I woke up a little too late to do a full 30 minutes, but I had a pretty intense 15-minute practice. I figured I’d make up in quality what I lacked in quantity.
But I don’t think it works that way. You can’t squeeze 30 minutes of cardio work into 15 minutes, and you can’t do 30 minutes of tai chi in 15 minutes. What you can do, is do tai chi to the best of your ability in the time that you have. That amounted to Five Golden Coins, and Eight Pieces of Silk, and a moderate-speed run-through of the form.
I’m enjoying getting back into the two qi gong routines. Both of these programs have limited usefulness in terms of ‘fighting’, but FGC seems to bend and stretch the spine in the six directions: forward, backward, left, right, up, down. When I add in Eight Pieces, I’m adding a spinal twist, a neck-release, some squats and toe-touches, and some balance exercises. It’s a complete wake-up routine for the body.
And then the form. Is it silly to say that the moving through water routine is making me stronger? It is. I’m actually feeling aches in my muscles — I’m moving stuff around in the design lab, and getting ready for our move, and I’ll feel twinges and pings that say, “hey, this muscle has already worked out today!” Very odd. And they’re definitely getting stronger.
It feels very much as though I was given those behind-the-scenes keys in the second Matrix movie, and I can move in a quite different way now. Before, I knew the form. Now I’m starting to learn the meanings and potential structures behind them.
