GMB's Crow Pose Tutorial updated!

GMB published a tutorial on the Crow Pose a while back.  I started thinking about the Crow Pose as a way of maintaining or even improving shoulder strength in the forward direction, without impacting my clubbell training too much.  The clubbell training program that I'm currently pursuing does not forward pressing strength very mush.   More about clubbells in another post.

I'd messed with Crow Pose off and on for a while but have never achieved it.  So I guess I've arrived at an "on" time again.  This time I noticed a major GMB's tutorial - they've added a major update to their training progression!  Now it looks like this, with updates in bold:

1. Rock back and forth between toes and hands.
2. Lean forward to place your forehead on the floor and hold position, with feet still on floor.
3. Point toes backward to remove the support of the foot, with head still on floor, working towards pointing the toes of both feet backward.
4. Slowly look up, looking up just a little at first - to remove the support of the head - working on looking up further

I've seen other crow pose/frog stand tutorials, but GMB seems to be the first to have hit on the idea of using the head as an additional support, then gradually removing it as a support as the trainee gains the necessary balance and strength.  Kudos to GMB on this updated Crow Pose Tutorial.

I should note that in my eagerness to test myself today, I rushed to the last step of the progression - with both feet pointing backwards, I lifted my head.  It was fine for 2 seconds or so, then I felt a sudden sharp pain in the left side of my chest.  It might have been gas in my stomach, or it might have been my pectoral muscle suddenly cramping.  I don't think it was a heart attack because the chest pain would have lasted minutes instead of seconds; or the pain would have returned after going away.  In any case, to play it safe, I'll practice Crow Pose under this updated routine on days that I'm not training with clubbells.

Jin Series #3

Jin Series #3 by Mike Sigman

Illustrating Qi and Qi Jin

Just a quick aside to explain how I illustrate sometimes. In the drawing below, there is a yellow band of color that has some little balls in it. The yellow band is meant to represent the actual tissues/muscle-tendon-channels that are support the stresses through the tissues: that is the Qi or the qi-tissues which are making minute directional force adjustments in the body. The little balls with arrows all pointing in the same direction as the jin force are to indicate those minor adjustments that are happening all through the body. So the yellow line is basically the Qi tissues that align to form the jin force.

Here is an illustration of Downward Jin. Remember that a good push outward and a good pull downward with jin require that the body be cohesively connected throughout the qi-tissue path.

Also remember that you can combine different directions of jinsimultaneously. For instance, a good basic punch is going to have jin from the feet to the fist and at the same time there will be a downward-pulling jin. The combination of two forces adds into a stronger force.

The red line is the jin force as it feels to someone receiving the jin force. Of course forces don't happen magically through the air, but since that resulting force *feels* like it is directly from foot to hand, I draw it as such. When I'm actually doing a jin-force like that, I visualize that there is a force up from my feet and straight to my hands. If someone touches my hands, I focus and maintain the visualization of a force from my feet to my hands: the body and subconscious oblige by producing such a force.

As you progress, you learn to picture forces from a point of access to the ground up to some other point on/in your body or into your opponent's body.

Jin Series #2

Jin Series #2 (by Mike Sigman)

The Essence of What Jin Is, in Practical Usage.

I'm going to keep this short/truncated so that the meaning gets through more clearly without getting too far into the weeds.

Stand up and either imagine slipping a 30-pound backpack/rucksack onto your shoulders or imagine putting a 10-pound bag of beans on the top of your head like a primitive porter might do. Feel the weight. Now, mentally try and arrange your body so that the weight of whichever you imagined goes down through your bones to the soles of your feet and therefore the weight has "gone through your body" and is now resting on the ground. There is a very different feeling when you have allowed a weight to go straight through your structure to the ground. Learn to relax and let forces go through you to the ground at your feet.

Do the same process two or three times and notice what happens when you "change" your body inside and "let the weight go straight through your structure to the ground".

When you let the weight go through your structure and rest on the ground, rather than holding the weight somewhere in your body, you will be using less muscular effort because you're now letting the ground hold most of the weight. So suddenly you have a bit more spare muscular strength to play with. A quick test that I suggest for people to use when they feel like they've let the load through their body to the ground is to wriggle/gyrate the hips a little bit: the hips should wiggle freely and, most of all, the lower-back should be relaxed. Always keep the lower-back relaxed because that aids in letting the support of the ground up through your body to hold the weight on back or head. Tension in the lower-back reduces the purity of the ground forces coming back up through the body and therefore forces you into a more muscular-strength-demanding mode.

The tissues and micro-muscles that are changing where forces are coming from (whether the sole of the foot or somewhere in the body) are the qi and if you notice, if you were able to shift the weight down to the soles of the feet, you couldn't directly just bring those muscles into play: you had to visualize the effect you wanted and those micro-muscular arrangements were shifted/changed accordingly by the subconscious. So you can think of your "qi", in this case, as being some involuntary-muscle-tissues that are mostly controlled by subconscious, not the conscious, direct mind.

Exercise #1

There is a very good, basic exercise where you hold a small weight/ball in your right hand (or left hand) and arrange yourself inside so that the weight of your body and the weight in your hand are resting directly on the soles of your feet: your foot-sole accepts the full weight from above. Try to keep the weight from your hand and body always resting on the soles of your feet while you make the weight/hand go around in a small circle. At all points in the circle, the weight should be resting as much as possible on the ground at the soles of your feet. You are now doing a basic jin/movement exercise.

If you want to utilize the body most efficiently while making the circle, keep the weight on the ground through your body, but make your middle/waist the pivot point for how the body is moving the hand circularly. If you're more comfortable just using the shoulder, that's fine for the moment. If you're going to start learning to use the dantian/hara, you're going to have to move your pivot to the middle of the body someday.

Exercise #2

This is a variant of Exercise #1, but in this case hold your right arm horizontally out in front of you, right foot forward, with your palm facing forward. Start off with your weight slightly forward onto the front/right foot. Let a partner push into your palm with about 3-5 pounds of force and you sink back and down into your foot. Imagine a straight line from your back/left foot-sole going straight to the point where your partner is pushing into your palm. Even though your body is bent at the shoulder/arm, the actual force should be imagined as going straight from the palm of the hand to the foot. The foot does all the holding work; rest into it completely and let it be the foot that stops/holds the incoming push from partner.

If you're successfully letting the sole of your foot accept the incoming push, you should be able to easily wriggle/gyrate your hips a bit. Keep the lower back relaxed, always!

If you're doing Exercise #2 correctly, you should be able to focus on keeping the incoming force in the back foot while you do a slow, small circle of your arm/hand while keeping the weight/force comfortably in your back foot. Once again you're doing a fairly basic jin exercise if you do this correctly.

