Tai Chi Sensation Link

Read this chart by Professor Yu Yong Nian, which shows possible sensations you may experience while practicing Zahn Zhuang.

Zahn Zhuang is a series of breathing exercises intended to teach how to cultivate Chi.

These exercise are widely used for Tai Chi and Ba Gua practice. it is also used for medicinal purposes.

Why We Should Not Arch the Back During Weightlifting

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Anyone who has taken a Pilates or Yoga class has heard the term neutral spine.

Neutral spine is when the spine is in its most natural position:

• Slight Lordotic (inward curve) at the cervical spine (neck);
• Kyphotic curve at the top of the thoracic( upper back/chest); 
• Lordotic curve at the lumbar spine. (lower back); and, finally 
• Kyphotic curve at the sacral spine (hips).

The spine is designed this way to help distribute weight and stress throughout the body.

This means that by arching my back when lifting weights, I am taking away the optimal positioning for my natural support system and adding stress by using extra weight.

The spine may be strong enough to handle some of this extra burden, but as we go up in weight or compensate by arching our backs even further, we increase the chance of injury.

So, the next time you are bench pressing and your back arches off the bench, put the weights down,  rethink your technique — and lower the weight. Your back will thank me later.

A Paradox: Tai Chi Rooting and Movement

People who study Tai Chi are familiar with the term rooting, or to be in solid contact with the ground.

When watching a Tai Chi demonstration, viewers notice right away the fluid ease of movement.  However, this presents a paradox: how can we stay rooted and still remain fluid in our movement?

The answer is this: with each step, along with proper breathing and relaxation, we need to focus our body weight onto the soles of our feet. This gives us rooted, constant, solid contact with the ground — and yet we remain relaxed, and therefore can move with unencumbered freedom to maintain our fluidity.

One concept I try to instill in my students is to stay focused.  When practicing Chi, if you hesitate anywhere within the form, stop right away. Take as many breaths as needed in order to recompose, then get back in contact with your Chi. After a few meditative breaths, you then can continue your practice.

One uncorrected mistake can lead to many more mistakes, lack of relaxation and poor rooting.  Catch yourself when you lose your Chi, and get yourself back on track.

Today is Eat Healthy Day

Lets take part in the Third Annual National Eat Healthy day: it's a great time to learn how to eat right.

For more information on good eating, contact me.

In the meantime, here are a few good tips:

• When dining at a restaurant, substitute French fries for steamed vegetables.
• Skip one can of soda a day — and drink a glass of water instead.
• Sauté your food with extra virgin olive oil instead of butter.
• Eat slowly and chew thoroughly.  See if you eat the same amount as usual.  Chances are, you may eat less: it takes a while for your brain and digestive tract to communicate.

Comment below with some of your own ideas!

The Biggest Loser: Sign Up Now!

It's that time of year again: the annual weight-loss contest, The Biggest Loser.

This is the third annual contest, and the rules remain simple: she or he who loses the most pounds will win.

To participate, weigh in and contribute $10.  The Biggest Loser receives all of the cash.

Initial weigh-ins will be conducted November 14-18, 2011.

Final weigh-ins will be conducted December 14-15, 2011.

The winner will be declared December 16, 2011 and may collect the winnings at that time (just in time for Christmas shopping!).

A caveat: do not do anything unhealthy to achieve weight loss.  I won't go through the "bad ideas" list, but you get the gist: if it's not healthy, don't do it.  If you're not sure, talk to me.

I'm available for consultation and suggestions (and extra sessions, if you feel they are warranted).  However, you all continue to work hard to achieve your goals, so I have faith that you'll continue the great strides in your health and weight goals.

If you're in, e-mail me and we'll schedule your weigh-in.

Let the games begin!

World Champion Wushu Kung Fu Show August 14

Anyone who has marveled at the grace and dexterity of a martial artist in action is in for a treat: George Mason University is hosting a World Champion Wushu Kung Fu Show from 3-5 p.m. Sunday, August 14 at the Center for the Arts on the school's Fairfax, Va. campus.

Not only will you see the artistry behind Kung Fu, but you'll see it performed by some of the world master Kung Fu artists, including the internationally acclaimed actor Jet Li.

The show will offer an exhibition of beginning movements, as well as high flying aerial kicks and precision fighting skills.

Here is the description from the Center for the Arts:

For the first time ever, the United States of America Wushu Kung Fu Federation and the O-Mei Wushu Kung Fu Center present a never-before-seen Kung Fu spectacle featuring the world's top Wushu Kung Fu athletes on one stage.

