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In my opinion, based on my experience, you should completely separate the two into distinct practices. When practicing stillness, practice stillness, resist urges to move as much as possible *by relaxing*. As a totally separate practice/experiment, lie down and allow your body to move however you feel it wants to move, and work out for yourself what the different effects of this practice could be. If you want to achieve jhana, you will need to learn to stay very, very still. Doing a lot of movement outside of the times you practice your stillness, will likely help with the stillness when the time comes to practice stillness.

Barrett Dorko is an american Physio who believes that "ideomotor activity" is one of the body's main methods of self-correcting, one that is more or less completely suppressed in most "civilised" cultures. I think there's definitely something to it: http://www.barrettdorko.com/articles/analgesia_of_movement.htm

Hi Kit, today I wrote an email to Jürgen Reis who is a pro-climber from Austria and runs the biggest climbing and gymnastics podcast in Europe www.power-quest.cc https://itunes.apple.com/de/podcast/power-quest.cc-der-kraftsport/id286359611?mt=2 He replied that he has an almost full schedule for 2016 but he would be very happy if you get in contact with him. His mail-contact is: info@juergenreis.at Yours, Markus P.S.: Really looking Forward the release of your upcoming programs

Hello, everybody. I recently posted a comment in the lying meditation's thread, but I thought this might be interesting for other folks here. I've found the topic being addressed in some comments here and there, but I couldn't find a place where this was the issue. What am I talking about? Well…yesterday I was practicing yoga nidra (which is helping me immensely) and at some point around the end of the session I felt tension located in my left shoulder, a tension I was not able to release. I felt some micro-contractions and, since they felt kinda good, I allowed my body to do whatever he wanted. Soon my left shoulder started doing circles and, slowly but steadily, the involuntary movements spread to my back muscles, my other shoulder and my arms. The only reason I didn't freak out was because I felt in complete control of the situation: my body was moving because I gave it permission to do so. It did scapular adduction, shoulder and arm circles, intense shrugs, cervical extension, a range of odds pectoral contractions, intense pelvic tilts coupled with “crunches”…all without any command from my conscious self! It was crazy! Those movements came in waves and I felt they could last forever; I decided to end it after an hour or so. Then I went to bed and I had hard time falling asleep because my body wanted some more contraction, so I had to focus all my will into avoid that. This morning I was feeling more relaxed than usual, but I could sense some extra tension in my shoulders and I realized my body needed some more of what it had yesterday. After lunch I lay on the floor and it started almost immediately. Not having put a cushion under my head, I could observe some interesting things: to me it seemed my body was not only trying to release tension, but also to mobilize articulations and straightening my spine! At one point my muscles were tense in the effort of having my hole back pressed completely on the floor! This time, as soon as I thought it was enough, I focused on the spasms, stopped them, and relaxed my body with an out-breath. There was still some tension in my face, but overall I felt at peace. After all that, I felt like I usually do when I finish a yoga class, except…my body did all that on its own! I really like some advice here because i'm worried. Should I keep doing that, from time to time? Is there any danger? Since my body obviously carries a huge load of tension, should I suspend my strength training? I think my experience is called “Kriya”, I've found a video of Shinzen Young talking about it from a buddhist perspective and an article related to kundalini awakening. No science paper, unfortunately.

Thank you everybody for your inputs, I'm now a little less worried…but I'm still puzzled about what behavior encourage. I started incorporating lying meditations into my daily routine because I desperately need to relax and I got benefits right from the start, but now this “spasms” are what my body is most inclined to do and they're almost the opposite of relaxation: they're contractions! Those occurrences feel pleasant and unpleasant at the same time and then, in the aftermath, I feel good overall and almost relaxed…but it doesn't really last; yoga nidra provides benefits that last much longer. I don't know if those tensions are what trigger my kriyas or, viceversa, they're the result of my body moving spasmodically. So here's my doubt: later today I'll do another lying meditation, should I follow the script or allow my body to go crazy (as it most certainly will be incline to do)? I think it might be useful to provide al little bit of context by stating my goal(s). I'm interested in Health (especially mental health) and I started my journey with meditation, I didn't have a proper goal at the time, but I liked the idea of Enlightenment; then I stumbled upon some issues that made me focus more on my body and think about what I'd like to achieve: I wanna learn to full relax my body and deepen my concentration, all this in order to reach the first jhana. Then, I'll think about what do next.

@Nathan around 110 degrees I'd say. I used to go as wide as possible and increase the angle after each set but I couldn't really get anywhere so I reduced the angle and that's where I have been making progress.

