These videos _http://www.youtube.com/user/BodyMindCentering are absolutely wonderful to me and also opened a great new world for me! I still don't understand so much because it's all new to me, but I really enjoy exploring things on this subject.

So, I'm really interesting this "body-mind" field and connection of trauma, emotions, body, breathing and everything. Great potential for self-observation and working on discipline for me.
In short, after six months of yoga I notice that I'm much stronger. Although I do basics and beginners poses, I feel my legs and arms are much stronger. I think I'm more flexible, have more balance. Also, I think that in my everyday life the way I sit and move is somehow different. Right now the biggest challenge is to apply everything I learn. It's a big challenge because it's not easy to break those automatic, learned patterns.

Previous, the biggest challenge for me was a lack of discipline. I wasn't able to follow anything for some long period. For example, I did some HIIT and some stretch bend exercises. It was ok, I felt like I have a lot of energy after and felt really great, but I don't know, it's like one morning one of my little I's woke up and forgot all the benefits and just gave-up.
I think that it's very important that exercise gives you something that's really important to you: more energy, relaxation, balance..., so that you do something that you like. But on the other hand, getting out of our comfort zone and do something we don't like can be also very interesting for people like me, who have problems with discipline.
 
I like to swim, which has been my main form of expertise recently. A bit of resistance exercising just with body weight, but I do prefer the 'weightless' feel to swimming, you get an all over body work out and a great cardiovascular workout too.

Over a long steady session (with rest periods) there can be a very relaxing rhythm to it too, great for thinking things through and even meditating. Reciting the prayer of the soul in sync with the breathing, bringing attention to focus on the quality of stroke, sensing the body to find the parts that are tense/relaxed, being aware of body position in the water. Can make for a very 'crisp' workout for the mind as well as a physical workout for the body.
 
Mountain biking and rock climbing / bouldering in a gym. Back in a day I used to go to a regular gym but got tired of repetitiveness of it. I moved to Arizona a year ago just so I can mountain bike the whole year :)
 
These days, I don't exercise, as such, but in my youth I used to be into spring board diving, and could swim the length of an olympic sized pool under water. (foolish, don't try it)
Now that I'm in my dotage, I assist a farmer friend who is the same age as me, and we go out to his farm, and I help him chase his cattle around the paddocks, fix fences, and do various farm type jobs that he needs help with. Because it is outside my comfort zone, (I'm a city boy) I find that it keeps the adrenalin going and exercises muscles I didn't know I had. Otherwise, I potter around in my garden, and that seems to keep me fit.
 
Flow said:
gottathink said:
Hi everyone,
I decided with a little feedback to start an exercise thread. I find so much attention is given to healing, purging, letting go, mindfulness, diet etc but as is often the case in life, movement and exercise is simply forgotten. In my work as a massage therapist I often advise people don't come and see me start moving and doing strength work. Yes thats right, lift something heavy and learn to do it well. I work with people when they can't move or can't move without pain. I see my job as helping the body to realise it can move then it is up to my clients. Good quality strength training will do more for relieving pain than alot of body therapies. Our bodys are not stimulated to be strong anymore from our lifestyles so we need to ensure we include that in our selected activities.
Thats all for me for now. I am interested to hear what people think and what their challenges may be.
Click to expand...


Hi gottathink, that's interesting. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that body therapies are the way for trauma releasing and by learning to do strength bodywork right, we won't have to go to therapies?
Can you tell me something more about it or maybe give us some researches, or explain more experiences you had in your practice? I'm really interested in that.

About exercise, I've started yoga about six months ago. I do some basic exercises and do it about 30 minutes a day. I usually do yoga before EE and I think it goes very well together. For me, the most important thing in exercising is to be safe and comfortable. My biggest challenge in the beginning was pain. I've notices in the beginning, no matter how much I try to be comfortable, conscious and don't push myself too hard, I still had lower-back pain. So, I've decided to find-out more about anatomy and yoga.
I've found these short videos very helpful _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCumylkQGeg&list=UUAIZp528tWnRksxR7STjAHw and they opened a new world for me and made me rethink what my goal in exercising is. I think I pay more attention right now and try to explore different ways of moving.

Recently, I found out about embodiment so right now it is something very interesting to me. These videos _http://www.youtube.com/user/BodyMindCentering are absolutely wonderful to me and also opened a great new world for me! I still don't understand so much because it's all new to me, but I really enjoy exploring things on this subject.

So, I'm really interesting this "body-mind" field and connection of trauma, emotions, body, breathing and everything. Great potential for self-observation and working on discipline for me.
In short, after six months of yoga I notice that I'm much stronger. Although I do basics and beginners poses, I feel my legs and arms are much stronger. I think I'm more flexible, have more balance. Also, I think that in my everyday life the way I sit and move is somehow different. Right now the biggest challenge is to apply everything I learn. It's a big challenge because it's not easy to break those automatic, learned patterns.

