November 2006

Why Reinvent the Wheel?

Having been in the exercise, martial arts and movement therapy business for several decades now, I have had time to contemplate and meditate on what is efficient and streamlined in time and energy expenditure for maximum results. This is especially true since I am getting older and more involved with my business. Whether a client is seeing me for rehabilitation or something that up until now has been unable to be remedied with conventional therapy, or if it is someone who demands maximum results in the shortest period of time – the objective is the same – results without injury!

When looking to redefine how exercise and movement can be maximized for health, healing and longevity, I returned to a simpler time – hundreds of years ago when health and fitness meant survival and nowhere is that more evident as when you begin to look at the warriors and the soldiers of the past - especially in ancient China.

Before the Druids became of the most feared fighting force in Europe and long before the first Olympic games in Greece , the Chinese were developing fighting systems and training methods for their warriors to become the elite and inventive fighters of the time. Some of these systems were the precursor to modern Bagua, Taijiquan, Xingyi and Gung fu systems we know today. As a side note, Kung fu (Americanized) and Gung fu are misnomers and should be called wushu, which means martial art, or koushu, which translates to national or military art.

The first written history of Chinese martial arts comes from the reign of Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty. Huangdi was said to have practiced QiGong breathing and meditation, internal alchemy, herbology / food preparation, and sexual alchemy. He is also given credit for developing acupuncture (actually acupressure), esoteric QiGong practices and Taoist earth science. Huangdi was a famous military general, before becoming China ’s leader. He is also credited with being the founder of China ’s oldest known martial art – chang quan (long fist) and wrote a lengthy treaty about martial arts. Perhaps his most famous work is on twelve scrolls called the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperors Cannon on Internal Medicine), which is still used today by all oriental medicine practitioners across the globe! Notice that martial arts and healing were combined.

The unique aspect of these combat/fitness/health methods of training is that the Chinese were developing a system of internal and external training in combination that is almost forgotten today. Internal being defined as utilizing the breath and the mind to control ones vital force - Qi, and external being gross physical movement with intention. Rather than dividing these systems into two separate ways of training, the ultimate form was to combine the two - the Yin and the Yang becoming the One.

Written during the Han Dynasty, approximately 100 B.C, Huangdi writes in scroll two of the Huangdi Neijing Lingshu: "Heaven abides so that we have virtue. Earth abides so that we have Qi. When virtue flows and Qi is blended there is life.” In Chapter 25 of the Ling Shu it defines five steps of what one must do to become a healer of life. The first is mindfulness – being in the moment when one is healing or speaking to a client/patient or even your own child.

The second is self-cultivation. Self-cultivation defined here means completely understanding yourself and who you are. If you cannot cultivate yourself or have reverence for who you are in a humble way – How can you begin to cultivate others? Notice that in order to help others, you must first have control of yourself. These may sound like spiritual precepts, and they are. Moreover, even ancient healers understood that you cannot equate healing to just biology or chemistry – they knew there was something more – the human/divine spirit.

The third is herbs /food, so obviously nutrition and digestion are important. So the top three ways to become a healer of self or others stems from self-cultivation and food! Therefore we include these concepts into out CHP coursework (see www.inner-strength.org). It is interesting that the last entry in chapter 25 is diagnosis of disease! So in summary, even in 100BC, Mind/Body exercise was not new, but accepted by the elite of healers and the patients were benefiting from this wisdom.

Here at Inner Strength, we believe in the old ways of training combined with modern tools and science. By flowing with the best of the old and the new, we have developed a unique training system to allow the Qi and virtue to flow uniformly and uninterrupted to optimize life in the physical, mental and spiritual planes of existence.

For more about our Chinese Health Programs, click here.

Martial arts Students at Inner Strength work the body with warm-ups before beginning practice. They also learn the importance of nutrition and balance in mind and thought as a part of their training.