- Only 15 Minutes?
- Healthy Life Style
- 15 Min 2 Health, Level I
- 15 Min 2 Health, Level II
What makes the Fifteen Minutes to Health routines so effective
is their root in Chinese medical and fitness traditions,
based on the free flow of Qi, our life force.
In an ideal world we'd spend several hours a day outdoors, and be physically active including cardio-vascular at least an hour a day. If that is unlikely to happen to you at this point, there are other realistic options. They still require patience and you setting aside some time for your wellness program every day. But as little as 15 minutes a day can make a huge difference, and you will find them very rewarding!.
If you are or have been a particpant to the Fifteen Minutes to Health program, check the Level I or on the Level II tabs for tutorial material. I hope this will enhance your daily practice.
Note that the above referenced tutorial material was designed for participants of the "Fifteen Minutes to Health" programs. If you never attended, I'd rather you not attempt the exercises on your own only on the base of this material. This is just in case (and you know the usual disclaimer jargon), and it is safer to have gone through structured instructions and have received feedback. Thanks for your understanding
Interested in watching expert level Tai-Chi demos locally?
I train with Steve Higgins and his club Cold Mountain Martial Arts, www.stevehiggins.ca or open pdf. He is an amazing teacher and I feel fortunate!
Each year we celebrate the Chinese New Year with an afternoon of free workshops and Tai-Chi demonstrations. Come and participate or watch! You will see amazing Tai-Chi solo forms, and weapons such as sword, sabre or fan. Date: Saturday February 5th, 1pm workshops, 3:30pm demos, 5:00pm potluck. Read more here.
Have you missed this event? I will let you know next time we have something similar locally.
This is WIP - more is planned soon, thank you for your patience.
We will publish more information and thoughts about life style.
For now, take a look at this, how long can you stay without doing each of the following: breathing, drinking, eating, sleeping?
| Activity | How long you survive without it | Health impact |
| Breathing | 1 or 2 minutes (with intense training, seconds otherwise) | "Spiritus" in latin means "breath of life". Even in our Western tradition, breathing is connected to what makes us alive and defines us as beings with a spirit. Deep breathing is essential to good health. Cultivating the breath through meditative practices leads to a profound psycho-emotional well being. |
| Drinking | 2 to 4 days (depending on temperature and activity level) | There is no life without water, and H2O is essential to our metabolism. Drink plenty of warm or room temperature fluids. Avoid stimulants and strictly limit sweet drinks even if they tell you they are healthy fruit juices good for you blabla. The best drink is water without ice, or hot tea. Try lemon in hot water with honey. |
| Sleeping | A week | Forcing a prisoner to stay awake several days is a form of torture and breaks down the toughest. On average an adult should get 8 hours of sleep per night. Chronic sleep deprivation boosts your apetite and leads to suboptimal nervous system functioning. Medical residents at the end of their day + night shifts were shown to have the same reflexes as the drunken. |
| Eating | About a month (with hydration) | So we don't need to eat that much, do we? Like for everything, it is all a matter of moderation. And looking at old diet traditions such as in Japan, or the Crete diet gives a hint about how to balance food intake. On another note, we genetically evolved with whole foods, lots of vegetables and berries. The cave man knew about natural remedies from plants and minerals. We are not genetically adapted to pills, whether allopatic drugs or so-called natural supplements (what's natural about a pill of Vitamin B complexes?). So supplements should be seen like drugs: something we may need from time to time to re-balance our system, while the rest of the time balanced and nutritious foods combined with a healthy lifestyle is what to strive for. Supplement pills are great, many of them are of amazing quality, but we are getting more and more "scientific" evidence of negative effects from excess vitamins and supplement intake. Like for every thing, it is a matter of moderation. |
Welcome to the tutorial section of "Tai-Chi and Fifteen Minutes to Health", level I
The Level I program of "Tai-Chi and Fifteen Minutes to Health" focuses on gentle and short exercises that have been carefully selected for their benefits as they:
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loosen tension,
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calm the mind,
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optimize motor control,
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and energize the body.
