In the last blog on this topic I talked about the first (or, rather, last) of the five things that I’ve found, for myself, to be the most beneficial when losing weight: drinking water.  (Or rather, not drinking non-water.)

Since I’m doing these in the reverse order in which I find them useful, this time we’re talking about the 4th most helpful simple change that I have found contributes to my weight loss, and it has to do with sleep.

Again, these are not really “tricks” or “techniques”, but mainly just fundamentals for good health. Also, you should definitely consult with a medical professional before embarking on any physical exercise plan, since these are just my own opinions based on my own experiences and research. Your millage may vary.

Weight Loss Fundamental #4: Sleep Long, Sleep Consistent

I usually get a mixed bag of responses when I tell people that sleep is vital to weight loss. Some people think that its a silly idea and tell me diet and exercise are all that really matter, and some people give me a “hmm … I never thought about it, but I guess that could be true” sort of response.

Let me start by telling you a little bit about my own experiences with sleep and weight loss. It all started last year with a sleep-related experiment I ran which gave me some interesting results.

My Polyphasic Story

In January of 2011 I started a weight loss program based on a few of the fundamentals I’m mentioning through these blog entries (mostly ones I haven’t mentioned yet) and at first it was going really well.

I started dropping quite a bit of weight. And it wasn’t a radical drop and then a taper off, but it was a consistent 2 – 3 pounds per week sort of thing. I would consider that to be a healthy but rapid weight loss number for most people.

Around the 6th week of this weight loss effort (having lost around 15 – 20 pounds at this point) I started another experiment in polyphasic sleep patterns.

A quick introduction: For those of you who don’t know, polyphasic sleep “refers to the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period” (wikipedia) and received a lot of recent attention from Tim Ferris’ book “The 4-Hour Body“, which mentions it. But actually, there has been a large online community of polyphasic sleepers for quite some time.

I’m not going to get in to a long discussion of polyphasic sleep here, because that isn’t the point of this blog. But the schedule I adopted is known as the Everyman-3 or E3 schedule, which has a person sleep one 3 hour chunk at night (two REM cycles) followed by 3 other small naps of 20 minutes during the day.  Basically I was sleeping 4 hours a day.

Thanks to my long history of having jet lag and staying up all night to watch videos of play games I am apparently a good candidate for something like this (as is the parent of a new-born baby, reluctantly so), so my adaptation period, while challenging, took less than a week and pretty soon I was making due with an extra 4 hours a day to spend.

Experimental Results

It did wonders for my productivity as I would putt around during the night taking care of random things at home or on the computer, and then also spend the day going out and taking care of other things when the stores were open.  My wife said it was strange waking up in the morning to find the house cleaned up and food prepared for the day.

But I also noticed another affect of this low-sleep, high-productivity life style. My weight loss completely skid to a stand-still. I didn’t change what I ate. In fact, I was probably eating healthier because I had more time to make sure I was eating good food and prepare the right stuff.

When my work started back up (I did the experiment during the month and a half Spring Festival break when I was teaching at the University) I went back on a standard sleeping schedule and the weight loss started back again (at least as long as I was following a healthy lifestyle in other respects).

I thought this was an interesting result. Not really scientific, but still interesting to me.

Another Experiment

I assumed that there was a relationship between your body resting and fasting while you sleep and the ability to stimulate a change in your metabolic rate and fat stores. A few months later I did another experiment to test this idea. (Keep in mind I am not a scientist so I use the word “experiment” in it’s loosest form.)

At the time I decided that I would weight myself at two different times in the morning. First I would wake up after 5 or 6 hours of sleep and weigh myself. Then I would go back to bed and sleep for another few hours and then weigh myself again. For the second wake-up I didn’t set a specific time — I just let my body naturally wake up. (I did this experiment during a holiday break, in case you were wondering.)

The results were quite interesting.

Almost without fail my weight would vary by at least 2 pounds between the first waking and the second waking. That is a pretty substantial difference for just a few more hours of sleep!

There might have been other factors involved too, but I tried my best to let all other things in my life maintain equilibrium so that the results would be specifically related to my time asleep.

“Scientific Research”

After doing some research online (you know … the best kind of research there is) I found out that there was some scientific backing to what I had learned through my own experiences. (real science, this time.)

A study at the University of Chicago Medical Center showed that a lack of sleep interfered with the body’s ability to lose weight.  It also turns out that insufficient amounts of sleep reduce the amount of the hormone leptin, and increases production of ghrelin.

Leptin helps you to feel satisfied after you eat and ghrelin increases feelings of hunger upon waking. Not only that but insufficient sleep can actually cause leptin resistance, which means that even with leptin in your system you will still eat, thinking you are not satisfied, when you actually have had enough to eat.

