Ready to get rid off those extra X-mas pounds, More Chi Train harder!

Amituofo!

I desperately need to get rid off all those extra X-mas pounds.
The pain in my rib has been getting worse for the last weeks, but since a couple of days it is dropping.

However, since I could not jump, run, bend forward, lean backward, rotate or bend sideways, I haven't been doing much training.
On request of Sam I took over Sam's kung fu class last Tuesday, cause he was I'll. I had the students doing some other stuff than usual. Practicing balance, tigerclaw strengthening etc... Was a lot of fun but it didn't improve the pain in my rib (yes of course I did everything myself as well), it made it worse. So that was pretty much all training I did in the last 2 weeks.

Today I feel like I can rotate and bend my body a bit again, so I am going for some stretching and maybe some strength exercises during lunch break again. Hope to get into full-pull training mode soon, since I need to prepare for a one month Kung Fu trip :)

Amituofo!

Expanding horizons: Thai boxing

Amituofo!

Last evening Sam invited a Muay Thai fighter, who also trains kung fu if he can find time between muay thai practice, to give a training in Mauy Thai boxing.
Was really fun, learned lot's of ring fighting techniques. Was really intense, had no breath left at all at the end of the training. And of course we did some rounds of sparring to round it up.

I desperately wanted to fight the trainer, since I think you can learn a lot from people who are more skilled then you, so I asked him to spar the last round with me :)

I gave it my all, but I think I did not event hurt him one little bit :(... He gave me a couple of punches that would have knocked me out if he gave it more then 5% of the effort that he gave now :)

It was really fun to fight with some one who actually trains for fighting matches and it showed me that I would stand a chance against such a guy ;)

so..... More Chi, Train harder! 

But now first let my bruised rib heal for a couple of days.... :(

Almost there!

Next week I will start running 5km as warm up for my lunch training sessions. This week I still am at 3.5km with 2x 200m sprint. As soon as I can run 5km within 20 to 25 minutes again I consider myself fully recovered from knee surgery :) !

My hip/back also feels better, as long as don't sit to much.
My shoes do need surgery I am afraid :)


Lately I am focussing more on Kung-fu practise rather than power training. So lots of running, stretching, Ji Ben Gong, Tao Lu, Qi Gong, stretching and more stretching. I can really start to notice that some previously tight muscles are starting to get more and more flexible. At the same time training my knees has improved my stability and balance quite a bit.

Some Tao Lu desperately need more attention though... Especially the forms we do not practise in Kung Fu class. Xiao Hong Quan for instance really is crappy at the moment, I can't find the flow and feeling in this Tao Lu. This will take some work to get right.

BTW: I want to share the great feeling I get from training and show other people that they can literally make themselves feel super just by getting active on a daily basis. So I am playing with the idea to start the new year good by starting a little business.

If you, or someone you know, would like to get fit(ter), get focussed, calm your mind, become more open minded, and learn how I experience Shaolin mentality and Shaolin Kung-Fu. Then let me know!

Leave a message. 

I will be giving daily classes during lunch hours and if there is interest also before work early in the morning. I'll not be teaching you how to do sports, I'll be trying to teach you how to form a mindset that will motivate you to get healthy, stay healthy, and will enable you to choose your own path and be great! 

Any one can do it, the only thing you need is the right attitude!

So if you are interested, let me know!

more info will follow

Finally!

It is Friday! Yesterday I had to skip training... so today I am extra energized! Let's do this!



Amituofo!

Wintertime - my favorite time of year for training!

Not because I like it so cold.... but because some frost gives beautiful scenery. And since a lot of people stay in, it is a lot quieter in the park and more animals show up (looking for food, so please help our little friends out a bit and share some of yours).

Cold is nasty for the muscles, but I do love running and doing Qi gong in the cold. Somehow it is easier to get in the 'focuszone' when you can see yourself breath...

I really start to like this spot for training and active mediation :)

A little training update:
For the last weeks I have been trying out what I can and can't do with the latest injury (my hip/lower back has a problem again). Sitting still does not improve the pain, so that is a good thing. Stretching seems to relieve the pain. Kicking seems to make it worse although last week I tried 'bag' practice with kicks, and it has not really got worse. So maybe it is mainly the stretch kicks when I am tense.
This evening I will try stretch kicks again, see how it feels tomorrow.
I was doubting if the injury felt like a jammed nerve, or an infected joint... but the pain has moved a bit now, its more in the hip and less in the back, so I think it is the joint that is acting up. Had that before, so that will just take some time to heal. At least I can run and train, I just need to be care-full with kicking high and fast.

Did I already tell you that Shaolin Kung Fu is not just sports... it is also teaching you a lot about your body.
A Kung Fu friend of mine told me he always is inspired by how I put myself in pain when I train even with injuries....
I told him: "I do not put myself in pain, I am exploring what causes the pain and what makes it better, but I will not stop moving just because I feel a little pain"
For me that is also part of Kung Fu and Chan. Pain will come, pain will go, but life goes on in the meantime and it is not use full to sit still and wait when you are in pain. Explore and find what you can do and let go of the pain. Then all of a sudden you'll notice the pain is gone... just because you put focus back on your practice rather then on your pain :)

Needles and stretching

Amituofo,

The pain in my hip/lower back has not really decreased since last week. I'm trying everything to get rid of this issue, and I feel that eventually it will... now just find the most efficient way.

Last Sunday I got introduced to acupuncture. Sam always has acupuncture done when he feels his lower back acting up again, and he is really helped by it.
To be honest I do not know if it helped me. It was a fun experience really and felt really strange to 'trigger' muscle activity by sticking needles in your butt...

For the moment I will stick to not doing kicks, and doing lots of stretching. That helped me before so lets see how it feels in a week.

Yesterdays Kung Tao training was awesome (yes, injury does not mean no training). Sam decided to do sparring every two weeks and I really missed that a lot in the past year. Its just fun to work on some skill application.

Amituofo!

Old injury gone, time for a new one....

Pfff... the downside of training a lot is that the change of hurting yourself also increases...

Last week Friday I did something wrong with kicking exercises and I hurt my hip/lower back. Saterday it was just a bit stiff, Sunday after training it felt pretty ok, but monday after training it started hurting again, and during our Tuesday evening Kung Tao training the pain was getting worse with each kick I did. And after the training I couldn't lift my leg without pain.
So yesterday I give my body some rest, and it feels a bit better now.

Today I will only do stretches and some Tai Chi/ Qi Gong... see if that makes things better...

Amituofo!

The mental benefits of Qi Gong

Amituofo!

Last week was a good week. I got an opportunity to share my experiences in Qi Gong.
My little brother asked me for some help on clearing his head, since he has been going through some rough times last couple of years and is now trying to get his life straightened out.


I started doing Qi Gong and regular exercise a while ago when my own head was to clouded to handle everything I wanted to handle and I feel really great about it, I try to do Qi gong every day now. So I hope I can teach my brother these exercises and I hope it will help him in the same way that it helps me.

I will teach him the movements and breathing patterns of Ba Duan Jin. I started out with the first 2 movements. We also did some physical exercise to get some excess energy out of the body.



Was a good weekend. Hope he enjoyed it to.

Amituofo!

Little more running today

Amituofo!

Today was the start of week 2 of running build-up. So instead of 3x5min running with 60 sec breaks, I did 3x7 minutes with 60 second breaks. No pains... so this week I'll repeat this twice more, and than I'll go up again next week to 3x9 minutes. The rest of the time of my lunch I spend doing stretching experiments... I am trying to find easy to do isometric stretches to replace all stretches I normally do in Kung Fu.
Why? Because I feel the isometric stretches have a far better effect then the stretches that I used to do. The trick is quite easy, I'll make some video's later on it, but it is basically: Instead of bouncing in the stretch, like we tend to do in our kung fu training, you go to your maximum stretch, stay there for a little while and relax till you feel that you are not stretching further, and then instead of bouncing in deeper, try to push yourself out of the stretch with the actual muscles you are stretching at that moment. On the last stretch you go to your stretch limit again and relax there for a while, then you repeat this. Do the pushing part 20 times, and do 3 sets in total. You can pretty much do this in any stretch that you do for which you use bodyweight.

Also found a very cool Wing Chun demo video online. It's still a demo but it nicely shows the applications of Wing Chun.

Some more info on stretching can be found here:
http://people.bath.ac.uk/masrjb/Stretch/stretching_1.html

Beautiful autumn day!

Amituofo!

Beautiful autumn day today. Since we couldn't join flying lessons today it was a beautiful day to spend a couple of hours on training.

