Standing In Stillness 9 core techniques by GlenLevy by ahmad sini

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

A Glen Levy Book First published in electronic format in February 2010, New Zealand All rights reserved Copyright 2010 by Glen Levy No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher and or author. Contact: glenlevyonline@gmail.com

Warning All material contained on this ebook is provided for informational purposes only. Before undertaking the study of any martial art or physical exercise, you should consult with your physician. You should be aware that if you engage in the information with this ebook you are doing so entirely at your own risk, including any present and/or future physical or pyschological pain or injury that you may incur. The presenter, author and distributer of this ebook cannot assume any responsibility or liability for any injuries or losses that you may incur as a result of acting upon any information provided by this ebook. Nor can the author and distributor of this ebook assume any third party liability arising out of any legal actions you may be involved in as a result of the training you received by engaging in practice of any of the information as presented by this ebook. Please note: The exercises and advice contained within this manual may be too difficult or dangerous for some people.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Contents Introduction

Focus

Explore

Relax

Posting | Zhan Zhuang

The Lohan Hammer

Pierce the Wave

The Eagle Soars

Hindu Squats

Wall Walking

Hand Press

Wall push ups

Wall ‘V’ Sits

Wall Back Arches

The Microcosmic Orbit

Summary

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Introduction In this crazy and turbulent world, we have a current need to find stillness within ourselves. For each of us the stillness can be found through several different forms. Whether it’s through martial arts, music, reading, golf etc, it is important to find ways that work for you. We should strive to find more ways to experience this stillness, leaving us in this state more often than not, until we are in this state continuously. When you do this, you are now in the eye of the storm, in the perfect stillness within the surrounding chaos. In this place you are out of reach from the destructive forces that sweep up others caught in the drama. By physically holding yourself in stillness, there are a constant myriad of smaller muscles that are continuously tensing and releasing, although every aspect of your body appears to be motionless from the outside. Your stabilizing muscles are sharing the task of keeping you in balance, without over-working one muscle group alone. As you practice the following 9 Standing in Stillness and Core Training Techniques and exercises, remember to stay calm and relax (you may hear me say this again). This can be likened to a helicopter hovering in one place. For a chopper to stay hovering, there needs to be a constant adjusting of all the levers and controls. The world and elements are constantly moving and changing around us. Therefore, we need to move within it just to stay still. All this is achieved through the practice of a standing meditation called ‘Posting’ or ‘Zhan Zhuang’. This is similar to the practice of an advanced Yoga, where postures can be taken from martial arts and held while running a chi cultivating exercise, such as the Microcosmic Orbit (which I’ve included in this eBook for you here). These positions typically require the use of many different muscles and stabilizers just to hold yourself in one place. Contrary to popular belief, Posting is not actually an exercise in endurance, it is an exercise in relaxation. In order to progress with this type of Chi Kung you must: relax, relax, relax! The beauty of the practice called Posting is that the physical gains happen as a byproduct of its initial purpose. As long as you … well … relax.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

That is to say, strength is gained as well as muscle tone, which tends to burn more fat. Your flexibility increases due to the strength gain, not to mention the exceptional balance and body awareness that you can now access with ease, despite the fact the exercises were initially developed for chi cultivation. Posting postures can be done anywhere, although you may receive some odd looks performing them in the middle of a crowded mall. Posting takes very little room and it needs no equipment, all you need is a leg to stand on. - Glen Levy