A research firm in Ohio also conducted the largest study in history to examine the effects of sleep on long-term weight loss (over 70,000 women were monitored for over a decade and a half!) they found that, on average, women were 30% more likely to gain over 30 pounds during a 16 year period. In fact, according to this study, they learned that sleeping patterns have a greater impact on weight loss than either eating or exercise.

And beyond all of that, the time you sleep is the main time your body metabolizes fat, so if you reduce those hours of essential fat metabolization you make it that much harder to lose any.

Exercise and Nutrition vs. Sleep

What a lot of people used to believe (and probably a lot still do) is that going to the gym is the most important part of exercising. Sure, that is where the work is done, but I think that is only half of the equation. (Maybe even 40% of it. 35%?)

As you know exercise is a stress on the body, however it is the adaptation to that stress that causes change and growth. And the time when your body adjusts and adapts is when you are sleeping, not while you are awake. So if you want to develop your muscles or build strength and speed you need to make sure to get enough hours catching some Z’s because that is where the magic happens. More sleep equals more recovery equals better gains (and weight lost) from exercise.

Another common belief is that your nutrition is one of the most important parts of weight loss.

Well, yes and no. What you eat is absolutely important to your efforts to lose weight. But it is what you do with the food in your cells that makes it so important. And it is the time when you are sleeping that your cells are getting nutritized (did I just make up that word? Yes, indeed I did) based on what you consumed during the day.

Your cells take in all those important nutrients while your body is at rest. And if you think about it, that makes sense. After all, while you’re awake is when your cells are active and doing their jobs. It is only when your sleeping that they have a chance to recharge and recuperate for another day of excitement.

In addition, I have found that the more junk food I eat, the more sleep I need too. I think it has to do with the nutrient deficiency in those types of foods and the difficulty your body has in generating the proper amount of energy for good cell function, but I might just be spinning my wheels there. I’m no biochemist. Take that particular piece of knowledge with a big grain of salt.

I should also mention that I’ve also found in my own experience that the harder I workout during the day (ala Wushu with professional athletes) the more sleep I need to fully recuperate. So, if I normally sleep 8 hours a night, I might need 9.5 hours to make up for the extreme athleticism I demonstrated on the wushu carpet that day.

How much is enough?

And that brings us to the first question you probably have which is “how much sleep is enough?”. The reality is, this is different for everyone because everyone’s body is different. The normal answer is “8 hours a night” but I’m not going to tell you what you’ve already heard (and what might not be true for you).

The real trick is figuring out the best amount of sleep for your specific body. What you need is a method for figuring that out.

And I have one.

But it takes some time and commitment. Because the best time to do this is when you are on a break or vacation. In other words, when you have no specific time you need to wake up in the morning. No alarms and no appointments. And ideally you have several weeks free to do this.

Does this sound like you? Probably not. Most people don’t have weeks and weeks to leisurely wake up whenever they want.

Hey!  I didn’t say it would be practical. Just that I figured out how to do it.

If you are like most people you are probably running on a constant sleep deficit. You might make up a few hours on the weekends, but most of the time you’re probably a bit on the tired side.

What you need to do is let your body sleep as much as it wants. That’s right. Sleep in! For hours if you like. Sky is the limit. (If you’re a student going on summer break, then this is perfect for you.)

The trick is, you need to go to sleep at the exact same time every night. You can’t stay up until 1AM some days and then crash at 9PM on other days. Go to bed at the same time and then sleep until you wake up naturally.

Eventually, after you have made up your deficit of sleep, your body will reach equilibrium and find a balance. When you find yourself waking up at the same time every day pretty consistently, then you know you’ve reached your natural sleeping length. For some it might be 6 hours. For some it might be 9. For most it is probably in the 7 to 8 hour range.

Of course, as a second option, if you don’t want to do all that, then just pick a number and stick with it for a few weeks to see how it feels. If you are still tired all the time then adjust it to add some more time. If you wake up before your alarm goes off, then you can reduce the number.

This method is trickier because setting an alarm means your body starts to wake up at a specific time out of habit, and moving that time in either direction is a bit of a challenge. But I have faith in you so I’m sure you can manage.

What time is best?

So, now you know how many hours you should sleep. The other question you might have is “what time is the best time to go to bed?“.

Well, my own view is that it is better to determine this by figuring out your ideal time to wake up. If you have an 8 hour sleep cycle and you have to wake up at 5 AM every morning, then you need to sleep at 9 PM.

Pretty simple, right?  It is just subtraction.

Be Consistent!

