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.

 

Surgery, Exercise, and Understanding Your Body's Limits

One of the most difficult aspects of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is adapting your exercise, diet, and activities to your body's changing capabilities. There are countless reasons why our body may not work the same as it used to. Injury, surgery, having children, and even the natural aging process can change our body's ability to function. It could even be something as simple as not getting a chance to exercise for a while.

In my experience, if I don't do arm exercises for a couple weeks, I have to ease back into a routine to avoid straining myself too much and risking injury. When I am in good practice, I can do two sets of 30 wall push-ups (elbows in then elbows out). But if I even go two weeks without upper body exercise, I need to start back at 15 repetitions on each set, rather than the full 30.

And what if you have just had surgery? Many exercises on the blog are related to recovering from or preparing for surgery. I always show you how to do the exercise with no resistance, because adding resistance when you are weak after surgery is dangerous. You have to accept your new level of ability, and slowly work your way back up to your previous capability. Even if you are not strong enough to completely lift your arms, or if you have very low range of motion after an operation, do not feel ashamed and do not push yourself to get better too fast. The wise thing to do is to be confident that you will get better with time, and stick to your new routine very closely.

Recently, I had a blog reader ask me how they should do the breast cancer exercises when they aren't planning on having surgery. Should they do them the same? Differently? Should they bother to do them at all?

My answer was, of course they should do them! These exercises are not just for surgery, but for getting oxygen and healing energy to the site of the cancer. The difference is, what is your 80% level when you have not had surgery? 80% effort after surgery might mean just stretching your chest a tiny bit while lying in bed. If you aren't having surgery, but are going through chemo, 80% effort may be doing a few chest exercises for 10 minutes while sitting in a chair. If you are completed treatment and are feeling healthy, 80% effort could be chest and arm motions with some 5lb weights in your hands, while standing up.

It's all about recognizing what your ability is at this stage of your life, and doing the right amount of exercise to maximize healing and minimize your chance of further injury or illness.

Happy Stretching!

How Much Tension Do You Hold In Your Body?

Two years ago, I made a video about the tightest muscle in the body. Today, I'm going to show you a fun and simple game you can use to find out how much tension you hold in your body as a whole. Try it with a friend, and see how much you can relax!

On the flip-side, learning how to fully release the muscle tension in your limbs is an important step in focusing and exerting your energy in martial arts. Learn to relax with this game, so you can fully unleash your inner warrior later!

Hungry for more great video content? Well, there is exciting news over at Cancer Wellness TV! Dana-Farber and Cancer Wellness TV have teamed up to make some amazing Cancer Survivorship Nutrition videos, such as How to Lose Weight After Cancer Treatment, or if you have the opposite problem How to Gain Weight After Cancer Treatment, and even a important video guide to vitamins and supplements to support cancer health.

If you don't already subscribe to Cancer Wellness TV, please do! And share it with all of your friends and family! We are on a mission to get the best cancer health resources to everyone in need of them. We can't do it without your help.

Happy Stretching, and Happy Eating!

Fa Jin - Manifestation of Power

Fa Jin (a.k.a. Fa Jing), or "manifestation of power," is great practice for controlling and moving your energy, stretching and releasing the bows, and improving your martial arts. The force of movement in Fa Jin is a good way to begin visualizing the movement of energy during your Tai Chi practice.

Good luck! And make sure you don't move too fast or too hard, and accidentally hurt yourself. Fa Jin is about control, not strength!

Na - Sensitivity Training - Listening with the Skin

When doing Na, or sensitivity training, you want to go slow and try not to compete but to be a good partner. Close your eyes and learn to sense with the skin on your hands. Go slow and start with one hand at a time and over time move to two hands simultaneously. Once you are comfortable with the physical movements then try visualizing your lower energy center while practicing Na. After that, work on the visualization of the 4 gates breathing while practicing Na; you can start with two gates, the upper ones, and over time add the lower ones as well. When you advance even further, you can do Na training on two wooden blocks (still visualizing the lower energy center, of course!).

Spring is a Time for Moderation

As the weather begins to warm and many of us emerge from our winter-long stay indoors, we need to remember to get back into our spring and summer activities slowly. You all know my Rule of 80% by now. Being active at a moderate level is key to avoiding injuries, and helping your body adapt to new routines and experiences. So if you are getting back into an exercise routine soon, don't push it! Build back up in moderation.

But moderation isn't just about exercise. Many people (especially in New England) want to run outside and bask in the sun all day in that first week or two of warm spring weather. But if you expose your skin to too much sunlight all at once after a whole winter of being indoors, you're asking for a sunburn. Or even worse, an increased chance of skin cancer. Wearing sunscreen if you are going to be out for any extended period of time is very important. Equally important is allowing your skin to rest and properly react after sunny weather. You should only be in direct sunlight for at most an hour a day during the first two sunny weeks.

If you can begin with half an hour during the first week, and work your way up to an hour, that is even better.

A good rule of thumb is that you should already see a healthy (not red and burned) change in your skin color a few days before you start going out for more than an hour. If you have a darker complexion or your skin just doesn't change color much with sun, two weeks of at most 1-hour a day is still a safe bet.

And how about breathing? We all love to take deep breaths of that fresh, warm air after winter. But many of us walk around with a runny nose or congestion once the flowers and trees start to bloom. That's because you are getting too much pollen and fresh air too fast. You have to use a similar strategy with air as you do with sunlight so that your lungs and sinuses can adapt to the new environment.

Begin with a few deep breaths of outdoor air each day, before things start to bloom. Work your way up to a minute of deep breathing, then two, then three, etc. Don't immediately open all your house windows and let the air through, because then you won't have anywhere for your lungs to rest! Save that for when you have already been breathing the outside air for a couple weeks.

If you have serious allergies, then this deep breathing advice comes with a grain of salt. Consult a doctor before doing anything that might aggravate a preexisting condition.

Happy Stretching (in moderation)!