Just started "Warrior Wellness" beginning tape...

[jmhauer]

Well, I just started the WW exercises 5 days ago. I'm seeing some improvement in my arthritic hips. In fact, I have already gotten improved range of motion. I'm hoping these improvements will continue so I can get back into Aikido in the next few months and start rolling again!

[kagejs]

Congrats! You will definitely see more and more improvements as you continue with the program. I suggest you spend a significant amount of time on the Beginner's Program (at least 4 months) until you move on to the Intermediate. I'm on the Int program now myself, but I still use the neck exercises (for example) from the beginning program during my sessions.

The improvements may come in smaller progression as you continue with the WW program, but it's well worth the effort to do every day.

[rbibbs]

Great JM! You can pace yourself through the series. 'Preview' the intermediate when you're comfortable with the beginner. The progression is more one of neurological sophistication of movement than of musculoskeletal limitations. In other words, with your recent athletic activity, your neurology may already be capable of 'intermediate' level sophistication. If you have trouble developing the intermediate motions when you try them, stick with beginner a while longer.

[SteveB]

The martial/movement benifits of the Warrior Wellness tapes are accessed once one begins to experiment with transferring momentum from one limb to another, using the circles developed in WW. For instance, start with the left leg, moving one joint at a time: ankle, knee, thigh, hip. Now transfer that motion ACROSS the body to the right shoulder,upper arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, fingers, ending in a wave or a punching motion. Playing with a "wave" like this, moving across the body, is fascinating. Close your eyes and feel the energy compress and release, and you begin to understand how the masters do it with so little apparent effort. The SOFTWORK seminar helped to unify countless concepts from different arts into a single approach to storage and release of energy, "hearing" energy, flowing with energy. WW is a daily practise that opens the door to this possibility. Without it, it is tempting to rely upon linear strength--which is great, but our bodies don't move that way, and the effort to make them do so inevitably leads to damage.

Steve