Saturday, May 22, 2010

The Base: Week 1 [VIDEO]


I'm one week into Kung Fu Body and want to get you all up to speed on where I'm at on the health, wellness, strength, flexibility and agility fronts. This is the base of it all, and I think it'll be helpful for you to know what my base health practices are to see where I get to at the end of the 90 days.

I plan to post just once a week here because I also hold down daily posts at The Mindfulist, 5 posts a week at GwenBell.com and once a week or so at Elephant Journal. I'll do my best to make the weekly update worth your while!

Health
I'm in great shape health-wise. (130lbs/lean mass 110.6lb/5'10.5")

I gave up coffee/espresso in October of last year. That has had a positive impact on my life. Here's how. Because I'm not buying coffee, I'm not spending as much time in coffee shops. Coffee shops have a lot of sugary/fluffy white foods. Since I'm not ordering a daily Americano I'm not eating a daily scone. Also, I'm not regulating my emotions/energy peaks and troughs with a "hit." It has been amazing to see the positive results of giving up coffee. (Note: I'm not suggesting you do the same, I'm just letting you know my results. Also, if you're drinking Starbucks Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with Whipped Cream on a daily basis, you need to read this.)

Wellness
Energy levels (as mentioned above) are solid. The workouts aren't easy, but they're well within my comfort zone. Day seven's 750 jumps was a bit exhausting, but when I put down the jump rope I feel like I've done great work.
Cutting out carbohydrates has been straightforward. I had already eliminated refined sugars except for on the weekends (after reading Michael Pollan's Food Rules I realized that was one of my final hurdles. So, I've been cutting back to just sugar on the weekends. Next (and final?) frontier for me: giving up alcohol altogether. We'll see how that goes. I love a cold stout after a day at work.

Strength


This is one area I'm aiming high in with KFB. I've been increasing the amount of work I do in arm balance postures and am showing signs of improvement, but I still have a way to go. I add arm balances to the end of each KFB workout (at the moment, hand stand and moving slowly from tripod to head stand and back down with control). Legs not the issue - always the arms.

Flexibility

Easiest aspect of KFB for me. Because of my yogic background, this is the one portion of the workout where I don't feel awkward at all. Punches/kicks aren't something I'm naturally good at. The short video clip at top is from a recent one-on-one yoga session with Skanda Yoga founder Ken von Roenn. It was the first time I've come into the full expression of King Pigeon, Eka Pada Rajakapotasana. My plan is to come into and out of that more gracefully at the end of KFB.

Agility
State of mind. State of body. State of balance-in-motion.

Happy to be on this journey with you, fellow balance seeker.

To kung fu as a way of life!
@gwenbell

7 comments:

  1. You are crazy. I'm gonna go ahead and need you to be my personal trainer :)

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  2. Thank you, ladies! Shivani - glad you enjoyed the vid. Liz. Move to Boulder and I'll teach you free of charge at sunrise. Every fourth Saturday of months starting with the letter F. At least. *smile*

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  3. holy dinah that is impressive.

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  4. Yeah, now you're speaking my language!

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  5. RW: that's a sweet expression!
    Patrick: Sup, gnomie!

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  6. Oooh, I want to do this!

    Also, King Pigeon is amazing, right now with my yoga practice I'm working on being able to touch my toes, hahaha.

    Baby steps. =)

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