The main thing I would like to stress though is CONSISTENCY. If you aren’t consistent in the times you go to bed, within 30 – 40 minutes on either side, then you are just shooting yourself in the food.

If you set 10 PM as your sleeping time, then you need to be in bed between 9:30 and 10:30. This is really essential, because your body operates according to specific biorhythms. If you manage to keep your sleeping times consistent, then the time your body is asleep becomes much more effective in the metabolization of fat and the utilization of nutrients and exercise.

Final Recap

So, let’s summarize, shall we?

First, it is important to get sleep. 9 out of 10 online scientific studies found through Google agree that sleep is essential for weight loss and proper cell function.

Second, if you want to make the most of your exercises and increasingly excellent nutrition, then you need lots of sleep. More sleep = better results from exercise.  More than you would if you were sedentary and doing nothing. This also (might) apply if you are eating poorly. Bad nutrition = less energy = more tired = more sleep?

Third, figure out the best amount of sleep for you. it might be 6 hours. It might be 9 hours. Do some testing and learn your optimal sleep time.

And finally, you need to be CONSISTENT with the time you go to bed and wake up. Consistency is key to maximize your body’s ability to really get the most from those dormant hours at night.

So, that is it for this round. Next time I’m going to talk a bit about something you can do as soon as you wake up to help you lose weight.

What is it? Just wait and find out!

To be continued …

(image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

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So, it has been 2 weeks since my last entry.  Last week I got a bad bacterial infection in my joints which caused some pretty intense swelling and arthritic pain.  I was basically bed-ridden from Monday evening until Sunday afternoon, which was the first time I was able to leave the house.

But thanks to the power of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory mediation, I am feeling much better and was even able to go to the office today.  It is a bit swollen in the knee and I still hobble a little, but it is improving on an hourly basis and in a few more days I’ll be dashing around Xi’an just like before.

Anyway, enough about me.  In the last entry I promised you some of my weight loss techniques.

Actually, calling them “techniques” isn’t really appropriate.  They aren’t techniques so much as they are just fundamentals for good health.  But, all things being equal, these are the five things that I’ve found contribute the most to my weight loss efforts.

And I should preface this by saying that I don’t think these are things that anyone doesn’t know.  In fact, I’m sure you know these things.  (Actually, if you are reading this blog you’re probably a svelte wushu athlete already so you most likely have no need to lose weight.)  But knowing things usually isn’t our problem.  It is applying them that tends to be a challenge.

I should also include the caveat that these are just my own opinions and apply only to my own experiences.  I’m not a doctor and you should always refer to a professional when attempting any weight loss efforts.

Okay, so I’m going to list these 5 things in the reverse order of how much they help me.  Sort of a Top Five Countdown.  Today I’m introducing the first (err .. fifth, rather) item on my list and every few days I’ll post up another part for you.

(I’m doing it this way because, well, I’ve been accused of writing rather long, unreadable blog entries in the past.  So I thought that breaking things up a bit might be easier to swallow (no pun intended).)

So, without further ado …

Weight Loss Fundamental # 5: Drink lots of water — and only water.

I know.  I know.

This one is drilled in to us almost daily.  Drink water, drink water, drink water, blah blah blah.  We’re literally drowning in a sea of advice to drink more water (pun intended).  It just sort of hangs out there in the back of our consciousness, like white noise in the great plethora of random drivels of advice which are constantly thrown to us by everyone else.

But just because everyone is staying it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.  (Of course, it doesnt mean it is true either, but just go with me on this one.)  As you already know, water is one of the principal agents in the metabolism of fat in the cells.  Without proper hydration your system can’t detoxify and if you don’t have enough water you will have a much harder time just functioning like a normal human being.

So, this isn’t something new to you.  You already know water is good for you.  You probably drink a lot of water too.

H 2 Only

But what else do you drink?  What else did you have today?  Can you remember what you had besides water?  A coke, perhaps?  Maybe a cup of coffee?  Some Gatorade after your training?  A jug of juice from Mr. Jamba as you jogged to the gym?

Remember the second part of the statement?  It said ” – and only water“.

So, What do I mean by that?

The problem most people have isn’t that they don’t drink water. The problem most of us deal with is that there are so many alternatives to water being presented to us all the time.  It can be quite overwhelming.

And most of them derail efforts for weight loss.

So, what are the water alternatives?

Stoked for Coke

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about the evils of Coke or Pepsi or any type of soda.  All that high fructose corn syrup is about as bad for you as drinking a slow-acting poison.  But for weight loss it is really just the anti-Christ.