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Focus While doing any of the following exercises your mind should become “one pointed”. This means to be able to feel the many minute adjustments needed to stay still, you must become still of mind first. The feeling you are looking for is a balancing and drawing in at your center, somewhere around your naval. There will also be a feeling of projecting out from your hands and head. It is important to keep stilling the mind. When a thought comes into your mind that has nothing to do with what you are practicing, you should acknowledge it and let it pass. It is not a process of trying not to think, or saying to yourself: ‘Don’t think of this or that’. When we do that we force ourselves to think. Try this: I want you not to think of a Pink Elephant, so whatever you do, don’t think of a Pink Elephant. What happened? You thought of one of course. This is because we have to think of something first, to know what not to think about. This is how our brains work. So the easiest way to focus is simply to pick an image, thought or feeling (such as keeping your balance) and keep returning to it if your mind wanders, oh and it will. Remember that bringing your mind back to its original thought should be a gentle pull, not a forced push. A push is a little like over steering your car when it starts to skid. You can end up causing things to be far worse than if you keep pointing in the direction you wanted to go it the first place and gave it a little gas.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Explore Finding balance in life is not merely a physical act; but also a mental, spiritual and emotional one. I am sharing a collection of exercises with you that I use myself to retain a strong base strength. Yes, these exercises are physical; however there is also an internal dialogue that it is important to adhere to, because we are searching for stillness of mind, not merely fitness. It’s important to make sure that your attitude to your training is like an explorer finding a new land. By that I mean that training should always be an exploration. There should be a striving to see if you can do something new, better or different, every day. Though don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t. After all, Christopher Columbus only found America once. As these exercises are relatively foreign, take your time in finding and feeling which muscles, tendons and ligaments are doing the work. These exercises are not merely physical, they are also an exploration of self-knowledge. By doing this you’ll increase the mind / body link, in turn making your responses faster and stronger. I’m sure you can see the benefit of that, and it is my pleasure to give you these exercises.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Relax If you are not in the mood to become a Shaolin monk right now, then one of my favorite times to play with these Posting exercises is actually while watching a DVD at home. Yes, you heard me correctly. I find that I’ll be holding one posture for thirty minutes or more because my mind is now focused on the old school martial art movie of the day, instead of making more of a task out of the Posting training than it needs to be. There is no reason in my mind why we can’t be entertained and inspired while training. The other reason I like to do this is that it actually saves time. I would be watching a movie at some stage of the day anyway. Now I’m going to be strong as a bull because of it. The key here is to keep trying new things. You can even invent your own training methods and test which give you the best results. Remember to start a little slowly. Build up to more repetitions, steeper angles and longer times held. When I first starting practicing these training methods I went a little too hard and too fast in my eagerness for strength, in turn damaging the ligaments in my shoulders and knees. With that in mind, I cannot stress enough the importance of a proper warm-up and the gentle exploration of what your body can handle to start off with. Be aware of your body telling you when to stop, until your body has gained the base strength to cope with some coaxing passed your personal barriers. Depending on the ability of each person, your results may vary. Exercise is key to a healthy lifestyle, however sometimes it’s best to check with your doctor first. So with that out of the way, here are a few of my favorite Posting and strength building techniques and exercises.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Posting | Zhan Zhuang Posting is primarily a technique from the martial arts of Bagua and Taiji Quan. These exercises can be done on the ground, on a plum blossom pole, over a pool of liquid hot magma or other equally dangerous place. I suggest starting with the ground. Pictured right is a photo of me on plum blossom poles. This is a still from one of the 4 Fight Science documentaries I’ve been privileged enough to be featured in for National Geographic and Discovery Channel. I have adapted some of these exercises to be more beneficial to my particular needs, but these have roughly been the same for hundreds of years. The act of Posting typically involves standing on one leg in various martial postures. While doing this, you will recruit a myriad of stabilizing muscles, as well as the main muscle groups. What this means for you is that you will gain strength and burn energy. If we are burning more energy than we are taking in through eating and drinking, then we lose weight. Neat huh? At first these exercises will be difficult, but as you gradually become more used to holding these positions, the aches, pains and shaking will disappear to be replaced by a sense of strength and calmness in the joints. When you first start, the nervous system plays tricks on you. It will make you think about how bored you are, making you feel tired and sore, reminding you how much better off you would be doing anything else. As you become accustomed to the positions, the nervous system settles and you begin to observe the changes in the body, as well as the feelings of strength and vitality that move through your body. As the Chi starts to circulate, it meets ‘blocks’ in the body which can cause discomfort. This discomfort tells you where the problems are. Over time the energy appears to be able to correct them. Unfortunately, most people tend to give up at this point. It seems to become a bit too unpleasant to persevere. This doesn’t mean that you have to do the exercise while in a state of agony, especially if you have an existing injury (remember to get the all clear from a doctor before trying these). This simply means that you should go just a little beyond your comfort zone each time before you rest.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

