Outdoor Systema Training

I have recently taken to doing Systema training outdoors, in the forest, fields, on grass or stone.
There are a number of benefits to training outside:

- Every drill you do is much harder, as you have to attend to the different surroundings, light/wind conditions, sloping or hilly land and obstacles in the landscape.

- A drill from Moscow involved feeling how the surroundings made you feel.
eg - Being in the forest feels more enclosed, peaceful and this calms you down
However being in a office environment effects your psychological condition differently as there may be tense people around you (which usually increases your tension) , you might feel pressure or stress just being in that enviroment, due to negative associations.
There are many factors to take into account, the more you feel them, the better you overall awareness and adaptive ability will be.
Going outside can also be used for a change of pace, to give you freedom, relaxation and a higher/different outlook on your thoughts

- This enviroment adds variety to your training, in which you can use the landscape - the ground, trees and sticks in order to strengthen and relax yourself, in a multitude of ways, and as the enviroment is different and strange to you, every exercise you do will be twice as hard due to the higher stress/tension we feel when in a new enviroment.

IDEAS FOR TRAINING

- Walk with closed eyes through the forest, use burst breathing to keep your movement smooth and continuous. You will then notice that your awareness is then in every step you take, as you begin to feel the ground with your feet.

- Running - Run along trails and up hills. In this exercise try to find your own breathing pattern, the one which makes you feel most compfortable. When you find it your endurance will increase.

- Slow pushups, Legraises, Situps and Squats - Doing these exercises on unstable or sloping ground will give you a new appreciation for burst breathing.

- Climbing trees - Try to climb up a tree while exhaling, then climb down on an inhale then vice versa.
Try to also use only the muscles you need to accomplish the work.

Climb the tree while tensing your whole body and using burst breathing to move through the tension, do this slowly.
Then do the same thing but completely relaxed.

These are just some ideas, be creative and make up your own.

Please post a comment if you have any other ideas.

Thomas

Systema training log August 08

Sorry i haven't posted in a while, i've recently been to Moscow for Mikhail Ryabkos summer camp (i 'll be posting all of my training notes on this blog), anyway heres a log from a training session i did last night:

Walking and breathing - starting off with my arms held in the air, with 2 steps inhaling and then 2 steps exhaling, i then skipped along to 5 , 7, 9, 12, 15, 17, 19 , up to 20 steps then i held my arms in front of me and then went back down to 18, 16, 14 etc.

Core exercises - I then did 25 pushups, 20, situps, 20 leg raises and 25 squats while roating the breathing patterns mainly keeping it simple either exhaling on the way down and inhaling on the way up or vice versa, i find these 2 breathing patterns to be both simple and powerful.

Rolling progression for softness - here is a rolling progression with sticks and other variations:

- rolling over and on a stick on the floor from kneeling
- same with eyes closed
- from standing
- added more stick 8 + and rolled from kneeling
- with eyes closed
- faster
-slower
- from standing
- from standing eyes closed

When my eyes were closed i noticed in this drill that my body was softer, possibly because i could not see what i was going to roll on, so my body did not tense up, to try to stop the impact of the sticks.

Note: There are few videos of me on youtube that a few people have put on, a lot are titled Letchworth training or tueday systema training, anyway have a look and tell me what you think.

Thanks

Tom

Keeping the feet healthy

Our feet carry us throughout our entire life. Throughout this time they undergo enormous pressure as they have to withstand cumulative loads of more than 100 tons per day and walk over 115,000 miles in our lifetime.

The foot is composed of 26 bones, 33 joints and 19 muscles, each part has to be co-ordinated perfectly in order to accomplish the tricky act of standing and moving in the multitude of ways, that they allow.

In this post i will explore a number of ways to keep the feet healthy:

1 - Go barefoot as often as possible, this strengthens all of the muscles and connective tissue in the foot.
This is especially important, as in the last 500 years we have become more and more accustomed to wearing shoes and this causes the muscles of the foot to atrophy leading to flat feet or fallen arches.

2 - Get a stick and walk over it barefoot in as many different ways as possible, if it hurts in a specific place, use the stick to massage that area.

3 - Walk around a large space on the various different parts of your feet: the heel, the ball, the sides, on the toes.
Then try to make a fist with your foot and walk around like this.

4- Rotate your ankles clockwise and then anticlockwise, then try to spread your toes as wide as possible then try to bring them together as tightly as possible.

More than 60% of people in the UK will have foot problems at some time in their lives . Most of these problems are minor but some can be quite serious . Foot pain is not normal and if your feet hurt you should find out why and take steps to correct the problem.

Have fun
Tom

Walking as a diagnostic tool

One of the most common activities in our day is walking. It allows us to get from one place to another with minimum effort and can be sustained for long periods of time.

Walking can also be used as a diagnostic tool to determine the condition of your body or psyche.
To start you need to be aware of your excessive physical tension.
To feel this the first drill is to start walking and breathing calmly, in through the nose and out through the mouth.
After a short time exhale and hold.
That's it, hold your breath after the exhale, for as long as possible.
Now the important part of this exercise is to stay calm and feel what is happening inside of you.
Do you feel an uncomfortable pain in your stomach or chest, or is it somewhere else. The place where this feeling arises is where you have excessive tension.
Repeat this drill a few times and for a variation count your steps while holding your breath.
Try to hold your breath longer and longer each time.

Next we will long for muscular or structural imbalances.
Start walking again and breath calmly.
Now try to notice a number of things about your walk:
- do you have a slight bounce or bee-bop
- do you sway from side to side or forwards and backwards
- does one leg tighten up excessively more than the other
- is your lower back or spine tense
- are your feet facing forwards or are they pointing outwards like a duck
are you allowing your feet to strike the ground heel to toes or are you slapping them flatly down
- are you holding your shoulders up or keeping your arms stiff and not allowing them to sway.
Try to feel as many things as you can about your walk.

For the final drill we are going to train our walk to be as free and relaxed as possible. This one requires a partner. You start walking around and first the partner looks at you and tells you where he/she sees tension. After this they will walk beside you and massage any tense points they see. Do this drill for a while and you will find that your spine, hip and shoulders are a lot more free and mobile.

have fun walking
Tom