Training Notes - 18 January 2019
With the more intense training the last two weeks, my body became exhausted. Yesterday was catch up on sleep day. Nothing beats the feeling of purposeful effort and a good rest to recover. I am feeling a lot more energetic now.On a side note, we know that exercise creates clarity of mind, and is effective in stemming the excesses of anxiety, depression, negative mood and low self-esteem, among others. On the flip side, if you are having major issues in life and stuck in a mire, losing a sense of direction or simply being too idle, the lack of physical and mental exertion can lead to fuzzy thinking. I am glad that the field of psychiatry is making large strides towards recognizing the subtle aspects of different mental states, leading to better understanding of causes and effects of these symptoms.
Running and Internal Martial Arts
Usually running is an important foundation building exercise for martial arts. For example, running is an important element of training for boxing, Muay Thai or Sanda. Even when I was training wudangquan, we have almost daily running sessions.The martial arts style that I am training now does not emphasize running at all. In fact, running is almost discouraged. One of the core philosophies of internal martial arts is to return the body-mind to its healthy, natural state. As a runner myself, I can attest to how much injuries runners face. In fact, injuries is a fact of life for amateur and professional runners alike. More specifically, running is a high impact exercise. Jolting the brain that much through impact on a hard surface is not healthy in the long term.
Even knowing that, having a friend sponsor my participation in a road race (thanks, LK!) is an irresistible offer. So I have been training for the road race for a bit.
Running Is Too ‘Hard’
Internal Martial Arts is a form of exercise, so is running. No harm doing both right? After doing both for a while, I realize that they do not complement each other. In fact, running is detrimental to my Internal Martial Arts training.
There is no doubt that running is excellent for building up stamina and endurance. When we run though, we use the overt strength of our muscle groups in our core and legs. Mainly the major muscle groups such as the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, ITBs and the core muscles are engaged. There is not much fine control; you want to pump your muscle output up to 11. We have scientific evidence that better runners have stiffer muscles. One of the most prominent runners in recent time, Paula Radcliffe, has reduced her flexibility as she improved over time.
An intriguing but probably a less important factor was the deterioration in Paula’s lower body flexibility over the period from 1991 to 2003. Andrew Jones reports that in 1991, in the sit-and-reach test she reached 8cm beyond her toes in 1996, but only 4cm beyond her toes in 2003. This observation demonstrates that a high degree of flexibility is not essential for world class performance, and raises the possibility that too much flexibility might actually be associated with diminished efficiency.
| Major muscle groups when running |
On the other hand, internal martial arts utilizes more body parts. Beyond the major muscle groups, the minor muscle groups and tendons are utilized in a purposeful, relaxed manner. Moving the hips correctly will require at least fine control of the Psoas as well as sufficiently relaxed tendons - what we call opening of joints
| Hip muscles and tendons |
Hence running is anathema to internal martial arts’ aim of relaxation and natural flexibility.
Difference Mechanism
After every running session, I have a hard time trying to relax all my muscles and joints. For some reason, the elevated heart rate also does not help when I am practicing the forms. While shuaijiao and wudangquan drills can be just as intensive, if not more tiring than running, they jive in more naturally with internal martial arts forms.
Just to be sure, after two days rest, I went for a moderately challenging running workout. After that, I struggle to feel my body connection when performing the forms. My training session is was ineffective.
Run, But…
If you are like me and love running a lot, you don’t have to give up running for good. But try to avoid having running workouts and internal martial arts training sessions on the same day.