Think about what is going on, for a moment. This post is to give you an idea about what Jin actually is: we'll get deeper into how to use it and ways to use it, later. Jin is a way of setting up force paths by imagining them: your subconscious and your involuntary-muscle system do the aiming of the force direction. Most of your jin forces will come from the ground, but some of them can come from the down-pull of weight or some combination of the two mechanisms. Some jin usages can be pretty complex and take some practice to use, but essentially jin comes from the way the qi-tissues and subconscious align forces in the body (a largely autonomic process). So the mind leads the qi and the qi configures itself ahead of the jin being present. Jin is called "the physical manifestation of the qi": what could be more accurate than that?

If you let the ground hold most of the weight/forces, the ground does most of the work. If you let your weight pulling down provide most downward force, gravity is again doing most of the work.

Jin Series #1

Posted by Mike Sigman on 6H - first of a new series of articles about Jin, reflecting his updated understanding.

What is Jin and why is it useful?

Jin is a force and a force can be measured and its direction ascertained ... that puts it in the real, scientific world and it gives us a Rosetta Stone from which we can get a grasp of what the elusive "qi" really is.

Jin is called a "refined force", one that is developed over time, as opposed to the normal muscular, brute force of muscles and bones which is normally referred to as "force", which is called "Li". "Jin" and "Li", both being "forces" are sometimes used to mean the same thing: for instance, it is common to say either "fa jin" or "fa li", in idiomatic conversation.

The qi paradigm is very old and when it first originated, they invented some terms like "qi" to help explain how things worked. The problem is that in light of discoveries in physics, physiology, describing things using the ancient qi-paradigm can get sort of confusing. Just keep it in mind that we often to things within our body that require subtle changes in forces to achieve: western physiology has one way of describing/explaining those subtle changes in forces, but in the old days of China, they decided that those subtle changes were caused by something called "qi".

"Jin" forces are the result of subtle ("refined") changes in the "qi" in the body, and hence without "qi" there is no "jin".

Most jin is ground-based jin and there is an old common saying to the effect that the "the qi/jin starts at the feet, is controlled by the waist, and is expressed in the fingers/hands". Ground-based jin works upward from the solidity of ground, but remember that the solidity of the ground is there because of Gravity ... gravity is the Qi of the Earth.

Jin can also start from the pull-down of weight, but the pull-down forces of weight are also a product of gravity, the Qi of the Earth. So Up or Down, Open or Close, our forces almost always relate in some way to the Qi of the Earth, or Gravity.

Jin forces are "refined" forces because they are the product of the mind's controlling of subtle body components (the ones the ancients referred to as "qi"), and Jin forces are always some form of the forces of gravity, whether Up, Down, or some arbitrary angle that relates to Up or Down via angles and geometry and/or friction.

The advantage to Jin forces is that they can be formed within the body and not be visible to an outsider. For this reason, jin is called "the concealed strength". IN RELATION TO AN OPPONENT, JIN FORCES CAN BE ADDED BACK INTO AN OPPONENT'S FORCES IN SUCH A WAY THAT AN OPPONENT'S FORCES ARE USED AGAINST HIM.

That martial usage above is the principle advantage of jin forces in martial usage, but since jin forces are from either the solidity of the ground or the downpull of weight there is an extra, important advantage that the Up and Down forces from the Earth also give us a lot of additional force that does not require so much muscle. More on that part of Jin, soon.

Most of the impressive tricks seen in Asian martial-arts have to do with jin or with other odd ways of manipulating and training the so-called "qi". There is a discrete development of tissues controlled by the subconscious which is the qi of the body, but we'll talk about that further in the series. I don't want any post to get so long-winded and complex that it defeats the idea of simple, manageable chunks of information.

IOS Generative Apps: Senode, Riffer

http://discchord.com/appnews/2018/09/28/ajp-senogrid-sonogrid-triggering-senode

http://www.synthanatomy.com/2018/10/audiomoderns-riffer-is-an-intuitive-midi-tool-for-pc-mac-ios-that-generates-random-riffs.html

Today's Musical Discoveries (Brazilian)

Modified Integral Strength: Week 3 start

Began the week with more modifications to the program:

1. Do at least one session with an easier leg exercise than the Shrimp Squat series
2. Replace Bridge Press-Up series with a variation that won't aggravate last week's neck injury.

I can do pistol squats for a few reps, but my knee gets sore for several days afterwards, because of the spine-pelvis misalignment that the physical therapist found during my PT time for the low back.  The Shrimp Squat series seems kinder to the knee, but I figured I'd try an easier leg exercise for at least a couple of sessions to see if I could condition the legs while giving the knee more of a rest.

For Monday, the replacement leg exercise was the classic bodyweight deep squat.  Part of the PCC Century Test to earn a PCC Instructor certification is 40 deep squats.  I am not even close to qualifying to be a PCC Instructor, but I wanted to see if I could do 40 squats.  By rep #30, my quads had a good burn going, but I did make 40 reps, with more left in the tank.  I stopped after rep #40, though, because I didn't see the point of continuing. 

For this morning's session, the replacement leg exercise was the the split squat, which is just a stationary lunge.  I did about 20 per side easily, so for the next circuit, I moved up to the walking lunge, which was also easily done.  I did 15 reps per side then decided to move on.

The replacement for the Bridge Press-Up was the Candlestick Bridge, which is a Shoulder Bridge with one leg extended upwards.  It proved to be safe for my neck because it never leaves the floor.  With one leg working against the floor and the other in the air, it's just challenging enough to continue strengthening the lower back, glute, and hamstring until ny neck is healthy enough for the Bridge Press-Up again.

As for the other exercises, I'm closing in on double digits in the Knee Pushup.  The 2 weeks working on Inverted Leg Raise resulted in improved performance in the Inverted Press (A-Frame variation) - where before lowering the head to the floor and pushing back up was hard, now I'm working in the 5-7 rep range.  In the L-Sit series, the basic straight-leg hold (legs straight but not high enough to qualify for true L-Sit), is getting more stable.

Modified Integral Strength: End of Week 2

The neck was starting to feel pretty good this morning, after regular practice of the GMB Neck Mobility exercises.

Then I started dong Bridge Press-Ups and the soreness in the back of the neck returned again with a vengeance.  I should have stopped as soon as I felt the pain intensify in the neck.  I guess I didn't stop immediately because I thought I was just coordinating something wrong.  I should have recalled the section of the Convict Conditioning 2 book which stated that the neck gets a good workout from working on the normal Bridge, without any work on the "Wrestler's Bridge" - the variation of the Bridge which is done with the top of the head on the ground instead of the hands.  So I'll have to lay off with my Bridge training for the time being, in addition to giving up pursuit of the Inverted Leg Press.

