Friday Funnies – Batman in Classic Movie Scenes

Enjoy!

Internal strength and philosphy

Ken Gullette has post up that compliments his new e-book titled Internal Strength for Tai Chi, Hsing-I and Bagua.

First the book:

There are six primary physical skills required for high-quality internal kung-fu. The foundation of those skills are: establishing and maintaining the ground path at all times, and establishing and maintaining peng jin at all times.

These are physical skills, not metaphysical. And you cannot gain these skills simply by doing “moving meditation.” To gain real skill in these arts, you must work hard.

I purchased the book and once I’m done with it you can expect a review.

Ken’s post is excellent and worth reading, also. It details hardships he’s overcome through his internal martial arts training.

So we are supposed to take what we learn in the martial arts and also apply the principles to our daily lives, aren’t we? It’s not just for combat, you know.

When you have Internal Strength, it doesn’t mean you are superhuman… But if your internal movements can be trained to function like “iron wrapped in cotton,” your goal should also be for your mind to function that way as well.

-BCP

I’m a winner! (and other thoughts)

I’ve noticed a significant increase in people trying to get me to promote crap on this blog. The two main patterns are: 1) Leaving a comment (usually unrelated to the post) with a link back to their crappy product website or 2) Bequeathing me some sort of shitty award. Naturally, the award links back to their shitty product. (i.e. an “award” is only as good  as the organization granting it.)

The worst of the comment offenders has been a certain sign company. They’ve taken half a dozen passes at me and I’ve hit the spam button every time.

I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I do not know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already Cheers!

Makes me think of something Marx said:

“I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” – Groucho Marx

Offending the offendable:

My last post generated an e-mail by someone who was offended at the Michele Bachmann corn dog photo. If the post was too juvenile for my few “refined” readers, I do have to say that Michele is generally offensive, so, the corn dog makes us even.

Training & Exercise:

Despite the conference travel I somehow managed to at least not gain back the 3lbs that I have lost. I credit my success to this:

• (Mostly) eating sensible
• Forcing myself to use the hotel fitness center (if it has one)
• If no fitness center or if I’m unmotivated, I force myself to do 100 squats, 100 crunches, and 100 push-ups in the hotel room.

That last idea I discovered while reading a magazine that someone had left in the plane’s seat-back pocket. It’s a piece of exercise travel advice that still burns calories. I can do 100 crunches without stopping. I can make it to about 50 body weight squats before having to break things up. Push-ups are ugly and get split into five sets of 20.

I’ve extended the squat, crunches, & push-ups idea to home. If I have a crappy day and do not exercise I’m setting this as a bare minimum goal. Talk to me in August and I’ll let you know if I kept it up.

Return to Bootcamp:

After two weeks off I returned to bootcamp. Thankfully, Ms. Tank had planned something I love: Ropes!

If you think these are easy think again! 10 minutes in my side was killing me and at the 20 minute mark I was huffing. Total time spent: 30 minutes non-stop with 10 minutes of warm-ups. Here’s the general theme:

• 3-4 stations that we rotate through
• Grip variation: grappler grip vs. handshake grip (I see why MMA guys train with ropes — burns the forearms!)
• 60% upper body focus and 40% legs focus
• On legs: some have us in what is basically a “horse stance” while doing the rope drills (God bless my TKD and Kung Fu training!). Other drills have us doing pylometric jumps, split squats, lunges, etc. while simultaneously doing the rope drills.

I’m headed back tonight for another round which will meet my 2x a week goal. Tonight it will not be ropes and will probably emphasize the legs more. (Ms. Tank is good about mixing it up.)

Tai Chi:

I have the Chen 19 memorized and I am now in the refinement stage. Past refinement, here’s what I need to work on:

• Standing stake and Qigong (I am bad about practicing this outside of class)
• We’ve only covered 1/4 of the basic martial applications
• My push-hands are pretty weak

I’m still considering an online course or DVDs to supplement my training. Having only monthly access to an instructor makes this a challenge. Still, I’m making progress and have already added 2-3 martial applications to my toolkit.

Corn Dogs!

Let’s close with a Michele Bachmann corn dog video. If you are offended by corn dogs, Michele Bachmann, or juvenile humor then PLEASE, pass this one by!

(Yes, for this and other sins I’m going to Hell.)

-BCP