[SINGING CHORUS] Yoga Jon. Yoga Jon.
Umpf.
How was that?
So we are out here today, talking about doing yoga.
A video on yoga pertaining to shooters.
My good friend Jon Uidl, who is a master Jedi Yoga Instructor with The Yoga Lounge here in
our hometown of Woodstock, Illinois.
A wonderful place.
Check it out.
It’s a cosmic, space journey every time you walk in there.
Good stuff, check it out.
I do love the place.
Jon has a similar background as me, destroyed his body in the trades and martial arts.
And then decided as a wiser, older young man, that you were going to tune yourself up, right?
That’s right, try to keep it together.
And you have been.
Yeah!
Yeah yeah.
Myself, I have been experiencing all kinds of hand and arm issues in the gripping motion
of shooting tended to exasperate those problems.
Seeing a physical therapist.
A Chiropractor.
Doctors.
Taking some medication.
Taking different kinds of herbal supplementation and such, I got to the point where it’s
going to take a concerted effort on my part and physical therapist to get this stuff squared
away.
So I contacted Jon and was talking about what things can shooters do, and this is good for
anybody, 1) alleviate these problems, but help stop these problems from coming to fruition
to begin with.
So we are going to touch on some of those issues.
Then we are also going to wrap into this, some of the wonderful benefits that yoga brings,
such as the calming, relaxing effect.
Right?
The ability to center through stress.
You want to talk about that for a minute?
Well yeah, We are going to do some breath work, so umm….
By controlling the breath, in different ways we… the breath gives us direct access to
the nervous system.
So we are able to, either amp up… along those lines or long slow steady breath and
very very methodically calm the nervous system.
Under any kind of circumstances.
So that’s beneficial for a multitude of reasons.
So somebody in a fight or flight type of scenario could start to control the adrenaline dump.
Through breathing, right?
Yeah.
We call that combat breathing.
In other arenas.
And, somebody might be in a competition setting were they get juiced up.
Sure, where the nerves, when the nerves start amping up.
Yeah, it’s a great idea.
Calm the breath, calm down.
And again the nervous system calms down… and then all the muscle memory stuff, and
all the training that we’ve done is able to flow in a better way.
You can let that sub-conscious information come out where you don’t have that monkey
brain controlling.
So if you don’t want to get to the point where you’re using one of these, you have
to take care of your body.
Pat McNamara calls it the combat chassis.
I said that earlier and you giggled, but that’s true.
This hunk of meat and bones carries us from cradle to the grave.
I just sang it in my head for a minute.
Haha.
So yeah, we’ll take care of it as best we can.
And tune it up.
Yeah.
So I say we jump right in to…
So Jon, as you stated to me, a lot of this stuff is because I’m repetitively doing
things… and I’m not making up for the damage.
Is that kind of a good way to look at it?
I would say so.
Countering.
Countering… ok, so with shooting one of the things we teach and me, I do this so much.
I’ve overworked these muscle groups so much, through my forearms, my elbows, my fingers
even.
I have times where I’m starting to have aches and pains in my hands.
So we are clamping down, with our hands like this.
This is an inert training tool here, this isn’t a real gun.
So when I finish sometimes I have to put ice packs on my elbows which really doesn’t
do much besides alleviate the pain.
What kind of exercises should I be doing to keep all of this stuff fluid and loose.
Ok, so we’ll start with the hands and the forearms.
Excellent.
The best thing is to come down on the hands and knees.
OK, let’s do that.
So Mick’s going to come down on to his hands and knees.
Stack his knees under his hips.
And wrists under his shoulders.
Now spread the fingers wide.
Spread the webbing between each finger.
Really, a lot about this is stretching.
Moving counter to the repetitive motion of all this training, all this gripping.
Whether you’re turning a wrench, whether you’re holding a firearm.
Swinging a hammer, whatever it is.
So spread the fingers wide, you really want to ground between the base of the thumb and
the first finger.
He’s not pressing weight in the carpel tunnel to exasperate the problem and more pressure
on the nerves.
So we don’t want to do that.
So then, all he’s going to do from here then is shift his chest forward.
And stretch the forearms in this way.
Chuck decided she wants in to this video.
Yeah.
She knows the benefits of Yoga.
So…
I’ve got weight into my index and thumb.
Uh hm.
And I’m shifting my weight….
