Energy Plummet During Training.

[zachsan]

well if it's a confidence problem, just follow dr. zach's golden rule: drink until you don't care anymore. and did someone already suggest speed on this thread?

honestly, if it really is a mental thing, it's a good idea to start by asking yourself what it is that's making you so nervous. the spectre of an award? fear of not getting it? fear of your instructor? fear of the people who might be watching? the knowledge that you're going to die one day, and maybe life is pointless after all?

glad to help.

[daodejing]

Along with doc, I'm a bit concerned about the palpitations. Personally, i think it's more performance anxiety related than an issue of epinepherine dumps, but internet diagnosis is rediculously unreliable.

How's your qigong practice?

[blooming tianshi lotus]

The paplitations are a definite concern, but like I said, it all comes down breathing and stress management. Despite confidence in our skills, a quite natural adrenal response is to have increased heart rate and shallow breathing etc. If you learn to forget your thoughts and put the concentration into getting your breath filtering through your lower diaphragm as I mentioned above, it truly will be that simple


Cheers and what ever you do, chill out already and think only about what you're doing this moment ( breathing through your stomach and visualising what carnage you're about to clincally execute and NOTHING else) !!! Funny thing living in the moment ( and define the smallness of that moment at leasure ) , and now we're detatching zen style

BL

[shaolinstylee]

Like I was saying, I don't know crap about this.. just throwing some things out there..

[onefocus]

when you say "heart flutter". what do you mean??? because that could be a very serious problem. do, you live a fast paced life?? days with a lot of stress?? when was your last complete physical??? could you have possibly been injured during a fight, or full contact sparring?? go see your doctor, and come back and let us know what's up.

I say that, because those are only a few questions that need to be resolved, before you can really begin to solve this particular issue.

peace.


onefocus.

[LeiYunFat]

I get that heart flutter everytime I eat a burger or something, but I'm not dead yet.

[Void]

I went to training last night an had a chat with 2 of my instructors,

they recon that it only has happened because I was in front of my main Master

and he has complete say on if I progress or not,


they said it wouldn’t happen in front of them if they put me thought the same

stuff, they said its down to fear, and its your body preparing itself for protection.

They said the best thing to do is to realise its just a class, and they are all there

to just help not hinder

( well maybe hinder sometimes with all them pressups / burpies ) ,

and like what afew of you already suggested to breath deeply, focus on the

moment and each movement remaining calm centred and mindful.

[Void]

How's your qigong practice?

My MA Style doesn’t have any Qi Gong, it has some basic Breathing exercises

etc Traditionally it may have had more but they don’t really teach it.

I havent yet found a true Qi Gong Sifu where I live

but because im really interested, I got some books ( I know not very good )

and had a little read up

so I now practice Lifting The Sky and some basic sitting meditation

It really relaxes my body after train and is very calming although my mind is quite

active, its a challange to hush it but practice i quess.

I might add Lohan Embracing Buddha too.

If I put my arm out in front of me palms facing each other i have experience a
magnet like feeling as i move my arms | palms close and further apart breathing
in an out.

Now if i hover my right hand over my leg or arm and with relaxed
concentrate on my hand and breathing where i hover my hand over feels alittle
warmer

Maybe i just have hot hands

[daodejing]

There's a simple excercise called the archer, where you start from a horse stance facing forward, then turn to your left, holding your left hand straight while (so that the palm faces directly left in comparison to your starting position) drawing the bow string back across your body with your right hand, keeping your right hand in a tiger claw. When you reach the full extent of the motion, slowly bring your hands back toghether, crossed in front of your chest, with the left inside the right. Your fingertips should rest on the front part of your should, on the anterior deltiod muscle. Then you repeat on the other side, extending your right hand with open palm, and drawing the bow with your left, and returing to the center. When you return to center, the hand which drew the bow last should be the outside hand when your arms cross.

