Namaste!
I hope Tuesday has greeted you with a smile ☺.
I had a lovely, productive day yesterday.
Amidst all the busy work, I managed to get into the gym for a lovely deadlifting session.
I warmed up with an ascending pyramid, working up to my training weight of 365 pounds off the box and did four sets of four. Between each set, I did reptilian crawling.
I started my timer for 3.5 minutes of rest right after the deadlifts so my reptilian crawling was an additional stressor.
I do this to purposely create core fatigue so that each set of deadlifts takes me deeper into recruitment of core stabilizers; the deadlift is an excellent core development exercise, particularly once your training intensity reaches 4 RM or greater.
This isn’t a method that should be used by anyone without a significant conditioning base. Coupling core-fatiguing exercises with high intensity lifting can be dangerous to the unprepared!
After my gym session, I felt very alive and enjoyed an anabolic hormone buzz for the rest of the day.
When I got home, there was a light misty rain outside. That’s a GREAT time for tai-chi!
When there’s water on the ground and dense atmosphere, the chi field is very strong. As soon as your bare feet touch the grass or ground, you are placed into the circuit of environmental chi flow.
The sky is positively charged relative to the earth so once you are connected to the earth with a wet connection and you are breathing deeply, you are getting maximum conductivity of chi flow.
I had a long tai-chi session in this perfect bio-electrical environment.
When I finished, the soreness from my workout was gone. My mind was crystal clear. My sense of inner-stillness was blissful.
I took that state of being inside and began working on a herbal extraction I’m making for gut healing and emotional balancing.
Then I worked on a fun piece of art until bedtime. A great day!
AB STRETCHING FOR BODY-MIND BALANCE
There is, and has been a worldwide ab craze for as long as the bodybuilding craze has been upon us.
How long is that!since the year 1900, when Eugene Sandow ran the first ever bodybuilding competition in London, England.
Regarded as the strongest man in the world for many years, Sandow was an exercise genius that taught how to use body and diet to achieve a health, beautiful body.
To this day, the Mr. Olympia trophy is a bronze statute of Eugene Sandow.
To this day, people worldwide are ab crazy! The induction of bodybuilding consciousness into the exercise world has left people obsessed with the mirror!
In fact, many make a major mistake by focusing on the development of the muscles they see in the mirror above and beyond the extensor muscles that reside on the back half of the body.
The result of over-exercising, constantly flexing or tightening the abs, and focusing on mirror-muscles is:
– Shortening of the flexor muscles relative to their antagonists, the extensors of the body, resulting in
– Poor posture
– Congestion of the internal organs
– Disruption of normal diaphragmatic movement, resulting in impaired respiration and imbalances in the breathing muscles
– Constriction of the energy flow through the meridians that run through the abdominal wall, with decreased efficiency of all internal organs
– Disruption of lymphatic flow, weakening the bodies detoxification system, immune system, and disruption of general circulation, and
– Fatigue and mental sluggishness
A Swiss ball is probably the most easy, effective method for stretching the abs.
By laying over the ball as you see in my photo above, and raising your arms over head, you can stretch the abdominal wall, as well as getting some stretch to the synergistic hip and neck flexors.
This should be done for at least one minute or more.
If the stretch movement is coupled with deep abdominal breathing such that you inhale as you go into the stretch, and exhale as you lower the arms, picking your head up just enough to see your belly, you can get a great improvement in chi flow.
Meridians are chi flow channels in the body.
Chi is the bio-electrical energy created by the interaction of earth, water, fire (sun and metabolism), and air and cosmic energy outside your body.
When we breathe, drink, and eat, our cells produce both energy and light (bio-photons).
The general name for the energy in living cells, and the energy they share as light is “chi”.
Meridian lines represent well known and scientifically validated pathways that chi flows through in the body.
As a general correlate, just as electricity flows through wires from a power station to and from every outlet in a city, chi flows through meridians to every cell in the body; just as the lights in a house will dim if the electricity flow is disrupted, the cells of your body become sluggish whenever the flow of chi is disrupted in your body.
Any disruption of cellular metabolism, posture, muscle balance or respiration can cause far-reaching symptoms and challenges.
Abdominal Meridians
The organs with meridians that pass through the abdominal wall are the:
– Stomach
– Spleen
– Liver, and
– Kidney
Because abdominal exercises shorten the abs and the entire flexor chain (neck and hip flexors as well as abs), people that over-exercise their abs relative to their extensors, and/or don’t stretch their abs effectively, also end up with energy flow problems in the following meridians:
– Lung
– Heart, and
– Pericardium (The pericardium is a double-walled sac of connective tissue that contains the heart and the roots of the great vessels.)
In my career, I’ve seen countless athletes and exercisers end up with low levels of depression as a result of congestion in their meridians from over-exercising the abdominals and flexor chain.
If you lay over the Swiss ball, inhaling deeply into your belly as you go into full extension (backward bending) while raising the arms overhead, pause, and exhale as you reverse the process, you will significantly improve chi flow through the restricted flexor regions.
Care should be taken not to flex or tighten the abs any more than necessary just to come out of the extended position over the ball and reach a neutral position (not flexed); if you can see your belly button, you’ve come far enough.
Usually, within one to three minutes of this exercise, there is a noticeable sense of lightness or levity.
If this stretching and breathing method is used regularly throughout the day, there is typically an improved sense of emotional balance and levity created.
This is the perfect antidote to sitting for long periods as well. In addition, a wide variety of low-level ailments show improvement or clear up all together.
If you don’t have a Swiss ball, you can use a cobra pose stretch.
You can also go to the corner of any room and put your hands up so that one hand is touching each wall overhead.
Then, as you inhale, allow your body to sag toward the corner and let your spine arch into extension so you feel a stretch going through the chest and abs.
Breathe into your abs as you stretch and breath our as you relax the stretch.
This very simple self-care method can go a long way to improving health, vitality and emotional balance.
You can also learn a lot about yourself and the effects of your exercise program, helping you to better balance yourself.
If you would like to determine where your body is out of balance and be guided to more exercises like this that will improve body-mind balance, please see my book, How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy!
In my book, I show you how to perform 20 stretch tests and offer stretches to correct any restrictions in your body. My approach is simple and effective!
Exercise Myths That Are Killing America, By Gordon Duffy
Gordon Duffy is a CHEK Practitioner that has recently written a new book titled, Exercise Myths That Are Killing America.
His book will be beneficial to all who don’t have (and many that do have) formal training in the science of exercise and it’s effective applications for health building.
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Here is the description of his book from Amazon:
Nearly everything you know about exercise is wrong!dead wrong.
The misinformation dumped on America by infomercials, reality shows and well-meaning personal trainers is rarely based on science and is probably doing you more harm than good.
Human beings have been genetically designed to live, eat and move in a certain way.
Ignoring millions of years of conditioning and your own DNA blueprint is misguided, and quite potentially deadly.
• Are you tired of yo-yo diets and fad exercise equipment?
• Does the exercise you do (if any) give you the results you desire?
• Are you frustrated with how slow your fitness goal is progressing?
In order to become fit, energized, limber and even SMARTER, your exercise routine will require a new approach.
The system we give to you here is not based on aerobics or pills, but on a foundational lifestyle that is simple, logical and most of all functional.
The 7 Exercise Myths that are Killing America will give you the brain-dead simple logic of WHY what you are probably doing now, will never give you the long-term health you desire.
More importantly, inside the pages of this book, you will also discover what DOES work and why.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the blog today.
I look forward to sharing more with you tomorrow.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