I have a friend who, when he cuts out sodas from his diet, loses around 15 – 20 pounds in the first 2 weeks.  He doesn’t make any other changes.  He just stops drinking Coke.  This wasn’t a one time fluke.  It happens every time he goes off the dark liquid nectar of evil.  (Granted, he drinks a lot of coke so the effect on him is more severe, but that stuff is just really bad for you, period.)

Most people know Coke/Pepsi are bad for you.  But how many of us have not had ANY soda’s in the past month?  I’ve gotten to the point where I usually have just one per month, but I think most people (especially anyone who goes to McDonald’s or Burger King) probably gets them more frequently than they’d like to admit.

Knowing it is bad for you and taking action on that knowledge are two different things.

Okay, so no soda’s.  What else is an alternative to water?

Juicing for Joy

A lot of people think that drinking juice is okay, but actually juice isn’t all that great for you.  It is essentially sugar water, and sugar delivered that quickly in to your blood stream can cause a huge insulin reaction, contributing to your body storing fat and slowing down your metabolism.  (For a more scientific explanation of this process I recommend watching the presentation “Sugar: The Bitter Truth“.  80 minutes that will totally change your views on sugar.)

Fruit is great, of course.  But the primary reason you want to eat fruit is for the fiber, which helps your body digest and process what you put in to it.  Sweet fruits are typically higher in fiber (watermelon and grapefruit being obvious exceptions).  Just look at sugar itself.  Have you ever tried to eat sugar cane?  It’s like gnawing on a Christmas tree!  Fiber, not juice, is a fruit’s greatest gift to your health.

Fruit is great eaten in the form it was intended to be eaten.  Fruit is not so great when put in to juice form, just because it loses a lot of it’s benefit and gains a lot of things that don’t help the weight loss situation.

I usually don’t even drink those healthy smoothie drinks or fresh juices (except maybe wheat grass if I can find it) because it is the same problem.  If you want to get a bunch of carrots and apples in to your body, drinking the juice without the fiber is putting in the stuff you need the least.  Yes, the juice has a lot of nutrition, but you get the same nutrition from just eating the carrot sticks and apple in the first place, plus you also get the essential fiber and macronutrients that are so good for you.

Giddy for Gatorade

You might think that, as an athletic person, sports drinks are something beneficial to our regimen of training and workouts.

The reality is, sports drinks are almost as bad as drinking soda.  

If you are old like me then you remember what Gatorade used to taste like before it was bought out by one of the big soft drink conglomerates.  It was incredibly bitter and tasted more like something that was coming OUT of an athlete — not something to put in to one.

But that was the point!  Back then it was designed by sports nutritionists at Florida State University to put back essential things you lose during exercise.

But that ended decades ago.  Today’s gatorade is basically like Coke without the caffeine and carbonation, plus a bit of color and fruit flavors.

Careful with Coffee!

Well, what else can you drink?

Tea?  Perhaps.  That isn’t all that bad for you as long as you don’t have it too heavily caffeinated.

Coffee?  A cup of day might help you get going (and Lord knows I like me some Java Joe when I’m feeling sluggish), but the truth is coffee just isn’t very good for you.  It is a diuretic, which is actually the opposite of what you want to happen when you are trying to get in more fluids.

I would say Tea is generally okay, but if you are a coffee-holic try to limit yourself to less than a cup per day, preferably none, but I know how people are about their coffee.  Just try not to go overboard, okay?

So, what does that leave you?

8ch To Owe

Well, water, of course.  Nature’s perfect source of fluids for the body.

Drink water and all will be well with your body’s ability to metabolize foods and disperse the fat keeping you warm at night.

Drink water and you will be able to exercise and play and enjoy your life safe in the knowledge that your joints are well lubricated and your cells are functioning optimally.

How much water?  Well, I generally try to drink at least 3.0 liters a day.  4.0 is better though.

But the amount really depends on you.  Things like your body type, weight, activity level, altitude, weather, health condition, and more, can determine the total amount of water you should have.  Most “experts” advise drinking a half ounce for every pound you weigh.  So just take your weight and divide by two.  A 200 pound person should be drinking 100 ounces of water a day.  (Here is a handy calculator you can use to determine your ideal water intake based on your various factors.)

That might seem like a lot, but if you’re doing something as intense as wushu every day, then I think you should be drinking even more – double of the number above (i.e. one ounce per pound of body weight).

Just remember the old adage:  If you are thirsty, then you are already dehydrated.  You need to drink before you become thirsty so that your body doesn’t have to signal you for more fluids.

The signal is a sign of a deficit.

Some Tips for Drinking Water

Finally, a few tips for those of you embarking on a new life filled with lots of watery goodness.

