Soft Arts

A medley of “If I only had a brain,” “If I only had a heart,” “If I only had courage,” sung by my friend and taiji big brother, Gene Burnett.

Week seven of the diet went great - I’m over whatever bug I caught last week. I have completed the 100 pushup challenge and we’re gearing up to have a booth at Macworld 2009!

Even better, I’ve started doing a new project for Tap Tap Tap. It’s been a great week all the way around.

I set up Gawker on my iMac today and let it run while I went through my practice. Here are a few shots I’d like to share. I’ll try and add some commentary to these today and later this week.

Circle Walking

Circle walking is at the core of Bagua Zhang practice. It is said to have its roots in Taoist walking meditation techniques, and while it is true that there are meditative aspects to its practice, it has very real value to anyone serious about the applications of Bagua.

One of the core techniques in Bagua involves stepping forward while deflecting an incoming attack, the flanking your opponent by stepping 45 degrees behind them. If you do this eight times, you will have executed a complete circle. As you continuously circle around the room, stepping the sides of the octagon, you are actually practicing this flanking maneuver over and over again.

Each time a foot comes to rest, the ankles, leg muscles, hip compress like a complex system of springs, gather potential energy. All of the power stored in the leg and hip is issued as you step onto your other foot. As practice continues over years the practitioner tends to become more and more involved in studying the interplay of muscles and tendons while walking. The ultimate goal is to be nimble on your feet while also being able to use the legs to generate a large amount of power in your techniques on each and every step.

Bagua Inner Palms

The inner palms are a set of chi gung practiced while walking the circle. Each of the inner palms has a different set of applications and all of them require a continuous structural connection going from the feet to the hands. This allows the strength of the practitioner’s legs to be conveyed directly to the arms, in the same way that someone would use their legs to push a car or a refrigerator.

Wuji (emptiness)

Wuji is done first, and the goal is to practice stepping perfectly while just letting the arms and hands relax. I’m doing something called the crane step in my practice, so my hands are pushing down hard to help me keep my balance.

Chi Ling Presses Down the Earth

Hands floating on water

Lifting up the clouds

Single Palm

Snake Palm

Bear Palm

Monkey offers fruit

Piercing heaven and earth

Dragon Palm

Two from the Sun Lu Tang 24 Animals

Chi Ling Presses Down on the Earth - start

Chi Ling Presses Down on the Earth - gathering for strike

Chi Ling Presses Down on the Earth - double palm strike to the torso

Monkey Holds Cauldron - turning to strike

Monkey Holds Cauldron - strike complete

I’ve been fighting a bug for a few days and lost my voice last night, so this is a little gravely sounding.

My diet is going well and I am working out A LOT. Still doing about two hours of bagua a day plus lifting weights with Steve. I’ve been tracking my net calorie expenditure with Fit.

Week 5 on raw food only: 16+ pounds of fat lost, 6 pounds of muscle gained.

I started attending bagua classes again! Great to be back!

Very special thanks to my friends Mike Lee and Joe Heck for providing the inspiration for the current set of Aria Touch updates. You guys rock.

If you haven’t checked out Mike’s new company/industrial & environmental revolution, United Lemur, you definitely should.

Edit: I just watched the Raw Vegan Week 1 video again. Okay, I am definitely losing weight. Ouch.