Rami's Blog

Like the Yin-Yang, Eastern Martial Arts and Western medicine are two halves of a whole. My mission is to preserve the ancient mind-body tools and pass them on to you.

 

Mind-over-Matter Weight Loss - Yang Routine

We've made it through the first half of my Mind-over-Matter weight loss series! To help everyone organize the exercises and how they should be done, I have put together this post which collects all of the Yang routine into one place, with some added comments for each exercise.

Happy Stretching!

Mind-over-Matter Weight Loss - Yang Routine

Walk like a Warrior: Warm up with this exercise. It integrates body, mind, and spirit. Even better, you can walk like a warrior anywhere: in your house, outside, in place facing the window, around a lake, etc. You can do it year-round. This video demonstrates the exercise at home, in place, near a window. When walking, keep the toes facing forward, and roll from the heal to the ball of the foot. 

Getting oxygen into the bloodstream is only one goal of this exercise. The second goal is to invoke the warrior spirit. A group of women in Dedham, age 75+, that I taught this exercise to, would use the 23rd Psalm as their mantra to invoke the warrior spirit.

Start with 1-3 minutes. Over time, increase the time you walk until you can do it four times a week for 20-40 minutes each. Beginners and limited individuals should walk slow and utilize their arms to coordinate with the leg movements. For more advanced individuals, or people who want a challenge, raise the knees higher, swing the arms harder, and go faster.

Up and Down: I go into great detail in this video about the many ways to do this exercise to get your heart pumping, build muscle, and burn fat. Be sure to start at the level that is appropriate for your ability, and work your way up.

Push-ups: Begin with 5-15 of each type (elbows-in and elbows-out), and work your way up to 30-50 of each, 3-5 times a week. Make sure you integrate deep breathing, emptying the mind, and evoking the spirit by putting the mind in the three forces: human, heaven, and earth.

Sit-ups: For people who are restricted and cannot do sit-ups from the floor, start from the chair. Slide to the edge of the chair with your butt, straighten your trunk, and hold it straight like a plank throughout the exercise. In the video, we show the three arm positions, as well as the three levels of difficulty on the floor. Again, choose what is challenging, but not painful for you, and work your way through each stage.

Counting Breath Cool Down: Finally, we cool down from all of the cardio and strength training with a simple method for slowing the breath and the mind. This facilitates relaxation and healing by bringing oxygen into the tired muscles and rebuilding them, regulating hormone production, and reducing stress.

On Tuesday, we will begin the Yin portion of the Mind-over-Matter Weight Loss system. I'm excited to show everyone what comes next!

Counting Breath Cool Down

As the final part of our Yang-side Weight Loss workout, we do a counting breath cool down meditation. This is a great way to transition into the Mind half of the Mind-Body routine.

The reason we end this half of the series with Counting Breath is because the previous exercises (push-ups, sit-ups, etc.) were designed to get your heart rate up, and make you breath faster. Now, you can pay attention and count as your breath slows and your body relaxes. Make sure to breath in through your nose as much as possible. Good luck!

How to: Counting Breath Meditation

Practice: Counting Breath Meditation

Emotional Health and Weight Loss

I'm a firm believer in the ability of physical health to improve one's mental health. The attitude of the body is the attitude of the mind, after all. If you are in a bad mood, you'd be amazed just how much positive impact a workout can have. It can be cardio, Tai Chi, strength training, stretching, anything really. When the body is moved around and feels healthy, that releases chemicals in the brain that help stabilize your emotions.

However, it is important to distinguish between a simple mood swing, and a more serious or chronic mental health issue. Mind-Body techniques can be used to treat many mental health issues, but they are used in a preventative way. For example, mindfulness meditation can help prevent Major Depressive Episodes, but it isn't used as a treatment during these episodes. The same goes for anxiety: if you keep to a mind-body exercise routine while you are feeling good, it's very possible that your anxiety levels will drop, and you won't have as many anxiety attacks. But if you are having an anxiety attack, doing Tai Chi forms is not how you should get through it.

This also applies to non-clinical, chronic emotional states, like grieving or mourning. These are natural processes that require time, loved ones, and often counseling, to properly deal with. If you want to stay as healthy as possible, whether that means losing weight, building muscle, or just being active, it is imperative that you first acknowledge, and seek treatment for, any chronic emotional issues you are experiencing.

Once you are emotionally stable again, then you should develop your mind-body routine and pursue your physical health goals. A peaceful mind can be harnessed to heal and strengthen your body, mind, energy, and spirit. A worried and bothered mind cannot. Weight loss is 50% willpower, and strong willpower comes from a peaceful mind.

Happy Stretching!

The Power of Water for Weight Loss

Water is one of the most powerful wellness tools, and drinking it is a great way to begin a healthy habit. But, it is much more important for weight loss than you think.

Exercise nuts always claim that exercising makes them feel great. This is probably true, because exercising increases the production of endorphins, which activate the pleasure centers in our brain. However, there are plenty of people who feel tired, grumpy, and just physically and mentally bad after exercising.

These people are dehydrated.

It's as simple as that. Sweating in the gym, even for just half an hour, can cause you to lose enough water to actually be dehydrated, especially if this is your first week into a new exercise routine. Normally, your body will automatically make you more thirsty over the first few days of exercising, and you'll be able to make up for the water you lost.

The down side is, you may give up on exercising completely before you can make up for that lost water. Dehydration has some awful side-effects including headaches, muscle soreness, dizziness, negative mood, and many others. If those aren't enough to make us quit exercising, I don't know what is!

But you can easily avoid these post-workout hangovers by simply drinking plenty of water for a few days before you exercise. If you are't drinking any glasses of water during the day, definitely start. If you are getting at least one glass per day, why not bring that up to 2 or 3 glasses a day before you start your new weight loss routine? You want your body to have extra water going into the workout, so that rehydrating after the sweat session is fast, and the side-effects are minimal.

Here's a funny way to know if you have enough water to exercise: your pee should be totally clear. Clear urine means that your blood is free of waste (which is what normally turns your urine yellow) and it means you have absorbed as much water as you can, so your body is releasing the excess.

So go drink some water and good luck with your exercises!