Physical Alchemy Laboratory 2016: Riding the Flaming Monkey

[[DW]]

No more terminological encephalbation please!

 

Today:

Wai Gong:  Basic Hands - Plates (7) [10 minutes] (felt better than yesterday; more bilateral co-ordination on the two-hand drills),  Provoking Hand (9) [10 Minutes] (again, much better dual hand dexterity despite not practicing it since last indicated in log),

 

Barbell Press @40kg:  6 sets x 5 reps [ 3 sets in front of neck, 3 sets behind neck ]

 

Da Xuan Nei Gong - this is starting to get interesting..(!).  Depending upon how I feel after the other practices I may come back for another few rounds.

 

Nei dan - also starting to get 'very interesting'..!

 

Other - Project A.

[[DW]]

Yesterday:

Practices - Nei dan, Nei gong. 

 

Last night after a nice, long day of many adventures with my daughter; my mum got home and needed to debrief about her recent trip to do with my Grandma being put into a nursing home. After a proper human conversation, practices commenced at 11:30pm - 1am, instead of 10 - 11:30pm.  Reflecting post practice, imbibing a glass of water before going to bed for the night, a number of things spiraled into perspective (yet again).  Nobody does your practice for you - you have to do it yourself.  Like Serge says: it's like boiling water in a pot - you take it off the heat too often and nothing happens.  Practice must be daily - unrelentingly deepening.  You have to find the time-energy - and do it.

 

It has been expressed to me by a number of bachelors and non-small-human-having humans, the point of view that having a wife and child would be restricting to their 'freedom' and practice time. Personally I have to say, as a non-monastic, nothing could be better for my growth than what I have - the 'Everyday Zen Centre' that is married with child! Os'uht! Plus, I love my family so there are no other options. The various familial duties have forced me to prioritize, discover what I really want to practice and sacrifice hours sleep per night for practice in order to swim upstream.  The interactions with my family are also exceptional good for deeper Observational skill-sets (of myself, and of other patterns).  Besides, my productivity and amount of daily practice is higher than 99% of said people who expressed concerns for lack of "freedom" and "time".

 

In the 'Alchemy of Every Day Life' the struggle between the many aspects of my work and family creates (in a Gurdjieffian way) a special type of friction necessary in the production of a certain substance; and is vital in the burning out of the mechanism of a number of my habitually patterns of asleepness.  This substance fuels the holy 'AntiTAF' process, allowing for more 'beakers and alembics' to be worked on simultaneously, thus, while on the day-to-day level it can sometimes be experienced as a near-overwhelming sensation, looking from year to year your previous incarnations should be nearly unrecognizable. Who said it was about comfort, anyhow?    I am suspicious of people who say they want growth and their lives get easier or flat-line with passing years.  To quote Kit's favorite person to quote (Rudi): "The reward for work is more work"

 

 

Today:

Other - working on Project A and Project P.A.W this morning. 

Practices

Da Xuan Nei Gong

Wai Gong [basic Hands] Plates (7) alternating with Tendon-Changing for 20 minutes.  Done outside on the cricket pitch in the middle of the oval across from my house, under the stars of the milky way, cool breeze on a warm night; cicadas and crickets singing.  

(to come) Nei Dan.

[SimonT]

I must resist the urge to swear my fingers off in massive agreement with this excellent post. Thank you, sir, and may you and your family find the right way to be with your grandmother in her final years - you are lucky to still have a living grandparent at your age, try to get some stories from her, of the world that was.

[Craig]

Epic post. While I do not have 15 children masquerading as 1 or as many familial duties as my parents are basically on the other side of the planet, I can whole heartedly agree with this post - probably your best yet.

This past week, and in particular the past 3 days have been insanely busy for me, packing my entire life into my car, preparing for the battle with the devil (taking material form as a talk estate agent doing final inspection) and trying to fit several farewell Canberra events in, my practice has been taking place at 11pm - 2am, usually while exhausted and extremely tired. Progress has been incredible and sunbathing very interesting is happening!

