How much of your day is routine? 

You wake up and get going with yours, and at this point you don’t even have to think about it, right?

You probably commute to work the same way every day, not even noticing the sights and sounds as you go.

You constantly check your phone for emails, texts, Facebook, Instagram, the news, … throughout the day.

But what about…

• when you wake up to a screaming baby, you’re out of toothpaste, or the coffee maker broke (gasp!), …
• when there’s an accident on your regular routine and you have to reroute, there’s terrible traffic, or some other disruption…
• you forget your cell phone or it isn’t working.

 

 

Today’s blog is another from BSP NOVA member, Jeremy Brown.  Not only does Jeremy bring a consistently sarcastic tone to most Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9am sessions, but he also teaches a tai chi class, right here at BSP NOVA, every Saturday at 11am. 

Jeremy will be contributing to the BSP NOVA blog every month, and today marks his third one!

I love the way that Jeremy talks about routine and introduces some ideas for shaking them up in today’s post.  The awesome thing is that while he’s talking about tai chi, everything he says ties into regular, everyday life (like the examples above), but also to strength and conditioning.

Enjoy!

Chris

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A Broken Routine

When I first started tai chi the classes were structured in a way that I started my forms facing the same direction all the time. This was not a concern to me, afterall I was too busy learning how to Grasp the Bird’s Tail, Part the Horse’s Mane, and Repulse the Monkey and, oh yeah, to breathe and relax to be much concerned with what direction I was facing.

 

Then at a certain point the instruction came, “Jeremy, I need you to face the back of the room and begin.” Oh okay, it’s a bit weird but facing the opposite direction from what I normally do shouldn’t be much of an issue. I started the form and found myself starting to become disoriented. The further I went into the form the more disoriented I became and when it came time to change directions I had to close my eyes to continue.

 

Why? Why should a simple change of direction matter so much? And why would I think that closing my eyes would help?

 

It is because I got stuck in a routine. While some routines can help us get better sleep, workout regularly, and have our meals prepped and ready to go other routines can undermine our best intentions.

 

In this case I was so used to facing a particular direction when practicing that objects in the room had become landmarks. For example,  when I saw the steel I-beam I should turn around. But, now the I-beam wasn’t there and when I did turn around and see the I-beam my brain kept telling me, “Danger, danger Will Robinson. You are facing the incorrect direction. Turn around,” because apparently my brain is a robot from a 1960’s tv show. My solution of closing my eyes was also a breaking of routine. By closing them I was hoping to shut out the landmarks and continue on with what I knew should be next.

 

But, like most people I normally train with my eyes open. And like most people my sense of direction isn’t the greatest without my eyes to guide me. If you haven’t practised with your eyes closed before the straight lines of the 24 form start to veer off into new and interesting directions. You become more likely to move into the path of someone else or walk off the training floor entirely. For the record I only did one of those.

 

My instructor was not blind to this. My instructor also liked to fix deficiencies, or holes, he saw in our training. In this case the hole was being so used to training in one particular manner that I wasn’t able to adapt well to new situations. From that day forward I noticed that our training became a lot more varied. Direction became his plaything.

 

The reason he did this wasn’t just to change things up or to confuse us, but because what direction we face should have nothing to do with our tai chi. If we really knew our stuff it should not matter whether we start facing.

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Variation and Purpose

Variation, or the breaking of a routine, shouldn’t be done just to be different it should have purpose. Some examples would be:

• If you normally train indoors go train outside, the natural variation in the ground will help you work on your stability and balance. Doing so will highlight the importance of good footwork and stepping.

• If you train with music try training without it. The first time I trained without it the ebb and flow of the movements felt awkward and the voices in my head louder. Over time the differences between training with and without music should be negligible.

• Play with the speed of your movements, slowing down and speeding things up you can expose knowledge gaps in your transitions between movements and footwork. Moving slower than you normally would also requires greater concentration and stamina.

• Apply space limitations to your training. Smaller spaces will require you to adjust the size of your steps to accommodate it. Being able to finish something like the 24 form in the same place as you started, no matter the space limitations, demonstrates your ability to adjust your stepping to fit the space.

 

 

The idea isn’t to make every training session completely different than the one before, but to occasionally incorporate different variations on your regular training to either avoid or fill in any gaps. Your tai chi shouldn’t be hermetically sealed, only able to function in a very controlled environment where everything is completely oriented around it. Take it outside for a walk, let it see the world and occasionally experience different sounds and textures. In the end your tai chi will be adaptable enough to be done just about anywhere.