From the recovery room to discharge

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Jill Breath TalkThe following testimonial comes from Jill Nyman, a very brave lady who has just undertaken her fourth hip operation at the age of 70.

I would like recount a recent experience to  illustrate the power of breathing as taught at Systema classes. At the age of 70 I have undergone a fourth hip revision operation – since misfortune hit me at an early age. The operation involved a cup replacement and bone graft and was more complex than expected.

From the recovery room to discharge, I was able to control any pain by simply focusing on ‘drawing’ the pain with inhales and smoothly releasing the pain with the exhales. When the pain got too much, I would override it with pants (burst breaths).

At first I had to concentrate on the breathing but soon the body was so relaxed that I found it automatically kicking in.

I required no pain relief via drugs; and apart from learning to walk again properly my body is coping like its normal self. Nurses on the orthopaedic ward were intrigued. I taught them the basics and they are now teaching each other this simple regime so they can help patients even more.

Thanks Matt. If you are lucky enough to meet him, use him. If you go to his classes regard yourself as extremely fortunate and please pass on your knowledge to others. But above all never ever dismiss learning to make breathing your main toil for life.

The breathing techniques are outlined in my new book Systema Health which can be found on Amazon and all good bookshops

Jill Nyman.

Training Tools – An extract from the Systema Health book

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Systema HealthSystema Health was written for anyone to use to improve their health, mood, mobility, fitness and stress management skills. It contains 25 health practises and is especially useful for Systema practitioners and teachers as a guide and aid. Below is an extract from the Training Tools section of the book:

Notice your breathing. Systema begins and ends here. Try to notice every time you hold your breath. Every time you hold your breath and move, tension and fear will come into your body. To be truly free in your movements, you have to be free in your breath. Always look to make your breath the engine or driver of your movement, not a ‘by-product’ of it.

Work Slowly. Begin all movements and practises slowly with your full attention. This way you will develop efficient movement and replace old habits and skills with new ones. You will be able to notice and remove the restrictive tensions in your body. Gradually increase the speed as your skill develops.

Adjust the volume. As your skill develops, you will want to go faster. This is fine. Notice when you get stuck. Maybe your breathing stops, your movements seizes up, you run out of ideas, you repeat patterns over and over again, or any other aspect that causes frustration. At these times slow down again. Build and wire new skill and understanding and then gradually speed up again.

Strive for creativity in your training. Remember that Systema is not training for a set sequence of movements, such as a Kata or gymnastics competition. This is a much more transferable skill, that reaches every aspect of life. The pictures in this book are intended as a guide only and just show one way of doing things. Play and experiment. If you can do it forwards, try it backwards, or with your eyes closed, or on a balance beam etc. Have fun but stay safe. My deep desire, is that through the logical progressions in these practises, you will begin freely creating your own practises, to the extent where you are training in Systema in every moment. By all means use my progressions as a guide, but you then have to just move randomly and naturally. Try not to form patterns in your movements.

Movement. Systema is really the study of movement. Freedom and ease of movement is your aim. As your movement relaxes, so will your psyche. Then your health will improve exponentially.

Search for the struggle. You will inevitably find sticky points in your movement. Ranges of motion that you can’t move through without momentum, if at all. Areas where you hold your breath through strain and tension. Search for these areas and spend time in them. You will iron them out much faster this way.

A film is worth a million words. Video yourself doing the movements. You will correct yourself so much faster when you can see your movement yourself. Vladimir Vasiliev offers a video coaching program through his website that is well worth using.

Do the pillars once every day (Practices 11-14). If I could give you one tip for a healthy body and movement for the rest of your life, it would be this one. Do the pillars once a day. One of each pillar. Once. As slow as you can, with full range of motion, working on breathing and relaxing your body. The whole of Systema is in these movements.

Look for Symmetry. Look to get as good on your left side as your right side in all the practices. Don’t favour one side over another.

Thank you and my very best wishes for your training and health.

Click here to see Systema Health on Amazon

I walk taller, I feel taller, I really feel as though I’m pushing back the years

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I received the following testimonial from Keith Harris at a Networking meeting that I attend on a Friday Morning. Keith has been coming along to classes for about two years. The testimonial was delivered with such honesty and conviction that there were several leaky eyes in the room. I would like to thank Keith for his friendship, commitment and example.

‘Often when we give testimonials we focus on the service or product we received. Rarely would we comment on a special friendship that has evolved, I am pleased to say that this is what has happened with Matt.

Two years ago I sat like many of you have done in this room listening to Matt’s 60 seconds, spoken by anyone else they would have been just words about exercise, wellbeing and martial arts, I would have ignored them as I had so often in my lifetime, but spoken by Matt they carried such passion and conviction that I signed up to try a class or two.