Thanks for this post. It's 1025pm and I am tired as hell, have spent the entire day scrubbing walls and bathrooms and I have not done any formal practice today. I need sleep, so I better get started. To the nei gong and nei dan mobile!

[[DW]]

[*] Diagram creation - spent around ~4hrs this afternoon working on a diagram which is now complete and quite possibly the best one I have created.  A moment of creative insight occurred when I realized something I was trying to force into the diagram was actually what the diagram itself was explaining. 

 

Physical Cultivation and Heavy Bag work: 3 rounds, 30 second sprint, 60 seconds break. 

Round 1: Jab; Jab, Cross, Rear Knee [ Cross Sprint ]

Round 2: Jab, Low Cross, Shovel Hook [ add Counter-Cross and Haymaker reasonably often ]

Round 3: Jab, Low Cross, Shovel Hook, Rear Knee [ Add Lead Elbow or combination of Hooks and Crosses reasonable often ]

 

Barbell Complex @ 40kg

 

Barbell Press --> Front Squat --> Reverse Curl [Eccentric] --> Romanian DL --> Clean

2 sets: 6, 3. 

 

Felt good, didn't want to push it today. Got a nice sweat up - feels virtuous.  Plenty of other things to do this evening. 

 

Nei Dan, Nei Gong (to come).

[jon.valentine]

A 40kg reverse curl is pretty sweet, even an eccentric only one. Nice!

[[DW]]

Am: Physical Cultivation [strength] w Robbie: 

 

Barbell BSQ @77.5kg: (warmup, then) 21 reps, 9 reps.

Ring-Assisted One-arm Chin-ups: 3 sets of 2, 1.5, 1 reps [each arm]

 

Some Rear-delt/infraspinatus fly work, some closed-chain Cuban Rotation work, some hanging Breath-freeing work (I got a really nice new position before Robbie arrived but could not replicate it post-workout..hmm).  

 

EDIT: Leg OMS kicking in already! Especially Vastus Medialus. 

 

[*]P.A. Creative - tinkering away on a slideshow or three(!); more diagramata; alchemical imagery selection; going deep into the archives of my mind of the last 14years, and so on and so forth. 

 

PM: Nei gong &  Physical Alchemy Experimental session with wifey [H] [stretching and Deep Pressure work]. 

Partner Plough w Directed Breathing

Partner Side Splits (New technique used at the end that was *epic*!)

Passive backward bend over two, stacked bolsters - got into an interesting high lumbar, lower thoracic version that felt restrictied in a nice way. 

Nei gong

 

[*] Deep Pressure and Breathing work - Walking and using whole bodyweight through knees Thai-style on Bladder meridian paraspinal muscle groups and ribcage with various deep breathing and spinal wave patterns concurrently was very interesting and effective. Though my lady [H] is small (short) her bones appear to be composed of the next heaviest element in the periodic table column down from Calcium; so she weighs significantly more than she looks - which is very good for this.  

 

I will come back to this for more exploration, as I have been experimenting with heavy pressure techniques in the last few months (with and without stretching).  The multiple partner combined stretching and deep pressure work is becoming a hallmark of the Physical Alchemy advanced class, but you have to prepare the students for ~18-24 months first (from a good physical-mental base).  I am experimenting with its use in releasing various breathing restriction patterns. 

 

[DW]

[[DW]]

Today:

Mentation - A lot of going through the creation of Physical Alchemy over the last 14 years today in preparation for the weekend.  Just got back from Kwik Kopy (printing some diagramata for the weekend).. Firstly, seeing something you created ~96hrs ago in it's full glory makes for quite an impression.  Secondly, working on something that comes from the Heart is a non-comparable experience to other forms of work.  Things that are usually the most humdrum of tasks, like printing, are transmuted into glorious, joyful experience. 

 

For the next few hours I will selecting some choice quotes from all the tomes on the 'core texts' shelf of my alchemical bookcase. 

 

(practices and perhaps some stretching to come today)

 

PM:

Nei dan,

[[DW]]

Friday:  work on the collating the workshop material continues - this is getting very exciting!  The envelopes are prepared, the slideshow is approaching completion; diagrams have been printed and look amazing.  Alchemical Shirt and Prana shorts are dry. 

