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Could it be that everything you know about the world are lies

2/10/2016

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Picture
We are going to play a fun game. Imagine you got struck by amnesia and had to reconsider all of your beliefs again.

Some guidelines to think with: Some beliefs could benefit a small percentage of people but that doesn't make that belief an absolute truth, For a truth to be absolute, it needs to represent the entire picture and hold truth for everyone.

Consider these thought filters; Is this thought about the design of our current civilization benefiting you? Or are you trapped in a false perspective that play to the hands of a few perverted predatory individuals and organizations.

Another thing to consider is if something is working for you doesn't necessarily mean that a better and bigger perspective couldn't work even better for you, and solve issues that you might not even be aware of yet.

It seems that there are many pieces of "common knowledge" that stand in the way of us functioning better. Some form of false data striping should be applied to develop the ability to challenge our beliefs and be flexible in the way we hold on to them. That might prove to be crucial.

I've assembled a few beliefs about our civilization. It is fun to play this game with other thoughts as well as there are many more.


1. Great wealth is money
The saying goes that when you are young your energy goes into making money. And when you get older your money goes to fix your fading health. There is also the capitalistic hunger for material, money and power. However, experience many times proves that these commodities don't necessarily provide fulfillment and satisfaction in life. It seems that deep social connections and bountiful health predicate happiness better, with many examples of very happy and poor people as well as depressed rich people living with great limitations. Money isn't the most important thing to live by!  It can be nice to have it but it isn’t worth having at any cost. Some costs are just too much and at the end of the day it’s a commodity. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, it always remains the same.

Health on the other hand always brings happiness and satisfaction. If you are not happy and satisfied then your health is suffering. Healthy disciplines tend to build character in ways that benefit the social fabric. It's worth any cost!
With great health comes great wealth! True wealth.

2. Hard work leads to great wealth
This line of thought possibly comes from the industrial era where lots of hard work and discipline was needed to benefit factory owners. Instilling the believe that 'it is possible for anyone to grow rich' to the masses. In today's reality we see that people work harder and harder in what we call the "rat race", where the hard work blinds you from seeing the big picture due to the fact that you end up having no time to educate yourself.
Success isn't necessarily easy but thinking smart, educating yourself, and seeing the big picture has proven to provide a bigger value especially when it's backed by high work ethics. Many times understanding the situation better can save lots of unnecessary or counter productive work.
Smart work beats hard work.

3. Our main food staples are our worst enemies
It's been over 200 years since the industrial revolution effected our way of eating, with cereal foods, and carbs being mass produced, and new health problems introduced to our culture. With the generous help and support of our world governments, a trend that has been increasing till the 70's when with the endorsement of western medicine we got the recommendation for a diet high in carbs and low in evil fats. Backed by "science" and statistics that been showing a catastrophic increase in degenerative diseases all across the board.
  • The Oat plants family is full of Gluten which attack our system, destroy the villi in our gut, and create anti bodies that are responsible for many auto immune diseases.

  • The soy bean, our favorite bean, is responsible for increased estrogen production causing feminine symptoms in men, carcinogenic, and destroying hormonal balance in woman.

  • Dairy products, containing the carbohydrate lactose which our body mostly can't digest, breaks down and rots in our system causing bloating, gas, and a host of auto Immune issues that also stem from the ratio of casein and albumin.

  • Alcohol, needless to say, is probably our worst enemy of all. Food is much better for us prior to being rot. There is a difference between fermented foods containing gut beneficial bacteria (like sauerkraut), and alcohol which destroy beneficial gut bacteria and everything else in it's way.

And then we wonder why we have bad genetics and why we inherit bad health, When we really only inherit bad health habits.

4. Media bias; World peace has been held back by USA imperialism and the State of Israel by curbing the human rights ambitions of Muslim countries.
We are now starting to see that the USA fulfills a vital part in world management. With great power comes great responsibility. We can't shy away from it, not even for a noble cause, and by shying away from the responsibility it allows all sort of bullies to raise their heads. This doesn't prevent war, but makes it inescapable, and increases the amount of casualties that will be amounting once it occurs. More specifically, not every country is being led by values such as human rights and other modern world luxuries. No one is saying that everyone else should or is ready for such indulgences but In order to protect our way of life, intervention in less fortunate areas is necessary with the belief that our moral supremacy is to be trusted more than their corruption.

Then we have the long time notion that Israel has been the reason for the unrest in the Middle East, and an "invation" of the west into it. Today we are learning that the Arab countries have been a facade. That they relay stronger to their tribal denomination. and have been given freedom their citizens only want to slauter one another due to religious differences. Their problems obviously have been larger all of these years than their imaginary Israeli enemy, and now that they keep killing each other by the thousands. It is clear that human rights are a relative issue (not to mention about "refugees" rights already violated by Europe), yet the world still tries to hold onto and overlook Israeli settlements on its land.