Yesterday started off with: Cat/Camels Downward/Upward dog Spinal waves Ballistic Stretching Standing Pike x108 Pancake x108 Butterfly x108 Advanced Piriformis x108 Wall Quad/HF x108 In the evening I actually finally did some loaded mobility for the back bridge. It wasn't much but I could feel the difference today. Foam rolling entire back for 5 minutes Arches over roller for 5 minutes changing position of roller on back when t-spine felt more free in that area. Butchers Block w/external rotation 3x30s This stretch I saw on facebook for 2 sets of around 60s or so. Felt really good. Massive psoas sensations. https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtl1/v/t1.0-9/12801657_1563416117282062_4297352059249825243_n.jpg?oh=a8419f277080f3aebabc58e59d69f6c6&oe=575BDF5C Finished up with Yuri band sequence and daily 5. Today started off my morning the same but I did my Cat/Camels really really really slowly and it made such a huge difference after so I will continue to do them like that. Ballistic stretches were the deepest ever today like holy moly. Pike was the deepest it has been since I had to stop J curls and H2T, pancake got my nose to the floor for the first time ever, and advanced piriformis I got my foot to my head on my right side and close on my left side which is also a first!! Training for today: 4/2/16 Box Jump 2x6 added an extra plate which brought the height to 26" still feels pretty easy Floor Press 20x5 40x5 65x 6,6,6,5,5 still need to refine technique for this and benching in general. I need someone who knoes what they're doing to coach me in person. Pendlay Row 65x 6,5,5,5,4 getting harder as the weight increases https://www.instagram.com/p/BChY7QGAjfF/ Stiff Leg Deadlift 65x5 100 3x6 glutes and hamstrings were on fire after set one then they were fine for the last two sets but my obliques and spinal erectors then were on fire haha. Band Face Pull/DB Shrug 30kg DBs 3x20 was closing my eyes doing these trying to focus on my delts activating and I have to say it worked rather well. DB Preacher Curl/Triceps Ext 12.5kgs/32.5kgs Lx 6,4,3 Rx 5,3,4 /8,7,7 upped the weight on both 2.5kgs and it made things a lot harder. Will try add reps each session now. BB Wrist Curl/DB Reverse Wrist Curl 25kgs/5kgs 3x20 the burn was real. I could feel my pulse halfway up my arm haha. Ab Wheel 3x8 added reps to these as it felt comfortable for 8s. I wonder what the pre-requisite for standing ones is? Planning on doing sprints and loaded mobility for lower body tomorrow.

I'm completely useless at advertising, so you can discount what I say at the start if you wish. As a naiive person, I would look on Amazon to see what is there. I did - in Books there were many tens of thousands of entries under "back pain". However with a search for "neck and back pain", ONBP came up 3rd on the list. The many entries under back pain are depressing - there are so many, either because they are repeating the same stuff, or because all or most of them dont work. However I did see that there is something called Amazon video - that has many fewer entries, even with the more general search term "back pain". If what you are producing is a video, maybe it would fit here - apparently it is a VOD service. Not because the financial return per customer would be high, but because of the potentially wide reach (and as a potential lead-in to your own site). Signed by someone who has hardly ever got a new student by his own advertising. Jim.

Hey SwissDanny! Thank you for the advice. I have been exploring using a false grip and it has really helped! Jake

Jaja - I have had this experience about a dozen times. It's cool and interesting but IMHO don't become too fascinated by it. I never had anything bad happen from it; in fact felt "good" afterwards. I liked Shinzen's video (and Shinzen in general) on it when I found it ~3 years back.

The body has in some ways a lot more intelligence then we have about itself. What we're trying to do with all the work you see people doing is foster an environment for the body to use its intelligence. Clearly you've found something that your body needs to do. Think of it how sometimes you need to just take a really deep breath or stretch the neck/back til it clicks. There's probably no danger in just letting the experience happen as you describe the main danger in my mind would be chasing it or forcing it. I would suspend strength training personally but I would pay more attention to relaxation and gentle movements.

Some cool hand to hand work and gotta like the Katy B. Would be fun to learn some hand to hand basics sometime. Though I'd have to find someone really short.5' flat would be about right.