 

Da Xuan Nei gong (most interesting yet.. sensations *definitely* increase with day-by-day practice)

[[DW]]

Weekend: taught the inaugural Physical Alchemy workshop; many things from this (for me) and well received. I am already working on how to improve it for the second workshop. 

 

Today:  Am Physical Cultivation session in 'The Lab' w Robbie, Frederik, M., Z., Craig, Di.. many humans.

 

Barbell BSQ: 21 reps @ 80kg. 

Ring Muscle-ups with scoop hold at top (~10 seconds): ~7-8 reps over the workout. 

Barbell Press: 2 sets of 5 reps @ 40kg, 1 sets x 10 reps @ 30kg. 

Hanging Leg Raise Iso-hold: 2 x 45 seconds

Hanging Knee Raises: 2 x 12 reps 

 

PM - Went to Avalon Beach with Hammer (and our ladies); awesome body-surfing was had for a number of hours until seaweed washed out the parade. 

[[DW]]

Last few days spent doing various things with Hammer, yesterday filming with his new alien-tech camera (which I am quite sure I will get myself); then later with Vijay and Hammer in town.  I weigh 82.7kg as of yesterday! 

 

10pm workout: 

Tuck Front Lever Rows: 7, 6, 5 reps

3 minutes of Alchemical Calf Raises (killer)

Knee raises on Reverse Crunch station of Dip, Chin, Reverse Crunch machine:  1 set x 20 reps 

 

Nei gong. 

[Fidel Pomajambo]

As of today I actually weigh exactly 82.7 kg too ... Is that an upper limit for you? For me it's been going down 

[[DW]]

As of today I actually weigh exactly 82.7 kg too ... Is that an upper limit for you? For me it's been going down 

This is the heaviest and fattest I have ever been in my life.  It's been fun. 

[Kit_L]

post #27: exceptional and 100% accurate. And 82.7Kg, too. Two thumbs up.

[Frederik]

80-85kg is a very good weight bracket Mr. Chan !

 

With all this talk about body weight, I recall  talk on the subject of maximal lean bodyweight given a certain body fat and no juicing.

 

Google found this one: http://www.weightrainer.net/bodypred.html: Which gave me somewhat preposterous numbers at 13% BF (well above 100kg!) Granted the meassuring was crude, but still.

[Rik]

I'm 80.5kg right now but have been hovering between 80 and 83 this past month. 6'/183cm as I assume most of you are...

[[DW]]

Sunday Noon: 

Wai Gong:  Pulling-Slicing [5 minutes], Stretching [5 minutes], Quadruped Spinal Waves [5 minutes].

 

AM was spent having coffee up where Robbie lives on the Hawkesbury river.  Great coffee, great company and auspicious scenary - this part of NSW has some truly beautiful topography.  Also, my intention to buy an island (just a small one) has increased a notch or two. Today was the last time Hammer and my planetary bodies interact for some time now; virtual alchemical contact continues as always.  Fittingly it was a full moon and 5 planet alignment [Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter].

 

PM:

Physical Cultivation [Heavy Bag work]: 3 rounds, 30 second sprint, 60 seconds break. 

Round 1: Jab; Cross,  [ add Counter-Cross; Cross Sprint ]

Round 2: Jab, Low Cross, Shovel Hook [ add Counter-Cross, then Lead Elbow and Read Elbow reasonably often ]

Round 3: Jab, Low Cross, Shovel Hook, Counter-Cross, Lead Elbow, Rear Knee [ Add  combination of Crosses or Extra Knees reasonable often ]

 

 

@Phi - 179.2cm..so yes.

