John Jerome's Staying Supple

Over the past few years I've read a number of good yoga books, but the best by far is Jerome's Staying Supple. I know, I know, "Yoga is not all about stretching," and Jerome's book is not really about yoga, but you can get some great information that will carry over into your yoga practice.  For that matter, you could consider it a great judo book, because judo can be translated as the art of flexibility, or suppleness (as in, supple mindedness or flexible tactics), and a lot of Jerome's ideas about suppleness can transfer to judo..
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This is IMO the best commonsense stretching book around.  Not a lot of technical how-to, but a lot of material on how muscles work and how they stretch and lengthen and how you can maintain a good range of motion through highly enjoyable groundwork yoga-like practices.  This is the book that got me started stretching 20+ years ago, and it is still my favorite.  Highly recommended book!

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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My yoga resolution for this week

A while back I mentioned that I very much enjoy seated yoga over standing, though you can express the same principles and get the same sorts of benefits from both. I still prefer groundwork.  so much, in fact, that it is easy to get pressed for time or get to feeling lazy and only do the groundwork to the exclusion of the standing practice.
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Well, one of the interesting things about yoga is its balancing effects.  It's hard to get too far off one end of any spectrum in yoga before you start tending back the other way.  Lately I've been missing the standing practice, though it is onerous to me, so I made a resolution for this week - I will only do standing practices this week - no seated postures.  When the groundwork comes up in my practices, I figure to make the following substitutions:

• replace all virasana (kneeling) and shavasana (supine lying) with tadasana (mountain pose)
• replace supta padangusthasana (hip openers) and baddha konasana (bound angle) and upavistha konasana (wide angle) with vrksasana (tree pose)

and etc...  This is what I figure to explore this week whether I like it or not, and next week we'll see if my practices return to a more balanced routine.  Wish me luck!
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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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Autogenic discharge

Sounds messy, doesn't it? 

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Actually, if you've done aikido or judo or some sort of bodywork like yoga or massage or Feldenkrais for long, I bet you've seen it.  You may not have thought much about it at the time, but when you think about it some it becomes a curious thing.

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Have you ever seen someone take a fall from a perfect, amazing, aiki-like throw, and hit the ground laughing hysterically?  Have you ever seen someone doing yoga or receiving a massage start crying for no special reason?

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Theory is, emotions have a certain kind of posture and movement associated with them.  Over time these postures and movement patterns can become habitual.  Some folks say this is sort of like storing the memory of that emotion in your neuromuscular system.  Sort of a neuromuscular memory of past trauma.

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Well, when you start doing something to change your habitual motions and postures, something like aikido or yoga or massage, it's possible to release the emotion that was originally associated with that habitual muscle tone, creating a spontaneous, inexplicable outburst of emotion.  Often, when you see this, the person can't tell you why they are laughing or crying.  They just know that its not really funny or painful, but they can't stop laughing or crying.  When I see this, I tend to just quietly continue what we're doing and let the emotion wash  on out.

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I wonder if some of the times that we get caught up in ego during randori and become frustrated or angry at our partners...  I wonder if some of that anger and frustration might just be autogenic discharge?  I wonder if we were able to reframe that frustration or anger, could we release it and move on more productively?

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮

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Scott Sonnon's IntuFlow

This is pretty interesting, and there appears to be a lot more where this came from - If you like this, check out his subsequent vids.

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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Ukemi, balance, and sidedness

Photo courtesy of Whatnot

This past week has mostly been a bust for yoga practice because I had other stuff that captured my attention, but there were a couple of really interesting practices.