Did Gun and Jian practise today.... traded in my 'competition' wu shu jian for a tai chi jian that is a bit heavier and less flexible. Better to train the chi flow and relaxation in movements :)

Here's a nice slow-mo re-cap of my afternoon.... never mind me running out of the video a couple of times ;)


Amituofo!

Back in the flow

Amituofo!

As you might have noticed I have been posting less last week. Thats not because I haven't been training, just had other priorities then blogging.

I have been training every day last week and I am getting in the flow again of daily training. Even in the rain. Actually after a while you don't even notice it anymore...

Coming weeks I will also be spending a little less time on blogging have some exciting stuff up ahead which I rather spend time on then blogging... Training will continue on daily basis ofcourse!

Amituofo!

Busy week

Amituofo!

Last week was a busy week. Lots of interesting stuff happening at work. Took it a bit easy in training last week to see if that reduces the moisture in my knee.

Unfortunately not. I just did stretches on Wednesday and Thursday. No difference, I even had the feeling it was a bit worse. Yesterday we did trained at Kung Tao. Again made no difference....

There is a 'pop' which I feel in the knee, feels like a muscle shifting over a bone or something like that... doesn't hurt, but is a bit uncomfortable.

Today more work, no training. Tomorrow my honey is taking me somewhere as a suprise... so maybe some training tomorrow evening.

Amituofo!

Therapy for the knee finished

Amituofo!

This morning was my last session with the physical therapist. The strength and balance in the knee is ok again. The moisture build up will stay there for a while he expects. Might even be something I will have to get used to :( hope not. But we'll see. At least I can do almost everything I could do before the operation. So I am happy about that.

In the evening it was time for our regular Tuesday training. Sam is not there for the coming weeks and Carl is taking over for these weeks. Training was really nice again. Got some time to work on the other forms now for a change.

All of a sudden it got really cold in our country and my body has some trouble adapting. All my muscles are sore and my stamina went down by at least 20%. Or maybe I am just getting ill... We'll see tomorrow.

Amituofo!

Running again!

Amituofo!

It took me a while to gather the courage, but today I tried if my knee could handle running again. It was such beautiful weather I just couldn't resist.
The park just invited me for a run :)

I ran an interval scheme of 5 x 3min running + 30sec walking, so a total run of 20 minutes.
After that a half hour of Qi Gong and stretches.
My knee appears to be holding up nicely!

This week I'll try running 3 times. If my knee doesn't object then I can increase the interval duty cycle next week :)

Tomorrow most likely my last session at the physical therapist!

Amituofo!

Stretching

Today a different type of training... stretching only.
Just to give the muscles a bit of rest after a week of hard work. Doing nothing is no longer acceptable, I want to be working on my kung fu every single day for the rest of my life, so stretching is a good way to take an active break.
The nice thing is that stretching is easy to do while watching the telli.

Also did some Yoga exercise, practising head stance, very good to train balance. Not so easy while watching the telli though :)

Amituofo!

Yeah! Full week of training - check!

Amituofo!

I am very happy to say that I pulled through and managed to train at least once every single day last week.
Yesterday evening we trained with Kung Tao. For the last couple weeks we have been working on the details of Tong Bei Quan, and yesterday was no different.

I skipped exercises that make my knee 'torque' and very deep stances. But we did some Qi Gong - Ma Bu stance duration training- and that went quite well. My knee did not swell to much since Thursday evening.

Today it was a beautiful sunny day and I went for 1,5 hours of training at Kopse hof in Nijmegen. I practised all forms that I normally don't get to train. Got compliments from some people that parked their camper-van there end enjoyed looking at my training session... always nice to entertain people, to bad they did not join me :)

Todays forms:
Wu Xing Quan (or at least the form that I learned under that name, I believe that in reality it is just a part of a far bigger form), Lian Bu Quan, Ba Bu Lian Huan Quan, Zhao Yang Quan, Tai Zu Chuan Quan, Xiao Hong Quan, Zhen Shan Gun and Gui Ding Jian.

Keep training, get better, at whatever your Kung Fu is!

Amituofo!

Day off from work - beautifull day for jian practise

Amituofo!


Today I took a day off from work.
This morning I went to the Valkhof park to do 1,5 hour of Kung Fu practise. Started out with Qi Gong and stretching. After that I practised Tai Chi Jian (The Tai Chi sword form which I learned a while ago from Sifu Clemens Kwee), Shaolin Gui Ding Jian (The kung fu sword form I am learning from Sifu Shi Heng Jin) and I practised Yin Shou Gun and Zhen Shan Gun. Was a good session and I
took it a bit easy for my knee.

Hope that I can get a massage this afternoon, cause training everyday does result in a lot of acid build-up in the muscles.

Amituofo!

On a roll....

Amituofo!

I start to get into my training rhythm again for the first time since my knee operation. Last week I trained everyday at least once. I don't know if my knee likes it though, it is starting to swell again (no pain, just a little swelling). So I might have to cut back on the amount of stress on the knee just a little...

Today I did knee strengthening exercises again, I want to do that on a 2 day interval. But judging by what my knee tells me today that might be to much.
Tomorrow I will stick to Qi Gong, Tai Chi and some weapons training, which will be a little less strain on the knee. Hope the weather is ok tomorrow, really feel in Jian mood :)

PS. I just found  out that I think I am learning Shaolin Guiding Jian, not Da Mo Jian, which explains all the major differences I see when I compare what I learn to the Da Mo Jian movies on line. Various forms within Tao Lu differ a lot from school to school, so it is not uncommon to learn things different as in the youtube movies, but this one was so different and I ran into Guiding Jian by incident, which is far more, though also not exactly ;), what I am learning.



Never mind that, still a beautiful form :)
I do hope I get a chance to learn the rest cause I heard Sifu Shi Heng Jin had to go back to china for now :(, sure hope he will come back to Belgium.


Amituofo!

More Chi, Train harder! As Shi Yan Ming would say!

Amituofo!

Today I practised Qi Gong, Tai Zu Chuan Quan and Yang style simplified 24 form Tai Chi during lunch break. I also spend quite some time on stretching. Put on my blue satin kung fu pants when I went to the park... really fun to walk in your kung fu clothes amongst tightly (over) dressed business people :) You will see some strange looking faces then :)

In the evening Sam gave another great energetic training. After the usual warm up, Ji Ben Gong and a short 'high intensity' exercise we did some old-school 'hardening', always fun, especially for the less experienced students. We also did Wu Bu Quan, Lian Huan Quan and Tong Bi Quan. Lian Huan Quan is really starting to look good due to the practice we put in it each week. For Tong Bi Quan we're working on the details now.

Also spend some time exercising Wu Long Pan Da, which is a great exercise to learn how to relax your shoulders and be faster with your arms by giving them movement from the hips, rather than from the muscles in the arm.

More training tomorrow.

Amituofo!

Finally!

Amituofo!

I finally did a good exercise session in lunch time again. I did a short Qi Gong session for warm up. Then half an hour of power exercises for my knee and finally I still had time for 20 minutes of Tao Lu practice and some stretching. Did a couple of reps for Tong Bi Quan, Wu Xing Quan, Lian Bu Quan, Ba Bu Lian Huan Quan and Zhao Yang Quan...Do admit that I had to pauze to take a breath before and between Tao Lu practice a couple of times cause I did it at full speed (or at least made an attempt), could really notice that my stamina is not what it used to be.

Anyway... I hope to repeat this tomorrow, felt great doing this again. Should really just make some time for it, makes the body and mind feel a lot better instantly!

Amituofo!

PS. Starting today you can also leave comments on my posts :)

Amituofo!

Lazy day today... No practice in the morning like planned. Did boxing ball practice in the evening in stead after visiting my parents, brother and little nephew today.

My body somehow does not feel well. Very little energy, also noticed that during training last Friday. Motivation is also lacking. Must be the lack of Qi gong training lately, lets pick that up tomorrow again.

Amituofo!

Friday training evening again!

I think I spend to many hours behind a desk last week though.. my body did not want to go in 'training' mode, had little energy.
Never the less we did a nice session of sparring training. Which we try to do once a month in Carls lessons.

Saterday morning I did a quick Qi Gong session, and then I had to go to pick up my girlfriend for her Karate tournament. She did great! Ended up at a 4th place, but this was the first time that she wasn't one brick of nervousness on the tatami. So this was quite a victory for her. Tomorrow I will do some training myself again. May be, if Tom is up for it we go practice Duilian Gun and else I'll practice alone... would also be good since I have been neglecting my other Tao Lu lately.