On the bright side, I gained enough strength from this brief pursuit of the Inverted Leg Raise to lower by head all the way to the floor, and do a Inverted Press back up into the A-Frame position.  So having to switch out the Inverted Leg Raise series in favor of the Inverted Press series isn't all bad.  I'll wait until I've worked towards the legs-elevated step of the Inverted Press progression before I try the Inverted Leg Raise series again.  By the time I reach that step, the neck should have healed, barring some other accident.

Losing the Bridge piece of the Trifecta for cooldown is a bummer - I don't really have a replacement "active stretch" - by Convict Conditioning standards - but for stretching out the front of the body, I have some options.  There's the Kneeling Lunge for the hip flexors and quads.  There's also the Cobra pose which should stretch out the same areas stretched by the Bridge, except without any contraction on the back side, as the standard instruction is to relax everything on the backside, especially the glutes.  The Muay Thai mobility routine may also be more than adequate.

RIP Aretha Franklin

Week 2 under Modified Integral Strength Pt 2. Sore neck

Woke up this morning with the back of my neck more sore than it was yesterday.  Worked through the supine and quadrapedal exercises from the GMB Neck Mobility routine, as well as reviewing the seated exercises.  There was one exercise that I was unable to do because of the neck pain - the Retraction with Rotation and Sidebend from the quadrapedal series.  Because of the sheer number of neck exercises from the GMB Neck Mobility routine, as well as prescribed reps and set, the neck mobility practice took up most of my morning exercise time.  The rest of the session was spent on a bit of Cando Bar silk reeling practice and some stretches from the Muay Thai mobility routine. 

Speaking of the Cando Bar stuff, I realized that I should keep the arm more extended - not necessarily lock out the elbow, but at least remove the "slack" from the "suit" we are trying to develop.  This is helping me feel the suit working a bit more in the bottom half of the "positive" movement - I'm feeling more of a pull from my abs/core to the hand, through the arm; instead of just the arm, or at best a conventional "rowing" action (the arm and upper back working together).  I'm also getting more comfortable with the "negative" movement, in which the counterclockwise rotation of the dantien pulls the right arm out, causing it to unfold, which is quite a different sensation from the normal pushing action of the triceps, shoulder, and chest working to extend the arm.  This is why all of the punches I've seen in Chen Taijiquan are accompanied by the opposite arm being pulled back.  The pull of the opposite arm is sometimes said to be for an elbow strike to the back, but I think it's mainly a reminder to the practitioner of what direction the dantien should be rotating.  The rotation causes one arm to pull back because the front of the dantien is pulling; while at the same time the back of the dantien is pulling through the other arm, causing it to unfurl like a party favor and extend outwards.

As of this post, my neck is feeling better.  I'll do another round of the seated exercises when I get home, then the supine and quadrapedal ones before I go to bed.

Unless my neck is completely pain free tomorrow, I'll switch from the Inverted Leg Raise series to the Inverted Press series, so I can continue improving my overhead pressing strength while waiting for the neck to recover.

Week 2 under Modified Integral Strength

I'm going to call the program "modified Integral Strength" because most of the exercises are from the Integral Strength program, and are mostly practiced in the same order in a circuit.  The modifications I've made are to simply do as many reps as can be done "pretty" instead of within a specific time frame (20s or 30s), temporarily subbing the Inverted Leg Raise progression for the Inverted Press progression, replacing the lower steps of the Chinup progression with inverted rows from under the dining table, and eliminating the 3-min. cardio session (sprinting in place or jump rope) that's introduced after the first couple of weeks.  The main cause of the change was to make the routine more flexible for days that I commute to work by bicycle.  The warmup routine is also being tweaked here and there - the latest thing is adding some moves from the GMB Muay Thai routine to help improve my mobility for the kicks in Taijiquan and Japanese kata that we practice, as well as moves where I have to balance on one leg while extending the other.  Integral Strength does not prescribe a specific cooldown, so I'm continuing to use the Trifecta from Convict Conditioning, plus the stretches from the Muay Thai routine and the brachial hang.

I'm closer to finding the optimal positioning for the hands in the headstand.  I did have a bit of an accident today when I made the triangle between my hands and head too flat.  The GMB Inverted Leg Raise video says that you don't want the triangle to be so flat that it's a straight line, as you're more likely to tip over.  Well, my triangle didn't disappear into a straight line, but it was flat enough that I felt my body start to tip over.  I was close to the wall to be prevented from completely falling over, but the body tipped over enough to put pressure on the back of the neck.  Thus, the back of my neck is sore.  I'm trying to address the soreness, and hopefully facilitate healing, by gently practicing the seated exercises from GMB's Neck Mobility routine. I'll try the supine and quadrepedal exercises tomorrow morning as part of my active recovery routine.

Despite the sore neck, I've progressed in the Inverted Leg Raise enough to try Step 2, which is pulling a knee to my armpit.  When I straighten my legs and rock my body in and out of the headstand, my feet leave the floor when my butt is pulled over my head - probably because my tight hamstrings pull up the feet.  Just for fun, I tried pulling in both knees at the same time.  I was able to do that, just as I did the first time I tried, but I still need to improve the strength and stability of the tripod created by the head and arms.

End of Week 1 under new program

I suppose I should think of a name for the new program, instead of just "the new program".  Can't think of anything at the moment, so "new program" it is.

For today's session, I tried the headstand with the hands closer to the head than in the previous session.  As a result, I was able to push hard enough through the hands, when "rocking in", that  not only was the pressure on my head reduced more, but my feet started to float off the floor.  My balance felt pretty stable.  The only negative was there was some pain in my suspect shoulder when my weight was most concentrated on the upper body. 

So the next thing to work on in the Inverted Leg Raise progression is hand and arm positioning that does not add shoulder pain.  I need to make sure that I'm not allowing the elbows to flare out.  I am also hoping that the bodyweight rowing, knee pushups, and brachial hanging will soon make that shoulder less susceptible to pinching or other irritating sensations.

I added two sets of Bridge Pressups, essentially not doing Bridge Pressups on the last circuit.

I've gone back to doing the exercises in a circuit, which is a base feature of Integral Strength, but not necessarily Convict Conditioning.  It's just more time efficient to work through each exercise in a circuit.  However, because my interest is in strength training rather than conditioning/weight loss, I'm not making myself go from exercise to exercise with as little rest time as possible.  I'm giving myself time to catch my breath and reset myself between exercises.  I'm currently taking a 2.5 min. rest between circuits but I may bump that up to 3 min.  The 2-3 min. rest period between circuits is another carryover from Integral Strength.

