The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Five Minute Miracle

Went out to hermosa Beach yesterday with Niven and Pournelle to talk about the possibility of a third "Heorot" novel.  It was kindo f amazing how easily it all came together. Although my politics and Jerry's could hardly be further apart (he's got 'em, I really don't--sort of), it's fun to see how many arenas we have agreement on. 
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At any rate, I had to get up early to drive into L.A. for the meeting, and didn't have as much time as I might have wanted--and this is after several days of interrupted workouts.  I've been working with Mushtaq on the new LIFEWRITING CD, the SOULMATE and FEAR CD, and a WRITING FOR BLOGGERS package we're putting together.  Great fun, but having  to do eight hours of taping in two days (!) was just grueling.  Thank God for the Five Minute Miracle!
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Remember what I said: once you've learned the basic technique and methodology (the Be Breathed technique, and performing for five short periods every day) the way to improve isn't necessarily to add more time (although that  can be important as well) but to increase the intensity and/or neurological complexity of the motion, or to take them more deeply into the reserves of Fear Reactivity.  For instance, if you have the Body Flow tapes, you can perform a quick combination therefrom. Afew clubbell swings, concentrating on Breathing-Movement-Structure gives you a good edge, as will a few kettlebell Clean and Jerks.  Performance of a martial arts kata or Djuru is excellent--jsut keep your attention on that triumverate, so that all of your exercises are different versions of the same work.
Hindu Squats and Pushups are also excellent.  In fact, one of my favorite 5MM "breaks" is
1) Hindu Pushups (until very lightly winded)
2) Hindu Squats (twice as many)
3) Be Breathed
4) Djuru.

This all takes me about three minutes, max.  Those who want to invest less time could alternate during the day.  If you want to push for more fitness, you could add a 5-15 minute workout session in the morning, and stress your CB, KB, Hindus, or whatever.
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The point is that you can start with only Five Minutes a day, and make a solid impact on your fitness.  Adding the right 5 minutes is effective, even for an athlete--it keeps that Body-Mind connection alive.

Do yourself a huge favor, and get  on the Five Minute Miracle bandwagon.  If you've already got your copy--are you using it?  Are you pushing forward?  Are you keeping that connection alive?  If you don't have it yet...what are you waiting for?

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