Amituofo!

29th of September

Amituofo!

Oops... forgot to write about the 29th of September. This was our regular Tuesday evening.
After a good warm up, we did some sparring (traditional sparring) which was really fun, we do that to little. After that we practiced Wu Bu Quan in detail and finally Sam asked me to teach and practice basic stances and Wu Bu Quan to/with one of our new student.

So when the training was over I quickly practiced Yin Shou Gun and Zhen Shan Gun with Tom (we ended up in the dark, cause of the automatic lighting system).

Some exiting news! Tom & I are quite likely to be going to practice a Duilian Gun form. (Duet form).
This one to be precise:

I hope to share some videos soon...

Coming days I will again be training too little, since I have a really fun study project at work which I really want to spend a lot of time on...

Amituofo!

26th of september : Nice weather is always motivating

Amituofo!

The weather was beautiful today, far too nice to spend the day indoors.
And since I have not been training enough last week I went for a nice hour of training at Kopse hof.

I did a quick rope jumping warm up (man rope jumping is hard when you haven't done it in 20 years) and some Ji Ben Gong with the stick and straight sword. After that I practiced Yin Shou Gun, Da Mo Jian, and Zhen Shan Gun.

Coming evening I will spend 30 minutes on stretching, and I want to make a habbit out of that, will be very good for my flexibility.

More Chi, Train Harder!

Amituofo!

25th of September : Where are the enthusiasts?

Amituofo!

I trained for to little last week. No lunch break sessions, anyway... just flow with life as it pushes you forwards....

This evening it was finally time for training again. We are really looking into the details on friday trainings now. Again spend a lot of time on improving Tong Bei Quan.

It was almost a private lesson. Only 3 students in training this evening, Sam was ill. Tom all of a sudden got a pain in his knee and couldn't bend his leg anymore, he felt pain under his knee and pulling all across his leg. Looks like he might have some problem with the Musculus sartorius where it attaches to the lower leg. Hope it's only irritated and it will go over soon. Tom is my 'gun' buddy (Stick practice), we have sort of the same flow and can really work well when performing Yin Shou Gun or Zhen Shan Gun.

We really need some more new enthusiastic students like Rael, who joined a couple of months ago and is there nearly every training! So if you feel like improving quality of your life, mind and body, just join us!

Amituofo!

22nd of September: Working hard

Amituofo!

Today I had to visit the physical therapist again. This time he really made me sweat. Did a power workout of half an hour. He wanted to make my muscles tired before evaluating how well I did the exercises he gave me 2 weeks ago...
The fun thing was he looked a bit amazed about my progress... Actually he thinks I progressed so much that I can start running again :). For the coming weeks I still have to do the strengthening exercises and I can start adding an interval scheme of running to it. If that goes well then in 2 weeks I will have my last session with him :)

That's some good news finally!
Training hard early in the morning has as advantage that you are really awake and have a clear head after that. Therefore I really made some great progress today on some research that I currently am doing for work.
In the evening I still felt energized and we luckily we had Kung Fu training planned as usual on Tuesday evening. This morning I thought that I would take it easy in the evening but of course that didn't happen. Just trained at full intensity (as far as the knee allows of course) :)

I hope tomorrow will also be such a great day :)

Amituofo!

19th of September : Punch ball practice is fun!

Amituofo!

One thing I miss a bit in Shaolin Kung Fu training is application practice.
So today I practiced some applications on the punch ball. Normally I stick to a more practical style of Kung Fu, Wing Chun, for punch ball practice. But today I combined it with some Shaolin application practice.

I always like to have an idea of the application of a form. Of course there are many applications since I think Tao Lu are nothing more than practice sets of a certain style, but I like to have some idea of what I am actually doing and where to put the accents in the moves and which muscles should then be tense or relaxed. This is far easier to practice with a partner, but without a partner you can always fall back on a punch bag, ball or even some padding on a tree or something like that.

So today I did 45minutes of punch ball practice :), with some Tong Bi Quan details we discussed in yesterdays class...

 
Always fun to do!

More Chi, train harder!

Amituofo!

18th of september

Amituofo!

Friday evening, training evening!
Not much to mention on this one, this was a typical training.

First Shi Yan Ming warm up, then Ji Ben Gong, push-ups, sit-ups, some punching speed practice and after that Tao Lu practice.

We focused on Tong Bi Quan this evening. Last 15 minutes we also did practice Yin Shou Gun stick form.

Can't wait till next training!

Amituofo!

16th of September : Rainy day. Great day for training outdoors

Amituofo!

Today was a beautiful day for training body and for training mentality. It was raining pretty bad... but that is no reason not to go training. Just think of yourself as grass, grass loves rain :)

Today I did things a bit different. Since we spend more time in our kung fu lessons on basics and on details, we have less time for multiple forms.
So I did Qi Gong and after that the new exercises my therapist gave me for my knee. After that I practiced the forms that I don't often get to in kung fu classes:
Lian Bu Quan, Ba Bu Lian Huan Quan, Wu Xing Quan, Zhao Yang Quan and Tai Zu Chuan Quan.

Felt good to do it like this, so I think I'll do so more often.



By the looks of it I need to do a lot more practice on the details of Zhao Yang Quan as well!
More Chi, Train harder!

Amituofo!

15th of September

Amituofo!

Yesterday we did our regular Tuesday training.
Sam has added some additional fitness exercises in the training, which is quite much fun :)

Yesterday we did a bonus spider-crawl race where we made 2 teams and tried to spider crawl as fast as possible to the goal, and back (in reverse, which was really fun to watch :) ). The loosing team had to do push-ups... but since it was a foto-finish and both teams cheated a bit... everyone did extra push-ups :).
Further the training was as usual. Warm Up, Ji Ben Gong and Tao Lu practice.

I do feel some muscle pain from the spider crawls today, so that is a good sign :)

More Chi, train harder!


Amituofo!

13th of September

Amituofo!

Installed a trial of Matlab/Simulink to try some RF system simulations this weekend... that was good braintraining, so today it was time for some physical practice again.

I Took out the punch ball for a spin today and did a 45min workout practicing stepping, pressure sensitivity, transporting force (rather then blocking force), and punch/block combinations on the punch ball.

I really would like a room (or garden) that I can decorate like a dojo and where I can mount a punching bag on the ceiling, a wooden dummy, and some wall punching bags and such... Maybe some day... for now just will do with my punch ball, which is also pretty versatile :)

More training tomorrow!

Amituofo!

11th of September

Amituofo!

Today another beautiful day, and again made some time for lunch break exercise. Repeated yesterdays workout.

In the evening we had our Friday Kung Fu lesson. Shifu Carl was into the details today. We learned a lot about Tong Bei Quan this evening. Energy coming from the earth, travels through the hip towards the fist, follow the hands with the eyes, first root, then block then punch... etc...

Lots and lots of sweat! Super training! More Chi train harder!

Amituofo!

10th of September : Lovely weather to visit the park

Amituofo!

Finally found some time to go to the park today. Had only 45 minutes but still, better then nothing.
Did a Shi Yan Ming warming up, stretching, new physical therapy exercises that I learned last Tuesday, a couple sets of push ups, and Qi Gong to round it up...

 

Its amazing how energized I immediately felt. I started loving Qi Gong more and more, and slowly but gradually I start to get the hang of why this is so important in Kung Fu. As Shifu Yan Lei says: it massages the internal organs and improves blood flow to the deepest parts of the body.
When you manage to align the breathing and the movement, and you do the breathing right I really feel the difference. I now also understand the concept and purpose of reversed breathing, you can really feel that by doing that you change pressures on points inside your body in a way that you do not feel otherwise. E.g. when you do the exercises with normal breathing or when you do not get the flow of the movement and the breathing aligned.

I can't do it correctly with all exercises yet, but on the once I do I can feel the difference. I guess that is what our eastern friends really mean by Qi (in words without all the mystical Chinese medicinal terms).

Amituofo!

8th of September

Amituofo!

Yesterday we did our regular Tuesday training.
Now that it is official I can share the bad news from last post.
Sifu Carl unfortunately has decided that this will be his last year teaching us on a regular basis. He has good reasons to stop and ofcourse we all understand and support his decision, although we all find it a pitty.

I hope to learn a lot from Carl in the coming year, and I decided that I also want to learn the form that he developed himself. Before I did not want to do that, cause it is a mixed style form, and I like to stick to shaolin, but since Carl has taught me more then any other teacher I had before I decided to want to support to continue his legacy if I can.