• falling out of balance poses - in aikido I often preach that when you are working on your ukemi skills, you want to practice slowly moving through the arc to the "point of no return" - the place where you can no longer control your balance and you have to fall - and then falling from there instead of jumping through the "point of no return" into your rolls. This has several benefits, including chalenging your balance. This past week I practiced rolling out of virabhadrasana III (Warrior #3) and out of ardha chandrasana (half-moon posture). By having the ukemi as a safe extension of the pose after the "point of no return", it allowed me to move farther into each pose with less resistance, and my balance was better, and it made for nice, gentle rolls.
• Exquisite sidedness - I also noticed this week (I notice it every week) that my practice is very different from one side to the other. In side-bending from a simple cross-legged posture, I am much tighter bending to the right (stretching my left flank) than I am bending to the left. Also, there's an obvious difference in janu sirsasana (modified hurdler's stretch) from left to right - but it's not in my hamstrings. The difference is on my back and flank again. Stretching toward my right leg (stretching my left flank) is much easier than stretching toward my left leg. The interesting thing is that my limitations are opposite in these two postures - I'm limited by my left flank in one posture and by my right flank in another posture. Curious.

Well, not a complete bust I guess... ;-)
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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮

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Yoga measuring sticks

Photo courtesy of YoGeek

I don't remember if I got the idea of "measuring sticks" from aikido and it translated into my yoga practice, or vice versa.  In any case, the idea crops up in both artforms.

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What I call a measuring stick is a reference technique or asana that is repeated periodically throughout a workout in order to see what effect your workout is having on your posture or technique.  For example, I might do a sukhasana (simple cross-legged position) with a forward bend at the beginning of class in order to observe where I'm tight or tired.  Then I'll repeat it some time in the middle of the workout to see what the intervening postures have done for me this day.  At the end I might repeat it again, this time settling into it for a prolonged breath count.

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Other common asana that you might see used as measuring sticks include tadasana (the mountain posture), trikonasana (triangle), adho mukka svasana (down dog) or uttanasana (forward bend).  I particularly like to do malasana (deep knee bend) as a measuring stick.

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By repeating the same posture throughout the workout, you can gain some insight into what each set of postures is doing for you in relation to the measuring stick technique.  Do you find your hips more flexible the second time?  Is it easier to breathe the third time, etc...

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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Seated or standing - mind, body, & breath

Photo courtesy of Stephcarter

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I prefer my seated yoga practice over my standing yoga practice. But one of the interesting things that I've known for a while but was pointed out to me lately is that the practice is a wholeness thing. Whether you're doing seated or standing or lying down or standing on your head, you're doing yoga.

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Funny thing I've found is that my seated practice makes me better at my standing practice. On days when I can't drag my mind and body kicking and screaming into a standing practice, rather than fighting against that resistance, I do a nice, comfortable seated practice and more often than not I can come back to the next standing practice in a better frame of mind and performing better.

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Another way of looking at the same thing is this - yoga is a wholeness - you are training your mind, body, and breath (like sanchin in karate, huh?). Whether you are doing standing or seated practice with your body, you're still training mind and breath the same, and those aspects carry over to the next training even if there is little or no crossover between the physical skills of the two practices.

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Interesting, huh?

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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Stake standing seems to be tadasana

Lately, Mondays have been my day to post a yoga idea.  Here's what I've been thinking about and working on lately - actually it's a martial arts/yoga crossover.

What got me thinking more about this standing introspection thing is Rick's repeated insistence that the Stake Standing practice found in some Chinese internal martial arts had benefited him in other areas, including relaxation within his martial arts techniques.

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮

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Lenten Challenge at Mokuren Dojo

Rick at Cook Ding's Kitchen has issued his yearly Lenten Martial Arts Challenge.  The challenge is to work out every day during Lent - no exceptions - no excuses.  I figure to ramp up my yoga practice from nearly-daily to daily, and I am also going to ramp up my aikido walking kata practice from my current 4-5 reps/week to 2-3 reps/daily.  As a guide to my walking kata practice, I'll be going back to my list of 100 Terrific Things to Try in Tegatana, and focussing on each of the hints for 1-2 reps.

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I don't figure to bore y'all with the daily details but I'm liable to update y'all every so often in addition to maybe posting insights that excite me about the walking kata whenever they come to me.

