small of lower back

[Anonymous]

good morning,

thanks for the earlier posts regarding my question about blood pressure; now for the next question. as a 71 year old male who has practiced hatha yoga since 1972, i am finding i am experiencing similar conditions as my peers with comparable backgrounds. all the years of spinal twists have created a fragile lower back which, when acting up, can take me out of commission for several weeks at a time. most my age have edited out a number of problem causing asanas in their daily practice, which i have just done myself.
however, i am now in search of a qigong, nei gong set to replace these yoga lower back twists, allowing me to still maintain a bit of flexibility in those areas…
bruce has always said the energy arts are perfect for the aging boomers, so what have we got?

cheers,

daniel

[Anonymous]

My short answer: Dragon & Tiger Medical Qigong
My long answer: any version of the Yang Style Long Form

[Anonymous]

Hi Daniel,

Our histories are similar:
age 77,
Ivengar yoga since 1973.
Meditation in Full Lotus Posture daily
(right foot over left leg only)
Net result: slight lumbar lordosis, reduced cervical curvature

On the way to practicing the Yang Style Long Form since 1993,
I’ve done what could be called “The Full-Court Press”
Keeping yoga principles of good alignment and breathing,
Acupressure,
Acupuncture,
All styles of Tai Chi, (Chen, Yang, Wu, Sun)
“Anatomy Trains,” “Yoga Anatomy,” “Anatomy of Hatha Yoga”
( fascia rolling and work)
Bagua,
chiropratic spine stretching (Maximized Living)
Qigong, shibashi, Five Elements, Five Animal Sports,
walking

although all of these contribute to good lumbar spine health,
the Yang Style Long Form (particularly Bruce’s version of “The Old Yang Style Long Form”) incorporates most of the healthy spine principles.

It, however, does take several years to learn the Long Form.
But, ask, where do I want to be in 5 years?
holding onto a walker?
sitting in a wheelchair?
in an assisted living pasture?

cheers

Bob

[Anonymous]

bob,

exactly what i wanted to hear. interesting yang instead of wu and long form instead of short. been looking at cheng man ching’s 37 short yang form since i have a highly qualified teacher where i live. however maybe i should go back and re-enlist in bruce’s old style, long form yang, digital course.

thank you thank you

cheers,

daniel

[Anonymous]

I’d try your local teacher.
Live instruction is best.
The 37 Form is not the easiest to learn—
give it a fair trial.
It is more of an intermediate length form.

Bruce’s Old Yang Style Edition online is also an intermediate length form, not a complete Long Form.
But, Bruce is the only teacher to explicitly teach the internal energies.

He teaches the same energies with the Wu Style short form.

Repeating a short form 3 or 4 times compared with doing 1 long form will not rev up the Qi as much.
Also with a long form you apply the principles and energies to a greater variety of movements and angles.

Cheng Man-ching reduced the Yang Style to 37 postures because Westerners didn’t have the patience to learn or practice 88/105/120/ 150 postures which take 30 minutes.
I took William C C Chen’s workshops on his 60 Form.
Master Chen was a top student with Cheng Man-ching.

I do TT Liang’s 150 Yang Style Long Form.
Master Liang was also another top student with Chen Man-ching.

However, out of hundreds of students that I’ve taught only 1 has completed learning the Long Form.

Can’t say that any of this cures back pain.

take care

Bob

[Anonymous]

good morning robert,

just listened to bruce’s webinar regarding his re-release of his short wu tai chi where he mentions he found the wu short form to be the very best for the smalll of the back and his yang from to be best for the upper back and since i already own the short wu series from it’s original release in 2012, i think that is the one i’ll stick with.
i thank you for your learned input and also want to thank you for turning me on to Andrew-Nugent Head, what a resource he is…

cheers,

daniel

ps: picked up an inversion table and am finding it to be extremely helpful when added to the rest of my regimen.

[Anonymous]

Hi Daniel,

Bruce’s webinar on Wu Style was very persuasive.
I listened to it twice.
With Wu Style he is a lineage holder.
With Yang Style he is a disciple—big difference.

If I were to restudy the Wu Style, I’d get the new digital on-line version.
I too got the original CD version.

An on-line is very portable and much easier to access and use.

I have both the CD and on-line versions of the Bagua Mastery Course.
With my iPhone&Bluetooth I can easily hop around from lesson to lesson while driving, while eating in restaurants (shutting out loud funky music) and play it on TVs.

Good luck with your onery back.

One factor effecting the lower back is tight hamstrings.
For that I use a rubber Lacross ball to roll out and knead the fascia.
I sit on the edge of a desk, put the ball under a hamstring, dorsi-flex my foot, extend my lower leg with quads and roll carefully—then I do my hamstring stretches.

cheers,

Bob

[Anonymous]

thank you thank you

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