"Refugees" are now invading the west. There is nothing wrong with having all sorts of people with conflicting ideologies, but sometimes each one is better off facing their own creation and dealing with their own reality instead of mixing with the opposite way of life. Just like Candida is great when it's contained in the small intestine, helping to break down food, but we wouldn't want it out of the intestine, being systemic and running through our body causing trouble.

We need world leaders that can see the path to making their country flourish in the context of making the planet flourish. We need leaders that can earn other world leaders respect, ones that can coordinate despite contradictory differences toward world betterment, without having the need to have everyone conform to one way of operating. Leaders that don't have the urge to automatically make amends or throw the blame, but instead can look deep and understand the weak link in the system, address it without bias, and find the real obstacles that are truly responsible for the lack of coordination.

5. The way to health is to go through Cardio exercise and Bodybuilding at the gym.
Back in the 70's a new awareness to exercise started to take over the western world, championed by cardio type exercise and bodybuilding gym franchises.
By the 80's the bodybuilding scene was already led by the need for steroids and other components that made it irrelevant for health. The science of the last decade made it clear about all the problems caused by cardio type of exercise, from production of bad hormones that cause us to gain fat and lose muscle, to the pounding of our joints and its corrosion.

Yet somehow even though there has been so much new science to back a new way of training, it seems like the mainstream circuit are still holding onto the notion of the glorious days of bodybuilding, the creation of aerobic dance, and jogging have a magical formula to improve health. Weight lifting can be done in a healthy way of course, and it won't weaken you like its cardio counterpart. But keep in mind the health price in mobility and coordination among other costs. The science keeps moving forward, finding better ways of achieving better results. We can target our goals more specifically then we could in the past. Lots of people are already enjoying these realizations, though it seems that it is still a while from becoming a critical mass.

6. Western Medicine can heal our ailments
Western medicine doesn't deal with solving problems, only with masking symptoms. Western medicine doesn't heal our bodies. We heal despite the medicine if we are strong enough (they do have some beneficial procedures like their medical examinations, but that's not enough to take their advice blindly or taste their medicine as it will most likely injure you one way or another). The number one cause of death in our society is degenerative disease and western medicine claims to not know the reason they occur to begin with. Science did find the reasons behind them but this science isn't available to the doctors since it is bad for business. Medical corporations devise the schooling of doctors in a way that doesn't cover important topics such as nutrition and instead has the main focus be on medicine prescription.

Instead of looking for magical formulas, a good place to look at is the symptom and its root. Why are we feeling lethargic? Why is there a headache? A degenerative process? Where did we get out of balance? How far can we continue with it? What is the price we are paying? When would be a good time to truly address that? In the meantime it might be better to keep and feel the suffering, develop some stronger skin, and keep it to remind us to address it at some point.


Why does captive killer whales always have a sad looking back fin? What set us apart from our wild counterparts? This current blog have been an extension of a shorter blog ("Are you informed") I published a year ago.

At the end of the day we are all connected. Instead of trying to make some gains on someone else's back, realize we can all coexist better if we don't only think selfishly, however do so without self sacrifice.
We can gain more if we realize the big picture and are willing to give away the immediate gain.

There is always the question whether you really know something if you don't act on it. Fact is that you don't. If you don't act on it there is still something about it you haven't realized yet. And here I am acting on my knowledge for you.
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FINE TUNE YOUR BALANCE- MOBILITY AND MOVEMENT PATTERNS WITH A KICK!

2/4/2016

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My name is Amir Solsky, but in the Capoeira world I am known as Contra Mestre Parafina. I got into Capoeira right before I was 18. The art took hold of me for many reasons, as well as my understanding of it deepened throughout the years. At first it was the emphasis on Mobility and Flexibility, later on I found the social aspect very inviting and refreshing, and then onward to appreciate each part the art has to offer, from fighting, to dancing, acrobatics, music and more. Even to this day I still discover new parts about it that thrills me. 
 
We are about to look into one of the basic Capoeira kicks called an Armada (
https://youtu.be/YiJUQOKrl3E), which is a spinning kick that has a major part in creating a dynamic game between the Capoeira players. This kick as well as the rest of the Capoeira moves should be performed comfortably where balance should not be an issue. We are training to be comfortable in every part of the technique, same as we do while walking. Therefore we need to be able to perform the move very slow, even to a point where we could completely stop in any instance, as well as performing it very fast. 
 
One of the main components of that ability is the expansion of balance as well as mobility within the ranges of this movement. Balance is easier to achieve while moving fast at first, and then fine-tuned in slow motion. 
 
- A good way to start is by doing sets of standing leg raiser kicks, straight up forward, together with arm switches as in this Pictures and video (
https://youtu.be/e_GNi514v3o): (pictures below)  (click on the pictures to enlarge)


 
- Following that with a slower knee extension drills to emphasize active flexibility strength:  

Start with standing on a leg with the knee locked straight, bring the other knee up as high as you can without bending the bottom knee. 
 