Do the excercise slowly and relaxed, and ALWAYS inhale when you extend, and exhale when you contract. (martial qigong often uses exhalations on expansion and inhalation on contraction, but medical styles normally use the reverse of this) Repeat 8 times on each side, and do this twice a day, when you wake up and when you go to bed.

This will help strengthen your heart and lungs, which in turn will reduce the anxiety reaction, including the palpitations, and help you get your mind a bit less restless.

These kind of patterns, especially with the mental restlessness and the palpitations, are often indicative of a deficiency of heart and spleen, which both have an incredible impact on mental function.

[onefocus]

sounds like dao, has a good exercise for you to try. but i still think that you should see a doctor, if this continues. there is no reason for you to react like that if you are not taking a "life or death" test. a competency test is only proof that you understand the movements, and philosophy of the technique. nothing to be afraid of, because you study, M.A., to learn that, amongst other things. relax, enjoy learning and trust youself to do well.

peace

onefocus.

[Void]

Cheers Daodejing.

For the description of the Archer I had a try last night and this morning, its good

stuff, takes a bit of getting used to which arm is in front and back when crossing

over, but its getting there ..

Questions:
With the hand that is "Pulling the Sting back" i.e. the tiger claw hand when it gets to its full extent does it make a fist ?

I had a look in the Site content - Qi Gong section - Ba Duan Jin Images

The second set looks like what you are describing, should I uses a one finger zen hand instead of a open palm or just stick to an open palm?

Maybe what you described and what im looking at are too separate exercises and im mixing them

With the breathing:

Breath in through the nose and out through the mouth

Or in throught the nose out through the nose

should you also breath into the abdomen (dan tian)

RE taking a "life or death" test

onefocus I dont think I need to see a doctor, im ok really its just me focusing too hard on an important grading coming up which ive been working to since i started this style. I just want to do my best thats all ..

but i will take away.

relax, enjoy and trust youself to do well

Good Reminder thanks for re focusing me onefocus.

[daodejing]

Ok, for starters, the archer is a very common excercise with MANY slightly different versions.

To answer your questions, don't make a fist with the hand which pulls the bow string.

You can use an open palm or one finger zen hand form, but make sure the lion's mouth stays open (this means, keep your thumb open, and don't press it against your hand. this helps keep the metal channels open).

Breath in and out through the nose, and quietly. If you can hear yourself breathing, you're breathing too hard.

Focus on the lower abdomen throughout the excercise.

The most important thing to remember is to inhale as your body expands (drawing the bow) and exhale as your body contracts (coming back to crossed hands). This will help you build qi in the upper jiao for the heart and lungs to use.

If the palpitations happen again, or especially if you begin experiencing palpitations under other circumstances, see a licensed medical proffessional. And continue to do the excercise for at least 8 repititions, twice a day. If you want to practice it more than that, this is ok, but do multiples of 8 repitions (16, 32, etc.). Hope that helps.

[daodejing]

Ok that's odd. *looks up* As much as I enjoy being zach's spirit guide, I wasn't aware we could change each other's nicknames......... makes things far more interesting.

[zachsan]

lol, yeah, i forgot i did that. when you've got too much online fake money you start spending it on anything you can.

[blooming tianshi lotus]

Back to that heart flutter though, unless you're drinking a whole lot more alocohol than you should be, I'd also have a good luck at the carbs your consuming. Complex carbs stabilise our nervous systems and when you don't have as much of them as you need , and more so when you're low on potassium ( which you get in highest quantities from milk and organg juice 0, you're likely to experience this very thing. Extremely inconvenient for a fighter and serously dangerous to your health now and long term. I won't presume anything here but as big a fan of ketogenisis ( high protein diets ) as I am, if you think you can do this safely without loading carbs to 1 1/2 ish x your bw at the very outside each 4 days, then you are truly deluding yourself and on a serious track to both psychological and physioligical ill-health. Hopefully the above advice will be totally useles to you, but do consider your carbs and your potassium nonetheless. It's potassium that makes youyr heart pump and after that look at b vits. All things that'll help you out

cheers

Blooming Lotus