Session 2 under new program

I stood in front of a mirror and put my hands and arms about where they should be when I'm in a headstand, with the elbows at 90 degrees, hands just outside shoulder width, upper arms about 90 degrees from the torso.  The imaginary triangle between hands and head didn't look equilateral at all; quite a bit more flattened than that.

I then tried practicing the Inverted Leg Raise progression with this new hand positioning.  I did feel like I had much better leverage for pressing harder through my hands, and thus noticeably reducing the pressure on the top of the head.  I then realized that "rocking forward", per the Step One instructions from the tutorial, wasn't just pushing down towards my toes to push the legs towards my head - it's actually pulling my butt forward so that it stacks over my torso and head.

Performance in the other exercises were pretty much the same as the first session.

The day after, I didn't feel the same neck soreness as I felt Tuesday (day after first session).  I did go through the sitting neck exercises from this routine, however.

I also tried GMB's Muay Thai Mobility Routine, which I'd previously put off because I'm not a Muay Thai player.  However, the article promises benefits for those who practice any movements that require balancing on one leg while extending the other - and Taijiquan definitely qualifies.

First session under new routine

Today was my first session under the new program.  I'm confident I'm now training at the appropriate level for each of the exercises, despite being able to perform a more "advanced" version of each exercise, except the dynamic L-Sit.

I'm going to stay at the lowest level of the Inverted Leg Raise progression for at least two weeks.   I need the time to figure out the optimal position for my hands.  The instruction to draw a triangle between the head and hands seems clear at first, but I doubt it's a perfect triangle - that is, it can't be an equilateral triangle based on the geometry of my body.  It makes sense that the head should not be in line with the hands.  On the other hand, my hands feel like the palm heels are going to come off the floor if I try to make an equilateral triangle - I just don't have the strength/mobility to keep them pressed down.   So the hands have to be positioned somewhere in the middle, thus forming a "squashed" triangle; in order for me to get the leverage to generate a decent push through the arms.

I also need the time to practice pushing against the floor through my hands, to relieve some of the pressure from my head and neck, and to practice balancing the upper body.  Coach Ryan says at the beginning of the video lesson that this move will subject the head and neck to a lot of pressure, implying that even for strong people, the pressure on the head/neck won't be eliminated, so this two-week period would also give the neck time to adapt.

So if things go well, the technique and body conditioning/strength will come together enough after two weeks to advance to the next level, which is pulling in a knee - one at a time.  Level 2 and up will definitely require a stable upper-body base.  If it doesn't come together, then I don't mind staying at Level 1 for another week or even longer, because this is not a progression to be rushed, if one is to avoid injury.

Bodyweight Training Program (Convict Conditioning meets GMB)

It seems like I get shoulder problems every time I get into doing pullups, and it could be that I never really worked on horizontal pulls, which the PCC (Progressive Calisthenics Certification) folks call "Australian pullups" - basically just rowing your bodyweight. Before I achieved my first pullup, I did lat pulldowns, cable rows, and other stuff on machines in modern-style gyms. My university opened a shiny new modern style gym, which had a pullup-assist machine which I used to build up to my first pullup. I started with like 50lbs assistance and worked down to 0 lbs. I didn't know at the time the old-school way would have been to do rows from under a sturdy table, then progress to jump-to-negatives, half-pullups, etc. Anyway, the Convict Conditioning book argues in favor of working through a progression of an exercise (Aussie pullups, negative pullups, jump to half-pullups, full pullups, etc.) instead of skipping ahead too soon; otherwise the muscles may strengthen faster than the softer tissues and so on, and technique suffers as well. This could be what's going on with why my shoulder pain returns after I start doing pullups on a bar.  Pullups on rings does not seem to aggravate the shoulder as much because of the movement they allow in the arms.

So I'm going to work on bodyweight pulls until 2 sets of 20 are easy, then go up the progression. The Convict Conditioning progression standard is 30 reps, but that seems a bit much.   GMB would say 30 seconds easy, snappy movement is the progression standard.  I'm not sure that's enough work, as there are still GMB programs that advise 12-15 reps here and there.  Anyway, I'll arbitrarily set 20 to be the progression standard before moving on to the next exercise in the pullup progression, which is either jacknife pullups or jump-to-negative pullups.

The same shoulder also bothers me when I do full pushups, so I'm similarly going to switch to kneeling pushups. Brachial hanging has made a difference for my shoulder - much reduced pain when I lower myself into a dead hang from the pullup bar. I have a similar situation with my knee whenever I practice pistol squats. There's no pain during the exercise itself, but hours afterward or the next day, my knee gets sore. During my low back physical therapy, one of the doctors noticed something odd about my gait and found a misalignment between the hip and back, causing the foot to want to turn out more than the other when I stand. She put me through a "reset" but I was later told that a longer term fix would be to strengthen the core and consciously turn the foot back inwards to match the other foot. The misaligned side is where my knee can hurt. So I'm going to switch back to the shrimp squat progression, since that doesn't seem to bother the knee as much.

So this is the modified bodyweight program, influenced by both Integral Strength and Convict Conditioning - the biggest step away from Integral Strength being to drop the circuit training and just do 2-3 sets of each exercise.

Warmup:  Integral Strength warmup

Practice:
Inverted Leg Raise
Shrimp Squats - Step-back Lunge
Pushups - Kneeling
Bridge Pressups
Aussie Pullups (love the name)
L-Sit (Dynamic)

Cooldown: Convict Conditioning Trifecta, Hip Flexor stretches (if time allows), Brachial Hang

The Inverted Leg Raise tutorial by GMB includes the best instruction I've seen yet on how to get into a headstand.  Everybody else teaches the headstand this way:  "Go near a wall, make a triangle between your hands and head, and kick up!"... without any help for people who can't do the kick-up because they lack the strength, flexibility, or motor control.  The Inverted Leg Raise temporarily supplants the Inverted Press as the exercise for overhead pressing strength, because I feel like I have a  more immediate need for the benefits that it promises:  Balance while being upside down, core strength, and upper body strength from isometric contraction (constantly pushing against the floor with the hands to reduce the load on the head and neck).  Given where I'm at with the other exercise progressions, the Inverted Leg Raise is the most challenging exercise and thus is the first in the routine.
 
The Shrimp Squat progression will be followed pretty much as taught in Integral Strength.

The Pushup progression will be as taught in Integral Strength, until I've worked up to multiple sets of 15 full pushups, at which point I'll decide if I want to work on the Hollow Body Pushup or the One-Arm Pushup

The Bridge Pressup progression will be mostly from Integral Strength.  At some point I will have to decide if I want to keep working on a Bridge that looks anywhere as good as the GMB coaches demonstrate the course, or if I should progress to one-leg variations as taught by the Kavadlo brothers, who have pretty much taken over propagating the Convict Conditioning system around the world.  The book says to work towards a stand-to-stand Bridge, while the Kavadlos instead progress to one-leg, then one-leg, one-arm (I think) bridges.