1) For the first few days you increase your water intake you will find yourself taking frequent trips to the bathroom. This is normal. Your body isn’t used to getting the fluids it actually needs and will use it up quickly.  But if you keep at it eventually your body will adapt and start utilize the increase in hydration for better cell function.  You will also find that your trips to the bathroom become less frequent by day 5.

2) If you can’t stand the taste of water (which is just kind of weird, to be honest) try putting some fresh lemon in it.  But the truth is, if you have been drinking a lot of sugary things, pure water might actually taste a little bitter to you.  It isn’t bitter.  It just seems bitter compared to the sugary drinks you’re used to having.  Give your taste buds a break from the sugary tastes and you will acclimate to the normal, ph-balanced taste of water.  Stick with it long enough and you won’t even be able to drink sugary drinks without wincing at the sweetness of it all.

3) Drink more earlier in the day.  This is for two reasons.  First, it hydrates you after your long sleep at night (and subsequent first-thing-in-the-morning need to urinate) and, second, drinking too much in the evening means you will find yourself waking up in the middle of the night with dreams of waterfalls and ship wrecks echoing in your mind.

My Final Thought …

I should mention that drinking water itself isn’t necessarily the thing that I find contributing the most to my weight loss with this whole thing I just wrote.  It is the elimination of all the other crud that we normally drink that really does it for me.

If you eliminate everything except water, then you take away those things that inhibit you from losing weight.  Water itself (at least for me) isn’t what helps the weight loss.  It is the exclusion of non-water drinks that does the trick.

So, I think I’ve effectively drowned this topic (another pun!).  Join me next time when I tackle Fundamental Principal #4.

What is it?  You’ll just have to wait and see.

To Be Continued …

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He Jing De and a much thinner Mark (Temple of Heaven, Beijing, June 1999)

I’ve been doing wushu (on and off) for over 17 years now.  That’s kind of a long time (although not as long as some) and when I look back at my training efforts I notice some interesting patterns.  Highs and lows.  Peaks and Valleys.  Times of motivation and energy and times where I lose focus and interest in my training.

Right now you could say I’m definitely in one of the slumps where wushu has taken a back seat.  In fact, a couple months ago I decided that I couldn’t train anymore.

I quit wushu

That’s right.  I had decided to quit training in wushu.  No more.  Nada.

I even sent Yuan Min a text message to explain that I wouldn’t be able to train anymore.  I was prepared to walk away from wushu and not give it a second thought.

And I gave myself quite a series of very valid reasons.  The most valid reasons stem from my physical condition.

I mean, let’s face it.  I’m no spring chicken.  After you turn 40 wushu becomes quite a challenge.  One of the things I’m most proud of with my wushu is that on my 40th birthday I was actually training with the Shaanxi Wushu Team and able to maintain through the whole workout.  Not that many 40 year olds can handle a professional wushu training session.  Not that I was of a professional level — but I’m still happy that I could survive the class.

Here is a video:

So, I have this “excuse” related to my age.  Sure, I’m not young, and wushu is generally a young person’s sport.  But that doesn’t mean it is exclusively the domain of the acne generation.  Wushu isn’t only about the sport and the 难度 (nandu) and competition.  In fact, I’ve always said that the most important part of wushu are the aspects related to self-cultivation — to improving yourself and becoming a better person.

The other common excuse I come up with is related to my physical condition.  Specifically being overweight.

Fat Chance!

As you can see from that last video, I’m not exactly what you would call “slim”.  I’ve struggled with my weight for most of my life so that isn’t something recent or shocking.  And I’ve always known that the main reason I find wushu so taxing on my joints, legs and body is because I’m carting around an extra 30 – 50 pounds most of the time.

And this particular excuse is actually a bit more real, because unlike my age, having excess body weight is actually detrimental to my training.  Extra weight, more than being over 40, is what can cause injury and severe problems while training.

Heck just look at Jackie Chan. He made Drunken Master 2 after he turned 40.  No, I’m not comparing myself to Jackie Chan.  I’m just saying that your age isn’t a barrier to health and fitness any more than intelligence is a barrier to happiness in life.  Age ain’t nothing but a number.

And when I decided to stop training, I recognized that the main reason I needed to stop was because, given my currently physique, wushu would end up hurting me before the weight came off.  It was a matter of injury prevention, not just of being lazy or feeling old.  I didn’t want to end up with another knee injury or some severe debilitating problem.

Changing Things Up

And so I substituted wushu with other activities.  I started walking.  A lot.  Just 2 weeks ago I went on a 8 hour 30 km hike through the countryside around Xi’an.  The week before that I did 28 km in 7 hours.  I recently bought a new bike and have been riding every day to work and to run errands around the city.  At my office I’ve even been asked to teach a taiji class twice a week, which has been an interesting change of pace.

