Today I changed up the order in which I did the exercises. I did Five Golden Coins first. Then, instead of doing Eight Pieces of Silk next, I did the form. And then I did the Eight Pieces of Silk.
Doing the three exercises in a different order totally changed the quality of the exercise I got this morning! Five Golden Coins was a very simple warm-up. But I was able to get my leg up to the height of the left hand, and touch the right hand with my toes, during Windmill Kick. I missed the starting toes-to-left-hand part of the posture, but there was definite progress after only two days of attentiveness.
But the real change was in Eight Pieces of Silk. Usually, I hear no crackles in my joints or in my body during this set of exercises. I’ve just limbered up, after all… I should be pretty ‘clear’ of obstructions. Except that, when I did it last, I had just done the form… so there were a whole new set of motions that had crackled. And now the Eight Pieces of Silk were involved in ‘clearing’ those crackles, rather than going over the ground that Five Golden Coins had just stretched and opened.
Tomorrow, form first. Then the two ‘warm-up’ exercises. Let’s see what happens.