Aussie Pullups will be trained until I can do 2 sets of 20 easily.  I'll probably try Al Kavadlo's idea afterwards of working on regular pullups, supersetted with Aussie Pullups.  He says this is great for increasing reps in the pullup, but I'm just looking to make sure the critical shoulder girdle muscles (lower trapezius and rear deltoids) get the work needed to maintain shoulder health.

The L-Sit in most GMB programs is practiced as a static hold  This L-Hold tutorial introduced a dynamic version, in which one moves between two positions in the L-Sit/L-Hold progression.   I have to add that I don't agree with the prerequisites in the tutorial - one does not need to have performed a one-arm pushup, leg raise, or handstand before beginning.  I started working on the L-Sit without having practiced any of those moves.  GMB's L-Sit Tutorial gives a more realistic perspective on what needs to be done to work on the L-Sit - lots of great info, but it doesn't have the dynamic movement idea.   Anyway, the idea is to practice the dynamic version here.  The static version is part of the Convict Conditioning Trifecta.  I'm not fully sold yet on the L-Hold being a suitable active stretch for the posterior chain, but I've started trying it as part of the Trifecta. 

Convict Conditioning Pre=Planning

So far, working a bit under the Integral Strength program has been fine, but I'd been pondering ways to make my exercise program more flexible when it comes to scheduling, so that when the weather and schedule allow it, I can bike to work again.  Integral Strength is about doing rounds of a circuit routine, which doesn't fit well with riding one's bicycle to/from work, and stopping at pullup bars, dip stations, that may be along the commute.

I recently got my copies of the Convict Conditioning and Convict Conditioning 2 books.  The first book focuses on strength training around the "Big 6" exercises and the 2nd covers "Bulletproof Joints" and other supplementary exercise info.

Switching to from Integral Strength  to Convict Conditioning should be seamless as the exercises are similar or even the same:

Shrimp Squat -> Squat

I've actually never done a full Shrimp Squat, because of the requirement to hold the back foot with one hand while squatting down with the other hand.  I've gotten as far as touching the knee to the floor with both hands extended forward.  Convict Conditioning has a 10-step progression for the Squat, working up to a full double-legged squat, then progressing to a full pistol squat.  I've done full pistol squats before, but I usually get soreness along my MCL sometime afterwards.  One possible cause of the soreness is a previous knee injury.  Another is a tendency for the hip on that side to turn out and forward a bit.  Thus, the plan is to rachet back in the difficulty level focus on the lower Steps of the squat progression for a while.  Interestingly, Convict Conditioning has for the first Step, a "squat" which is done while in a posture that Yoga folks would recognize as a shoulder stand.  I will probably do this move as part of my daily warmup, as it seems to warm up some muscle groups while loosening others.

Pushup

Integral Strength's "master" variation if the Hollow Body Pushup.  Convict Conditioning's is the One-Arm Pushup.  I'll work up to 20 regular pushups first, then consider where to go from there.  As with the Squat, I'm going to rachet down the difficulty level to give my shoulder tendons more time to build up.

Bridge Pressup

Integral Strength stops at making the arms and legs straight as possible.  Convict Conditioning continues to the Stand to Stand bridge.  Looking at the Convict Conditioning progression, the straight bridge step is practically effortless to do 20 reps, so I'll try the next level before getting back to the full Bridge pressup.

Pullup

Convict Conditioning's master version is the one-arm pullup.  The other program stops at the regular pullup.  For now though I'll just work up to 20 reps of the horizontal row variation.

Handstand Pushup

Integral Strength focuses more on the Inverted Press, with the idea that raising the feet higher and higher will increase the difficulty so that when the feet are on the chair or higher, the trainee will have gotten strong enough to work on Handstand Pushups.  Convict Conditioning advises achieving the handstand first.  GMB (authors of Integral Strength) advise working on the handstand as a separate practice.  I'll stick with Inverted Presses, but try to get to 20 reps on an easier variation (feet further away from the hands) first.

L-Sit -> Split of L-Hold and Leg Raise progression

GMB loves the L-Sit, and thus it's featured in Integral Strength and other GMB strength programs.  The Convict Conditioning way though, prefers the Leg Raise for strengthening the hip flexors and abs and the L-Hold (same as L-Sit) as an active stretch, with an emphasis on flexibility and "joint bulletproofing" (active stretch of the posterior chain).  GMB actually recommends the Hanging Leg Raise, among other exercises, for those struggling to achieve their first L-Sit.  Sticking with the theme on focusing more on tendon strengthening, I'll work on the easier Steps for the Leg Raise series first - the ones done from the prone position.

Hollow Body

There's no direct mapping of the Integral Strength Hollow Body series to Convict Conditoning.
The Front Hollow Body is a GMB staple for developing a nice vertical line in the free standing (no wall support) Handstand position.  The closes thing in Convict Conditioning would be  the Leg Raise series.  The Back Hollow Body is not a consideration in Convict Conditioning, though the back sould get plenty of work in the Bridge series.  For lateral strength of the spine, the Flag series is favored over the Side Hollow Body.

In summary, Integral Strength is a great bodyweight strength and conditioning program, with the Broad Jump thrown in for some power training; but doesn't integrate well with bike commuting, schedule-wise.  Also it's intended to siet between Elements and the specialized bodyweight training porgrams in the GMB hierarchy.  Convict Conditioning is a more open-ended program, scheduling wise.

Self-assessment of Equinox (Minor Blues) solo

I recently recorded this solo as my contribution to a forum thread in which participants were invited to post clips of themselves soloing over a minor blues, preferably using the Dorian scale.  I'm only going to leave this track online at Soundcloud for a limited time, as I have the free account, which only allows so much space to be used for tracks.  The backing track was downloaded from the "Soulstice" section of Sheryl Bailey's Essentials: Bebop Etudes course.

https://soundcloud.com/governorsilver/equinox-07152018

I still sound like a player who relies a bit too much on scalar runs in my improvisations.  I didn't mean to throw in the two-handed tapping bit in there, but the 3rd up from where my left hand pinky was just begging to be played, and my right hand finger just happened to be available.  The etudes I've been working on from the Hip Licks For Guitar book and the 30 Sax Licks You Must Know course; as well as bebop licks stolen from recordings and "in the style of" bebop licks that I've made up... I'd hoped more of that stuff would show in my playing.  But I understand this is a process that can take some time.  Still, I feel like progress has been made.