Then extend the higher knee and hold for 10 seconds, then bend the knee and see if you can get it even higher, repeat 6 times for one set of a total of 60 sec hold. build up to 3-5 sets for each side. (pictures below)  (click on the pictures to enlarge)

 
 
In order to develop the physical ability to perform the kick well, a person needs to be mobile in order to avoid some of the pitfalls that we will look into later in this article. Another alignment that should also be used in order to improve flexibility for this kick is in the front split, as well as front split while leaning backward (https://youtu.be/Uf2wjhCW3bc): 
(pictures below)  (click on the pictures to enlarge)

Once you take the steps to build and put the skills into what is needed for the Armada, you can then move on to focusing on the actual movement that takes place for this kick to happen. For a correct performance of the kick it isn't enough to be able to lift and swing the leg around correctly; that is the easiest part of the kick. What makes the kick powerful and usable is the footwork that happens just before it. 
We will look at two main movements that together will create a quality kick: 
 
The first movement is called the 'Entrada', which is the entrance into the kick. Basically it is a step forward, stepping with your legs parallel to each other and in the direction of your target. (picture below)
 
Picture

From this step you will need to perform a backward spin on your front foot, while pivoting both feet without lifting them off  the ground. This spin should end with your chest facing the target, at which point the back leg will leave the ground and become a kick. A good drill for that is performing the Entrada without the kick, and then simply returning back instead of kicking. Without a quality entrance there will not be a quality kick. In other words, the entrance is the kick, improving the entrance will improve the kick. (https://youtu.be/uOWIpo1V1go). 
 
The second step is the 'Balanca', which is a shift of weight from one leg onto the other while your legs are parallel to each other and parallel to the target. This is the position we take prior to the step forward (the Entrada). The wider the step, the more power I could build into the kick (to an extent). If my feet are very close to each other, when stepping forward, I will not be balanced and my kick will be very weak. 'Balanca' is the shift I make from side to side in the Parallel position prior to stepping forward. For example, if we are kicking to the right, we will start in the parallel position with the body's weight on the left foot. (picture below)
  
Picture
 
Then we will shift that weight onto the right foot (the 'Balanca'), and step forward with the left foot (the Entrada),  spinning to the right, backward on our left foot to complete the spin and kick the right leg for the Armada. 
 
This kick isn't very difficult. Usually the problem is mostly with coordination, and once we figure it out, it’s pretty easy. Some people might also have some mobility issues and those should be addressed with the drills above. 
 
Now it’s time for the do's and don'ts. A common problem we see in the kick, is that people shift their heads forward as they raise their leg in front of them. This is usually due to lack of mobility. (picture below)  (click on the pictures to enlarge)
  

When kicking, the body should stay straight just like in standing, maintaining the ability to arch back while kicking if escape is in order from a counter kick.

Picture
 
​ Another common problem is shifting sideway when kicking. Many people will shift their weight onto the left after a kick to the right has passed the target, making the hip and body tilt sideways, 
 (pictures below)  (click on the pictures to enlarge)

and allowing the kick to pass much higher from the side which is not needed. The problem is that it will take longer to arrive to a safe base and will throw the player out of the center of the spin, therefore out of balance, and will make movement combinations much more difficult. 
The kick should be executed with the hips squared and comfortably balanced.  (picture below)
 
Picture

After you've practiced and built all of these correct patterns, you might be ready to start training on acquiring the kick. 
 
The first drill will correspond to the coordination needed so that you can figure out your body parts and what needs to happen: (https://youtu.be/C8oZNzKxtJs): 
 
Standing normal, hold you left pants, and move your left leg forward  (click on the pictures to enlarge)
 
Then take a hold of your right leg pants, and take a step backward with your right leg. (picture below)
 
Picture

Once done do it for the other side. for more levels of complexity look at the video link above these pictures. 
 

The second drill is a slow execution of the position we will travel through, to the completion of the kick. Later on these could be performed also faster. (
https://youtu.be/biibV92REFY) 
 
There are many continuations from this kick; we could go into another kick, into an acrobatic, into a floor movement, and many more options. Here is a continuation for going into an escape called 'Esquiva Baixa' (Low Escape):(
https://youtu.be/dXkYBbknA2Y)  
 

Armada finishing low on the floor in the Low Escape position (pictures Below)  (click on the pictures to enlarge)
 

This kick involves the entire body when done correctly.  Most of the impact falls mostly on the legs, as well as the lower back in the connection parts. If you are not used to performing it then these are the areas you will probably feel after training it.  
 
I hope you will enjoy playing and preparing for this beautiful kick. It is one of the main building blocks of the game and it's one of the reasons why the game looks flowy and smooth. The Armada is one of the most basic spinning moves we use for interaction and creation of momentum with the type of movement that will expand as you progress into a big variety of spinning moves and abilities that stem from them. 


This article was published at Unconventional Athletes Magazine, to read other interesting content on it go to:

http://www.unconventionalathletes.com/mag/issue4rev.pdf​
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    Amir Solsky


    

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