Paul Chek

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=885647


Interesting views from a controversial man.

[Ford Prefect]

I like some of Chek's work and disagree with some as well. I wholeheartedly agree with bringing spirituality into exercise and also on the fact that many people are running a tenuous line between overtraining and being healthy. I used to work out so much that it was common for me to get little colds. I was just constantly beating my body down and never letting it recover.

Working out for us laymen should be a quest to be a healthy and well-conditioned as possible, but too many strength train in a way that is not conducive to healthy living into old age. Bodies, which may have been in peak condition at 30, will start breaking down from over-use and misuse by 45. It's one thing if you are a professional athlete and your performance dictates your career. You can at least make an argument for practices like that. For people who are just training for fun, recreationally, or for "health" there is really no excuse.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Sometimes people forget that pro sports and health are NOT the same thing.

Many athletes sacrafice their health for their sport.

[Becca]

Here in the United States, we've compartmentalized our lives. People act like idiots at work or grunting silverback gorillas in the gym, then go to church and act like goody two-shoes. All I'm really teaching is to carry it all within you. Don't segregate it. Let the best parts of you shine through in everything that you do.


I have to agree with this. If htere is one stament that could actually cover fitness metality in the US, this would be it.


edit:
Also very quotable. :D

Almost every American older than 35 in this country has a defective digestive system. They're going to have to eat even more protein to even break it down, because if it's going out your butt, it's not making it to your cells!



and this sounds like great advice:

Drink half your bodyweight in ounces of water a day. If you weigh 200 pounds you have to put 100 ounces of water into the system a day to effectively clean it, detoxify it, and energize the body.

[Pork Chop]

Last year i used to correspond with a guy in canada, a former (current?) pro-muay thai guy who used to fight in thailand. In a nutshell: he overtrained muay thai & weights while ate way too little (coach's orders) and his body shut down on him.
He had to take off from exercise for a good year and got back into health with Chek's methods.

It was fun corresponding with him because he was a different viewpoint than I'd been hearing in gyms all over the place. Ultimately, I couldn't make a lot of the changes Chek advocates- and didn't agree with a lot of them. Before I could really even try it out, all that drama happened last year so I pretty much forgot about it. Some of the things the guy said about my ex & how I thought about myself in that relationship, turned out to be very prophetic.

Maybe I'll give it another look-see one of these days.
I am pretty sure now that schedules I was maintaining before were more than a little due to supplementation (which I think Chek frowns upon); so I dunno.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Do you mind if I ask who the MT guy in Canada was?

[Pork Chop]

Mark Brackenbury
He also is a big Dr Mercola fan.
I met him on axkickboxing message board just after I moved last year:
http://message.axkickboxing.com/profiles?action=display&name=Mark+L.
class act guy.
if i had the money, time, and motivation i think giving his methods a shot would be interesting- at the very least it'd be something new to try.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Ah Mark, he further west than I, never had the pleasure.

[stricker]

hahaha i was gonna say there's this guy on ax who's always plugging chek and loads of other kooky stuff :p

i have his book "eat move and be healthy" and overall i really like, again things i disagree with, and its only an entry-level book but... i like his holistic approach (for want of a better word)

[Pork Chop]

hahaha i was gonna say there's this guy on ax who's always plugging chek and loads of other kooky stuff :p


hahahahaha

yah khun kao on ax is/was my coach.
also good friends with ryukyu damashi.
actually got some correspondence from JWP offa there once.
that was teh awesome. :D

[Xiao3 Meng4]

I spent a bit of time at a Chek certified gym in Nelson, BC. There was a lot of focus on postural work and core work, with personalized stretching as the foundation. There was no single standard stretching routine, like in a lot of Martial Arts School warmups or Yoga classes. After an hour long assessment, everyone was given very specific exercises designed to lengthen the shortened, tight muscles and shorten the lengthened, loose muscles that hinder proper posture, movement, breathing, core connectedness, and the like. Overall, I quite enjoyed it, and am happy with the effects. I highly recommend it.

Christian

[sanjuro_ronin]

I spent a bit of time at a Chek certified gym in Nelson, BC. There was a lot of focus on postural work and core work, with personalized stretching as the foundation. There was no single standard stretching routine, like in a lot of Martial Arts School warmups or Yoga classes. After an hour long assessment, everyone was given very specific exercises designed to lengthen the shortened, tight muscles and shorten the lengthened, loose muscles that hinder proper posture, movement, breathing, core connectedness, and the like. Overall, I quite enjoyed it, and am happy with the effects. I highly recommend it.

Christian

The simple fact that there wasn't a "standardized" stretching regime speaks volumes about how far ahead of the curve they are.

[stricker]

pork,

i'll have to look out for those posts... i dont post on there, just read it occasionally for the news etc. the interclubs i'm supposed to be doing (when not injured or untrained) are usually advertised on there too...

sanjuro,xiao3,

thats definitely the way forward. i think its a good thing having a 'core syllabus' if you will of stretches or warm up but i think real progress always depends on looking at the individual and customising the training from there... its the future, just expensive and/or difficult to set up...