Never the less we will keep training hard, may be even harder, since we all want to give Carl something to be proud of in a couple of years time :)

Btw... my knee is doing pretty ok, still some fluid build up, but my physical therapist explained me why that is and that I can expect that for the coming half year (each time I train a bit to hard...). I also overloaded my other knee at the moment, but I am used to that, that has been like this for the past 5 years (old injury which is a bit sensitive for overloads).

I have some new exercises for my for balance and strength improvement.
So still some busy weeks up ahead.

Amituofo!

4th of September : Good news and bad

Amituofo!

Yesterday was our first training from Sifu Carl for this season.
As usual it was a super training session. Learned lot's of things again!

The bad news I cannot say yet... It first needs to be known to everyone that is involved, and its not up to me to do so....

My knee is a bit swollen again... So yesterday was probably a bit too much (also am doing jumping and such again now). Tomorrow I am going to a zen & tao symposium, and I'll hope to do some training in the evening.

Amituofo!

PS. Kung Tao is always looking for new people who want to share our passion for Shaolin Kung Fu and train with us. So if you're interested in training just let us know!

1st of September : New season started!

Amituofo!

Jey, the new season started. Yesterday we did our first Kung Fu training in the gym. Some new people joined, which was really nice!
I always get happy from new people trying out new things, I hope the training was not to much for them and they will return next week.

I have been skipping lunch trainings. Too much fun work to do at the moment, which is a lousy excuse I know... but it is what it is... I'll pick it up as soon as possible. I have to say that my knee is also acting quite ok. Problems are still not over, but I start noticing it less and less...
In yesterdays training I also did a small amount of running and jumping again and I do not feel that it done much harm.

Tomorrow I have a meeting in lunch time, so no training as well... maybe I'll get up early and do a workout in the morning. We'll see...

Amituofo!

30st of August: Nice and moist weather

Amituofo!

Today I invited my parents over for lunch. I ate a bit much, so I skipped dinner and I went for a nice training in the evening.
Today we had thunderstorms in the night, 30℃ during the day, and therefore a tropical humidity in the evening.

I like doing a workout in this weather, I always think that this is how it must feel like on a moist hot summer day in Henan province in China... so I can 'get into the zone' easy for training.

Unfortunately the grass was also a bit moist which made it slippery. So I practiced slow today. Which is also a great way to train, since it trains the strength of the muscles better and you can pay more attention to details in the moves.

I practiced Xiao Hong Quan and Da Mo Jian and did some stick practice as intermezzo. I found that in a lot of moves I need to find balance in the stance first before finishing the move (especially in Da Mo Jian). So again learned something today.

Tomorrow it is back to fitness and qi gong. But starting tomorrow I am going back to a higher intensity level. Train of some lazy sweat (and excess fat ;) )

Have a beautiful day tomorrow,

Amituofo!

28th of August : Outdoors kung fu training

Amituofo!

Thursday I went to the physical therapist and got some new exercises for my knee which should bring it back to original strength. Friday I did not have time for lunch break training (needed to prioritize some urgent work unfortunately), but in the evening we did a nice outdoors Kung Fu training with the 'die hards' of Kung Tao. Was a really nice training session and finally did some group effort on Tao Lu again. Working on the details, felt good!

Next week the holidays are over and the regular indoors training starts again on Tuesday and Friday.

I think I will do some Tao Lu training tomorrow if the weather is ok, if not then I'll do some punch ball training, haven't done that in while.

Amituofo!

26th of august: kicking it up a notch

Amituofo!

Since I had a short training yesterday, I kicked it up a notch today. Did a bit more exercises at a higher pace.

• Shi Yan Ming style warm up
• Knee strengthening exercises + generic fitness
  (did one set of arm exercises, then one set of the next leg exercise then arms again.... so 7 sets in total, than a 30 seconds stretching break)
• 4 x 15 wide push ups 
• 3 x 30 squats
• 30 second stretching
• 4 x 20 sit ups + double punch when up
• 3 x 20 lunches
• 30 second stretching
• 4 x 5 push ups with elbows close to body (yes 3x5... but 5 proper ones..., thats all I've got for now) 
• 3 x 12 single legged squats
• 30 second stretching
• 3 x balance practice per leg: kick forward, sideward and backwards slowly in one go (keep standing on one leg) with out losing balance.
• 3 x 20 leg ups + shoot down
  (lying on back, lifting both legs all the way up, then fast kick down while catching the force on the abs just before the foot hit the floor. Good ab exercise for Kip ups later on)
• Stretching
• Qi Gong

Tomorrow, if the weather is OK, Gabriel (my college) will join me again...
He told me today that he now can do 3 sets of 25 push ups... so let's test that tomorrow... (lol....No pressure Gabriel ;) )

Amituofo!

25th of august

Amituofo!

Keeping it short again today, will try to make a habit from it (less time to type = more time to train).
Today I did a (bit shorter) lunch break training session again:

• Shi Yan Ming style warm up
• Knee strengthening exercises + generic fitness
• 3 x 20 squats with 10kg backpack
• 3 x 16 lunches with 10kg backpack
• 3 x 12 single legged squats with 10kg backpack
• 3 x balance practice per leg: kick forward, sideward and backwards slowly in one go (keep standing on one leg) with out losing balance.
• Some extra stretching
• Practice Tai Chi simplified 24 form

If it stays dry I'll do some more taolu training in the evening.... but it looks like its gonna be wet and slippery weather....

Amituofo!

24th of august: Lunch break training

Amituofo!

Keeping it short today.
Today I did a lunch break training session again:

• Shi Yan Ming style warm up
• Knee strengthening exercises + generic fitness
• 3 x 20 squats
• 3 x 16 lunches
• 3 x 12 single legged squats
• 3 x 15 push ups 
• 3 x 25 sit-ups+punches
• Core workout
• Planking on 2 arms 3x30 seconds
• Planking left arm 3x30 seconds
• Planking right arm 3x30 seconds
• Plank push ups 10 x per arm
• Qi gong + stretching

Have a beautiful day tomorrow, double training day tomorrow if the weather allows it!


Amituofo!

22nd of August: Balance, mind and restistanceless control

Amituofo!

Today I did a different kind of Kung Fu, like announced yesterday.
Today we went flying! We did our first 'height' flights (need to do at least 5 for our first pilot license).

Now why put this info in this blog? Because Kung Fu is not just about training  fighting techniques and demo forms. Kung Fu is much more than that. Kung Fu is pushing your boundaries, training perseverance, learning to put trust in others, finding out that your body can do far more than you think, and you learn controlling and manipulating forces put on you.

The last one is interesting. Some styles of Wu Shu, like western kick boxing, but also Shaolin Wu Shu, teach you to be strong, fast, and resist forces (e.g. blocking a punch). Other styles (which I find more interesting in that sence) like Tai Chi, Systema, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or one of my favorites Wing Chun Kung Fu, teach you that preferably you should not resist forces, since a force can easily be stronger than your counterforce. But rather to manipulate and control the forces that are put on you in your favor.

That is actually exactly the same as what your doing with para gliding!

You learn that you need to start with the basics and that it will not always go the way you want it to go (more often than not).
You learn "feeling" the forces that nature puts on your wing and acting upon it.
You learn that it takes practice to recognize these forces (as you can see below, I need lots more practice :P)

In para gliding you learn how to manipulate the forces that nature puts on your wing and use it to your advantage.
You learn is not to resist the wind... since it is far stronger than you and you will never win that. In stead you control the air stream through your wing such that you go were you want to.

You learn to put trust in your instructor, since up in the air you only have your own capability of controlling the wing and the instructor giving you tips from the ground.

Sometimes it will not let you go were you want to (e.g. when the wind from up front is as fast as then your wings flying speed, than it is not possible to move in a forward ground trajectory) but you'll learn to wait, have patience, and hold on. Since when you drop a little more, the wind speed will go down and you will start to move forward. You learn if the wind blows you left, to gently manipulate the your wing to go a little to the right, rather than trying to put full body force into go right...
You learn it is not always 'your' way that you can go by brute force, but if you choose your own path, make strategic choices, and flow with and manipulate the forces put on you, you can always go where you choose to go, but it will take perseverance!

Kung Fu actually just means something like: "Skill acquired through practice".
But aside from that, training Kung Fu, and para gliding, and life in general have a lot commonalities.

These are all valuable life lessons which many people don't learn or don't realize in their lives.
Lots of people either do not realize it requires effort and/or perseverance in reaching goals, or want to reach goals so bad they trying to force their path upon others to reach those goals, thereby destroying other people, nature, and eventually often themselves and not reaching their goals because there opponents (including themselves) are stronger.

