Martial Development

Martial arts for personal development

Entries Tagged as 'Health and Fitness'

Learn How to Meditate: A Simple Guide

September 18th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Excerpted from Learn How to Meditate by William Bodri
Everyone is looking for a way to still their thoughts, shed their worries, and attain mental peace.  That is the purpose of meditation… 
There are all sorts of meditations in the world that can help you learn how to cultivate a peaceful mind… They work using different principles […]

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Tags: Health and Fitness · Meditation

A Primer on Pressure Points

September 11th, 2007 · 3 Comments

by Rick Bauer
Over the last twenty years, a considerable amount of interest has been generated concerning the use of acupoints and pressure points in the martial arts. These include material on medical uses of acupoints (also referred to in certain Western publications as “pressure points” or “vital points”), as well as their use in fighting […]

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Tags: Fighting and Self-Defense · Health and Fitness · Qigong

Raving Lunatics of the Twenty-First Century

August 26th, 2007 · 11 Comments

Based Upon a True Story
Imagine yourself walking through a busy outdoor mall, surrounded by hundreds of shoppers and tourists. Casually perusing the fresh produce and handicrafts, you are suddenly confronted with a disturbing spectacle.

(Photo Credit: Gina Fish)
An unkempt, fifty-something man stands alone in the middle of the boardwalk, carrying on a loud and emotional conversation […]

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Tags: Blogging · Health and Fitness · Psychology

Four Paradoxes of Standing Meditation

August 7th, 2007 · 27 Comments

Wang Xiangzhai practices standing meditation
In 1939, Wang Xiangzhai issued a public challenge through a Beijing newspaper. His objective: to test and prove the new martial arts training system of Yiquan, a system that placed standing meditation (zhan zhuang) at its core.
Expert fighters from across China, Japan and even Europe traveled to answer Wang’s challenge. None […]

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Tags: Aikido · Health and Fitness · Meditation · Qigong · Tai Chi · Wing Chun

What Every Martial Artist Should Know About Chi and TCM

July 29th, 2007 · 25 Comments

Bad answers to martial training queries are inconvenient, but ultimately innocuous. If every theory and technique is tested, as common sense requires, then false information will eventually be recognized and discarded.
Bad questions are more dangerous. A bad question is one with a useless answer: there is no benefit to answering it correctly. People who ask […]

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Tags: Aikido · Health and Fitness · Philosophy · Qigong · Tai Chi · Wing Chun

Three Benefits From Lifting Your Bai Hui Point

July 17th, 2007 · 23 Comments

Taiji master Yang Cheng-Fu said that, without lifting your Bai Hui point, even 30 years of practice would be a waste of time. Why is this particular point so important to martial artists, and to everyone else?
The Bai Hui point, which sits on the crown of the head, is known by many different names. […]

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Tags: Fighting and Self-Defense · Health and Fitness · Qigong · Tai Chi · Training Tips

Think, Grow Rich, or Die Trying: The Bruce Lee Story

July 8th, 2007 · 12 Comments

As a fan of Bruce Lee, you probably already know about his extensive library. Bruce’s collection reportedly spanned more than 2000 books on philosophy and martial arts. (In fact, much of the material in his “signature work”, the Tao of Jeet Kune Do—compiled and published posthumously from his notes—was copied from these primary sources.)
Bruce Lee was influenced […]

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Tags: Health and Fitness · Philosophy

Breaking The Drama Triangle

May 27th, 2007 · 4 Comments

The drama triangle is a model of dysfunctional social interaction, created by psychotherapist Stephen Karpman. Each point on the triangle represents a common and ineffective response to conflict, one more likely to prolong disharmony than to end it.

The Drama Triangle
Participants in a drama triangle create misery for themselves and others. By applying the physical principles […]

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Tags: Health and Fitness · Psychology

The Top 4,465 Things In The Known Universe

May 11th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Another Group Writing Project
My previous post, Jackie Chan’s Greatest Fight Scenes, was one of the 893 entries in Darren Rowse’s Top 5 Writing Project. Since I benefited from incoming traffic as a contestant, it seems only fair that I pass on some link love.
Here a few contest entries related to the topic of this […]

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Tags: Blogging · Health and Fitness

Can Qigong Soothe These Savage Beasts?

April 21st, 2007 · 6 Comments

When alleged masters of kiai-jutsu and no-touch throws use their own students for demonstrations, skeptics cry foul.  If such incredible skills truly exist, the skeptics contend, they should enable the master to stop a skilled and determined attacker whom he has never met; otherwise, it’s obviously just bullshido.

K-1 Fighter Bob “The Beast” Sapp
These skeptics are serving up a false dilemma, lightly seasoned with […]

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Tags: Health and Fitness · Qigong · Video