Movement Practice

In 2005 I started running Brookline Tai Chi. It was a big jump in responsibilty and workload, so I needed a practice that would match the new intensity. In turned to Xingyi for energy, drive, and focus:

When we started asking our students at Brookline Tai Chi about their home practice, we got a really interesting range of habits and preferences. Since then, we’ve been trying out different tools to help spark more home practice. Stepping back for a minute, I’d really like to know more about why you practice. Take a minute drop me a line (filing out the form below is private and goes right to me, no one else). ...

From the recent practice survey we conducted at Brookline Tai Chi and experiments I’ve been running in online learning, it’s become clearer and clearer to me that most people need some external motivation when they are learning a new skill. That’s not a judgment about willpower and motivation, it actually says more about the way we are wired for survival. In Z Health, we always talk about the way that the nervous system is at once the most plastic system – it can adapt to lots of different changes – and also the most stable. The stability of the nervous system is a good thing from a survival and energy management point of view – it doesn’t cost you a lot of cognitive energy to get through your day if you run on habit. In that sense, the plasticity of the nervous system – your ability to change and learn new things – has to deal with the inertia of stability in your nervous system. When we are trying to learn new behaviors and forge new habits, these two things can be at odds. ...

Update: We’ve just released a new video-based course that shows you how to loosen up your hips and become stronger and more flexible! [CSSBUTTON target="/fix-your-frozen-hips/" color=“66ff33”]Check It Out[/CSSBUTTON] Original Post: I know the weather is getting warmer, but as I look around, all I see are frozen hips. We just aren’t a squatting culture. We sit in chair, couches, cars. Look around the room you are in right now and see how all the furniture is designed. ...

Bone Rhythm is a core concept taught in Z Health and I’ve found it to be one of the single most important teaching tools I have when it comes to getting people moving. The idea is very simple, that each bone is a rigid structure and because of that, when one end moves, the other must move. Now, the question of how the other end moves is what matters here. When the two ends of the bone move correctly relative to each other, you have smooth, effortless movement. When they move in the wrong way, you force the joints to move improperly and your timing is off. You can apply this concept to any movement, using any bone in the body, which is a fascinating experiment, but let me start with a simple movement to illustrate the concept. Forgive me for the photos! ...

1. You’re lazy Think about your daily movement patterns. How much variety is there? If you drive to work to sit at a desk and then relax by coming home and watching TV, you’re living your life essentially seated in front of a screen. You need to change up the patterns: stand, run, twist, bend and move, not just your body but your eyes and head too. ...

In the previous post in this series, we looked at how adhering to a particular rhythm, in that case running at 180bpm, can trigger the natural spring in the body and give you insight into “stuck spots” in your body that won’t move at the right pace. Now we want to explore the practice of changing rhythm deliberately as part of your movement practice. The value for sports or martial arts, where the ability to change speeds gives you a competitive advantage, should be pretty obvious. What might not be obvious is the value for “real life” and even less obvious is the method for systematically training speed – which you can do joint-by-joint. ...

It has been clear to me from years of Tai Chi practice that finding the right rhythm in a movement “unlocks” the body. When I stumbled on to this video though, I was fascinated to see a similar theory being discussed in running. In the clip, he says that this particular rhythm, 180 beats per minute, helps you “tap into the body’s elastic mechanism.” After I watched the clip (the other ones in the series are great, by the way), I turned my metronome up to 180 bpm and hit the road. Here’s what happened: ...

Introducing a new series: “Rhythm as Relaxation”. Across many different practices, which I’ll go into one at a time, rhythm is a common thread. When you find the right rhythm in the practice, it gets easier, smoother, more connected, and as a result, more relaxing to perform and more energizing at the same time. Some of the practices I will explore in the series: Running Tai Chi Breathing Five Element Theory I’m going to argue that the practices on that list have more in common than not, when you look at them from a rhythm point of view. I always try to be careful not to conflate different things that have common elements, because then you usually miss the depth and richness of both, but I will try to show you how focusing on the rhythm in each activity will make it easier and more enjoyable. ...

I find this topic so interesting. When you start playing with the way eyes influence movement, you begin to unlock connections in the body that you had no other way of accessing. I’ve seen some pretty strange stuff, from pain pretty much vanishing, big muscles magically unlocking, or people being able to run, jump, or lift in dramatically different ways….all from a couple of eye exercises. I know it sounds weird, and I was right there with you until I experienced it in my own practice and taught it to other. Enjoy! ...