Witness dazzling aerobatics and fierce fighting routines performed by more than 20 world champions from China. This nationwide performance features the extravagant martial arts seen in blockbuster Hollywood movies such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Jet Li's "Fearless" and Dreamworks' "Kung Fu Panda."

There has never been an event of such caliber. All athletes were invited by the Secretary General of the United Nations and will perform for the United Nations in New York City with appearances from Jet Li and other renowned Kung Fu masters.

For tickets, visit the Center for the Arts website.

For more information, visit the O-mei Wushu Kung Fu Center website.

Hope to see you there.

Why We Don't Lose Weight (in TIME)

This article from the August 2, 2009 issue of TIME Magazine, was sent to me by a client.  

It discusses, in part, why we do not lose weight when we exercise.  I do agree with the author, to some extent, that some people do eat more after working out.

However, in my opinion,  the article falls short by failing to explain that we need to cross-train and add intensity to our workouts for best results.

Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
by John Cloud
Time Magazine 

The findings were surprising. On average, the women in all the groups, even the control group, lost weight, but the women who exercised — sweating it out with a trainer several days a week for six months — did not lose significantly more weight than the control subjects did. (The control-group women may have lost weight because they were filling out those regular health forms, which may have prompted them to consume fewer doughnuts.) Some of the women in each of the four groups actually gained weight, some more than 10 lb. each.

What's going on here? Church calls it compensation, but you and I might know it as the lip-licking anticipation of perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym. Whether because exercise made them hungry or because they wanted to reward themselves (or both), most of the women who exercised ate more than they did before they started the experiment. Or they compensated in another way, by moving around a lot less than usual after they got home.(Read "Run For Your Lives.")

The findings are important because the government and various medical organizations routinely prescribe more and more exercise for those who want to lose weight. In 2007 the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association issued new guidelines stating that "to lose weight ... 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity may be necessary." That's 60 to 90 minutes on most days of the week, a level that not only is unrealistic for those of us trying to keep or find a job but also could easily produce, on the basis of Church's data, ravenous compensatory eating.

It's true that after six months of working out, most of the exercisers in Church's study were able to trim their waistlines slightly — by about an inch. Even so, they lost no more overall body fat than the control group did. Why not?

Church, who is 41 and has lived in Baton Rouge for nearly three years, has a theory. "I see this anecdotally amongst, like, my wife's friends," he says. "They're like, 'Ah, I'm running an hour a day, and I'm not losing any weight.'" He asks them, "What are you doing after you run?" It turns out one group of friends was stopping at Starbucks for muffins afterward. Says Church: "I don't think most people would appreciate that, wow, you only burned 200 or 300 calories, which you're going to neutralize with just half that muffin."(Read "Too Fat? Read Your E-mail.")

You might think half a muffin over an entire day wouldn't matter much, particularly if you exercise regularly. After all, doesn't exercise turn fat to muscle, and doesn't muscle process excess calories more efficiently than fat does?

Yes, although the muscle-fat relationship is often misunderstood. According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns. Which means that after you work out hard enough to convert, say, 10 lb. of fat to muscle — a major achievement — you would be able to eat only an extra 40 calories per day, about the amount in a teaspoon of butter, before beginning to gain weight. Good luck with that.

Fundamentally, humans are not a species that evolved to dispose of many extra calories beyond what we need to live. Rats, among other species, have a far greater capacity to cope with excess calories than we do because they have more of a dark-colored tissue called brown fat. Brown fat helps produce a protein that switches off little cellular units called mitochondria, which are the cells' power plants: they help turn nutrients into energy. When they're switched off, animals don't get an energy boost. Instead, the animals literally get warmer. And as their temperature rises, calories burn effortlessly.(See TIME's health and medicine covers.)

Because rodents have a lot of brown fat, it's very difficult to make them obese, even when you force-feed them in labs. But humans — we're pathetic. We have so little brown fat that researchers didn't even report its existence in adults until earlier this year. That's one reason humans can gain weight with just an extra half-muffin a day: we almost instantly store most of the calories we don't need in our regular ("white") fat cells.

All this helps explain why our herculean exercise over the past 30 years — all the personal trainers, StairMasters and VersaClimbers; all the Pilates classes and yoga retreats and fat camps — hasn't made us thinner. After we exercise, we often crave sugary calories like those in muffins or in "sports" drinks like Gatorade. A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories. If you're hot and thirsty after a 20-minute run in summer heat, it's easy to guzzle that bottle in 20 seconds, in which case the caloric expenditure and the caloric intake are probably a wash. From a weight-loss perspective, you would have been better off sitting on the sofa knitting.

Read the entire article in TIME Magazine.