I mean, really?  An American teaching Taiji Quan in China.  Whodathunkit?  I’m not even all that good at Taiji.  I just happen to be better than anyone else at the company.

And while these are great (and much easier on the body), it doesn’t take away from the fact that I still have this inner longing for wushu.  I still have dreams at night about doing wushu.  It is rather annoying, to be honest, because I had really thought it was behind me and in my past.

But here is the thing.  Just because I’ve found a great excuse not to train, doesn’t mean I really have any excuse not to train.

That might not make sense, so let me put it another way.

Just because I can stop training because I’m overweight and it is dangerous for my body, doesn’t mean that stopping for that reason has any sort of real validity.

In fact, it is just another lame excuse.  You know it.  I know it.  It really isn’t any secret.

The Brutal Truth

When you think about it, “I can’t train because I’m too fat” is just all sorts of bologna.  Because, unlike my age, body fat is one thing I actually can control.  I can change it, if I choose to.  It has nothing to do with genetics (I’m sorry, but there is no “fat” gene controlling my mid-section.  That is just silly.  It is a result of choices, plain and simple.) and it has everything to do with self control, will power and consistency.

In fact, I know exactly how to lose weight.  Ironically, losing weight is one thing that overweight people are really good at and knowledgeable about.  Why?  Because it is what we are constantly thinking about.  We analyze everything we eat.  We think about all the exercise and diet and nutrition options in the world.  The people who suffer from a disease or condition are those who put the most mental energy in to trying to understand it.

If you think about it, overweight people have probably lost (and then gained) more weight than most slim people weigh at their largest.  We’re really, really good at it.  We just happen to be better at gaining it back.

Taking Action

And so I know what to do.  And in my next blog I’m going to tell you all about it.  I’m going to lay out the five simple things that anyone can do to lose weight.  And not just a little weight.  But all my extra weight.

In fact, just by using these techniques I’ve lost 12.2 pounds in that last 11 days.  It isn’t some fad diet.  It isn’t any sort of starvation technique.  It isn’t a reduction in calories or an increase in exercise (in fact, I haven’t been exercising much at all).

To be honest, it is just common sense.

But sometimes the most common sense is the hardest to apply.

And who knows?  At the end of this, I might even be able to start back up with wushu again.

But we’ll save that decision for another day …

To Be Continued …

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One of them just finished working with Keanu Reeves for his Taiji-related film, so my plan is to see if he’s open to do a quick video interview about his experiences.  We’ll see what he says.  (finger’s crossed)

And Wu Di is, as usual, a busy guy.  He’s not a fan of video interviews, but I might try to snap some footage of us hanging out and try to ask him about some of his current film projects.  I think he is doing some action directing for a commercial this week so perhaps I can ask him about that.

In the meantime, I just went to a wedding in a town not too far from Xi’an, and I put the 1,900+ photos I took in to a time-lapse video.   It is an interesting look at life in China and traditional Chinese weddings (my 2nd traditional wedding experience in China so far) so I thought you wushu folks might like a peek.

I also put up some photos which you can see here:

http://smu.gs/JorJB6

There is also a wedding I’m going to in June, so that is 3 weddings in the span of a month.  ’Tis the season for weddings in China.

Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, I am putting together some wushu t-shirts.  Just a limited run for fun.  Sign up for info is you’re interested in getting one.

http://wushuzilla.com/adidaw

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chaoyang day 1

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Enjoy! And If you’ve got any questions you want me to ask him, please message me on twitter.

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Designed by an artist friend in Xi'an

So, it’s been a little while and you’re probably wondering what happened to me.  Or .. perhaps you don’t care and are just wondering where more wushu videos are.

Well, a couple things have been going on so let me give you a quick status update:

Wushu Hiatus

As you remember from the last WTV, Yuan Min told me that the kids were all going to Cheng Du for a traditional competition and told me to wait for him to call me when they got back.  Well, it was 2 weeks ago when he said that so he should have called within the past week.  So I’m going to contact him today to find out what is going on.  My inclination is that he just forgot or got busy or forgot.  Or .. he might have forgotten.  In any case, I’m going to reiterate to him that I would like to really have my training taken a bit more seriously.  I figured out a competition that I would like to try for next year so I have a specific goal to work towards.  I just need someone and someplace to help me get there.

I’m going to write up more about my November wushu plans and goals in the next few days.

Website revamp

The current theme you see on the site is temporary.  Lately I’ve been realizing that if I want to have the site I want, I’m going to have to just build it myself from scratch.  So, I’ve been studying up on building wordpress themes and thought I would blog about the process here so that you all can know what is involved and, well, because I just felt like it, really.  But if nothing else it will give you an opportunity to chime in if you think of something that you’d like to see, or you see me working on something that you think is unnecessary.  Not that I will follow your advice, of course.  But I might.