Going with the flow and manipulating the flow a little to stay on your own path in harmony with natures forces acting upon you is always successful, even if it takes longer. The beauty of this way is that during your travel you often realize that you need to steer to another direction to stay on your own path towards your own happiness and your travel will become more satisfying than even reaching to goal itself, since you will realize during your travel that your goal itself can change during the path :)

Amituofo!

19th and 21st of august

Amituofo!

My knee is getting better and better. I really dislike the fact that it takes so long, but as they say... quality takes time :P
Every day my knee feels good in the morning, during the day I feel some moist growing inside, and after sports, cycling and sleeping I feel the moist is going away again.
Every week the amount of swelling is getting a little less, so I think that it will take some more weeks but it will be okay.

I did not manage to do my sports routine in the lunch break this week (some other important stuff to do during lunches ;) ).
I did do my 'knee strengthening exercises' the rest of the week but no kung fu/qi gong or fitness.
Last Wednesday I did 1,5hour of proper kung fu training together with Ejnar, one of my college-students from my Shaolin school. And today I did manage to make time and I did a nice Fitness and Qi gong workout during lunch. I did 3 sets of proper (elbows close to body) push ups, sets of 10 since I have to start building up again :(. I also did 3 sets of sit ups (25 per set), 3 sets of 20 squats, 3 sets of 16 lunches, 3 sets of 12 single leg squats and 3 sets of balance exercises (kick to front, keep leg up, kick to side, keep leg up, kick to left, and repeat 3 times per leg). After that some nice Qi Gong. I switched to the Shi Deyang style of Ba Duan Jin, which feels better  to me than the set of Shifu Yan Lei.

In the evening I did a kung fu training with the Yan Ming style warm up. Shi Heng Jin style Ji Ben Gong, some more qi gong, and I practiced 3 forms: Zhao Yang Quan, Tai Zu Quan and Da Mo Jian.

This weekend we go paragliding again if the weather allows. So no Kung Fu practice (may be sunday evening, but we'll see). Next week I will try to force myself to get back in the shaolin lifestyle (training every day).

Amituofo!

12th of August : Wrestling practice

Amituofo!

As mentioned yesterday, we continued a course in paragliding today.
Unfortunately the wind was to turbulent to send beginners up in the air. So instead we spend all day on ground practice.

I can tell you that this was a bloody good practice, also in martial arts sense... Wrestling a huge parapente (the wing that you use for flying) is quite hard work with gushes of hard wind coming and going. As a matter of fact, my upper arms have more bruises than I ever experienced in martial arts :)

So it was quite a tiring day. Never the less I spend the evening doing hour of Qi gong and fitness (the exercises of the physiotherapist, to stabilize and strengthen my knee).

Hope tomorrow will be a beautifull day aswell.
Monday will most likely be the next flying day (if weather allows it).
So plenty of time for kung fu coming week.

Amituofo!

10th & 11th of August : How will my knee handle a little more stress

Amituofo!

Since I tried a couple of training sessions last weeks, and since my knee was feeling better on days of training then on days without training, I tried my 'old' training scheme yesterday and today.

Yesterday I trained Qi Gong, Tai Chi (Yang simplified 24) and the exercises my physical therapist gave me all in the lunch break in the park.

Today I repeated yesterdays afternoon training. I think there where some people who must have thought I was crazy, since they were talking to me and did get no response at all. I was practicing Qi Gong with eyes almost closed, sunglasses on and headphones on... so I was not aware someone was trying to get my attention :p, that must have looked really weird...

On top of that I went for more then 1.5 hours of Shaolin Wu Shu training in the evening with my Sifu and another student. We did the 'short' Shi Yan Ming warm up and Ji Ben Gong session. And after that it was free training. I did all hand forms I know and practiced them at least twice. I also practiced all weapon forms I know twice. Soon I will go back to practicing only a couple of forms, but since I have been neglecting Tao Lu training for the last weeks during my injury, I need to repeat everything to get it all back in my system.

For now my knee feels OK, although it locked when I wanted to stretch it during the drive back.
I can literally feel that there is something changing in the knee... as if it is re-arranging itself based on the new configuration.
(There was a part removed, so my body will need some 'getting used to'  time).

Tomorrow and Thursday, if the weather is ok, me and my girl will be flying again. Maybe I will do some more training tomorrow evening, but lets see how my knee feels tomorrow first.

It feels great to be training again!

For now, have a good evening.

Amituofo!

4th & 6th & 7/9th of August, something different to take my mind of things.

Amituofo,

Did just a couple of training sessions last week. My knee still does not feel okay, each day starts off okay, but after a day of work my knee feels a little swollen and uncomfortable again. Therefore I still am a bit anxious about training.
Never the less, after a training session my knee appears to be feeling better.

Last Tuesday I did a training session in the park like last Friday.
Last Thursday I had an appointment with my physical therapist and we did some knee and hip stabilizing exercises.

I took a day off last Friday and decided to do some other cool stuff (I planned to do a kungfu weekend with friends, but that was cancelled).
So I decided to push some boundaries and go do something out of my comfort zone. I went flying :)! Paragliding to be exact.

I did not want to do just a 'tandem' flight, where you get hooked up to an instructor and fly off, but since I like doing things that actually take effort to master :), and due to a nice opportunity I arranged something else.

Thursday evening I was looking on the internet to find something to do on Friday and found a flying school not to far away (well... 1h15min drive, but still do-able). My luck was that they had a 4day course this weekend starting on Friday, where the first day was an introduction day that you could join as a single day.

So I called up the school late in the evening and found out that there was still room for students. So I signed me and my girlfriend up.
Unfortunately we spend all day practicing lift offs and steering on the ground, but the wind conditions didn't allow for us to take off. So no flying on Friday :(
Never the less, we were invited to comeback for another day, to do the initial flights that belong to the introduction.
Today we went back to the school and had some really super experiences! My girlfriend decided to do a tandem flight after all instead of a 'all by yourself' flight. Because then she could go a little higher up in the air. I decided I wanted to fly by myself and I did 2 flights. Unfortunately this meant that the height would be limited and I had to stay 'on the leash' for safety (the cord that pulls you in the air... since unfortunately we do not have mountains nearby to jump off from).

Since I've had a fear of heights since my childhood I did not mind that so much :)
Never the less this was an amazing experience to just shoot up in the sky and fly like a bird (or sort off). Was truly amazing!
My first touch down in the landing was a bit rough, which my knee did not like so much, but the second landing also went perfectly.
We already decided to go back to get the 1st pilots-certificate very soon. Quite likely this will happen coming week if I can manage to get some additional days off from work.

So sorry for no Kung Fu stories today... but remember, it is always good to do some things that pushes your boundaries and expands your horizon. That will help you find your own path!

Amituofo!

31st of July & 2nd of August

Amituofo

Last Friday during lunch time I went for the first 'real' training since I got injured.
I started out with a warm up and some Qi gong exercises to get the blood and Qi flowing. Then I did a short fitness routine consisting of a couple of sets of push ups, sit ups, leg lifts and I tried some high (and careful) squats and some knee stabilizing exercises.
After that my knee still was feeling good, and it didn't swell up. So I continued with the Tao Lu practice that I intended to do. I did all hand forms I know, but did them all just once and in a fairly low paste...
Never the less I still had a really nice workout and I was feeling really happy that my knee did not swell and that I was able to work on my Kung fu again. This was really making my body and mind happy and I literately left the park with a big smile on my face.

Today (Sunday) was a beautiful day. After a family visit in the afternoon we (the love of my life miss K. & me) went out to a small park nearby to do some martial arts training. I took it easy again, but I tried to see if I could connect the moves a bit more. So not to much explosive power and such... but a bit more and faster flow in the Tao Lu today. I started out with warm up and Qi Gong and after that I practiced: Wu Bu Quan, Lian Huan Quan, Lian Bu Quan, Ba Bu Lian Huan Quan, Tong bi Quan, Wu Xing Quan, Zhao Yang Quan, Tai Zu Quan and Xiao Hong Quan. I also practiced weapon forms: Yin Shou Gun, Zhen Shan Gun and Da Mo Jian.
I have to say that my knee feels ok, but I can feel that I strained it a bit more. So hope it feels ok tomorrow.
Starting next week I want to start training a bit more again. I have a planned a visit to the physical therapist tomorrow to get some extra knee strengthening exercises.

It feels so good to be training again!

Amituofo!