When practicing, it is a good idea to remember that you want to keep your body relatively aligned and relaxed, despite the strange postures. When everything is aligned correctly, it opens the energy system of the body. It is like a garden hose. When it is working well, the water that comes from the tap flows out of the end of the hose with a natural ease. However, if there is a slight twist or bend in the hose, the water is restricted and the flow stops. Pressure can also build up in certain parts of the hose, causing problems later. The aim of practicing Posting is to put the body in such a position that all the pipes are wide open, while at the same time you are creating a pump by holding a position where the slight tension in the legs and arms creates a minute vibration that pumps the energy around the body. Before you start, it is a good idea to go to the bathroom. You should not train directly after eating or while very hungry either, as you do not want to “steal” your circulatory system away from doing its normal job. In the following pictures I will be performing the exercises on one side only, but you should train both sides. Traditionally starting with your weakest side first.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

The Lohan Hammer This is my main staple exercise. I have reaped the benefits of it on more than one occasion. I try to do this pose, or a variation of it, everyday in order to keep my body aware that it needs to always be at the ready and that I’m the boss. The Lohan Hammer has increased my kicking and knee power and my resilience to being struck in the abdomen (not that I like to let that happen). My balance grows exponentially over night after training this posture. This exercise creates a good strong physiological link between your upper and lower body, creating a strong synergy that you can use in other areas. Following each set of photos are detailed written instructions.

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 - The first thing you should do is sink your weight into your hips, then draw your knee to your chest using your hip flexor muscles at first, then your abdominals. You want to keep your toe pointed and your heel pulled up toward your groin. 2 - After you’re comfortable with this, you can start to lean forward through your hips, while leaning back with your shoulders, trying to find the sinking balance point. 3 - This is where you are standing on your right leg (in this case) with your left knee pulled up as high as possible. 4 - Next, you twist your upper body to your left and your right arm circles horizontally in front of you, while the left circles to the back. 5 - When you have mastered this, and can hold yourself in this position with relative ease, you can continue to move into the final posture, which is to push your weight forward through your hips (as shown in the last photo).

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Pierce the Wave This is a pose that is almost identical to one used in Yoga called Warrior Pose Three. This is a great posture for the back, legs and hip girdle. It is also a way to develop a good strong front kick. Both legs are strengthened in this pose. The hamstrings are stretched in the supporting leg and strengthened in the raised leg. The gluteus muscles (bum) are stretched on one leg and strengthened on the other. This causes them to be raised on one side. Some leg adductors are involved in the inward rotation of the hip girdle. Your shoulders are also stretched and the arms are strengthened. Yes, you may look like Superman while doing this, but it’s a great Posting exercise.

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 - From standing normally, lean the upper body forward while raising one leg back and up. Take the hands out, then straight out in front of you, like a dive into water. 2 - Push through the heels, toes or the ball of the supporting foot. Pushing though your toes may be the best option because the energy of the force through the toes helps in raising the back leg a little more. 3 - Remember to align the hips horizontally. The raised leg should be rotated inward to create a horizontal alignment. 4 - Look forward for stability or down to stretch the spine and back of the neck even more. I admit at first that it’s hard to maintain balance when doing this, although it gets a lot easier over time. You want to feel a stretch from the toes of the raised leg to the fingers in front of you.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

The Eagle Soars This position is from Eagle Claw Kung Fu. There are two variations for the final foot position for this technique, one on top of the knee, one behind the knee, so I’ve included both for you to play with. Visually this pose looks quite impressive in a what most people think martial art masters should look kind-of way. Equally, the posture develops a lot of strength, flexibility and balance. I would suggest taking extra care in warming and oiling your knee joints before this exercise, as it puts downward and sideward pressure on both knees.

