I'm crazy busy right now. In fact, the only reason I'm typing on this is because I temporarily have a mental block on what I'm working on: preparing to defend my thesis. I've been given the task of preparing the entire defense by November 9, which is barely over two weeks away. I think usually people have the date pretty well narrowed down a few months in advance, so I figure this can only go "well." In any case, the posting will be a bit lighter than usual during this time, but when I'm kind of burnt up for the moment (as now), I'll find time for this sort of thing when I'm not squeezing in some training, which seems to help unknot my fatiguing brain.
I know a lot of folks are crazy busy much or almost all of the time, and so I think this is an appropriate topic, even if left drastically incomplete. As usual, I invite folks training other martial arts to comment and add in ideas, though I'll focus my post on what kinds of baguazhang-related training I squeeze in when my time is short.
Generally speaking, I think when your time is short, you're going to get the most out of picking one or two basic things and drilling them in bursts during your free time. Perhaps you really want to get better at a technique or a movement, nothing as large as a typical "form" or "kata," unless you practice something like Yin Style which has just short of a billion very short forms in its canon. You also want to choose things that provide a lot of bang for the buck, which means that you're taking time to carefully master one fairly complex movement or you're blasting your body with an exercise that can provide a lot of benefit in a short period of time.
In Yin Style or any other traditional art, for me the exercise that fits the "bang for my buck" bill the most powerfully is standing strengthening, which admittedly I usually go a little short on in my overall training profile. Standing strengthening practice, one of the four pillars of Yin Style training, is by necessity a shorter-duration exercise than most of the other practices. It's difficult to get a good, worthwhile session of striking training in a five- or ten-minute break between other obligations. Five to ten minutes of standing strengthening is a pretty solid set of it for most folks. It also requires a minimal amount of space since very little is in motion: just the space of a yoga-mat-sized area is needed to really rock out some standing strengthening, and those fit just about anywhere. Unlike many of the other practices, as long as you're a bit discrete, standing strengthening is easy to "sneak in" in places like your office with less likelihood of being noticed (or having security called on you thinking you're an escapee from a mental ward -- true story of a member of our group) than doing something "absolutely ridiculous looking" like turning practice or strikes. Thus, when I'm in hard-academic mode, like now, I end up quadrupling (or more) the amount of standing strengthening I do while dropping almost everything else so that I can have back-to-back fifteen-hour work days for weeks on end (weekends included).
Drilling something complicated that I want to get a basic hang of is another favorite. I do this a lot (in my house or on a quick jaunt into the yard for some fresh air and breathing space, though behind a closed door can work too without drawing too much attention) when I'm trying to gain a new skill. The back-step drills that came out of Beijing this spring are a notable example: often enough I'd have time to really go drill them and other things, but right about then, I got academically slammed and had to hang a bunch of training up for a while. When I wasn't standing, I was trotting across some room in my house (en route to the kitchen for refreshment, bathroom for relief, or back to the office for more toil) going through those back-step drills as a means of locomotion toward my destination. I might only get 6 or 8 reps in each direction, but I got a lot more comfortable with the stepping pattern and coordination in the process, and since I'd take breaks about once every hour or so, usually with three runs of this kind of thing involved, I actually ended up with a fair number of repetitions in a day, 6x3x10=180 to 8x3x10=240, which is far more than I would have had if I just gave up and said I was "too busy" to train.
Weights are a temptation in tight times. You can feel like you get a lot of effect for very little time input (pick up your nearest 25-pound dumbbell and do 20-30 bicep curls straight with it, it only takes about a minute and a half and your arm puffs and cramps up like it's going to explode, split, or fall off). The downside to this is that while you get a little strength training out of it, you don't get any martial training. Since you're not going to have enough time to really bust out some seriously good routines of either sort, I think it's better to do an exercise like a drill that builds up a skill over time rather than something that just gives me a little pump in my arm or leg, although squats are a great way to revitalize you when you've been sitting for too long (so those get thrown in sometimes anyway just to get the blood pumping quickly). Standing strengthening really seems to be a better choice, though, another reason I like to hit it hard and often in these busy periods, because it seems to really open the body up and get things (Blood and Qi) flowing and moving smoothly. Weights never do that for me, and standing strengthening is really an all-body kind of activity, so it feels a lot more complete for that short amount of time (working your whole body in 10 minutes instead of two muscle groups, for instance). If I'm in the market for something heavy to balance out my desk job, five minutes of basic drills with the saber (if I'm working at home!) usually is enough to get a fair sweat going and make it feel like I've done something -- something martial!
Speaking of having a job that keeps you crazy busy, you might not have one like I have that keeps you sedentary while you're working. If you do, then these kinds of exercises are perfect and great. In fact, they're pretty much necessary. The sitting still really starts to take a toll on your body, mostly in terms of circulation and muscular tension, after thirty or forty minutes. Your brain gets sluggish after that much time of relative inactivity also because of the less smooth circulation of blood (and Blood and Qi). Getting up and doing something that promotes its flow on at least an hourly basis (I've been told half-hourly by several reputable sources) is almost a necessity, so don't think of it as taking away from your work to stretch out and move yourself around a little.
If your job is more physical, and you're crazy busy, then you're probably too tired to train much. What you need, though, is something that puts you back together. Ironically, if you can put the heart into it, standing strengthening is great for that, as is "running through" drills, focusing more on the mental aspect of mastering the inherent skill rather than the physical aspect of putting in power and ferocity (like "learning speed" practice). Another option, one that I frequently employ even as a mental worker at a desk, is to get up and do some stretching. It's just nice for opening up the flow (again of Blood and Qi) and making me feel better kind of all over. It's not as directly martially beneficial as training would be, but being physically wrecked makes for a difficult push into some training, even if it's light.
Finally, when time is tight, there's a time that everyone has free: just before they fall asleep. Even though you're probably tired by the time you hit the pillow, on days that I'm crazy busy, I usually am a bit wound still when I lay down. This is a prime time to be opting for visualization of the techniques, skills, combinations, applications, forms, and other practices in the art, which is a very valuable constituent of good training. Even if there's no time, energy, or will to get up and really stand strengthening in between job requirements, it's quite easy to get yourself thinking about your training and training in your mind. That, my friends, is better than nothing when you're really strapped for time.
That's some of the stuff that I do when my time is tight: more standing strengthening, more running through "confusing" drills in slow/medium-motion, a couple of sets of saber basics (when apropos), stretching, and visualizing. What do you do?
3 comments:
Hey there - first time visit for me.
Nice post here, I also find that small interludes of training help reinvigorate me for whatever project I am working on. In fact, my day has become almost stream of consciousness as I go through various projects and work mixed in with breaks and rest.
Good luck with your thesis defense, Jim. I recommend taking your da dao in with you . . . just to remove any doubt from the minds of committee members as to whether they should pass you. ;- )
I thought the same thing, Thomas, but I can't decide if it's a good idea or not. At least one of my committee members has seen it, though, so that could help.
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