28th of July : Let's see if we can get started again

Hi All,

Well, these were the laziest weeks I had in years... I gave my knee a lot of rest and did not do any training at all.
Since the last post I have to deal with the fact that my knee swells up each time I start walking and the swelling reduces again when I sit or lie down or cycle.

So this is not really going well, but on the positive side, I have the feeling that each day the swelling becomes less and less and I hope that the end of this mess is nearing. Today I visited the knee surgeon again for a check up, and he is forwarding me to a physiotherapist to guide me further. If the pain stays away and the swelling keeps reducing than it is ok. If not I might need more work on the knee :(. I do have to say that the surgeon was not looking to happy, he is a bit worried that there is still a problem in my knee, but for the moment he still hopes this is just the after effect of the internal bleeding.... so fingers crossed.

Last Tuesday I had enough of it, and I went out to the park during lunch break at work and I just started Qi Gong and Tai Chi training. I did not notice any negative effects on my knee, so I am going to do that again tomorrow. But now it will be getting exiting, cause I want to try to do all, or at least some of my kung fu Taolu on slow paste again for the first time in many weeks.

If that goes well then next week I will start building up the training schedule again. So lets hope so!

Amituofo!

19th of July - Change of plans :(

Amituofo!

There has been a change of plans.
You might have noticed that the amount of updates dropped quite a bit last week.
Since my knee got drained it did not swell up anymore and I decided to stop training completely for one or two weeks. Just to force my self not to do too much and give my knee time to heal. 

This approach worked pretty well. I slowly started walking a little more, went to work at the office a couple times. Last weekend I started driving a bit. And my knee started feeling better by the day. Also the bending capability improved every day.

Unfortunately, and with a lot of pain in my heart, I had to cancel my planned trip to the Shaolin monastery due to financial reasons. :(

Now my plans to go to china next year are also uncertain. I wanted to do the Germany trip first, to see if my knees can hold such a rigorous training regime, and I rather get injured in Germany then in China. And I cannot afford 2 months of holiday in one year unfortunately. So I might choose to go to Germany next year and to go to China a year later.

Anyway... Yesterday I spend a whole day working on my car (the big red one).
And afterwards I had to walk back home from the edge of the city I live in (Nijmegen Oost to city center). This was the first long walk I did since the surgery. And I also was up and working all day on the car (literally, from noon till midnight).
Today my knee therefore decided to object and has started swelling up again :(
Looks like I will again be forced to calm down for a while.

I am really getting de-motivated by this crap and find it hard to keep up a positive attitude.

Coming week I have a week of, and I think I might start training again. My knee does not hurt this time, so I might be able to reduce the swelling with some exercises again, like last times before the 'draining'. It depends a bit on what the knee will do coming night and tomorrow.

Anyway, you'll notice soon enough by a new blog post...

Amituofo!

8th/9th of July: Not for the faint-hearted

Today's stats:

• Weight: Not measured.
• Training location : @Home
• Duration: 1h00m
• Intensity: Moderate

Amituofo!
Sorry for the delay in this post, I had some other stuff to do first.
Little news about last Wednesday. My knee is still thick and getting quite sore again. The pain dropped since my last work out, and seems to be getting worse again now. So in the evening I did another 'lying down' workout. I'm starting to have the feeling that walking makes my knee hurt, but exercising my upper legs is helping the swelling to reduce and thereby making my whole leg feel better.

I did roughly the same lying down fitness workout as last Monday. But I replaced the weight training for a 'pseudo'  Wing Chun kung-fu training. I put on my wrist weights (1,5kg per wrist)
and in 3 sets I did a total of:

• 300 Lying down chain punches (Wing Chun style)
• 75 leg lifts (to work the lower abs) 
• 300 Taan Sau Punch combination
  (150 with 'imaginary punch coming from outside in, and 150 with imaginary coming straight) 
• 75 sit ups (to work the upper abs)
• 300 Gaan Sau Punch combination 
• 75 superman leg and arm lifts (lying on the stomach, lifting legs and arms)
• 300 Man Sau, Taan Sau, Gaan Sau overtakes of an (imaginary) incoming puch finished by a counter punch to the kidneys.
• 75 side leg lifts left leg ( for the side abs)

This workout shortly relieved the knee pain again, but in the evening it got a little worse again.
Luckily the next day my knee was gain feeling better. And more importantly, today (Thursday) was doctor day. I had to visit the hospital again for a checkup with the surgeon.

He was not really shocked about the knee, he had seen worse swelling, and as mentioned before, I already had the feeling that the swelling is less dense now then before.
I have a bit of fear, because my symptoms now are the same as before the surgery, that the original problem re-occurred. I asked him if we could test his hypothesis that I had an internal bleeding, which would indicate that its not again the original problem, but a mere over stress after the operation.
And he said yes... by draining the fluid in your knee. If it contains blood or blood clutter then there was evidence of a bleeding.


Well... I think that says it all. So I have to agree that the doctors conclusion is on the right track.

Most of the fluid was drained, which didn't hurt b.t.w., only the last bit when the knee was going vacuum was very unpleasant, but still, I am very re-leaved that for the first time in weeks my knee was not swollen and I immediately could bend my leg a little more. He also injected some Pretnison which should help keeping the swelling down.
Unfortunately after 15 minutes I already felt it swelling up again. But it did not get as big as before, by far!.At the moment of typing this (Friday early morning), I have the feeling that the swelling even reduced a bit since yesterday. The doctor also told me to start doing some more things again, but be careful for not to do to much.

So I will start doing the bending/stretching exercises that will help remove the moist that is still left in there. But I will be careful with the amount of walking, I even bought some crutches for the outdoors movements. Next week I will build up the walking gradually and hopefully the week after I feel confident enough to start driving again, that is, if the knee does not swell up again in the mean time.

For now I feel positive :)

Amituofo!

6th of July: Pfff......

Today's stats:

• Weight: Not measured.
• Training location : @Home
• Duration: 1h00m
• Intensity: Moderate

Amituofo!
My knee is not making me happy. Situation is relatively unchanged. Last week it started hurting again, and I had to go back to taking meds against the pain. My knee is not really getting smaller.
I did start working again for half days since Wednesday.(the upside of doing a lot of programming and such for work! You can do such work from home!)
The situation now also got a bit counterproductive. I spoke the surgeon again last Friday morning, and he thinks this is all the result of an internal bleeding last week Sunday. Now I may not bend/move/walk for a couple of days. But I read in multiple online sources that "THE" remedy against a swollen knee is to keep moving, since the muscles need to be getting rid of the excess blood and moist. So to let the 'internals' heel I may not move, but to get rid of the swelling I must move...
The doctor thinks the swelling will be less with a couple of days rest. But to be honest, I cannot confirm that.
So since Friday morning I tried to stick to the doctors recipe. The summer temperature went up a lot so I did change location to my parents place, to be able to put my leg up while lying in a nice inflatable pool :) but other than that I I didn't bend or load my knee.

Today I was really sick of it. The 'internals' of the knee feels good now. I had no pain what-so-ever when I had to support my body occasionally (Yeah I know, I am not supposed to do that, but if your body feels no pain, than that happens kind of naturally). So I tried to walk a little bit more today, in the hope that this reduces the swelling (since 3 days of lying down showed no difference at all).

I also did an upper body workout again today, last week I really felt good the day after, so lets see what happens tomorrow.

I did roughly the same lying down fitness workout as last week. Just added some superman arm/leg lifts (if you train abs, you should also train the muscles in your back to keep it balanced) In 3 sets I did a total of:

• 75 bench presses with elbows close to body, for punching power
• 75 leg lifts (to work the lower abs) 
• 75 bench presses with elbows wide, for shoulder strength
• 75 sit ups (to work the upper abs)
• 75 bench presses 'diamond' style, to work the triceps
• 75 superman leg and arm lifts (lying on the stomach, lifting legs and arms)
• 75 butterflies (with arms bend, since I want power for hook punches and not over stretch my shoulders)
• 75 side leg lifts right leg (for the side abs)
• 75 side leg lifts left leg ( for the side abs)
• And finally 75 'side slashes',  don't know if there is an official name for this. Basically mimicking a neck slash from inside out, like in one of my earlier wing chun practice videos.
  
  Below you find a little 'find the 10 differences game' :P

Amituofo!

30th of June : Working of some laziness...