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 - First you sweep both your arms up from your waist, then you continue the hands up, over and down, passing your face. 2 - As your hands are passing, you begin to take the weight into one leg (in this case the right) while lifting your other into one of the two end positions (on top of or behind the knee). 3 - Your hands continue through, scooping past your armpits and turning out so that your palms are facing up at the sky, pulled up and back at the shoulders. 4 - You should end the flexion of the arms and the sinking into the legs at the same time. You should sink back into your hips and tailbone and find the alignment and balance there. The final two photos show the two alternative foot positions.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Hindu Squats I really love this exercise as it has strengthened my knees considerably; even after breaking them both, twice, doing stunts. On the road to recovery I was taught this exercise by one of my training partners and I have never looked back. I prefer to do Hindu Squats instead of using a weighted barbell for what I do. Each have their benefits, though I prefer body weight exercises. Now, the idea is to do as many reps as you can. I have hard days and easy days. I try to do at least 100 continuous reps a day, though on a good day I may get up to 600 or so. There are many benefits to doing Hindu Squats as opposed to weighted squats: Builds lean muscle –You’re hitting your legs hard with many repetitions, which releases natural growth hormone and stimulates muscle building (the main muscle groups as well as the stabiliser muscles). Stronger legs – Hindu Squats strengthen your legs like crazy. If you do 100 reps at speed, then you’ll have virtually “never quit” legs. Hip mobility – Squats help you build and maintain hip flexibility and mobility. Knee strength – Bodyweight squats and Hindu Squats especially, seem to build up the tendon strength and supporting muscles around your knees. Lung power – Eventually you will be able to do lots of reps, therefore you’ll find your cardio capacity increases. To do this, practice them fast (within reason). Burns fat - Along with being a great strength, endurance and cardio builder, you’ll find fat melting off your body as well. Win win. You’ll also be building plyometrics or spring power, so your ability to run and jump increases dramatically. The key difference between the regular bodyweight squat and Hindu Squat is basically your feet and your hand movements.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 - With Hindu Squats, instead of keeping your feet flat on the ground as you squat down, you will come up on the balls of your feet (pictured right). Then, as you push through the balls of your feet to stand back up, you will come back down onto your heels once you’ve reached the standing position. 2 - For your arm movement, you will start with your hands on either side of your chest, elbows up and pulled back (parallel to the ground) as in a rowing motion. 3 - As you start to squat, you extend and swing your arms down your side (some people make a point to graze the ground with their fingertips). Then, as you push through the balls of your feet to stand up again, you pull back up again with your arms into the beginning rowing motion, with your hands ending up at your chest again, while you stand up with your heels down again.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Wall Walking This exercise is a great all round strength training exercise. It strengthens your core muscles as well as your shoulders, biceps and triceps. The idea is to walk with your hands and feet backwards till you end in a handstand position facing the wall. Go up the wall and then back down as one repetition. The objective is to keep the body straight as possible by using your stomach muscles to keep you controlled throughout the movement. Build yourself up to doing this twice a week with at least 10 repetitions. As with all the exercises here, start slowly and build up when you have the strength.

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 – First, get into a press-up position with your feet at the base of a wall. 2 – Now, push your feet hard against the wall and start to walk your feet upwards on the wall, while walking your hands back closer to the wall. 3 - Once you have made it as close to the wall as you can, hopefully not falling over in the process, you walk back down. 4 - Repeat this as many times as you can until exhaustion. As a side note, I use the word exhaustion as opposed to failure, because in my mind you’re not failing at all. In fact, you are exploring and stretching your limits far beyond what most people will ever achieve. So be proud of that.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Hand Press These are a series of arm and waist strengthening exercises that I like to use as they are great for developing power in your punches and great spatial awareness. I guess it is good training for the muscles and the inner ear. As a martial artist it is extremely important to have strong shoulders, stomach and back. Build yourself up to doing this twice a week with at least 10 repetitions. As with all the exercises here, start slowly and build up when you have the strength. This is an extension of Wall Walking and begins in the same way.

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 – First, get into a press-up position with your feet at the base of a wall. 2 – Now, push your feet hard against the wall and start to walk your feet upwards on the wall, while walking your hands back closer to the wall. 3 – With your feet against the wall, twist your waist slightly and start walking slowly to the right. 4 - While doing this, transfer your weight to your left arm, so only one arm is supporting you at a time. You can use the other arm to help keep your balance to start off with. 5 - Walk back to the centre and repeat on the other side. This exercise develops great shoulder and waist strength and flexibility that can be easily used in striking. Please keep practicing your striking techniques on top of these exercises. These techniques are supplements to your training, NOT substitutions.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Wall push ups This exercise is also great for developing punching power. Do not be fooled by the idea of normal push-ups though. These are more difficult than they look. Perform them just like you would normal push-ups, except on an incline. The idea is to continually change the amount of incline in order to work different muscle groups. Lower works the chest, higher works the shoulders. Wall push-ups are meant to use different muscle groups to build a strong and useful upper body. Build yourself up to doing this twice a week with at least 10 repetitions. As with all the exercises here, start slowly and build up when you have the strength. Start with your hands shoulder width apart for the first few days of training because most of us have a natural strength here.