Old blogs

I have a ton of old blogs sitting on a database that I never get around to getting integrated with wushuzilla.  So I’m hiring someone to do it for me.  Lazy?  perhaps.  But at least it will get done. And then we can have all of my previous content here.  My goal is to integrate all of the blogs I’ve written since back in 1998 when I first started writing wushu-related stuff online.  Remember? Back when I had wushu.net?  Wow .. that was ages ago.  I probably shouldn’t have let that domain go …

Guidebook

I still plan to have the guidebook going, and as you might recall I hired an intern this past year to collect a lot of the data.  In fact, I have a couple hundred sitting in an excel spreadsheet just waiting to be utilized.  My plan is to integrate the guidebook in to the new website projects so all of you can have access to it.  Will you need to pay for access?  Maybe? I haven’t really decided yet.  But I do know that I want the content to be available online.  My thought is that it could be a combination of a guidebook and a review site.  So that when you go to these locations you can post up your own review, thoughts and media (photos, videos) about the place so that everyone can get a fuller picture of each location.  Of course, integrating a guidebook into the website will be some additional work, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

So, that is what is going on in my neck of the woods.  Work is busy, and I’m learning a lot.  My CSS skills are slowly coming back (did I ever have them to begin with?) and I’m becoming more comfortable in the environment.  Actually next week is my 3 month-iversary and my probation will be officially over.  I’ll be a real, live boy here at Active Network.  At long last I can get some PTO.

Related posts:

1. A quick update

In case you didn't know where you were ...

Earlier in the week I was inundated with work at the office so I had to cancel my Monday and Wednesday practices with Yuan Min.  Just as well since it took me about a week to recover from that last training session at the track.  By the time I got back to the Sports Center on Friday I was really raring to go.

As I pulled in to the facility I called Yuan Min on the phone.  He said they were at the track so I putted over there (actually, my scooter is electric.  buzzed?  hummed?) and met up with them as they were finishing up their training.

That’s right.  5pm was my call time, which meant that I wasn’t able to train with the kids.  Such is life.

I did some quick warm up and stretching and then started jogging around the track.  I actually made it a lap and a half before I had to walk.  That is pretty good for a guy who could barely run a single lap just a week earlier.  Yuan Min told me that for the day I would do the following:

• 5 laps around the track
• 5 x 50 jump ropes (I did 100.  50 didn’t feel like enough)
• 5 x 10 pushups (I put my feet up at an incline to make them harder)
• 4 x 1 min. horse stance

Honestly that didn’t seem like that much.  Especially after a week off for recouperation.  I was ready for more.  But his reasoning was that, because I had a week away from training, I should take it easy.  Clearly he didn’t realize that it took me a week just to rebuild my body to be ready for a hard core training session.  Such is the way with young people who heal quickly.  For someone his age or younger, if you take a week off you start to slide downhill.  For someone like me, a week off means you are ready to work out again, harder than before.  That might not make sense to you youngin’s out there, but trust me.  Its the way my body works.

The long road to wushu progress ...

Before he took off (that’s right.  I was left to my own devices) I talked to him about a few things.

First, I asked him if the reason I was working out at 5pm was a problem with the coaches not wanting me to train with the kids.  He said it wasn’t anything like that, but he didn’t give me a specific reason why I had to come at 5pm now.  I told him that I didn’t mind making a formal training arrangement with the Team’s manager to train with the athletes, and that I had rearranged my work schedule a bit to accomodate the 3pm training slot.  I also mentioned that my intention was to train with the team and prepare myself to compete next summer.

I asked him if he thought I would be ready to compete.

“What is the competition?” he asked.

“I don’t have a competition in mind”, I more-or-less communicated in my broken Chinese, “I just want to be ready to compete.”

“What events?” he asked.

“Nanquan.” I said, adding “and maybe nangun.”

He seemed to think I could be ready by then.

But unfortunately for my training schedule he was going to leave for Cheng Du and a traditional wushu competition (fanzi, ditang, etc.) during the following week so there would be no training for me.  He told me to just train on my own and that he would contact me when he returned to figure out what to do next.

I have the feeling that there are things going on behind the scenes that I’m not aware of.  In fact, I sort of feel like that most of the time in China.  But more so with this situation.

And now that a new month is upon us, I have to reflect on the goals I’ve made and see where I am on my path towards my 5 year plan.  (Read this if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)  It is also time to post up another Monthly Ma, which I will try to do this week.