Today's stats:

• Weight: Not measured.
• Training location : @Home
• Duration: 1h00m
• Intensity: Moderate

Amituofo!
So... my knee is as swollen as it was yesterday. So bending/walking etc is not an option. But, the pain started to drop again. If it feels like this tomorrow then I can get some work done tomorrow and make my boss happy :)

This evening I was really gutted that I couldn't do anything with this beautiful weather. So to get rid of some frustration and to get rid of last weeks laziness I decided to do a upper-body workout like I did when the whole knee issue started.
I took my last pain killers in the morning and didn't feel to much pain during the day, so it should be fine to kick up the heart rate and blood pressure a bit. I truly believe (although I cannot back this up scientifically, just by experience) it's also help full for the healing process to get the blood pumping and to put the body in 'muscle building' mode.

I did a lying down fitness workout. In 3 sets I did a total of:

• 75 bench presses with elbows close to body, for punching power
• 75 leg lifts (to work the lower abs) 
• 75 bench presses with elbows wide, for shoulder strength
• 75 sit ups (to work the upper abs)
• 75 bench presses 'diamond' style, to work the triceps
• 75 side leg lifts right leg (for the side abs)
• 75 side leg lifts left leg ( for the side abs)
• 75 butterflies (with arms bend, since I want power for hook punches and not over stretch my shoulders)
• And finally 30 'side slashes',  don't know if there is an official name for this. Basically mimicking a neck slash from inside out, like in one of my earlier wing chun practice videos 

So my body feels like it finally had to do some work after one and a half week.
Feels so good! Now just hope my knee heels quickly. I am afraid though that I will be overloading it more often in the coming weeks, since I have the feeling that I don't get pain signals from it when I overload it. Thinking back, what I have know is exactly what I had when it all started (knee swelling up and feeling sore with no appearant reason or pain warning, and now hurting in exactly the same place), just hope that I am not back at square one... then it will take a long time to recover since now the doctor cannot see anything on a MRI scan anymore. But let's assume it is just overloaded due to my everlasting stubbornness.

For those interested in working out while keeping your leg up and un-loaded.
Here is an example (PS... didn't count this set in the list that is above... so should add 25 bench presses to the list ;) ):

Amituofo!

Hmmm... that doesn't feel good

Amituofo!

Small update.
My knee was doing very well last week. On Saterday I was able to walk without limping, and I even joined Tai Ji class (I felt I had to since it was my last class). And that went all just fine. Yesterday (Sunday) however, something went wrong. I visited my parents house and drove by car to the village that they live in. I was allowed to drive (doctors advice) when I was able to walk en bend my knee pain free again, so that didn't seem to be a problem. When I got out of the car on the way back home however, my knee didn't feel right. And I was feeling pain when I stood on it. This pain got really severe when I got home, and I needed to take pain medication again. This time I also took the 'heavy' pills, which I didn't need after the surgery, that's how intense the pain was (and now still is).

My knee got all swollen and I cannot bend or stretch is now. So I think I will be confined to bed for a couple of days.

Hope I can walk again soon.

Amituofo!

23th of June : Knee surgery

Today's stats:

• Weight: 80.6kg
• Training location : euhhh... Hospital Gelderse Vallei Ede
• Duration: 0h20m + 3 hours cooling down ;P
• Intensity: Bone crushing ;)

Amituofo!

First some errata of all my previous post:
I was under the assumption that patella was English for meniscus.
I just found out that this is not true, the knee cap is the patella...
I never had problems (or thought I had) on the patella, it was always the meniscus I suspected. Just so you know.

Today was surgery day... I have to admit that I was super nervous for the past couple of days, and I did not get to much sleep.

Today was an adventure on it's own... although it was very exiting, lying on a bed, being transported to the operating room, getting a needle and sedative stabbed in your spinal cord, and watching a video screen where you see a doctor cutting and removing parts in your knee....  although all that, I have to say that it was all over before I could blink an eye. The surgery went OK. My knee is relatively ok, no damage to the ligaments, no damage to the condyles. Just the meniscus that is busted up a bit. They had to cut a way some parts but that was the best scenario, so I am lucky.

Now I will just have to endure a couple of days of pain, and then recovery can start. (Yeah! back to moving my lazy body again!)

So I hope to be able to join our last Kung Fu training on Friday! Even if I can just do some stretching and qi gong, that would be great!

Amituofo and a good evening!

19th of June (and 18th): Most likely my last training of this season...

Today's stats:

• Weight: 78.6kg
• Training location : Malden Gym
• Duration: 1h30m
• Intensity:Moderate

Amituofo!
Sorry, I forgot to post an update yesterday...
My knee is getting worse since yesterday :(. It feels like something is pushing against the posterior cruciate ligament. So I have been taking it easy a bit. Walking is also a bit harder now. It also feels like my calf on the left leg is getting short and stressed.. I did join the Tai Ji class yesterday evening but it did not go so well. Couldn't focus.

This evening I did Kung Fu training. Next week is the last class of this season, and since Tuesday is surgery day, I guess today was my last class. (I still hope I can walk and do stretching and qi gong next friday, but the odds on that are fairly slim.

Tomorrow is my birthday, which I never really celebrate since I get a day older everyday, so I don't see the point.... I don't even like getting older, so why would I celebrate such an event, strange habbits we humans have...

Since it is my birthday, I will go to Tai Ji class :) I just love kung fu so why not practice on my birthday :)

I think this is my last post for the coming days. Since I want to give my leg some rest before the operation. I'll do some stretching and such, but I will not go for intense training until next week is over...

So hope to see you back here next week!

Amituofo!

17th of June

Today's stats:

• Weight: 78.6kg
• Training location : Goffert Park
• Duration: 1h00m
• Intensity: Low

Amituofo!
My body felt sore from yesterdays training. So today I decided not to do the planned upper body workout, but to do stretching, Qi Gong and Tai Ji. I really see a pattern that each time that I do a 'kung fu' workout, either external or internal, after it my knee feels better and has more mobility. Could be just because I like to think that, but its really starting to form a pattern. I also noticed that walking and sitting with my knee bend 90 degrees, decreases mobility.

Tomorrows workout will depend on the weather. But in the evening it is time for Tai Chi lessons anyway.
For now, have a good evening!

Amituofo!

16th of June : Good news and bad news

Today's stats:

• Weight: not measured
• Training location : Gym Uranusstraat
• Duration: 1h30m
• Intensity: Moderate

Amituofo!
Last couple of days where exiting. Had to go back to the hospital for the results of the MRI scan. Good news and bad news: All the ligaments are in place and appear OK on the scan. The medial meniscus however looks pretty damaged on the scan. I have to have knee surgery to determine the exact amount of damage and to remove or repair broken parts.
Pretty scary that they are going to put probes and camera's and pliers and such in my knee and remove parts of me...

Last couple of days my knee started to swell as well. I think I am walking to much. 2nd part of the day I worked from home with my leg up, and that seemed to work. Swelling was a bit less after a couple of hours... still went for 1.5h of kung fu training though... Was a nice training! We did a quick warm up, Ji Ben Gong, Wu Bu Quan, Lian Huan Quan in groups, and some free Tao Lu training. Then we spend some time on sparring, haven't done that in months! (Traditional techniques, not modern sparring). So I finally got a chance to try some Wing Chun techniques in practice. Man that is hard. I really enjoyed sparring especially with Sam, who has done many years of Pack Mei Pai Kung Fu. I do have to say that Pack Mei has some really good penetrating punches that are really hard to block/counter. This really got me in the mood to practice more Wing Chun again :)

Coming week I will take it a bit easier with my knee, so that means I'll try to walk less... I don't want to break more before the surgery. I think I will do some upper body fitness work out and some stretches tomorrow, Tai Ji on Thursday (last lesson is approaching), Kung Fu training on Friday (last official one for this season for me)... But that you can read later this week.

Here some of the material I use for inspiration!

Have a good day,

Amituofo!

13th of June

Today's stats:

• Weight: not measured
• Training location : Fitness Body & Mind
• Duration: 1h00m
• Intensity: Low

Amituofo!
I felt tired today. Mentally, not so much physically. But after Tai Ji class I was feeling quite well again, still a bit tired though. After Tai Ji, Linda thought me some more Mandarin, but I couldn't really focus today. Was fun never the less though :)
Although I made the choice not to continue this style of Tai Ji for now, I will sure mis it on the Saterday morning, it is a really nice group of people to be with.
I hope I can learn Shaolin Rou Quan soon, then I will practice that in the morning!

My knee is protesting a bit today and it seems more sensitive then previous days, so rest of the day I took of from training and instead spend some time in the kitchen and doing some other house hold tasks.

Have a good day,

Amituofo!