You’re going to shift your chest forward, just until you feel the stretch in your forearms.
I feel that.
That feels wonderful.
Now am I holding a breathing here?
Yeah, you’re going to hold and you’re going to breath.
So…
How far forward should I come?
I don’t have any kind of pain here, so should I keep coming forward?
It’s going to depend.
It’s going to depend person to person on your range of motion.
So ideally we don’t want to, We are not looking to move headlong into pain.
We want to come up to your edge of sensation, in a way.
When you start to feel a stretch, then very cautiously and methodically proceed from there.
And working with the breath as well.
So smooth, slow and steady breath.
In this way.
And pause here for just a bit.
Let things loosen up.
Also keep in mind that this is a life-time of hard work.
Of martial arts.
All this kind of stuff.
This isn’t going to be undone in one five, ten, twenty minute session of stretching.
So that’s something else to keep in mind.
So patience.
I feel this in my shoulders.
I feel my shoulders loosening up.
It feels wonderful.
Excellent.
Ok, then feel free to shift forward like, I would inhale, on the exhale move forward
a little bit further.
See what that feels like.
I’m having to be really conscious of not transferring the weight out to into my pinkies
and the outside of my palm here.
Again, back to the point of, really grounding between the base of the thumb and the first
finger.
That transfers the weight load to the inseam of the arm as well.
And off of the carpel tunnel.
So if you have any issues, we certainly all know people who, if you haven’t yourself
had a carpel tunnel experience, you’re going to have a bad time so you want to avoid that.
So how long should you be doing an exercise like that for?
I would say, for something like that a minimum of 72 seconds.
You want to hold that for a minimum of 72 seconds in order for…
That’s a very specific number.
For connective tissue, because we’re not just talking about musculature… we are talking
about connective tissue as well so, ligaments, tendons, also fascia in the body as well.
That’s a matrix of connective tissue that runs through the entire body.
That’s, in a large part, where lengthening, stretching, loosening up as well.
And muscles are all wrapped in fascia.
And a lot of times impingement really comes, not from muscles being tight, but comes from
fascia being stuck.
And the muscles that are designed to glide over one-another and move freely, are not.
Heard a lot more about the fascia as of late, not that it’s some new discovery, but I
think people are starting to understand it more in the gyms and…
Exactly, physical trainers, massage therapists, Yogis, all this.
It’s becoming much more to the forefront as of the last bunch of years.
What kind of frequency for this?
Daily?
Well, if you do a little, you’ll change a little.
If you do a lot, you’ll change a lot.
It’s entirely up to you.
Daily isn’t a bad idea.
If you think about how often we use our hands.
And the kind of abuse we put them under.
It’s a maintenance things basically.
Daily.
Daily if you can manage it would be a really great idea.
Ok.
So I would say a minimum of 72 seconds in order for things to start to loosen up and
start to re-organize.
Is there a specific name that you call this particular exercise?
Umm, not really.
No?
It’s just table pose stretching.
So this is table pose.
Yeah.
Applying my weight forward to stretch out.
Yeah.
The inside of my wrists here.
Yeah.
And then, so then from here you can spin your hands out to about 90 degrees.
So like this?
Like so.
And see what that feels like.
Same forward motion.
I feel that on the outside of my elbow joint quite a bit.
But like you said, everybody is going to be different.
The way that they wear and tear…
Where should I be applying the grounding points in this?
Same thing.
You want to…
Yeah.
Uh hmm.
I feel that.
Again, so you are going to be different, every person is going to be different.
And certainly side-to-side.
Most obvious with the dominant arm situation.
And then from here again, as best you can, you can spin the fingers into the body any
amount.
And now what you’re going to do is, this may very well be enough…
Again, it’s going to completely depend from day to day.
You may have, a range of motion today that maybe more or less tomorrow.
So now what you’re going to do is shift your weight back.
I feel that.
A nice pull across the crease of my elbow joint.
I feel it all the way from my bi-cep to my elbow.
I like that.
And you can shift a little to the right.
Right to left, fish around, play with the rotation, play with where you’re applying
pressure.
How you’re applying pressure.
Just tugging and pulling on the muscles.
Umm hmm.
So this is certainly more challenging position for the hands and the forearms.
So what we’ll do here is ask Mick to take a deep breath in.
And then on the exhale, kind of connect breath and movement, and shift his weight back.