Someone on facebook had asked me to tell them a bit about the Sanda guan.  I have been meaning to post up video of the sanda guys training, but I’m never in their area and it is a little intimidating to just walk in to a room full of a bunch of people learning how to pummel each other.  So I haven’t gotten around to it yet.  But here is a quick picture from a year ago to give you a general idea of what it looks like.

Sanda Guan -- Ping Pong Optional

I also decided to make a video showing a bit of the area around the campus. I really need to do a proper tour of the place, but this will give you a general idea. Granted, it isn’t anything you haven’t really seen before, so you might not think this is very exciting. But here you go anyway.

Related posts:

1. WTV #12: Condition: Dead
2. WTV #5: Keeping in iTouch
3. WTV #6: 3pm Nanquan

Qi lai! Qi lai!

Yuan Min had contacted me on Tuesday with a message to let me know that I would have to come to practice at 5PM the next time around. I wasn’t sure if something happened with the other coaches, or maybe the team is preparing for something specific? Sometimes there are weird political things that happen. Hard to say. But at least he remembered to contact me so I sent him a message to let him know I would see him Wednesday at 5PM and he said “ok”.

Fast forward to Wednesday. Since he had contacted me the day before about training at 5PM and had also confirmed attendance I didn’t bother to send him a message. My mistake since he wasn’t there when I showed up at 5. When I walked in to the wushu guan the last group of long fist kids had just left and the whole place was empty.

Well, I didn’t worry too much about it so I went ahead and warmed up. I realized that he probably had forgotten. I decided to use this chance as an opportunity to do some self-training on my own. Plus it was kind of neat to have 4 whole professional carpets all to myself.

I did my warm ups and stretching. I tried to spend a bit more time on this because I was still extremely sore from Monday’s track workout.

Kids playing and warming up

After that I started in on my basics training. 4 lines of warm-up kicks and then I did 50 each of various kicks. Front stretch. Side stretch. Inside. Front Slap. I did 10 kicks per line, 5 lines of each, so a total of 200 kicks. But by the time I got to 200 I was extremely tired and my legs were jello-ized so I decided to move on to something else.

Horse stance. I knew the best way to work the lactic acid soreness out of my legs was to work the muscles and flush the stuff out. So I did a line of horse stances in one direction, then in the other. I did 40 mabu but after that it was time to stop as my legs were really feeling it.

I decided to use this time by myself to figure out some choreography for myself. I tried to figure out a new opening for my form. Didn’t really come up with anything I’m happy with, but at least thinking about it and playing around with some ideas gets me in that mode.

The Wushu guan at night

Around this time some kids started filtering in for the 7 PM practice groups. It was closing in on 6:30 so I thought it would be good to wrap things up. I sent a message to Yuan Min to let him know that I had trained on my own (just so he didn’t worry, in case he remembered that he was supposed to be there). Then I packed up my things and headed out.

I received a message from him later that night to say sorry and tell me to send him a message or call him the next time. No problem. I could do that.

When Friday came around I sent him a message earlier in the day to confirm if I should come to the 3PM training or not.

No answer.

Around 2:30 I sent another message: “hello?” Again no answer. Another message later “Are we not training tonight at 5PM?”. Again no answer.

So, I figured he decided not to meet up, or just didn’t get my messages. He had told me to contact him, which I tried to do, but since I didn’t get a reply I thought it would be a good chance to do some personal stuff.

Around 10:30 pm I got a message from him saying “did you get my message? I waited for you from 5PM to 6PM but you didn’t show up. Next time please let me know if you won’t come.” Whoops! I checked my messages again and I definitely received no reply from him.

I sent him a message back apologizing and saying that i would definitely call him next time to confirm the details. It seems like the two classes were a couple of missed communications. It happens, although it was a little embarassing (for both of us, probably).

So, now I know what I’ve always known about living in China. Communication is key. You have to confirm and re-confirm things over and over here. Not just with wushu but with everything. It is one of the hardest parts to get used to when living in China. You can’t take anything for granted or make any assumptions.

So, Monday I will call him and talk to him in person to confirm my training for that day.

The day off was good though. My legs feel nice and rested (and bigger) today and I’m glad I was able to let them breathe. Two practices this week instead of 3, but that is okay. Next week is another week and I will take things one day at a time.

I need to write up a Weekly Wu one of these days too. Not so much for all of you, but to help me remember what I’m supposed to keep up with on my plan and goals.

Here is a little video of some kids doing warm ups before their 7PM practice as well as a couple girls in the gymastics hall doing a bit of conditioning. Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. WTV #12: Condition: Dead
2. WTV #14: Alone at the track
3. WTV #10: A tumblin’ we will go