@ Kit the guy in the video I linked is one of my students. His experience was we progressed quite high in the isometric style splits with some added weight. For reference he's very strong in the legs 160kg squat for 3 at that time. Then no progress for maybe 2 months. Then on the day he took the video he tried the side split test with one leg on a chair. Knew he could do it then went over and did it. While I agree with the reframe I do think there's another element at play as a fair number have basically woken up in the morning knowing that today is the day I do side splits and then proceed to prove them selves right. I'm willing to say that maybe they're only reporting the days they have success on and there's been other days where they said the same and nothing happened it still has been reporting enough that I think its worth considering. Here's one of my students, Emily, doing the exercises in her program for side split, https://www.instagram.com/p/-lubG9OdP8/ Current Level, at the plateau https://www.instagram.com/p/BAw7NWXTWkV Here's Elise who you've met demoing the really wide squat approach https://www.instagram.com/p/0X7o93udH2 https://www.instagram.com/p/-QLbUgwT00 Sev's first side split, the face says it all, https://www.instagram.com/p/5IlKBxC3q_ Putting it to use https://www.instagram.com/p/BA5HM_-i3rs David's progress using the wide good morning approach, Start: https://www.instagram.com/p/9-MTUrPX3y Current level https://www.instagram.com/p/BAHWecdPXxC Clare's first as well https://www.instagram.com/p/4uKJM6TJ_J There's some more people on instagram on my hashtag #emmetlouis or on my fb page. The thing about all those above is while the principles we used were the same in all cases, progressively gaining strength in the adductors the exercise selection and order was fairly different for each person.