Join us and develop your own 15-minute daily routine from the gentle exercises below.
The program's curriculum includes:
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Joint Loosening - click here to open the handout
Loosen and lubricate all your joints from head to toes, in less than 5 minutes.
This very gentle set is a great way to prepare your body for any form of exercise or meditation. It can also be done on its own for example at the work place, to get yourself relaxed and ready to go.
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Muscle Toning and Drills
Warm up your body and tone-up key muscles, in an easy and gentle way.
Various muscle toning exercises are practiced in class in order to increase the flow of blood to muscles and warm up the body for the rest of the class. They have been carefully chosen: a) for their wellness benefits (e.g. to strengthen the low back, to loosen tight neck/shoulders); and b) as drills to understand some of the skills and principles better.
No handout is available for this.
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Standing in WuJi - click here to open the handout
Learn good posture, align your spine and stand like a mountain.
Ample time is spent learning the biomechanics of good posture, as it pertains to health and martial applications. Standing in WuJi is "la crème de la crème" or "fine fleur", the best single thing to practice. It is as simple as standing up, but requires a body awareness we usually don't have from lack of paying attention. Practiced regularly this posture brings incommensurable health benefits. It is also a foundation for people interested in martial effectiveness or athletic performance. Beginners and masters alike have enjoyed it as a regular practice for centuries.
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QiGong
Experience the fluidity and grace of slow moves that promote deep breathing and free flow of Qi.
We practice Dr Yang Zwang Ming's Tai-Chi QiGong. It is a simple and complete system based on the Chinese ancient view of mankind: Man is between Heaven and Earth. Earth is the physical and material aspect of what we are, and Heaven represents our connection with higher forces such as cosmic energy radiating from the universe or spiritual realms. In other word, this QiGong balances body and mind, and integrates our material and immaterial natures. A handout will be available soon.
We also practice Organ specific QiGong moves for their flowing quality and their ability to balance Chinese internal Organs such as the Kidneys, Lungs etc. When an Organ is capitalized, we mean the Chinese understanding of that Organ's functions, which can be quite different from the Western one. No handout is available for this.
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Zen Shiatsu Stretches - click here to open the handout
Learn to feel your twelve primary meridians, and experience the benefits of a gentle stretch of chains of connective tissues along specific pathways of energy in the body. As a positive side effect, your flexibility will increase very significantly.
The 12 acupuncture meridians are pathways where the Qi of specific Organs flows. For instance the Gall-Bladder meridian flows along the side of the body, from the temples down to the foot. The style of Shiatsu I was trained in is called Zen Shiatsu and was developed by a Japanese master called Shizuto Masunaga. Masunaga had a special gift and could feel the different meridians. He devised a set of 6 stretches inspired from Yoga postures, and chose them for their ability to promote Qi flow in specific pairs of meridians. In this class, we learn an adapted version of the Zen Shiatsu stretches that can be performed by everyone (as long as you can stand, and sit cross legged). They can even be further adapted if you have sore joints. We practice these stretches in a very original way, focusing on "Invisible Stretching". This brings a perceptible sensation of the meridian pathways.
A handout will be available shortly.
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Four-Direction Tai-Chi aka Five Elements Tai-Chi Form - click here to open the handout
Enjoy a short Tai-Chi sequence that provides of a complete system for health, improves your stamina, and centers your mind.
I learnt this short Tai-Chi form about 10 years ago. It is very atypical and not taught in classical Tai-Chi circles. It is as short as a Tai-Chi form can get and consists of 5 moves. The five moves are repeated in each of the 4 cardinal directions, giving a sense of flow. As of your first class with "Tai-Chi and Fifteen Minutes to Health" you will have performed the entire form. To get its full benefits, continue practicing regularly. This form simply has about everything you can get from longer Tai-Chi and Qigong exercises. It is compact and does not require the large room needed for other Tai-Chi forms. It stimuates the five elements of Chinese medicine (Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire) and promotes deep body-mind balance.