I'd like more usage of arpeggios and intervallic jumps.  The etudes I've been studying and practicing has these in spades so I'll keep practicing them.  I think though it would be a good idea to start practicing scales in broken 6tha and 7ths.  Sheryl Bailey's etude for "Soulstice" (her version of Equinox) relies on lots of 4ths, as  a nod to the quartal harmonies and melodic ideas pioneered by John Coltrane and his quartet at the time.  I might work those in too.

The Advancing Guitarist: Notes on how to use

The book The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick has an iconic reputation as the ultimate self-help book for guitarists who want to keep taking their game to the next level and beyond.  However, it can be a bit of a confusing read, leaving would-be advancing guitarists scratching their heads and maybe sticking the book back on the shelf for another couple of years or tossing it into the donation bin.

From "KRosser", an longtime instructor at Musicians Institute:

Here's what I did:

First, I worked through exactly what he presents in the book - each of the modes based on C major. I taped myself playing the vamps into a portable tape recorder (what I would do now with the Voice Memo thing on the iPhone). I played each vamp for about three minutes and then rolled it back, doing once through for each string. In other words, going through the first C major vamp took 18 minutes of playing, plus the time it took to rewind the tape in between.

Then I worked on other stuff for the rest of my practice time that day.

I did one of these for each mode, as he presented, which means after one week I was done with all seven modes based on the key of C.

I really liked the initial feeling from the results of that, so I kept going. The following week, I did the same thing but based on all the modes in the 'G major' group. Goodrick didn't write out vamps for that key set, so I just made up my own, kept them very simple, just like the originals Goodrick presented.

Each week I progressed around the Circle of 5ths, so after 12 weeks of doing this I had done all seven 'major scale' modes up and down each single string in all 12 keys. I had a ball doing it too, I really learned a lot about the guitar neck, phrasing the various modes, etc. Several of my impromptu 'modal vamps' that I came up with actually lead to original compositions after the fact, which was a nice unexpected, tangential result.

I enjoyed this so much I then did the whole process over with the seven Melodic Minor Modes in all 12 keys, and then the Harmonic Minor modes.

So all said and done, that was a little less than a year's worth of half-hour a day work. Which was fine - I was going to practice at least a half hour a day all year anyway.

Honestly, I think I learned a lot from coming up with vamps (especially some of the Harmonic Minor modes got really interesting) and then playing those rhythm vamps for three minutes straight with a solid sense of groove and make it comfortable to solo over. I tried to give them as much variety as possible - tempos, styles, dynamics, time signatures, you name it.

I tell my students this all the time - recording yourself playing an accompaniment for 3-5 minutes and then solo over it, rather than using loopers or pre-prepared tracks, will teach you a lot about what it feels like for someone else to solo over your own comping. Sorta like forcing a cook to eat his own cooking

I was already a gigging player back then, and had a degree in classical guitar with a heavy emphasis on jazz on the side - in other words, modal theory was not new to me in any way. And still, I'll tell you - I felt like a whole new guitar player on the other side of all that work. 

Prefabricated Homes for Green Living

Interesting "hobbit house" designs - I think they all incorporate a "living roof"

https://compassgreen.com/

https://greenmagichomes.com/

Hanging to relieve Shoulder Pain

The Integral Strength test session went well, except for the reverse chin-ups.  I was able to do them, but I've had a longstanding issue with some kind of aching in the left shoulder when I am in a dead hang, either to start a pullup/chinup, or lowering myself from one.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that simply hanging from a bar might actually be good for shoulder pain relief.  Searching the web eventually turned up Dr. Kirsch:

Unfortunately the above video doesn't show the hanging exercise.  I did find this one from Z-Health:

I dug up my door pullup bar and started doing some short sessions - a few seconds at a time - of hanging from them with palms facing forward, no thumbs, and my feet on the ground to decrease the intensity a bit.  A promised bonus benefit is spinal decompression.

End of my Elements practice, and moving on

I injured my lower back two Fridays ago, while practicing the High Frogger and /High Monkey movements in what was to be my last Elements session for the month.  I was in a deep squat, getting ready to do a High Frogger.  When I'm in a deep squat, my low back is stretched - one of the last things I would want to happen, while in that position, is a low back muscle contraction .  Unfortunately, that is what happened.  Whatever the cause of that ill-timed muscle contraction, whether it was a spasm or something else, the pain was immediate and intense.  The pain was intense enough that I had a very difficult time getting up off the floor. After more difficulty getting to the kitchen and raising a glass of water to my lips, I was able to take 2 Motrin capsules to try to reduce the pain.  That evening, I went to the doctor, who prescribed a muscle relaxant and physical therapy.

Physical therapy has been going well.  Looking ahead to when I'm ready to exercise for strength again instead of just rehab,  I  decided to assess what exercises from Integral Strength I could start working on, on the days I don't have a physical therapy session scheduled.  These are the results, with only one measure per exercise - whether my body, particularly the low back and hips in their current condition;  will allow me to do it or not:

Broad Jump No
Shrimp Squats Ok but be careful
Push-Ups Ok but be careful
Bridge Press-Ups No
Inverted Press Yes
L-sit No
Chin-Ups  Did not try but probably no
Hollow Body Did not try but I do a very gentle version of it in physical therapy

I had a sore hip for the rest of the day, as punishment for trying out the above movements, but it was worth it, as it settled that question in my mind.

Minor Pentatonic Scales for ii V I chord progressions

Tim Miller in his Creative Arpeggio Design course on Truefire provides some cool little tips for using minor pentatonic scales in a ii-V-I chord progression, which is the most common chord progression in pre-modal era jazz.

Dmin9 - A minor pentatonic
G7alt - Bb  minor pentatonic (hits the altered tones of the altered dominant chord)
Cmaj6 - B minor pentatonic (hits notes from the Lydian mode, producing a "brighter" sound)

Thus extrapolated to more generalized terms:

ii - minor pentatonic perfect 5th up from root
V - minor pentatonic minor 3rd up from root
I - minor pentatonic just half step down from root

The neat thing about these pentatonic scales is you just move up one half step for each chord, as you go through the ii-V-I chord progression - which is very convenient on the guitar.

I'll probably try these pentatonic ideas for a Steely Dan style chord progression:

Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic
D/G - F# minor pentatonic or C# minor pentatonic.
E/A - Eb minor pentatonic or Ab minor pentatonic
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic

The D/G and E/A slash chords are interesting because each fits two different major scales.  To streamline the choices a bit so I can lazily just move the same minor pentatonic pattern up and down with as few steps as possible:

Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic - 1 up
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 1 down
D/G - C# minor pentatonic - 3 up
E/A -  Ab minor pentatonic - 5 down
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 2 up
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic - 1 down

On the other hand, if I change pentatonic patterns, I can limit the fretboard movement - the numbers indicate the starting fret on the 6th string.

Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic - 7
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
D/G - F# minor pentatonic - 7 (same pattern as 3rd inversion of A minor pentatonic)
E/A -  Ab minor pentatonic - 7 (same pattern as 2nd inversion of A minor pentatonic)
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic - 8 (2nd inversion)

Elements Week 6, Day 6

As usual, it's the day to self-assess and play with the movements freestyle.  I don't know if I missed it before, but the BAP for the animals apparently should have included measurements of how long one could perform the movement before stopping.

Bear BAP

Time: 2:25.  The shoulders were the first to fatigue.  I seem to be decent at keeping the butt in the air.

Monkey BAP

Time: 2:25.  The feet were the first to fatigue.  Maybe some fatigue in the legs too.  Otherwise, the movement seems decent.

Frogger BAP

Time: 5:00.  The 5 min. were up before I knew it.  My abs must have strengthened in some way because they used to tire out so fast when practicing the Floating Table Top then the Monkey.  It's pulling the tailbone under that did it. 

I cheated on the free play section.  It was supposed to be 5 min. per level of play (basic only, intermediate only, mix).  I did all three in one 5 min. session because I was pressed for time.  My fault for time management.

Boss Katana 100: Initial experience

I actually first heard about the Boss Katana amps on the Electric Violin Shop website - their description says, "yeah its a guitar amp, but it has an Acoustic amp type that sounds great w/ violin...".   When I saw a Katana 100 on sale recently, I just had to get it.  I have a couple of tube guitar amps, but the one that's loud enough for the band I play with is too unreliable, and the other isn't quite loud enough.  The Katana 100 at 100 watts is definitely loud enough.  It's part of the current generation of solid state/digital amps that emulate the sound and performance of tube amps through physical modeling.  It sounds really good to my ears with both electric violin and guitar, and delivers the responsive, dynamic performance I'd expect out of a decent tube amp.  The Acoustic amp type does sound nice with my Yamaha YEV violin, but I'm not really trying to get it to sound like a fine acoustic Stradivarius or anything like that.

To use the Katana with a band requires foot control to select different sounds, so I picked up the GA-FC foot controller and the EV-5 expression pedal yesterday. The GA-FC now has the Boss logo on it instead of Roland, but the GC guys had to look it up under the Roland name to find it - just fyi for anyone thinking of buying it to pair with a Katana. Roland originally designed it for a line of Roland amps that are no longer under production. The Katana ships with labels for the GA-FC, but the GA-FC that I received already has the new Katana-friendly labeling.

Anyway, it took only a few hours to set up the FX as I'd want them for next week's band rehearsal. You need to plug the USB into a computer and run software to edit the FX in any detail - eg. delay time, mod depth, etc. The disadvantage is you can't edit those detail parameters onstage, away from your computer. OTOH, this design compromise keeps the physical panel of the amp uncluttered and super simple. I do have some physical FX pedals that are quite nice (eg. EHX DMM550TT, Eventide H9 Max, etc.) but it's nice to have 8 preset locations onboard the Katana for multi-FX, and be able to just grab-and-go for a quick jam.

Learning how to use the GA-FC took next to no time at all - you can select from 4 presets at a time, and hit the Effects switch to turn individual FX off and on within the preset - fast and simple. Learning to set up the EV-5 to control wah also took no time - once I selected Pedal Wah as an effect, it worked immediately for that purpose. There are several variations to choose from under the Pedal Wah category btw. If you don't map the EV-5 to anything, it's automatically assigned to volume control.

The Katana requires Roland's USB driver for use with software, which is a bit of a bummer. Anyway, there are two software choices - the official Boss Tone Studio, and an editor by a guy who goes by "Gumtown" that unlocks more FX, more amp types, more flexibility for chaining FX, etc.:

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=20625.0

So far I've only worked with BTS. The latest version(s) of BTS/Katana firmware is flexible enough for me. I might delve into Gumtown's 'ware later. Again, I had all this set up in just a few hours. I probably would have been even faster if I'd read the instruction to "keep" the .pkg file during installation of the driver, and didn't start with a defective USB cable. The longest holdup that I'd blame on Boss is the effects loop routing - they haven't updated their knowledge base yet to mention that they moved the send-return settings out of the system global page, so that you can now set stuff like parallel vs. serial, levels, etc. per patch.

Compressor Pedal videos

I just got a Boss Katana 100 guitar amp, which includes a bunch of built-in effects, including compressor.  I've never really understood how to use a compressor, or even what benefit I may get from using one. Some videos I found that may be useful:

Elements Week 6, Day 3

Focus:  Intermediate Monkey variations

Bent-Arm Frogger seems ok - no shoulder discomfort.  High Monkey is what it is - one always wants to get closer and closer to a full cartwheel, but at least I feel stable.  180 Monkey is the one where I've struggled the most.  I think I've solved it though.  I figured out that placing my palm heel slightly behind my ankle, instead of in line with the ankle,  makes the move a lot easier to execute slowly.  I don't feel as much of a need to cheat by using momentum and timing.

For the Push Circuit, I started to slow down and just try to move beautifully instead of rushing.  I did not feel less of a workout at all by doing this; I was still getting pretty gassed, but at least the slop was cut down.

Elements Week 6, Day 1

I actually practiced Day 1 yesterday, so this is actually a makeup blog entry...

Focus:  Bear, Bent-Arm Bear, and Spiderman

This session emphasized the intermediate variations of the Bear.  I'm still getting the hang of the Spiderman - still not as smooth as I'd like to be, but I seem to be betting better at it.  Bent-Arm Bear is as challenging as always because I haven't worked on it that much.

The Push Circuit was pretty tough.  I could feel my form getting away by the 3rd round.  The Spiderman portion of the circuit served as a break of sorts, as I was unable to execute it with the "push speed".   Another difficulty with the Push Circuit is not being able to remember the sequence of movements to practice, and thus having to lose some training time to look up what movement I'm supposed to be on.

Elements Week 5, Day 5 and a bit of 6H update

Falling behind again in logging my training sessions.  I believe Day 3's focus was the 180 Monkey + Frogger combo move, so that one moves in a square.  I just remember struggling once again with the 180 Monkey.

Today's focus:  Banzai Frogger and Frogger-Frogger Transition

As expected, 10 min. of Banzai Frogger is a bit more demanding on the lower body than the regular version.  There's something about being in a deep squat that prevents me from holding my arms vertically above my head; instead the highest I can raise my arms is about 45 degrees.

At least my Frogger-Frogger with backstep transition is getting a little smoother.

