INTRO TALK
Jogging is another movement we have learned to take for granted. It’s good exercise, of course, but it’s also ripe for deeper inquiry.
In the progression of our practice, there are some reasons for starting with jogging rather than walking. At this point we are still increasing the intensity of our work while simultaneously relaxing ourselves. So … let’s jog.
In general, we are using the jogging as feedback for posture and internal tension. We are also using it as a mechanism for relaxing the body further and making sure the whole body is working and ready for more standing movement.
With each step, the impact travels through the bones and tissues of the body like a wave. When it hits tension the wave doesn’t travel through as well or stops completely. If you pay attention you can diagnose and even massage out various tensions just through jogging.
STEP BY STEP
1. Check your standing posture: bend the knees a little and relax the hips and shoulders. Pick your whole foot up as if it were being lifted by a string attached to the knee, and then put it down again as if the string were lowered. Do the same with the other leg … back forth a few times until you get the feel of jogging in place like this, making sure the knees have some bend in them, the hips stay relaxed, back is mobile, and the arms hang freely. Finally take a little jog like this to get the feel of it.
2. Start jogging with the follow breath pattern. Inhale one step, exhale one step. Inhale two steps, exhale two steps. Inhale three steps, exhale three steps. And so on. Go as high as you can, keeping in mind you’ll have to go back down. Let’s say you get to inhale 15 steps and exhale 15 steps. Then go back down, with inhale 14 steps, exhale 14 steps. Inhale 13 steps, exhale 13 steps. All the way back down to inhale 1 step, exhale 1 step.
3. Jog freely in different direction — forward, backward, sideways, and so on. Try long steps, short steps, different gaits, and so on. Look inward and see how the impact of each step travels through the body. Where does the energy go? Where does it stop? Where does it accumulate? Try to jog in such a way that energy passes freely through the body and does not accumulate in any particular area.
NOTES
a. With jogging, as with other exercises, so many breath patterns can be explored. Try triangle type breathing where you inhale, hold, exhale for your steps, or box breathing where you inhale, hold, exhale, hold for your steps. And this is only the beginning. Breathing itself is a much deeper topic than a few patterns.
b. Too much tension in the joints prevent them from functioning properly to absorb and transmit impact. Examine the tension patterns inside your body while you jog. Are impacts predominantly hitting one area or joint, or are they distributed throughout the body?
c. Jogging has ancient roots. Our ancestors jogged for hunting, survival, travel, and surely pure joy. Jogging can be good check on the status of your mind. Go for a run and watch your thoughts. See what kind of thoughts intrude. After a mile or two, you will have a good picture of your mental blocks and habits.
GOING DEEPER
Once we begin to see how the impacts created by jogging travel through the body as waves, where they go and why, we can begin to manipulate the waves through changes in body structure, tension, and density.
Work on changing the course of the impact wave by experimenting with slight changes in posture, gait, and breathing. See if you can direct it into various areas and body parts. And see also that the source of the walking can come from different areas as well.
Now, just by jogging, we can work from and massage various parts of the body: the feet, calves, knees, thighs, hips, lower back, upper back, neck, and so on. Jogging then becomes a way of diagnosing various dis functions and of healing them.
ROUTINES
Every day for 1 week, spend 5 to 20 minutes jogging. Work different breath patterns, and use the jogging to relax yourself and massage different body parts.
OBJECTIVES
Learn to jog in a efficient way that keep you healthy and expands breath capacity. Use jogging to remove stress, re-pattern conditioned tension, and even heal injuries.
COURSE SYLLABUS
preview | introduction | 1 ground checks | 2 turnovers | 3 crawling | 4 push-ups | 5 rolls | 6 sit-ups | 7 transitions | 8 squats | 9 jogging | 10 free move | 11 walking | 12 recovery | comprehensive practice
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