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 – First, get into a press-up position with your feet at the base of a wall. 2 – Now, push your feet hard against the wall and start to walk your feet upwards on the wall. 3 – Once you’ve reached an incline you’re comfortable with, slowly lower yourself down till your forehead is touching the ground (it may be a good idea to start this on soft ground or have a towel down, or you’ll end up with a head like a Klingon). 4 - Keep your body as straight as you can to avoid sagging your back, which can injure it quite nicely. 5 – When you’ve finished your repetitions at this incline, change to a steeper incline and repeat (I personally do 3 separate inclines). CAUTION: Be wary of locking your arms straight, as it can cause injury through hyperextension. Do your best to keep your arms with a small bend in them at the top of your movements.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Wall ‘V’ Sits This is a training method used by gymnasts with great results. It builds up triceps and lat strength, along with your back and abdominal muscles. Please believe me, this is much more difficult than it looks (though it probably looks difficult). You want to end up with your body off the ground, the backs of your legs flat against the wall and your weight pushing through your arms into the wall itself. Once you are up against the wall, you can start to split your legs into a V to stretch different muscles. Build yourself up to doing this twice a week and hold this position for at least 30 seconds. As with all the exercises here, start slowly and build up when you have the strength.

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 - To start this exercise you sit down facing a wall with your knees bent and your toes touching the base of the wall. 2 - Then place your hands beside your butt. The photos show the ‘easy’ version with your fingers facing away from the wall. After you’re comfortable with this method, try it with your fingers facing towards the wall. Make sure you warm up your wrists first! 3 - Your objective is to slide your feet up the wall until your legs are straight and your butt is against the wall. Easy? It’s not! 4 - After a while you can split your legs while in this position. This is great lower back flexibility training as well.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Wall Back Arches This one exercise is a fundamental for gaining an advanced level of strength and flexibility. I am not going to lie to you, it is hard, and after practicing it you will be sore for a couple of days. However the benefits vastly outweigh the difficulty. The strength and flexibility of your back, stomach and hips, will make leaps and bounds when practicing this exercise. The objective is to build up your strength and flexibility to perform a proper back arch. Build yourself up to doing this twice a week with at least 10 repetitions. As with all the exercises here, start slowly and build up when you have the strength. Remember to start slowly first. Only go as far as you can without discomfort. Each time you practice you will be able to go further and hold longer, so take your time with this one in particular.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

HOW TO

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

1 - Start with your back to the wall and take one large step forward. 2 - Lean and arch backwards, placing both your hands on the wall behind you. 3 - Start to take more weight into your knees as you bend them. 4 - Start to walk your hands down the wall, arching your back as much as safely possible. 5 - The objective is to touch your forehead to the ground. 6 - After you have touched your forehead, start to walk your hands back up the wall.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Meditation | The Microcosmic Orbit While doing any of the Posting exercises, it is most beneficial to do this meditation at the same time. Again, you can watch TV, but it is a good idea to practice the Microcosmic Orbit when you can to make it easier to do. It seems much simpler than it is, yet it will have life changing implications (that’s a lot to live up to, no pressure). This is mainly due to the mind continuously wandering to stresses and thoughts. In the beginning it takes some effort not to use effort. Bare with it, because the benefits far outweigh the effort. I’ve included it here for you to practice along with these 9 exercises due to its many benefits. The Microcosmic Orbit is a Taoist meditation method, with its original roots in India. It then followed the figurative ‘silk road’ through Tibet, China and Japan. This meditation is for circulating and refining Chi via the circuit formed by the 'Governing Channel' from perineum up to head and the ‘Conception Channel’ from head back down to perineum. By practicing this, you attain a strong link to your Chi, giving you more access to it when needed to heal or protect. As a side note, you may see in the diagrams a few different pronunciations of the term for energy referenced here, including Chi, Qi, Prana etc. These are merely different languages for the same term. Of course, knowing that you are all severely intelligent individuals, this won’t throw you off.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

HOW TO There are a couple of small but significant body processes that must occur to correctly use the Microcosmic Orbit. Most importantly is the position of the tongue. The reason is that the tongue completes the circuit of energy between your conception and governing meridians. 1 - Your tongue should rest very lightly on the upper palate. To find the correct place, put the tip of your tongue just behind the upper teeth and run/curl it backwards towards the back of the mouth. At a certain point it will rise up a steep incline; usually somewhere around the place where the incline starts is a place which ‘tickles’ more than other places. This is the place to rest the tongue. 2 - The next steps are to still the body, calm the mind and regulate the breath. Breathe in through your nose, taking the breath into the lower part of your stomach, focusing on the Dan Tien (approximately 3 inches below your naval / tummy button).