Now I think it’s important to put you in the picture here, I was fast approaching 60 years old. Birthdays of such magnitude get you thinking. I had not really done any serious exercise since my boys were at school and they are now 30 and 32. When I was younger the idea of a contact sport was not something I would embrace, swimming being my main sport and cycling. So to even go along to the Health and Fitness class (no Martial Arts in this one!) with Matt says a lot about him, he empowers you to trust him and you believe that this will be good for you and it is!

Over the years I had got into bad habits, my posture was bad, my walking strained, as were my ankles and my confidence in my ability to just walk down a street even, was at an all-time low. As you get older, faced with a group of rowdy people, you probably opt to cross the road. So I was badly in need of some help, I knew I should not be like that.

I won’t tell you about Matt’s classes as after hearing this if you have not already started them I hope this gives you the imputus to at least try, but I will tell you about the affect he has had on my life.

I walk taller, I feel taller, my confidence in my physical presence has improved, I breathe more easily, I cope with stress more easily, my movement has improved, I can catch, I balance and roll about on the floor without hurting myself, I can do push ups, sit-ups, squats and rolls. I really feel like I am pushing back the years. Yes it takes some work – but boy is it worth it!

So thank you Matt, your product is me, the service is you and our friendship is ours!

You can read more about the benefits of Systema Health and Self defence through Matt’s new books available through Amazon and at all good bookshops. Click here to see the books on Amazon

Keith Harris
Director
SoInspired Ltd.

Systema in everyday life

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Lots of people ask about ways to improve faster in Systema classes. My answer is that training has to carry on outside Systema classes.

One key to mastering your health or Systema is to try to make sure that training doesn’t stop when you leave the class.
Below are 12 simple ways to bring Systema into everyday life.

  1. Don’t use your hands:
    1. When sitting or getting up
    2. Getting into and out of a car
    3. Getting into and out of bed
    4. For bonus points try to open doors and drawers etc. with the feet.
  2. When walking:
    1. Always think of softening the muscles in the legs (walking from the knees).
    2. Think posture, chin pulled gently in, chest pulled gently forward.
    3. Align your breathing and steps.
  3. At all times try to be aware of excess tension, whether sitting, standing or moving, and drop it out with breathing and movement.
  4. Squat don’t bend.
  5. Sit on the bones of your bum.
  6. While sitting, driving or standing, try to isolate and tense in certain muscles, and then release on an exhale.  E.g. Stomach, calf, glute, shoulders etc.
  7. Smoothly and in balance get down onto the floor and back up at least once every day. For bonus points try to do this without hands, knees, elbows or losing balance.
  8. Put your socks on and take them off standing up on one foot.
  9. Clean your teeth on one leg. Top row on one leg and bottom row on the other.
  10. Finish your shower on the cold setting for 30 seconds. Practice burst breathing to stay relaxed.
  11. Notice when something is bothering you and release it with the breath.
  12. Breathe then move. Don’t begin lifts or big movements like sitting or standing on a breath hold. Exhale first then move.

If you have any other ways that you have found I would love to hear of them.

You can read more about the health benefits of Systema in my new book: Systema Health available through Amazon and all good bookshops.

New Systema Health and Systema Combat Books Available through Amazon

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A5 LeafletThe new Systema Health and Combat books are now available for purchase through Amazon in Paperback and ebook. They offer 25 health practices and 25 combat drills to enhance your health and combative skill respectively. These books were written to support beginners just stepping out on their Systema journey, and for beginners like myself, who have been studying much longer. For teachers they offer 50 easy to follow practices and drills leading to unlimited variations that can be used in classes or your own home.

Thank you and my very best wishes for your training and health.

Click here to see the books on Amazon

The Daily Constitutional

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It’s about so much more than A-B or even calorie burn

Family Walking at Sunset
When I first talk about relearning your walk at systema classes I can see people looking at me dubiously. After all, they have been walking ok for thier whole lives. The difference is that I want them to walk in a way that promotes health, not just in terms of calorie burn, but in terms of resetting the system and removing stress.

Walking is the defining movement of a human being and the great thing about walking is that you can’t be sitting at the same time.

Few people in the western world walk enough these days and the benefits are well documented:

  • Calorie burn
  • Endorphin release (mood enhancers)
  • Tones the muscles
  • Strengthens the heart
  • Reduces risk of diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

However, you can get more.

Walking is our natural reset button. We know this intuitively. When someone is stressed or angry we say to them, “come on lets go for a walk.”

Adding just a few elements to improve your walking can enhance the effects stated above. Daily life puts stress in our bodies. Physical stress from sitting too much, bad posture, high stress lifestyles etc. This is compounded by emotional stress which starts as a thought or worry and quickly becomes physical tension in the body.

Walking is our natural antidote to this. When walking correctly you literally breathe and walk the stress out of your body.

Here are a few steps to help this.

