Running & Other Drugs
‘As long as one has three square feet of space, one can take a trip to paradise and stay there to enjoy life for thirty minutes without spending a single cent.’
- Master T.T. Liang
Fair warning this post is longer than usual, dense and opinionated.
Slightly off topic to start with but bear with us, it will come back around to internal martial training in due course. Here in the UK, running/jogging (or yogging for fans of Ron Burgundy) for fitness has become very much part of the culture in recent years. You don’t have to go far to see somebody out for their morning constitutional and you can spend huge amounts of money on colourful shorts and leggings, tracker watches and trainers. Organised “races” are big business and for a hefty sum you can ruin your Sunday and come away with another t-shirt and medal for the collection. Maybe even perpetuate the ironically big business that is charity fund raising. Those execs don’t come cheap!
Running has some huge positives. Contrary to the old trope that running ruins your knees it in fact appears to strengthen joints unless you are starting from the point of injury/damage (obviously discuss this with your healthcare provider before proceeding, YMMV). Running is also an excellent gateway to fitness. There appears to be a well trodden path that unfit adults take starting with the couch to 5k and beyond, before long they are doing half marathaons, marathons and ultras. They start caring about nutrition and recovery, it’s quite the journey.
Extreme access to calories with unlimited flavour and texture combinations thus mitigating any kind of palate fatigue requires an extreme exercise solution (assuming a hyper-calorific diet isn’t avoided). And this is where we find ourselves in this late stage capitalism. We are no longer the cared for customers of the food industry or any industry for that matter. The shareholders are the customers, we are merely the consumers and if they can induce addiction in us on top of their other complete ignorance of social responsibility then all the better as far as they are concerned. In light of the draconian Public Order Act that has been fast tracked in to existence in the UK, growing your own food is probably the most rebellious act you could engage in legally now. Maybe one day that will also be illegal.
Ironically, it is when you reach a good level of conditioning from a runners perspective that things get tricky. It’s at this point you’re just running to alleviate guilt, not achieving a high so much as doing it just to feel normal which is where the parallel with unhealthy addictions comes in. First thing to consider is whether super athletes lead long and healthy lives. If your research shows this isn’t the case then you need to be seeking some kind of middle path. You will eventually get to a point where you need to go much further to get that runners high. You may barely get a raised heartbeat on your slow runs (an important part of the training regime). All in all, your time spent vs joy experienced graph is going to get way out of whack. As said above, your mileage may vary, headphones on and a bit of space from whatever is going on at home might be just the tonic and that is the reason you continue. But if it is a tonic you need, a holistic practice is your finest malt relative to running’s unpopular light beer du jour. How very topical!
Tai Chi might be the recovery drug to come off extreme exercise. Its middle path approach makes it less of an all or nothing proposition. It might also be the miracle drug to come off doing nothing. With holistic training such as Tai Chi you are getting the physical workout not just from an athletic/gymnastic point of view but with the focus on attention to sensation, you are actually on a quest to feel good as quickly as possible. Not feel good afterwards like with forced exercise but the actual sensation of the practice feels good. That kind of feel good that some people get from riding a motorbike, or perfecting a parkour move. This physical feel good factor gets increasingly far away as you become a proficient ‘yogger’. The astral work in Tai Chi takes this to the next level, we’re talking full on ecstatic experience. Then the mental component is where you put your personal stamp on the practice which is hard to do in more generic sporting pursuits. Will you seek the state of ‘no mind’ Shaolin warrior style, will you take your practice to the beach and focus on soaking up the scenery and elements, or will you cosplay your favourite jedi and give your practice a pop culture slant?
This feel good factor (remember we’re talking physical feeling here not emotion) can be achieved in your ten minute cigarette break. This is slightly tounge in cheek but you’ll be amazed at the stories we have of martial arts prowess demonstrated cigarette in mouth or hand, particularly amongst the Chinese community. Something for another time. With Tai Chi very little in the way of resources is required, and your most precious resource is time. Of course you might want to spend huge amounts of time enjoying the art but that is to extend the pleasure of practice, not chasing diminishing returns.
The major issue Tai Chi has is that it is deeply uncool compared to running, yoga, BJJ or whatever. It has lost the mystique it had when it was new to the west and any associated bullshit has also since been called out. Part of the Tai Chi Empowerment Project mission statement is to bring that aesthetic up to date. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has done a fantastic job of this. For better or worse Tai Chi lends itself to more of a reclusive path and lacks practicality. The Ninjutsu culture for example, despite the issues with some of it’s more questionable iterations, does well to encapsulate some surrounding life skills. We’re trying to retrofit Tai Chi with some modern life skills as well as filling some martial gaps, drawing of a blade for example which gets minimal attention.
Back on track (pun intended). To be clear we’re definitely not suggesting you give up running, just maybe take a step back and ask yourself what it’s doing for you and why you’re there…
‘I was training a combination of Chinese Martial Arts, Muay Thai and Submission Wrestling 6 days a week. I could barely walk most days I was so sore from training. My cognitive ability was declining from the steady stream of small but meaningful head shots. It took all my time and money. It had become my identity and I was also going through that proving yourself phase which was ultimately useful because it really checks the ego, for 99.9%+ of the poulation there’s always someone tougher. However after many years one day I took the time to ask myself why I continue with this lifestyle and I realised I didn’t have an answer, I couldn’t quite remember why I started. I had forgotten that actually you could spend an evening at the movies or going kayaking or enjoying a coffee. That there were sporting hobbies that had more reasonable demands and greater pleasures. I walked out of the gym and didn’t go back. I would also strongly advise considering how your friendships are tied to your hobbies. Is there true longevity in the friendship or is it inseperable from the activity, especially activties that are for the physically youthful and will one day inevitably be lost. Are you a student/customer of the “friend” and what will they be when you are no longer a cash cow’
Tim - Head Coach, Wu Xing Taiji Boxing Alliance
For what it’s worth, in our humble opinion a good holistic wellbeing system will be based around an internal martial practice that includes the use of weights/weapons to maintain muscle mass and bone density as well as some kind of grip strengthening protocol. Potentially also grinding arms and legs for the same reason. [Resistance/strength training results in burning more calories just by existing and for the practically minded is arguably the most utilitarian form of exercise]. The system would import circle walking from Bagua or as we use for our syllabus; infinity walking. This will amplify the light cardio and mobility components. Infinity walking has many layers of benefits, speak to your instructor to explore this in depth. It should also include a deep stretching routine. Aside from the well know benefits of stretching this will greatly assist in running energy through the connective tissue and is a missing catalyst in a number of systems, as is weight training for strengthening the lines of force.
This almost concludes the least coherent rant of this blog series. But when thoughts have to come out then what can you do. As a great philosopher once said….‘better out than in’.
If you’re looking to draw a conclusion on the exercise heroes and villains of this piece then you might be out of luck. It’s just a series of observations, as ever buyer beware. Running serves a useful purpose as a test of fitness, maybe a weekly mile with a sprint finish to show you still have it and also maintain the tolerance to that unique load running puts on the body. But generally speaking a well rounded Tai Chi movement, breathwork and energy work practice in all it’s yin and yang components and with a focus on enhancing the senses is the more direct route to wellness and meaning. But we would say that wouldn’t we.