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

3 – Stand in one of the Zhan Zhuang (Posting postures) in a quiet place, eyes unfocused. Advanced practitioners can use many of the different Zhan Zhuang postures, some of them more difficult than others. 4 - Focus your attention on your Dan Tien (just below your navel and above the Du Qi) and visualize a small ball of energy (an inch or two inside your body). It can be a ball of golden or white light, bright and pure, hot or cold, but without burning. Maintain the attention on the Dan Tien until you feel the energy of the ball growing. This could be heat, vibration, warmth, cold, or just a sensation of its magnetic presence. 5 - Begin abdominal breathing. This method of breathing starts when you inhale through your nose and your abdomen expands, not your chest. It is the way babies breathe. Exhale through your slightly opened mouth, keeping your tongue lightly touching your palate just behind your upper front teeth. When you exhale your abdominal muscles contract lightly to help expel the used air. 6 - Inhale and visualize or imagine this small ball of Chi passing down from the Dan Tien, past the Hui Yin, up through the coccyx. Then visualize or imagine the Chi ball rising up to the point Ming Men and then to where the ribs meet the spine, then going through this spot, continuing up to the back of the head, where it joins to the neck. 7 - Then visualize or imagine this Chi ball in the centre of your brain, taking in healing life energy through the point Bai Hui, at the top of your head. 8 - Next, draw your attention to the point Yin Tang (the third eye), between and just above the eyebrows. Draw energy into the ball of Chi from this point as the ball of energy passes through and goes to the roof of your mouth. This may cause a tingling or throbbing sensation there. It is a really good practise to be very aware of the feelings produced without dwelling on them. This is the end of your inhalation. You can stay and work with this Chi for a few minutes if you want, before letting Chi sink down through the palate and tongue (which you should still have lightly pressed up onto your palate). Taking a breath or two while the Chi is in your mouth can help you focus on the ball. 9 - Now you exhale and send the Chi down to your heart point Shan Zhong, letting the Chi build as it passes. From the heart, draw it down through the middle Dan Tien at your solar plexus (below your sternum), past your navel and down into the lower Dan Tien (approximately three inches below your navel), where your Chi gathers, mixes, and is reserved for internal circulation.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

10 - After you have completed this circuit you can begin another cycle. Once the Chi is circulating, your breath will naturally become rhythmic and easy. This means it is smooth, not ragged or irregular. In fact after some practice it begins to feel as if you are being breathed for. Chi circulation harmonizes and reforms, so that the vital fluids and electro-magnetic energy produced by daily life can produce true, natural vitality. If you have any physical problems or discomforts in a particular section of your body while doing the orbit, hold the circulation and focus your Chi at the discomforting point and let it pulse there for a while. This will help heal and rejuvenate and improve the Chi flow. This meditation may sometimes cause the head to rock or the body to tremble. This may feel a little odd at first but is a great sign of progress as your blockages break down. If you have high blood pressure and want to use this meditation as part of your treatment, reverse the flow of the orbit, so that your Chi goes up during the inhale and back and down on the exhale. The Microcosmic Orbit is a good practice for all Chi Kung / Qigong students, and can be used before most other meditations. You can use a few orbits in both directions during the day, to reduce stress.

STANDING IN STILLNESS – 9 CORE TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING

Summary There are many exercises that I use on occasion and I do try to mix them up as much as possible to keep my body guessing. The exercises in this eBook are some of my favourites for quick gains in strength, power, flexibility, balance and weight loss. Ones that I still find interesting and fun to do. I still practice a myriad of different martial arts and training methods which all have their benefits and merits. The methods explained in this book are intended to be a supplement to your training, not a replacement. So keep doing the systems that you love, but notice how far you advance once you add these to your training regimen. Here is a little warning for you: Please remember, despite the fact that it is good to pass through your personal and physical barriers from time to time, to listen to your body for signals of injury or exhaustion. It is easy to break yourself, which will put you out of training for weeks, so get a lot of rest too. Rest is still one of the most important parts of our training. This is when we do most of our healing and when most of our growth happens. Train hard, with fun, and fight the good fight. - Glen Levy