more adventures in bendover

this is where i became more aware of the forward-backward axis.

so in bendover there is a certain tendency to move the butt buttward as one allows one's lumbar spine to flex and one's pelvis to rotate topside forward.  when one tries to limit that buttwardness the low back muscles are more isolated.  i noticed that in company of sword, isolated the low back enough that i got a cramp back there that lasted a week.

silent walking, head inclination

today's never-thought-that-befores:

1. was suddenly magically able to put my front foot back flat and decelerated more than before & became able to diminish the noise production of the feet on the hardwood floor by a lot.  the second time i did it it seemed that the quads have become conditioned enough to accommodate the deceleration, probably also that i had  head-back-pelvis nicely in line.
    its also an increased level of back-thereness of the head.  there is comfort & safety back-there.  today i seem extra-special more in the safe zone.
2. head turns, diagonals: there is the linear version with the chin-ear axis stays at 0, and there is the rotational version where the chin rotates toward the direction the head is turned.  Different results.

levels of cane

carrying around a sword makes me pay attention to the generally 24" out from the body zone, makes lines appear so to speak, to keep the blade from touching anything.  same thought can be applied to use of a cane.  the cane can be used to aid balance of course.  it can also be used as an antenna.  point the cane where i want to go, turn to face in that direction, go that way.

old people aikido - in the sense that the principles of aikido apply in normal interactions with objects, the object is the partner

dad is 87, mom is 89.  her habit is to sit there.  dads is to creep around all bent over.  he has been dealing with various householder stuff since they moved, kind of refuses help with it, she has had a series of medical issues.  finally he starts to feel like his world is stable enough he can spare the time to take care of himself, exercize, see doctors, etc.  he wants to do something about being all bent over, will see a doctor, will ask hopefully for a back brace.  

he wanted me to see a bar he hung in a doorway, wanted to hang from it, would i watch him & comment.  sure.  so he goes over & hangs, shows me what he does.  why did he want to do this?  thought it would be a good idea.  (used to do it, decades, didnt help.  probably didnt do it enough.  do anything enough you begin learning something about how to get something out of it.  did some doctor prescribe?  no.  think it helps?  think so.

explained that first the arms stretch, then the shoulder blades, then the back, he deals with that by lifting his legs.  plans to increase time hanging.  all that's fine, anything is better than nothing.  what has to happen if he wants to stand up straighter is to stand up straighter, all the discomfort & frustration while the new habit gets formed in 2 weeks to, um, years.

then he has a moment of lost balance.  so we talk about blackouts, which is when the blood to the head changes quckly, for instance when stopping doing something.  head swims, vision darkens, happens more as get older.  what to do.  find a stable posture that can be assumed with relative safety until the blood shift is done, few seconds at most usually, called it "a neutral position." a concept seemed to go in, he said he'd think about it.

and mom complained about falling while turning, i showed her how to break down the turning movement into pieces & do the pieces one at a time.  like when she gets where shes going she can stop, figure out which way she wants to go, which foot to move where, etc.  again it seemed to go in: the idea of breaking a movement into pieces.  that would be 2 um, transmissions in a session, as it were.  in the sense of an idea being presented & the presentee allows it to get through the brain-spam filter.  provisionally happy.  see what happens.

use of sword in yogoid mode

I have been sick with tenacious green mucus upper throat. 2 weeks of un-painful cough, no fever, some malaise.  there was some outbreak of reverted old patterns.  here's hoping that i don't end up as the 9 year old i once was.

missed aikido 2x weeks.

i've been using the sword as a guide to the lines in my AM stretch.  holding it in any position will always give me something to align with.  if i move a part i can watch the sword perhaps not move demonstrating that i did the isolation correctly.

going through the various stretch movements things are done that are absolute nos in martial, like bending the torso over a straight leg.  in martial the leg would always be bent unless taking a breakfall, but in the AM stretch the goal is to produce the stretch burn in the outside of the forward leg, so the positioning is "anti-martial."

then there's that kneel thing that may someday turn into that superyoga position with the head back & a hand touching the over backwards touching the raised toe of the flexed kneeling leg.  i can't do that yet but the girl model in the yoga clothes catalog can.

anyway, use of the sword in yogoid mode.  useful.

sword

using sword in morning stretch routine.  the purpose of the sword in static (natural man for that matter) is to enable me to notice asymetries, torques, etc.  it demonstrates the axes.  when i move a part (head e.g.) the sword demonstrates that the rest of the body did or didn't move.  in walking it demonstrates my fore and back space otherwise it tends to bump into things.  exactly how close to my feet is "here"?

what is in front of me?  (after getting, after all this time, some approximate idea of what "in front" means, other than a screen, i mean)
what is to my left?
what is behind me (how do i know?)
what is to my right?
what is below me?
what is above me?
what is inside? (glub)
what is outside?

double visual

yesterday i worked on appreciation of 2 visual fields.  the brain pretends there is one field corresponding with the unified "itness" of everything that's not "me" but that is a perceptual joke: there are 2 curved images as we know.  yesterday i was appreciating that.  the attempt was to get the two ocular directions as close as possible to parallel which means as close as possible to an infinity focus.  that meant that i would be theoretically looking beyond the farthest object in the field.  in that "position" i tried to play the attention exercise with the eyeballs still and the direction of the attention changing.  ok then, so there are 2 attention spots to pay attention to, 1 for each eye, so that while the leftward attention sees a far edge in the left eye the right eye attention notes the bridge of the nose.  then of course it is possible to move the 2 attention points separately so that 1 is for example all the way in some directiion while the other is still.  attention is "all mental" so that can be done.  slight tweeking of the concept of "unity of purpose" is required, so like most exercises it is about walking and chewing gum at the same time.