Previous, the biggest challenge for me was a lack of discipline. I wasn't able to follow anything for some long period. For example, I did some HIIT and some stretch bend exercises. It was ok, I felt like I have a lot of energy after and felt really great, but I don't know, it's like one morning one of my little I's woke up and forgot all the benefits and just gave-up.
I think that it's very important that exercise gives you something that's really important to you: more energy, relaxation, balance..., so that you do something that you like. But on the other hand, getting out of our comfort zone and do something we don't like can be also very interesting for people like me, who have problems with discipline.
Click to expand...
\
Oops apologies, I didn't know this thread existed as had never seen it, broke the rules and didn't do a search first.
It is the end of my day here and tomorrow I will give it some attention and reply.
 
I have a lower back injury that prevents me from doing the things I used to do for exercise like running, golfing, etc.

What I do everyday , no matter if it is cold and icey, or hot and humid is ride my bicycle at least 2 miles. I combine my bike riding with my daily errands, and I even do most of my grocery shopping on it. So it is not something that is separate and requires discipline of setting aside time. It is part of my day and the way I get around, so it must be done if I want the "stuff" I am after that day.

This has actually helped my back injury tremendously, keeps at least my lower body very fit, my wind up and the fresh air is sooo nice to have every day. The one thing I didn't realize is that by altering how I ride, small shifts in position, center of gravity,like no hands riding, etc, is shaping up my core as well. My balance and some of the muscles in my upper body are improving, too.

At 53 and female, even with an injury, I more generally fit than any other person I know my age; and it is from using this bicycle as my primary mode of transport. I only spent $40US on the bicycle, so nothing fancy, just a suspension and shock system found on $100 stock bikes everywhere. I have spent $8 repairing tires in 2 years and a new seat I found for free, and that's it !..laffn.. :lol:

So, I highly recommend getting a bicycle, no matter your age, and using it to get your daily errands done , if at all possible. And I mean that in the sense of distance being more than 10 miles one way or too hilly, otherwise, there is nothing standing in the way. My female friends have the complaint that they cannot wear what they are used to wearing and that does need some modification if you are going to work , for example. But I figured it out, by bringing my clothes with me and changing, or just modifying one or two pieces of clothing and then changing, when I got to work.

It does require some adjustments in the way you "look" to others, but I cannot say how much it has helped me in so many ways. I could hardly walk when I injured my back in 2010, now I'm riding my bike sometimes 20 or 30 miles roundtrip for my errands. Oh , yes, a good selection of backbacks is also in my repertoire, to carry home what I have acquired on the trip; I have carried up to 60 lbs. in a large hiking backpack full of groceries, 2.6 miles one way, but I most often use a small padded pack that doubles as my "purse" and it "looks" acceptable in almost every situation.

Goodluck and have a nice ride ! :cool2:
 
Came across this example of someone dramatically changing, which is inspirational for making a decision for the self of DOing. This is the story of Arthur Boorman. Arthur was a disabled veteran (Gulf War). He looked to be a very injured man and decided to overcome. This was possible because he found help, he found someone that urged him on, and the rest was left up to him.

His diet is not mentioned, yet he found a great deal of inner strength.

 
Awesomely put Voyeur. Self doing... It applys to all of the work. Now to answer your enquiry Flow
Hi gottathink, that's interesting. If I understand you correctly, you are saying that body therapies are the way for trauma releasing and by learning to do strength bodywork right, we won't have to go to therapies?
Can you tell me something more about it or maybe give us some researches, or explain more experiences you had in your practice? I'm really interested in that.
Click to expand...
Yes that is it, sometimes people need some help, they can't find their way by themselves to pain free movement, but essentially we must do it ourselves. There should be no need to be fixed by others. Just like all the work if your clear something undesirable it must be replaced with the desirable. EG if we release the tension and trauma from the body we must then learn the new way of being that is strong and balanced so that we don't just collapse back into the previous state. Also the simple act of learning a new way to move will clear out the undesirable patterns.
Does that make sense? In bodywork naturopathic healthcare and allopathic medical care there is often a culture of reliance promoted. Chiropractic is a good example. I have seen so many clients attend and then the frequency increases until the point they cannot manage 2 pain free days before having to return. This is actual real clients experiences and common. To me that is just wrong, a person should be able to get some help and then need less and less of it as they learn how to care for themselves.

Good on you LJRoxark
It does require some adjustments in the way you "look" to others, but I cannot say how much it has helped me in so many ways. I could hardly walk when I injured my back in 2010, now I'm riding my bike sometimes 20 or 30 miles roundtrip for my errands. Oh , yes, a good selection of backbacks is also in my repertoire, to carry home what I have acquired on the trip; I have carried up to 60 lbs. in a large hiking backpack full of groceries, 2.6 miles one way, but I most often use a small padded pack that doubles as my "purse" and it "looks" acceptable in almost every situation.

Goodluck and have a nice ride ! :cool2:
Click to expand...

I wonder to if you may be able to get even more improvement.
 
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