Time to report on the many impressions and many changes that this three-lunar month experience has provided me (and Olivia; she joined Fred and myself in our morning sessions at GP for the last two months or so, and has renewed her daily practise). The major effect of the last three months is that I want to keep doing daily physical stretching practise. I already have a number of other daily practises, and I remember MH and I once saying (I think Bendy Dave was there too), “If only we had 27 hours a day, we would be able to do all the practises we want to do!”. I have been doing somewhere between one and two hours ballistic/static practise every day. I hope that Fred and Olivia will contribute their impressions in time. I shall mention at the top here that much has changed in my body in this brief period. I have lost belly fat (this is completely unexpected, and I have not changed my diet). I begin every session with bouncing on the balls of my feet; sometimes with locked knees but most often with soft knees. I have done 900 reps on some days; most days between 300–600. I do sets on one leg; up to 100 reps. My feet and lower legs have become massively stronger from just this. Every day now I am getting my pancake below 30 degrees from the floor, and with a straight back with some lower back extension; the key point here is that I am moving from the ischial tuberosities completely now and that was never the case. My side splits are coming back (this has been my worst ROM, ever since that time in hospital over ten years ago). My Cossack squats are much deeper (all lower leg on ground); and I can now bend forwards almost to the point of having the body horizontal (my face is about a foot away from the ground). I shall have to let MH assess my Pu Bu, but it is respectable, I believe. The Tailor pose comes much easier, and I can get my body forward about the same amount as the pancake. The adv. piriformis pose has been mastered, I feel, and on both sides (one used to be much tighter than the other); I can put my face on my front foot any time I practise now. In the half-pancake, I can go all the way to the floor any day, and am working on getting my body across to the leg I am holding now once down on the floor. An aside: I am going to make a program on the half-pancake, the ball-of-foot Cossack squat, and its variations, and a number of other progressions, and offer this as a follow-along class—each half-exercise allows gravity to be used much more efficiently than the whole pose, and this change allows the exploring of many small, but critical, parts and places in the body—something that Olivia has been talking about for years, but which did not really connect with my experiences at the time. This program will run 45–60 minutes, and will have all the little things I have been working on that seem to have unlocked so many places in my body. There has been epic soreness, but only in the hamstrings (not the adductors), and there is no gracilis tightness or restriction (gracilis used to be the problem area). As well, for the first two months or so, massive fatigue, too, and nausea in the strongest sensation-producing movements (for me, the outer hamstring movements and moving forward from partial front splits on the bolster with a straight back—again, a pure hamstring movement). The challenge began with ballistics, and on an earlier post on this thread I detailed the exercises and sets–reps I was working on then. Somewhere around the two month mark, I noticed that a number of the exercises had morphed into what we are now calling pulsing rather then ballistics. Let’s try to define this term. Let’s call Emmett’s HTT movements and MH’s Shi Da Pan movements “ballistic”. The amplitude of each movement depends on a number of factors, including the length of levers and the amount of body mass that can be harnessed by gravity. Think standing legs apart compared to floor legs apart: both can be done ballistically, but the standing version is inherently stronger in beginners because the momentum the mass of the trunk can create is greater (because closer to 90 degrees to gravity). Ballistics can be gentle or powerful, but they are characterised by moving relatively quickly in and out of the end position of the ROM one is exploring. Hands can be used to add force (or to reduce it). Pulsing sits on a continuum between ballistic stretching at one end and static stretching at the other. Pulsing, in the way I am using the term, means small (sometimes almost imperceptible) movements made at the end of the ROM. The forces are smaller—think when sitting upright in the pancake, and you turn to face one leg. In pulsing, I am moving a straight back towards the leg—not using my hands, but only the antagonistic muscles (in this case, abs and HF) to make the movement. Internally, this feel completely different to provoking the same movement (as might be seen externally) with one’s arms, by holding the feet, for example. Similarly the floor pancake: if you use the internal muscles, the trunk moves the same way, but the sensations are very different, and the pelvis moves more. The result for me is the development of the capacity to move the pelvis in this exercise way more than using the hands and arms has done for me, so far. And both Olivia and I have moved the practise over from ballistics (which she will write about in a separate thread) to a combination of pulsing, static, and C–R. Most time is spent pulsing, or holding the end ROM. The standing bouncing exercise I described above can be done from 100% ballistically (where one might be going for maximum height, for example) to gentle pulsing where the balls of the feel only just leave the ground—more like skipping. I use pulsing like this: I decide on a direction, and I start moving the trunk (or the limb; this depends on the exercise) oscillating closer to the end of the ROM. Sometimes I might use up to 200, or more, pulses. When I get to the end, the amplitude decreases; I might pulse for 10 rep, hold for 30”, pulse for 10, hold, then add a gentle contraction, then repeat. All the time I am working, or resting close to or at the actual end of the ROM I am exploring. From this, long static holds have emerged spontaneously. I explore my breathing, I let my core relax fully (while holding the shape) and I continue. This combination has completely changed my relationship to the basic movements (let’s talk about the Mastery Series end points as examples of the basic movements). The net result is more time spent in the end ROM, and a much enhanced capacity to relax there. This is new for me; I have always endorsed strong contractions (I still use these from some exercises, notably front and side splits) and intense stretches held for relatively brief periods—but because I have been working on the same exercises every day, this simply has not been possible (too much deep soreness which never goes away, because I am re-stretching the same tissues each day). Does the ‘old’ ST method, characterised by one or two strong stretches done for one’s tight parts once or twice a week work? Of course; this has been what we have been using and recommending for a very long time now, and we all know it does work. So what does the addition of pulsing add? For me, it’s been the capacity to vary the stress of an exercise in minute amounts—pulsing is 100% scalable. This has helped me train intensely when sore, and that’s a first for me. The second, and unexpected, benefit has been the development of something I can only describe as ‘springiness’. Whether this has arisen from the bouncing alone, the ballistics then pulsing plus holds alone, or a combination, it’s not possible to say. Had I spent 100+ hours over the last three months using only what I have written about in my books and demoed on the Mastery and other programs, would I have made more or less progress? Again, I cannot say definitively, but what I can say (as someone who once had side splits and a full pancake) is that the quality of these same movements now is very different and (if I can say this) much more refined. The sense is that I was effectively forcing flexibility on myself (many of you know I have extremely tight fascia) but all sorts of other areas that I have not been working have also become much looser. for example, I have always had strong, tight hands, and no movement of extension at the knuckles. Now, as a result of this program, I can move my palm 45 degrees away from the floor, but I have not done any hand stretching over this period. The feeling in my body is that much of the effects of this new approach are specifically affecting the superficial fascia layer, and it is the change in this that is partly, possibly largely, responsible for the changes in my hands, and the change in sensations in the big muscles as I stretch them these days. I feel that concentrating on pulsing for a while might help some of you get over some blocks in your body; it has for me. And it’s been great to do something different. And the combination of pulsing (as a means of exploring a movement, and as a means of making stronger connections to those parts) and static hold with C-Rs when that feels like it will unlock something deeper just cannot be surpassed, from an increasing the sensations perspective. I feel I am on the edge of completely remaking my movement patterns; that once my pancake lands, and when I can hold that end position with a completely relaxed body, that I will have made major changes to my internal structures. I am certain that front and side splits will follow, and then it will be time to add the final piece—and get back into strong back bends. My final comment is that I really like the feeling of pulsing; the small-to-medium movements add an entirely new dimension to stretching. I have realised (and Olivia remarked on this too) that many of the Advanced students at the ANU had been exploring small movements over many years, so in one way it is not new. What is new is the rediscovering of it spontaneously, as a natural development from the ballistics. I want to record my thanks to Emmet and MH for creating the challenges, to Fred for moving me off the couch down into the gym, and to Olivia for helping me to articulate the new sensations that we both have been experiencing.

Here's another one for you, take up juggling I've seen it fix or reduce so many peoples need for glasses/ contacts its ridiculous .