About two months ago, Robert Mitchell told me in a comment that I should add in squats to my routine. Today, I did.
Let me back up. Today, I woke with several pains in my body. There’s a Western Ceremonial Magic routine called relaxation, where one lies on a hard floor (rather than in bed), and gradually, starting at one’s feet and working one’s way up, individually tenses and releases each muscle you can find as a separate entity. Then one tenses all of them together, and releases them, three times. I did that this morning. Much better.
Then I got up and did my first round of tai chi. I think I intended to do only that much, but I thought, “I may as well do a qi gong routine as well.” So I did Five Golden Coins. Then, I thought, “I should do another tai chi routine.” And I did another tai chi routine, which made two. Then I thought, “Well, a ‘minimum set’ is really two qi gong routines, and tai chi, and 20 push-ups, so I’ll do Eight Pieces of Silk, too.” Which I did. Followed by… another tai chi set, which made three. Then twenty push-ups, followed by another tai chi round, which made four tai chi sets. And I thought, “Well. Robert Mitchell thinks I should do squats. So I’ll try them.” I did twenty. That sucked, and I had terrible form, but I loosened up with another tai chi set, which made five.
And from there, it was easy to do another three tai chi sets, for eight. I could add three minutes of horse stance, or three minutes of stand like tree, or both, and that would be a pretty solid workout. Except for cardio, it would cover a full workout for the day. I could add in some weights, some walking, some biking, and I’d get stronger and more flexible, faster. Yoga a few times a week wouldn’t hurt either.