I practiced it daily when working in the corporate world, as my 10 minute day starter, whethedr at home or in a hotel bedroom. I would probably have experienced several burn-outs and emotional crashing without practicing it regularly. Once you get a good feel for it, you will easily step up to other Tai-Chi forms, leveraging the founding principles you now master.
The program is centered around four founding principles & skills. These can be experienced in exercises of various styles, so that participants can understand and integrate them into their own practice.
These principles are:
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Empty and Full:
Only move a leg that is completely empty of weight, meaning that the other leg is fully loaded with your whole weight. This is important for balance, and for martial effectiveness. We naturally shift our weight from leg to leg as we move, making alternatively one leg full and the other empty. This is a way to experience the reality of Yin (full, receiving, grounded), and Yang (empty, giving, moving) as they evolve in cycles and transform into one another.
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Flowing Back:
The alignement of the entire back is essential for stability, and also to allow free nerve conduction from the spine to the organs and the limbs, as well as free flow of Qi in the entire body/mind. We learn how to align the neck (suspend your head from above) and how that affects muscle strength in the upper body, as well as how that impacts the low back (poor neck alignment results in chronic lower back strain). We learn how to open the low back so as to be grounded like a mountain while relaxed like a zen monk.
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Not too Open, not too Closed:
Each joint has a range of angles where it is stable and relaxed. For instance the elbow's optimal angle is 90 degrees. This is where the biceps muscle can deliver maximum power. If a joint is too closed, we loose power (eg when the elbow is completely flexed the biceps muscle is not strong anymore) and at the same time the antagonist muscle is too open. Too open or too closed leads to sub-optimal muscle function and would make us an easy target in a combat applications. Too open or too closed also blocks free energy flow. Keeping joints in their natural zone of relaxation and power promotes free flow of Qi and is conducive to good health.
-
Invisible Stretch:
We learn to gently stretch chains of connecting tissues, for instance from shoulder to uppper arm to elbow to forearm to wrist, hand and fingers. When releasing the invisible stretch, the whole chain of connective tissue relaxes as a wave, eg from hand up to shoulder. We use this in our Zen Shiatsu stretching routine to feel free flow of Qi in the acupuncture meridians. We also use this to initiate movement in Tai-Chi, resulting in greater efficiency and relaxation at the same time.
These four founding principles help develop proper form, resulting in greater health benefits and martial or athletic effectiveness at the same time.
Our interest in martial application has nothing to do with providing martial training... However, moves and postures gain in accuracy and relaxation when their martial application is undertsood. So we use martial awareness as a means to teach the health benefits of Tai-Chi and Qigong.
Welcome to the tutorial section for "Tai-Chi and Fifteen Minutes to Health", level II
Like with level I, the Level II program of "Tai-Chi and Fifteen Minutes to Health" includes gentle exercises for health and stamina, adding more elaborate QiGong and Tai-Chi sequences.
You will also be able to develop your own 15-minute daily routine from the gentle exercises of this program, and you will learn a breadth of new moves and techniques.
The program's curriculum includes:
-
Joint Loosening - click here to open the handout
Loosen and lubricate all your joints from head to toes, in less than 5 minutes.
This very gentle set is a great way to prepare your body for any form of exercise or meditation. It can also be done on its own for example at the work place, to get yourself relaxed and ready to go.
-
Muscle Toning and Drills
Warm up your body and tone-up key muscles, in an easy and gentle way.
Various muscle toning exercises are practiced in class in order to increase the flow of blood to muscles and warm up the body for the rest of the class. They have been carefully chosen: a) for their wellness benefits (e.g. to strengthen the low back, to loosen tight neck/shoulders); and b) as drills to understand some of the skills and principles better.
No handout is available for this. Level II includes fewer muscle toning exercises as the moves and postures from Tai-Chi and QiGong are a little more athletic.
-
QiGong
Experience the fluidity and grace of slow moves that promote deep breathing and free flow of Qi.
A new QiGong sequence has been designed for its ability to promote gentle Qi flow throughout the body, and with exercises that help experiencing some of the new Tai-Chi moves.
