Saturday, May 14, 2011

Variations in the touch the ground, touch the sky, minimum grand exercise for each day

Several postings back

I came up with a very simple "fitness plan,"

involving two simple exercises for five minutes each a day,

and some grand

and I think quite good diet suggestions.

That post is at : Diet and Movement for Health Gain and Weight Loss



Today, in my new book, I came up with just the beginning

of a series of variations for the touching the ground

and then reaching for the sky "game"



I'm more and more pleased with this as a minimum "wake up call"

for the nervous system, and "warm up" for almost any activity.



As you recall, you simple lean down and touch the ground, bending

your knees all you want,

and then lift your hands up toward the sky.

Preferably doing this outdoors, barefoot, for just five minutes.



Here's what I wrote:
Variations: something new each day



I’m going to get you started on variations for touching the ground and lifting your hands toward the sky, and I could go on and on. There are surely at least a hundred variations, probably more like a thousand. Maybe I’ll only give seven and you can have your own fun of discovering plenty more, so that each day you discover and add on at least one more way to do this.



Okay:



One: Eyes open and eyes closed. Feel how these are different.



Two: Bend your knees more and sometimes touch the ground with your fingers, sometimes your palms, sometimes the backs of your hands.



Three: follow your hands with your eyes and head; let your head hang down on your chest the whole time.



Four: Go up and down with your weight on the left foot. You come up with the variations.



Five: Go down with hands near the left foot, or in front of it, or to the left, and then come up and have the hands going….You pick three different upward trajectories.



Go slowly in all this. Each variation uses your spine and shoulders and ankles and ribs slightly differently. Feel in the sense yourself way how this works. Feel the pleasure in this. Feel the being present. Feel your breathing. Feel how the shape of your spine and vertebrae changing is slightly different each time.



Six: Take a small rock in one hand. As you touch the ground and lift ( in all the various ways) feel the difference in the hand, arm and side that is lifting the rock.



Seven: with one rock, shift which foot you put your weight on, and then shift what hand and what trajectory your pick for the rock. E.g. weight on left foot, rock in L hand and going up over the L side. Rock in L hand and going over R side, though weight stays in L foot. Rock in R hand, going over L foot, going over R foot. Don’t worry about these words, just discover the possibilities for which foot you put weight on, which hand you put the rock in, where you lift the rock.



That’s enough. There are plenty more, and in those seven uber categories there are several dozen variations as least.



Have fun.



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