 

Monday:

AM: Nei Dan on the train

 

PM: Da Xuan Nei Gong [sensing Palms w H/E] [ 45 minutes in a thunderstorm ]

[[DW]]

Yesterday:

Physical Cultivation -  Some play with single leg Front Levers, Hanging, then:

Tuck Front Lever Rows:  3 sets of 6 reps

Practices-  Nei dan, Nei Gong

 

Today: 

Physical Cultivation

Drove down to the Southern Capital and needed to find some monkey bars to unkink after the drive.  Started with some swinging exercises ala SimonT and Hammer; then some hanging breathwork - then:

Pull-ups [slow]: 6 sets x 3 reps

 

Practices - to come..

[[DW]]

Last week or so a large amount of time in Canberra[POC] for a wedding.  I did two Pull-up and Brachiation workouts (one above) and various practices, but otherwise was occupied with catching up.  On Thursday I had a trivium of coffee infused alchemical conversations with some of the more auspicious denizens of the town: [W], Other [DW] and Yogaman4as. 

 

Today, AM:

Barbell BSQ @ 82.5kg: 1 sets x 14 reps

Some side lever play

 

Barbell Press @ 35kg:  9, 7, 6, 6, 5 reps [5 Sets]

Hanging Leg Raises: 12 reps, 9 reps, 6 reps, 3 reps, 30 second iso-hold [5 sets]

 

Practices: tendon-changing, DX Nei Gong, (nei dan and more nei gong to come)

[[DW]]

Today, AM:

Caught up with one of my mentors, Steve Maxwell, for the first time in ~18months(?) - he's looking younger, if anything. It was great to have a conversation with a wide range of topics.  He's done so many bizarre and interesting forms of work and experience. Still in the top dozen most interesting and cool people I know (and I know lots of interesting characters).  I reflected afterwards on some of the excellent advice I had received from him over the years.

 

Practices: Nei Gong, Nei Dan.  [Although not at the quality or duration of Hammer, these are starting to make their influence felt.  I am sure they are keepers and, indeed, will be added into the PA syllabus (in time)]

[Kit_L]

Dave wrote: 

 

 

Also, my intention to buy an island (just a small one) has increased a notch or two.

 

I wonder – so much stimulation comes from others – or are you planning a retreat centre where you have a constantly changing population of really interesting people? That sounds like fun! 

[[DW]]

"I wonder – so much stimulation comes from others – or are you planning a retreat centre where you have a constantly changing population of really interesting people? That sounds like fun! " 

 

Yes, this is why I live in a big city. I want stimulation coming from others to feed on. If Sydney gets too slow I shall contemplate Shanghai/New York/Tokyo.  The island is for a private retreat and laboratory for myself and Hammer to do various alchemical things on, so we do not aggravate our wife/fiance's too much by destroying the kitchen. [#thatwayyoustillhaveahouse]   A retreat for 'really interesting people' (R.I.P) is in 'the plan', too - but comes later on..after the central locus is established in a major metropolis. 

 

Late Am: Nei Gong in a park near my daughters school w [Z]. A nice overcast day with light breeze in tall trees.  

[Emmet Louis]

Sounds like Essalen mark 2. Could be auspiscous

[[DW]]

 

[Artist: Rick Huang]

 

AM Physical Cultivation [w Robbie]

Both feeling a little under the weather, we elected to work up to a 3 rep max on the BSQ over 21 reps today.  At the end I decided to see what my 1RM was based on the 3 reps at 90kg.  (New 3RM and 1RM in bold below). Squats full depth and without (as much as possible) excessive hip hinge/good morning-esque form. 

 

Barbell BSQ: 3 reps @ 20kg, 3 reps @ 30kg, 3 reps @50kg, 3 reps @ 60kg, 3 reps @ 70kg, 3 reps @ 75kg, 3 reps @ 80kg, 3 reps @85kg, 3 reps @ 90kg, 1 rep x 95kg, 1 rep x 100kg

Tuck Front Lever Rows: 6, 6, 5 reps (First set felt the most crisp form I have ever done and was done with spiral pattern in the pull; sets 2 & 3 had iso-holds ~6-10 seconds at the end.  New, novel muscular contraction on the final set isometric hold)

Hanging Leg Lifts: 12 reps, 3 sets x 9 reps 

 

(practices to come) 

[Kit_L]

100Kg: an excellent PB, and a milestone.