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Anyone interested in taking Rick up on his Lenten Challenge?  Hop on over there and check it out.

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮

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Yoga - standing vs. groundwork

Photo courtesy of Angela

I much prefer seated yoga, or groundwork over standing yoga. I suppose both are necessary for a well-rounded practice, but the seated yoga has always felt better for me. It's as if the standing practices are an exercise in breaking my body like you'd break a horse to subjugate its will to yours, while the seated yoga might be likened to gentling or whispering a horse (not that I really know anything about that either).

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Anyway, I still try to get 2-3 days of standing practice per week, but I look forward to the seated days.

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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Working out in the morning vs. evening

Photo courtesy of Sami Taipale

It seems that there are morning people and non-morning people. I have always considered myself a non-morning person. I always thoroughly resisted morning workouts but in the past year or so I took on a 7am Saturdays private aikido/judo class and I changed my yoga schedule from some evenings to most mornings at 6am. Some mornings I'm still resistant to working out (especially judo and especially in cold weather) but for the most part, the change seems to have improved my practices.

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Yoga is this strange mind-body unity thing and a lot of times it seems like my mind and body are on different schedules. In the mornings (after a few minutes of waking) my mind is clear and sharp but my body is cold and stiff. In the evenings my body is often warmer and looser but my mind is fatigued from the day.

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I've done aikido and judo for so long now that I almost always slip instantly into that here-and-now mode that the Japanese call mushin whenever I step onto the mat, regardless of the time of day. So the mental aspect doesn't seem to manifest itself in the martial domain, but I do notice in yoga that mental and physical readiness is often opposite biorhythms. Maybe that's part of what makes yoga such a good morning thing for me - it seems to bring my sense of mental and physical wellbeing back toward the same rhythm.

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How about you? What time of day do you like to work out? What difference does timing make in your routine?

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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Adventures in yoga

Recently, Sensei Strange posted about one of his latest undertakings - kyudo - Japanese archery.  In his post he discussed what it was like to be a beginner again after having been an aikido teacher for quite a while now.  I applaud that! Kudos!  It can be a difficult thing to take off the instructor role and approach a new thing as just that - a new thing.

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My thing that I am a perpetual noob at is yoga.  I've been doing it most days for about 7 years now, but every session still surprises me.  Every practice shows me something about myself that I hadn't thought much (if at all) about before.

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I've been thinking for a while now about adding a regular yoga feature here at the Mokuren Dojo blog - not because I teach it (I don't), and not so much because I have a niche of readers ravenous for yoga insight (I don't know how many yogi-readers I have), but more because it will help me organize my own lifestyle practices and ideas and because someone else might get something from it as a sort of side-effect.

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It also seems like yoga will naturally dovetail with the topics already in play at Mokuren Dojo.  The word yoga means something like 'unity', while aikido refers to 'harmony', judo refers to 'gentle pliability', and sanchin (a karate concept) refers to 'unifying mind, body, and breath'.

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Namaste
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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282 木蓮
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Wide-legged forward bend with twist

Besides aikido and judo, one activity I do for myself is yoga.  I've been doing this for about 8 years and am still such a noob.  Or another way to put it is, I am always finding something newly challenging in my practice.  There...  That sounds much more yogi-ish ;-)

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These days the thing that always surprises me is standing wide-legged forward bend with twist.  Try it - put your feet about 2-3 hip widths apart with legs straight-ish.  Bend forward at the hips, trying to keep length in the front of the body and back straight-ish.  Now put one hand on the ground and reach the other arm toward the ceiling, creating a twist in the torso.  Now, try that and keep breathing.  Now try it and breathe and stop counting seconds.  Challenging.

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I find that the physical practice of yoga helps remediate the dings and bumps I get doing aikido and judo, and it also helps me to relax and breathe and move during judo newaza much better.  I recommend trying it if you haven't.  The following is one of my favorite DVD instructionals.  Check it out...

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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Suggested great books on aikido, judo, and strategy.

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