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Eight Pieces of Brocade - click here to see a video
Enjoy this very ancient health QiGong that promotes Qi flow in the body/minds, loosens the spines and the tendons.
There are many versions of the Eight Pieces of Brocade (aka Ba Duan Jin). It is rooted in old Chinese medical traditions and provides an interesting system of 8 exercises for health. The above video is the version we are practicing. Like in Tai-Chi, internal principles hardly visible when watching from the outside make a significant difference in your experience of the sequence, and in the benefits you get from it.
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Yang 24 moves Tai-Chi Form - click here to see a video
Practice the most popular Tai-Chi form, learn new techniques such as kicks, punches and low stances, and experience acupoints and meridian stimulation from the moves.
Traditional Tai-Chi forms are rather long, eg the Yang 108 moves form. In the fifties, the Communist party realized that the health of the Chinese people was degrading and saught to re-introduce ancient health practices like Tai-Chi. An expert committee was formed and asked to create a shorter form from the Yang style Tai-Chi, for health and without too obvious combat applications. I think they did a remarquable job, and even if this form is rather recent, it contains key postures, stances and moves, and can be perfected both with health and athletic or combat applications in mind.
Click here for a video seen from the back so that you can follow it. Click here for a nice group video.
Here is recommended study material:
- Book: Tai Chi Chuan, 24 & 48 postures with martial Applications - master Liang Shou-Yu and Wu Wen-Ching - YMAA Publication centre
- Companion DVD: 24 Movement Simplified Taijiquan - Sam masich - Little productions
Your balance will significantly improve from one leg postures, your flexibility will benefit from lower stances, and your legs will become stronger. Though kicks and low stances are performed by very flexible people in the videos, do not worry, they do not need to be done that way and are accessible to all.
The level II program is also centered around four founding principles & skills. These can be experienced in exercises of various styles, so that participants can understand and integrate them into their own practice.
These principles are:
-
Empty and Full:
Only move a leg that is completely empty of weight, meaning that the other leg is fully loaded with your whole weight. This is important for balance, and for martial effectiveness. We naturally shift our weight from leg to leg as we move, making alternatively one leg full and the other empty. This is a way to experience the reality of Yin (full, receiving, grounded), and Yang (empty, giving, moving) as they evolve in cycles and transform into one another.
-
Flowing Back:
The alignement of the entire back is essential for stability, and also to allow free nerve conduction from the spine to the organs and the limbs, as well as free flow of Qi in the entire body/mind. We learn how to align the neck (suspend your head from above) and how that affects muscle strength in the upper body, as well as how that impacts the low back (poor neck alignment results in chronic lower back strain). We learn how to open the low back so as to be grounded like a mountain while relaxed like a zen monk.
-
Not too Open, not too Closed:
Each joint has a range of angles where it is stable and relaxed. For instance the elbow's optimal angle is 90 degrees. This is where the biceps muscle can deliver maximum power. If a joint is too closed, we loose power (eg when the elbow is completely flexed the biceps muscle is not strong anymore) and at the same time the antagonist muscle is too open. Too open or too closed leads to sub-optimal muscle function and would make us an easy target in a combat applications. Too open or too closed also blocks free energy flow. Keeping joints in their natural zone of relaxation and power promotes free flow of Qi and is conducive to good health.
-
Invisible Stretch:
We learn to gently stretch chains of connecting tissues, for instance from shoulder to uppper arm to elbow to forearm to wrist, hand and fingers. When releasing the invisible stretch, the whole chain of connective tissue relaxes as a wave, eg from hand up to shoulder. We use this in our Zen Shiatsu stretching routine to feel free flow of Qi in the acupuncture meridians. We also use this to initiate movement in Tai-Chi, resulting in greater efficiency and relaxation at the same time.
These four founding principles help develop proper form, resulting in greater health benefits and martial or athletic effectiveness at the same time.
Our interest in martial application has nothing to do with providing martial training... However, moves and postures gain in accuracy and relaxation when their martial application is undertsood. So we use martial awareness as a means to teach the health benefits of Tai-Chi and Qigong.