As for other training, I've been working Squatting Monkey and "skin breathing standing" into my 6H training routine.  Squatting Monkey is a training method found in the rare martial art Dai Family Xinyi.  One of the basic concepts of 6H movement is the use of the "dantian" as the engine of all movement.  The "lower dantian" encompasses the abdominal and lower back muscles.  One of the ways we begin learning how to use the dantian is in the practice of "opening" and "closing".  In opening, the back of the dantian pulls on the whole body, to extend the arms, move the knees outward, etc.  In closing, the front of the dantian pulls on the whole body to contract the arms, pull the knees inward, etc.  Ideally, this pulling happens along the muscle-tendon channels, as an alternative to "normal" muscle usage.

Squatting Monkey can be an effective method for training the closing movement.  I guess that's why the Dai family came up with this exercise for their martial art.  On the 6H discussion group, some folks who train in that martial art posted a very helpful video.  The tip to "pull the ground up through the feet" really helps establish a good ground-to-dantian connection during the inhale, while the dantian pulls the elbows together, rotates the thumbs outward, etc.  Similarly, the tip to push the ground down through the feet upon the exhale helps maintain the ground-to-dantian connection while the back pulls the elbows apart, rotates the little fingers outward, etc.

There is some disagreement within the 6H/"internal" martial arts community whether Squatting Monkey should be practiced without first learning it in person from a qualified teacher.  It is indeed an exercise that can pose an injury risk to the back without some care and preparation.  Those who had had previous or concurrent low back issues may want to consult a doctor.  Another risk is that this exercise includes reverse breathing, and thus poses the same risk as reverse breathing in general - done incorrectly it could induce excessive pressure on the head and/or strain the lower back.

I'm hardly a qualified teacher, but based on my limited experience, these exercises should probably be practiced first, probably in this order:

Basic reverse breathing - take it easy at first so you don't strain your back, and don't add pressure to  your head:
https://vimeo.com/169452695

Intro to reverse breathing with functional Qi - learning how to use the dantian to pull along the muscle tendon channels during the inhale.  You'll want to be pretty comfortable with basic reverse breathing before trying this one:
https://vimeo.com/167948081


Functional Qi reverse breathing for bypassing the shoulder muscles - this may be more optional, because unless I missed it, Mr. Sigman does not really explain how the exhalation drives the movement.  The inhalation phase of these movements though are useful to practice by themselves, to further develop the functional Qi breathing introduced in the previous video.
https://vimeo.com/167546796

Concurrently with the reverse breathing stuff,  zhan zhuang/standing post should also be practiced, with a focus on Jin development - well technically, the potential for Jin manifestation, which is what functional Qi is about.  Without another person to provide some kind of pressure, Jin is not actually manifested, but we need to develop the ability to manifest Jin instantly, upon contact.  I've found that zhan zhuang really helps relax the shoulders, especially as I progressed to zhan zhuang for 10 minutes or longer.  When I first tried zhan zhuang, I really struggled with my shoulders getting fatigued early.  After I learned to use Jin, I soon realized that visualizing Jin could be used to reduce or even eliminate the fatigue - specifically Jin to the head by imagining a light weight on top of the head, and Jin to the top of the hands by imagining a light weight there as well; in both cases using ground Jin instead of shoulder muscle to support the imaginary weight.  So far my personal record is about 22 minutes, because I forgot to activate the timer - my shoulders weren't perfectly relaxed, but fatigue was coming and going due to my Jin practice and I was feeling a lot more sore in my calves and quads than my shoulders.

An exercise taught by that Dai Xinyi group to complement Squatting Monkey is "skin breathing".  This is a variation on zhan zhuang, in which the reverse-breath inhale causes the front of the dantian to pull the shoulders and hips inward, then the knees and elbows, then the hands; while also pulling the ground up the feet as in Squatting Monkey.  The exhale is timed with the back of the dantian pulling the limbs outward and pulling the shoulders away from the hips, making the body appear to straighten.  Skin breathing is thus a much more "softer" way to train the dantian to close and open the body than Squatting Monkey.  The idea is by training these two exercises - the harder pull of the dantian in Squatting Monkey with the really pronounced close; and the far gentler pull in skin breathing - one can eventually develop the ability to open/close at any point between the two extremes.

6H movement has many more variations than just inhale to close the front of the body, and exhale to open the body (by "closing" the back); for example there's forceful exhalation to close and inhalation to open; and there's also opening one side (right or left) of the body while closing the other - the "hidden hand punch" in Taijiquan being a classic example. 

It seems like the Dai family was onto something by having students work intensely on dantian closing/opening at the very beginning.  The very basic closing movement has been hard for me to learn, because I haven't felt the pull from the dantien, through the muscle-tendon connections (Qi) all the way out to the thumbs during the reverse-breath inhale, except in Mike Sigman's very basic exercise in which one leans back with the arms straight out to the sides.  Squatting Monkey has been really good for developing those connections during the closing movement.

Elements Week 5, Day 1

Focus: Spiderman and Bear To Bear

For the most basic level of Spiderman, I need to work on straightening the back leg.  To be able to do that may require a combination of reaching forward far enough with the lead hand, and bringing the lead foot far enough forward.  For the next level, which adds the quasi-pushup, the difficulty level was about the same as the basic Spiderman.  Clearly, good form in the basic Spiderman reduces the difficulty level of the pushing version quite a bit.

Had to skip the cooldown section to leave for my day job.  Need to do better with my time management.

Elements helped this guy's shoulder heal

One of the reasons I started training under the Elements program again is the persistent soreness in my shoulder, as well as a feeling that it's just about ready to fall out of the socket.  Parallettes One wasn't working for the shoulder - in fact it's known to be hard on the shoulders if they're not healthy.  Rings One was ok, except for chinup/pullup motions.  Thus, I decided to switch to Elements to keep up my strength training without aggravating the shoulder issue.

It turns out this man had an even worse shoulder problem than myself, and used Elements to help fix the problem .

Oh, and I finished Week 4 of Elements.  Bear-Monkey-Frogger transition was ok for me, but in the free play portion, I struggled when I wanted to do a 180 Monkey

Elements Week 4 Day 3

Focus: Frogger to Monkey Transition #2

One advice in this program is to try to move as quietly as possible.  Landing with a bang and stuff like that indicates a lack of motor control, strength, etc. For some reason, I was a bit noisier when twisting to my right for this transition.  However, I did manage to reduce the noise by the end of the session.

High Monkey Push session was ok, although I almost fell over once, just as warned in the High Monkey instructional video.

Last week, I repeated Elements Week 3, as I had been on vacation for several weeks.  Not much change in the BAPs/self assessments.

Xequence Master Class video series

Xequence is an app I've been looking at to capture MIDI data generated by other apps, especially generative MIDI apps such as Gestrument and Rozetta.  However, I've had some trouble learning to use it, and was thus directed towards this instructional video series:

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/24988/xequence-master-class-parts-1-2-3