Legs II

So I took a day of rest and stretching for my weary legs, and then, yesterday, I decided to hit them again with the same workout to whatever level I felt that I could complete. Instead of jumping right into it, though, I started out with a turning session of just over 30 minutes in the Lion posture, which felt really good and, I noticed, significantly energized me. In addition, I did the Lion standing posture as well for a few minutes to each side. The leg workout was definitely much more difficult than the first day owing to the soreness in my quadriceps muscles, particularly in the deep horse stance and shocking palm posture phase (I found the pain to be so unbearable in my thighs this time that I entirely abandoned the illusion of holding any posture with my upper body). Upon finishing the routine once through, I found myself far less exhausted and sick-feeling than I did at that point on the first day, though I did end up doing slightly (40-ish vs. 50-ish) fewer repetitions of things, particularly the strikes. All in all, though, I think I made measurable progress. I opted not to do it a second time and considered going through one round of a similar workout for my shoulders, which I think I'll be doing today. Instead, I did a few more leg exercises such as body-weight squats, lunges, and stair-steps, all eight emphasized forms twice with power, a fairly large number of one-step and box-step strikes, and a reasonable study of the reversing the body step and strike method as practiced in the Lion system forms of the same name. Then I called it a day, though I did some stretching and light striking again later in the evening. My legs actually feel better today than they did yesterday, so sucking it up and training through the soreness was actually a pretty good idea, I think.

The big realization that I had with everything I did yesterday occurred while I was turning. It hit me rather hard that it seems, though I could be wrong in my assumption, that most folks think of turning for thirty minutes as something to kind of dread, something they have to build up to in case He Jinbao decides to ask them to do it (or has them do an even longer turning session) in his presence during one of the tour stops or at an intensive. For us, though, since we've never known better, thirty minutes on the circle is an invigorating, pleasant day. I don't mean to sound like I'm tooting my own horn with that... it's just that we took a few things to heart in our previous workshop visits with He Jinbao and made our training fit those. I'll give some examples to close:
1. My first turning experience with He Jinbao involved him having me turn for 60 minutes and being told only to put my arms down if I absolutely must and only to switch sides when I could no longer endure the posture. He directly told me that in YSB, it is very important to learn to endure and to suffer in order to have development. This was done out in the sun on an asphalt parking lot in Vermont in late summer.
2. My second turning experience with He Jinbao involved him having us all turn for 75 minutes during which time I committed myself to not putting my hands down at all even if I had to switch sides every two times around the circle. This was the day after the day in Point #1, so I was possibly the most sore I'd ever been or close to it. I was commended for my efforts but told I had quite a few things messed up and that I needed to pay closer attention to the requirements. So much for ego....
3. I have turned on my circle long enough and hard enough to know that something changes inside of you when you can complete thirty minutes without putting your hands down and think of it as an easy day. You become a different person, better, though not better than others. It does not cause you injury. As long as you stay hydrated, this is even possible in very hot weather or very cold weather. [I have turned long enough to sweat out, meaning I was sweating like crazy and then suddenly stopped sweating, which is probably a real sign of dangerous dehydration. On many such occasions, I stopped, drank, and started again.]
4. "This pain will not kill you or deform you, so you can endure it." -one of my mantras
5. "There comes a point when it simply cannot hurt worse than it does now, so at least it won't get any worse." -Bradley Moore or maybe myself, 2007
6. "I get sore too. Don't give up." -He Jinbao, 2006
7. "When everybody else was turning for two hours, I turned for two hours and forty-five minutes, in Lion, without putting my hands down. That's one way I know my heart is the best." -He Jinbao, 2007 -- I really took this to heart in two ways: a) in the days when The Man was training, it was almost certainly routine for people to turn for two hours at a clip; b) two hours isn't too long to turn; in fact, if you can endure it and maintain the proper posture and sinking qi, longer is better.
8. "We're just going to turn for thirty minutes today, so it should be easy. Don't put your hands down unless you have to, and don't do any posture but Lion." -He Jinbao, 2007
9. "Keep up your turning... an hour a day, right?" -Matt Bild, 2007 -- I took this seriously too, though I spent much of the working year (school year) too busy to comply. This is the minimum guideline that I should expect to work with or surpass, as detailed in Point #7.
10. "90% of your practice should be home practice; classes are only for learning new things and getting corrections," (Yoga practice guideline) which I've combined with "We start every one of our meetings with about 30 minutes of turning." -Dan Crescenzo, 2007. I figure if classes, being limited time engagements, begin in a serious study group with 30 minutes straight, then 30 minutes forms kind of a minimum for a daily home practice. Mine should meet or exceed that whenever I am physically capable and not otherwise committed.
11. "If you can keep the posture correctly and stay down low while turning for two hours or more, then great! Keep it up!" -Matt Bild, 2008 (this month, in fact).
12. "Forget everything else for now. Turn Lion." -Rand Cardwell, 2006 near the beginning of my real start in YSB.
13. "Turning is the most basic and most profound exercise in baguazhang."

I guess if nothing else is great, then at least my turning should be good. My real goal, of course, is to train hard and do as much as I can the way it is to be done, gaining physical development as well as understanding, both of myself and of the techniques.