Bamboo is not what you think it is
It all started with a simple affirmation I have had for several years: Today is the new me. Take a moment if you like to think about all the different ways that could affect your life but recentl contemplation of one predictable subject took me in a highly unusual and challenging direction.
I have spent a lot of time considering, meditating, on how to make a fundamental change in my physique. The change will certainly be a physical one and perhaps, and I believe this to be true, a emotional and intellectual one as well. You see, for a long time I have believed that a person can not change. There are just certain innate genetic or embedded processes that a person has for their entire life. The changes we make in life are habits to counter or coddle these permanent parts of our make up. I do believe that a person can become a different person, act differently, make different choices, look and feel the opposite of what they normally are. But it is a constant process of affirmation and effort to maintain this new point of view. Is it a perfect theory? No. But its my thoughts on it.
Now this is where it gets weird. I am half-Hawaiian and though my outward appearance is very much Caucasian I have the muscular legs, wide hips and broad shoulders of an Islander. Having this genetic make up and incorporating the way I have aided and abused my body over the years I have what I would consider a fairly rigid physique. Not rigid in the muscular sense, but in the way my body absorbs impact whether this be from a fall, a jump, how my body reacts to the bouncing of running; how my body flows in water as I swim. Yes exactly, how my body flows and flexes in any activity that I do.
I began with the end in mind, I want a body that not only absorbs shock and energy I want my body to be able to move with it, process it in a way that is fluid. What does this look like, I wondered. It could look like anyone regardless of height, weight, sex. I have seen very obese people move with a grace that is wonderful to behold and perfect athletes who are stiff as boards.
As I often do, I look to nature and considered bamboo. I think society considers Bamboo a wood that has a certain amount of flexibility regardless if it is thin or thick. Whereas I consider myself more of a 2x4 or even a wood plank, I wondered what it would take to become like bamboo. You might expect that it is as easy as say taking a yoga class or stretching more, as the saying might go, Just limber up. But here is the hard part and where the true metamorphosis begins. Bamboo is not a wood. Bamboo is a grass. True. So how do I go from being a block of wood into a piece of grass, albeit the biggest, thickest, strongest piece of grass on the planet. But grass absorbs, its flexes, it moves like a ripple against the wind. I as I have stated I do not. I am the proverbial wood plank.
I have spent tens of hours reviewing video and photographs of my movement, which thankfully I have the resources to do. Plus I have long studied how my body moves in order to master certain skills so I have my own case history on the subject, as it were.
I have spoken with yogi's, martial arts experts, performance experts, people skilled in physical deviations and will continue to do so. I am getting their input on how to change the essence of a body so unlike just a habit, it is something that is learned and then never corrected again, like breathing, like a new genetic code. This is not about techinque though I am sure there will be challenges and breakthroughs there. I am not even close to the end in this, perhaps not even to the beginning so as I learn, I will tell.
Why do I want to do this? Simple. I WILL compete again in endurance sports. The limitations are already set, no more Ironmans. I will start with the smallest and move slowly through the distances till I reach the point of too much. While even entering a race is still several months away, I must reinvent myself to prevent the results of the past, go in a new direction. I have new goals, new distances, new challenges, some of these on the same old local courses.
Now that the primer is set, the rest is academic and application.
I have spent a lot of time considering, meditating, on how to make a fundamental change in my physique. The change will certainly be a physical one and perhaps, and I believe this to be true, a emotional and intellectual one as well. You see, for a long time I have believed that a person can not change. There are just certain innate genetic or embedded processes that a person has for their entire life. The changes we make in life are habits to counter or coddle these permanent parts of our make up. I do believe that a person can become a different person, act differently, make different choices, look and feel the opposite of what they normally are. But it is a constant process of affirmation and effort to maintain this new point of view. Is it a perfect theory? No. But its my thoughts on it.
Now this is where it gets weird. I am half-Hawaiian and though my outward appearance is very much Caucasian I have the muscular legs, wide hips and broad shoulders of an Islander. Having this genetic make up and incorporating the way I have aided and abused my body over the years I have what I would consider a fairly rigid physique. Not rigid in the muscular sense, but in the way my body absorbs impact whether this be from a fall, a jump, how my body reacts to the bouncing of running; how my body flows in water as I swim. Yes exactly, how my body flows and flexes in any activity that I do.
I began with the end in mind, I want a body that not only absorbs shock and energy I want my body to be able to move with it, process it in a way that is fluid. What does this look like, I wondered. It could look like anyone regardless of height, weight, sex. I have seen very obese people move with a grace that is wonderful to behold and perfect athletes who are stiff as boards.
As I often do, I look to nature and considered bamboo. I think society considers Bamboo a wood that has a certain amount of flexibility regardless if it is thin or thick. Whereas I consider myself more of a 2x4 or even a wood plank, I wondered what it would take to become like bamboo. You might expect that it is as easy as say taking a yoga class or stretching more, as the saying might go, Just limber up. But here is the hard part and where the true metamorphosis begins. Bamboo is not a wood. Bamboo is a grass. True. So how do I go from being a block of wood into a piece of grass, albeit the biggest, thickest, strongest piece of grass on the planet. But grass absorbs, its flexes, it moves like a ripple against the wind. I as I have stated I do not. I am the proverbial wood plank.
I have spent tens of hours reviewing video and photographs of my movement, which thankfully I have the resources to do. Plus I have long studied how my body moves in order to master certain skills so I have my own case history on the subject, as it were.
I have spoken with yogi's, martial arts experts, performance experts, people skilled in physical deviations and will continue to do so. I am getting their input on how to change the essence of a body so unlike just a habit, it is something that is learned and then never corrected again, like breathing, like a new genetic code. This is not about techinque though I am sure there will be challenges and breakthroughs there. I am not even close to the end in this, perhaps not even to the beginning so as I learn, I will tell.
Why do I want to do this? Simple. I WILL compete again in endurance sports. The limitations are already set, no more Ironmans. I will start with the smallest and move slowly through the distances till I reach the point of too much. While even entering a race is still several months away, I must reinvent myself to prevent the results of the past, go in a new direction. I have new goals, new distances, new challenges, some of these on the same old local courses.
Now that the primer is set, the rest is academic and application.
posted by Comm's @ 7:02 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
More crazy talk!
I like!
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