12th of June : Getting back in the zone.... and getting a swollen knee :(

Today's stats:

• Weight: 79.5kg (what!!! and that before the weekend)
• Training location : Goffert park & Malden Gym
• Duration: 1h00m & 1h30m
• Intensity: Moderate & Moderate

Amituofo!
Today was a fun day. Weather was beautiful and I felt like working up a sweat during the lunch break. So instead of Qi Gong I decided to do Tao Lu practice, internal style (Which means focus on breathing and power/speed explosions on certain points). I started out with some stretches and did all hand forms I know twice. After that I did some Qi Gong anyway to relax.

In the evening we were with only a couple of people on our Friday training. So we did a short Shi Yan Ming warm up and some Ji Ben Gong, and then we continued with free practice. Since my knee got a bit swollen today I took it easy and practiced balance today, still quite intense cause you are using a lot more muscle when you do things slow and intense and focus on balance.

Here's an example of Lian Huan Quan balance practice :
(and please don't mind my residue of my fat days shining through my white t-shirt :P)

As you see I am not limping anymore :), but that doesn't mean my knee is ok :(

Tomorrow it's Tai Ji again, and if the weather is nice, I might go for some Wu shu practice in the afternoon, but lets first see if my knee is not acting up tonight...

Have a good evening,

Amituofo!

11th of June : From excitement to disappointment

Today's stats:

• Weight: 78.6kg
• Training location : Goffert park & Fitness Body and Mind
• Duration: 1h00m & 1h00m
• Intensity: High & Low

Amituofo!
Got good and bad news...
I thought, lets turn my injury in a opportunity, so I decided that after my knee is fixed, I will go to live as a Shaolin monk for a month this summer :)
I send Shaolin Temple Ottenberg (Germany) a mail if I could live and train there for a month. And today I got confirmation that I can!
So I posted the joyful news on FB and 10 minutes later I received a message from a Shaolin kung fu friend, that the Ottenberg temple might not be connected to the Shaolin temple as they claim on their website. So that was very disappointing! This is indeed confirmed on the website of the (official) Berlin temple, but it is an old message (2008). So I now send the official temple in Berlin a message to check on the status of the Ottenberg temple. If the temple is not connected I don't think I will go there... not because that its not connected, that doesn't mean it is not a good experience, but because I do think lying and mis-using the Shaolin name pure for commercial benefit is not in line with the Buddhist believe, which they also claim to follow/teach.

Anyway... back to training....
Today I tried a high intensity workout at the Goffert park. I tried if push ups are possible (since that requires some force from my knee) and that went fine. So today I could do a good upper body workout.

So after a nice walk to the park, which now takes a little more time since I normally would run, I did the following divided over 3 rounds:

• Push ups 45x (Elbows close, good for punch speed)
• Sit ups straight 90x (With 2 punches on each lift)
• Push ups 45x (Arms wide, good for shoulder strength)
• Sit ups sideways left 90x
• Sit ups sideways right 90x
• Push ups 30x (Diamond style, good for triceps)
• Superman's 75x (Good for the back, also have to train that to outbalance the abdominals

As mentioned, the above divided over 3 sets. I did each set in one go without pause. After each set a one minute stretching pause. After this workout, which was quite intense I finished with a 25 minute Shi Yan Ming style stretching session.
Then I walked back. It was nice to see my friends the bunnies again :)

In the evening it was time for Tai Ji practice at Clemens Kwee's school.
Some stances in Tai Chi are still quite hard with my knee problem, but also that is going better and better.

Tomorrow it is Qi Gong and Wu Shu time again!

For now I wish you all a very good evening.

Amituofo!

Some old motivational movie (in slomo) :)

10th of June : First trip to the goffert parc since weeks

• Today's stats:
• Weight: 78.6kg 
• Training location: Goffert park
• Duration: 1h00m 
• Intensity: low

Amituofo!

Today I resumed training in the park during lunch break. Of course I cannot run or do burpees or does kind of things, but I did a nice Shi Yan Ming style stretching/warm up, followed by some stance practice and Qi Gong. It felt really good being back out in the park. Really makes the mind more relaxed. Tomorrow I will do a strength and stamina training in the parc, but I don't yet know how exactly since walking to my normal training spot with benches and such takes too long... ah, we'll worrie about that tomorrow. If no other options then just a floor will do :).

For now good evening!
Amituofo!

9th of June : MRI scan and tuesday training, strange combination

Today's stats:

• Weight: 78.7kg
• Training location: Gymzaal Uranus straat
• Duration: 1h20m
• Intensity: Moderate

Amituofo!
No training yesterday. I visited the hospital instead :(
They made X-rays of my knee, and I got my knee checked by the specialist (knee surgeon). He clearly noticed some pain points but could not conclude what it was. The pictures did not show signs of a cracked meniscus. So today I had to visit the hospital again for an MRI scan of my knee. Coming Monday I have to go back to the hospital to get the diagnose based on the MRI research and to determine a treatment plan.
For now there are still 3 options:

• No help possible, then I have to wait till the pain goes away.
• Probe surgery (in case of meniscus damage)
• Open surgery in case of problems with the ligaments.

More news on Monday again.

My knee hurt a little more then yesterday, due to some nasty hyper extensions that the doctor made me do. But never the less I went for training this evening.
I start to feel better and better what I can and cannot do. As long as my knee is pointing in the same line as my toe I can do almost anything... which is strange cause I am still limping when I try to walk normally.

Any way, after the warm up we trained Tao lu this evening. We did:

• Wu Bu Quan (We always do this as first form)
• Lian Huan Quan (Which is starting to look good)
• Tong Bei Quan
• Weapon forms

Tomorrow I think I will try to go for some training at lunch again :)

For now I wish you all a very good evening!

Amituofo!

7th of June : ahh... screw 'resting' day, the weahter is to beautifull ot to train

Today's stats:

• Weight: 78.6kg
• Training location: Kopse hof Nijmegen Oost
• Duration: 1h30m
• Intensity: Moderate

Amituofo!
Hmmm... yesterday I planned to have a day of rest today. But after sitting down all day and as a remedy against my nerves of the hospital visit tomorrow, I decided to go do a nice evening training,

Yesterdays training did not seem to affect my knee pain to much so it should be ok.

We (Katja and I) went to parc Kopse hof around seven o'clock after a family visit. Katja did the same as yesterday, skateboarding, inline skating and some karate practice. I did 1,5 hour of Kung Fu training. After I quick warm up I practiced Gun and Jian Ji Ben Gong (basics) and Tao Lu (forms). And I continued that for the whole training session. My head is nice and quite now but since tomorrow will be hospital day, hope I can catch some sleep tonight and not be too nervous about what they are going to say about my knee...

For now I wish you all a very good evening!

Amituofo!

6th of June : Nice weather = outdoors training :)

Today's stats:

• Weight: 78.9kg
• Training location: Gym Fitness Body & Mind + Kopse hof Nijmegen Oost
• Duration: 1h00m + 1h45m
• Intensity: Low + Moderately high

Amituofo!
Beautiful sunny weather today! Good day for practice! My knee feels better than yesterday again. I actually am starting to doubt if this won't heel by itself when I keep moving... But lets not live in the future, lets live in the now! This morning I went to Tai Ji class again. And it really went a lot better then last training although it still hurts when I move incorrectly. This is sure a good exercise to feel how one should or shouldn't move ones muscles (due to the knee). After the Tai Chi class Linda from Tai Ji is teaching me how to speak Mandarin. How cool is that! Today I got my second lesson :)

After eating some lunch I went to Kopse hof, where my honey Katja did some inline skating, long boarding and Karate practice, and I did nearly 2 hours of Kung Fu practice.

I started out with Ba Duan Jin (Qi Gong), followed by 2 Tai Ji froms. Than after a short talk with a friendly by passer who I met there a while ago, and a short fight between our dogs (nothing serious, just showing who's boss), I continued with some stick and sword basics and Tao Lu practice. Of course again with 1k weights on each arm.

I actually did all forms at least 3 times today I know: Wu Bu - Lian Huan - Lian Bu - Ba Bu Lian Huan - Tong Bei - Wu Xing - Zhao Yang - Tai Zu Chuan and Xiao Hong Quan, and Yin Shou - Zhen Shan Gun and Da Mo jian, although of course with some adaption for my knee situation. I always like to do this ones every week cause all other training sessions focus on just a couple of forms. And this way I can keep all moves fresh in memory and better trained in muscle memory.

Tomorrow I'll be taking a rest day and work on my car a bit. Monday will be hospital day, so you can expect an update then.

For now I wish you all a very good evening!

Amituofo!