  1. Focus on your breathing. Try to link it to your steps. Breathe in through your nose for say 4 steps and then out through your mouth for 4 steps. As you relax and improve you can stretch this to 6, 8, 10 or more. You then also get all the benefits of nasal breathing that I have outlined before.
  2. Relax on the exhale. As you exhale, try to relax your muscles from the head down to the feet. Your body should feel light, In fact, your body should ‘disappear’. If you are relaxed and in good posture you should not feel your body. All you should feel is the contact of your feet on the floor.
  3. Walk from the knees. This will relax your leg muscles, make you more energy efficient, lighten your step reducing impact and make you more balanced over uneven terrain. To do this, begin the step by relaxing and moving the knee forwards.
  4. Maintain a good posture. Chin should be in and pulled back, chest should be out and not sunken, arms loose and relaxed at your sides. Key is not to pull your shoulders back, but to lift your chest gently out in a way that does not add tension to your muscles. This will ensure that you are not building tension and pain through bad posture.

It obviously helps to walk outside in fresh air, preferably in proximity to trees. When you walk with these four points in mind you will amplify the benefit of getting outside and dosing up on vitamin D.

Just like a computer that has to process too much and needs to be reset. Our natural reset is walking. In a very short space of time we can switch off and then on again using walking and keeping these points in mind.

Best wishes,


Matt.

The 10 Natural Sitting Positions Challenge

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How many can you still do?

10 Nat sit positions

Here’s a great challenge for you that you can do almost anywhere, anytime.

The following 10 positions were our way of sitting or resting before the advent of chairs. Many of you know my thoughts and those of many others on the damage that prolonged chair sitting does to our health and mobility. With the average worker spending 8-12 hours a day sat on their backside, here is one way to reverse it and keep youthful movement in your body.

The attached clip shows the 10 natural positions that are our birthright. Doing these regularly will help to reverse the degenerative process in your body.

In all probability the last time that you will have attempted some of these positions was when you were a child. They are a great way to check:

  • Leg, hip and lower back strength.
  • Suppleness.
  • Stability.
  • Balance.
  • Longevity.

The Challenge:

  1. Try each of the 10 positions.
  2. Where appropriate try them on your left side and right side.
  3. Check how comfortable they are. You should be able to sit for at least 10 mins in each of them.
  4. Make getting down and back up smoothly and effortlessly a requirement. Try not to use your hands or elbows to assist. For bonus points, try not to use your knees either. This is deceptively tricky.

The video at the end will show all 10 positions. Barring injury they should be attainable for us all.
There will come a time when, if we are not doing this regularly, you will not be able to get to the floor and back up. We all want this ability in our bodies right to the end.

So to keep youthful movement in your body, try to start spending more time sat on the floor, playing with children, with pets, watching TV whatever. Then when you stand, move smoothly, exhale as you move, and try not to use your hands.

You will reap the rewards of this very quickly.

Good luck and let me know how you do!

Click here for the video challenge!

Best wishes,


Matt.

Stress, Leadership and Management Workshop – Weds 16th March

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Stress, Leadership and Management Workshop
Debbie Pepler and Matt Hill collaborate to deliver a Leadership and Management course – Wednesday 16th March 2016
Using Systema to improve health in the workplace.
I am excited to be collaborating again with Debbie Pepler from Peptalk to provide a seminar for business owners and managers giving practical ideas and skills from Systema to ease some of the challenges of being a business owner or a manager in this fast moving world.
We will address managing stress and its effect on you and your business and management and leadership skills. Topics to be covered are:
  • Recognising stress and understanding how stress effects our performance and health;
  • Internal skills to learn how to minimise stress;
  • Simple tools that can be implemented straight away to optimise your health and performance under stress;
  • Exploring the essentials to being a good leader;
  • Learn to confidently manage, delegate, motivate and get the best out of your team;
  • Make better decisions and increase effectiveness and results within the business
The seminar will be held on Wednesday 16th March.
Location will be the Assembly Hall in Melksham.
Spaces are limited to 12 so that attendees get the most of the opportunity to work through real problems, practice techniques and to build relationships with others in the room.The workshop will commence at 09.30 hrs and finish at 16.30hrs and will be held at the Melksham Town Hall, Wiltshire.Price is £99.00 per person and includes lunch and VAT.  Please let me know if you have any special dietary requirements to be catered for.

For more information, please click here and check out this link for testimonials from previous workshops.

Here is what others are are saying ‘Not only do Matt and Debbie talk the talk, they have both walked the walk during their careers.  They are experts on these topics and bring to you not just theory, but real scenarios and opportunities.’

Please reserve by  booking here, or contact Debbie on debbie@peptalk-uk.com or 0792 700 8440, or Matt on wiltshiremartialarts@gmail.com or 0758 402 5206.