Releasing the sensation on the exhale.
Again, coming back to the breath.
Using the breath, again, in a way to control, to give us access to the nervous system.
Move forward on inhale.
Releasing the sensation on the exhale.
And shift his hips back.
Back.
And again you can shift a little right to left.
The dominant hand is going to be tighter, and require more time.
More time and effort.
Umm.
It does feel good though.
And then, now to counter that.
Flip over to go palms up.
Sure, and this is a very challenging.
A very very challenging…
I’ve cause a lot of damage to these wrists.
Sure.
How far should I try to be forcing the backs of my hands to the floor?
That’s an excellent point.
In none of these type of, we don’t have to call it Yoga, we can call it stretching
if…
We can call it Yoga.
Ok, we’ll call it Yoga.
At no point do we want to force.
So, quite the opposite.
So, it’s going to depend on your range of motion.
We want to work up to the edge of sensation, not dive into pain.
So this isn’t cross training.
This isn’t.
This isn’t martial arts.
The edge of sensation.
What are we calling sensation.
Lets say…
Lets say a sharper, or a pulling sensation…
Um, something along the lines.
We don’t want anything that feels hot, or particularly sharp.
Is it weird that my arms feel warm right now?
No, that’s totally cool.
And so we’re increasing blood flow… and vascular function in your arms.
That’s totally…
I’m talking like HOT HOT!
Like a searing sensation.
Like you just tore something.
Exactly, because, let’s be very honest, full disclosure, you can hurt yourself.
Doing this type of stuff if it’s not done carefully.
So I’m not forcing… not forcing in any way shape or form.
You not forcing the backs of the hands to the floor or force your elbows straight.
OK.
Yeah.
I can feel that.
And the hands are truly an incredible piece of equipment.
They are.
The articulation, and sensation we’ve got in our hands… our hands and feet as well.
But our hands we are talking about now, so we want to be careful and take very good care
of them.
I like that.
The way you would, any kind of a good tool.
Take very good care of it.
Sure.
And then you can also bring your hands together in front of heart center like this and work
that.
This is a little bit less.
But you can go backs of the palms together.
Just like we did on the floor.
And this maybe more of an accessible thing you can do at a desk, at the range.
You don’t…
hands and knees.
Right.
You don’t want to be on your hands and knees at the range.
Marty, what are you doing back there?
Ha ha ha.
Yeah, exactly.
Somebody could misunderstand.
I like it.
People can find you at The Yoga Lounge.
Yeah, The Yoga Lounge, website, on the scenic square in Woodstock.
Yoga Lounge dot com?
I believe so.
Alright.
I’d like to do more with Jon.
We’ve known Jon for like, ten years now.
Watched you’re beard grow.
Ha ha ha.
Watched you’re beard grow.
And watched you grow as an instructor.
From patawan to Jedi.
It’s weird that you keep telling people that.
Hehe, he doesn’t.
But this is good stuff.
This is the stuff that elongates you’re life and makes you’re life better.
More full.
More useful.
If the whole point of all this combatives and dark arts bullshit is just violence, then
you’ve done it all for the wrong reasons.
The point is to live a longer, happier, fuller life.
And if we are not taking care of this pile of meat and bones.
We will not have a happier, fuller life.
We’ll be getting up in age, having to pop pain meds... and see doctors when it doesn’t
need to be.
Take care of you’re self.
Take care of your body.
It will take care of you.
Take care of each other.
This is Mickey.
Carry Trainer dot com.
Jon Uidl.
[Woodstock] Yoga Lounge dot com.
Jedi master.
I feel so fluid right now.
Like…
Nava stay.
Been talking about, doing some Yoga for Shooting, right?
That’s right.
This is my good friend Jon Uidl.
Some people call him Uidl.
But it’s Uidl.
Either way.
We are going to go with Uidl, the correct pronunciation.
That’s right.
Relax.
I’m done.
You want a little hit off the reefer pipe or some shit?
Haha I know you’re not holding.
Haha.
I say we jump right in to the nude scene.
See, what I’m trying to do is wrap this shit together to make people understand we’re
not just [BLEEP] talking about stretching.
So I was here.
Yeah.
Come on Drew.
Jon Uidl from The Yoga Lounge.
Jon is a master Yoga instructor jedi yoga practitioner…