Osu!

[Gyakuto]

I love talking about this kind of stuff!

 

[Fungus]

If you could, you probably wouldn’t also be continent of faeces!

Overdosing magnesium gives similar issues. I have tested!

 

[Gyakuto]

Overdosing magnesium gives similar issues. I have tested!

I took a daily magnesium supplement too and, unbeknownst to me, it had my muscles twitching all over the place. I thought I might have motoneurone disease and was investigated for it. Eventually the penny dropped and I stopped taking it!

 

[Hyoho]

Ooo you’re showing off

My thought was that perhaps the more ‘macho’ styles of martial arts, those that say “OOSS” quite a lot, would use a wider-than-normal knee separation in seiza in a sort of ‘primitive genital display signal’, the sort one might see in the great apes. I suppose we’re lucky that most humans don’t have large swollen, bright red rumps or maybe they’d be inclined to display those too.

It depends upon what you’re doing to them

I actually sit in seiza for 5-10 minutes every morning, just to keep those muscles loose. I’m introducing the excruciating ‘tate hiza’ into this regime now. I can manage about 20 secs in tate hiza!
View attachment 32821

Tate Hiza. The left leg in the same sort of position as in seiza but has 90% of one’s weight upon it. The right foot is on it’s outer edge, the knee held vertically at about 45 degrees. I once asked an 8th Dan Hanshi how I can sit more comfortably in tate hiza. “You can’t” was his laconic reply.

Some of us sit in tate hiza with the back foot raised. That way we can quickly rise to cut. If the upper part of the foot is down there should be at least a thick magazines distance between buttocks and foot. "No one" sits flat. Priests do it every day. Just a matter of strengthening the leg muscles. This is what Ogasawara Soke teaches.

 

[Fungus]

I took a daily magnesium supplement too and, unbeknownst to me, it had my muscles twitching all over the place. I thought I might have motoneurone disease and was investigated for it. Eventually the penny dropped and I stopped taking it!

Interesting, never heard of that opposite effect before.

I had leg cramps at night, so i tried to boost magnesium. To boost one needs to exceed the daily recommendation for a while, and after a couple of weeks of boosting it stopped. I took a little potassium as well, but as excess magnesium is normally exiting the system, so i figure it was a safe experiment and it worked. Experimenting with potassium is obviously dangerous.

After than i take it occasionally, but if i take alot, I find laxative effects, so i always do it after training to be one the safe side, never just before.

 

[Gyakuto]

Some of us sit in tate hiza with the back foot raised. That way we can quickly rise to cut.

Yes, I think this is a better way of doing it, but not ‘accepted’ in Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu. The main issues with tate hiza and Westerners is we’re just too heavy to sit in it comfortably and rise out of it quickly. The very rare skinny Iaidoka I see find no problem with tate hiza or moving from it quickly.

One of the other issues with this position is the left leg’s quadriceps are very stretched and thus physiologically unable to exert maximum force (length/tension relationship of sarcomeres), so you have to experiment with using the right leg to assist the left into a shorter sarcomere length so it can apply more force.

If the upper part of the foot is down there should be at least a thick magazines distance between buttocks and foot. "No one" sits flat.

No one should sit flat. That 10mm shorter length will help a bit, but not much.

Priests do it every day.

Tate hiza?

Just a matter of strengthening the leg muscles.

Check out the length/tension relationship information above and you’ll see why this isn’t the case.

This is what Ogasawara Soke teaches.

I think you’re talking about seiza, aren’t you? I attend his online classes from time-to-time.

 

[Gyakuto]

Interesting, never heard of that opposite effect before.

Yes it cause ‘fasciculations’ in tiny muscle groups all over my body. Because of my family history (and PhD research) I’m always on the look out for symptoms of MND and fasciculations is one of them. But difficulties is swallowing is the first real symptom of MND.

I had leg cramps at night, so i tried to boost magnesium.

Yes, that’s why I took it for cramps in my foot arch muscles (when in sieza as jot happens) but on reading the research, the evidence for magnesium’s positive effect on muscle cramps is scant.

To boost one needs to exceed the daily recommendation for a while, and after a couple of weeks of boosting it stopped.

It might’ve been the capsule shell

I took a little potassium as well, but as excess magnesium is normally exiting the system, so i figure it was a safe experiment and it worked. Experimenting with potassium is obviously dangerous.

I take potassium 2000mg morning and evening to reduce my blood pressure a little. I was hovering around 135/90which I wasn’t happy about. Then I happened to read an article in New Scientist and then the primary sources about ‘low sodium salt’ and how it’s the increase potassium that is doing the blood pressure lowering! I started with 1000mg, monitoring myself for cardiac arrhythmia and signs I was dead and increased the amount gradually without any issues. BP is now 120/70!

Potassium can be dangerous. It is the ion that mediates the cardiac cell’s /neurone’s inward rectifying current and makes their membranes resting potential lower but if it reduces too much it is less inclined to fire during action potentials and all sorts of issues arise.

After than i take it occasionally, but if i take alot, I find laxative effects, so i always do it after training to be one the safe side, never just before.

Don’t try tate hiza if you have diarrhoea

 

[Fungus]

Yes it cause ‘fasciculations’ in tiny muscle groups all over my body. Because of my family history (and PhD research) I’m always on the look out for symptoms of MND and fasciculations is one of them. But difficulties is swallowing is the first real symptom of MND.

Sounds nasty

Yes, that’s why I took it for cramps in my foot arch muscles (when in sieza as jot happens) but on reading the research, the evidence for magnesium’s positive effect on muscle cramps is scant.

Yes I've seen that, but I think it's because there are many causes of leg cramps. And in a broad research, there is a mix of different ethiologies, so no wonder the conclusions are mixed. This is the case for many meds to heterogeneous conditions I think.

For me it did help, and it is unlikely to be a coincidence or placebo because the cramps are quite severe, and often makes you wake up in the night, there is nothing subtle over it. I also had actual reasons to suspect that my diet was possible low on magnesium. But no reason to suspect it was low on potassium or calcium.

I take potassium 2000mg morning and evening to reduce my blood pressure a little. I was hovering around 135/90which I wasn’t happy about. Then I happened to read an article in New Scientist and then the primary sources about ‘low sodium salt’ and how it’s the increase potassium that is doing the blood pressure lowering! I started with 1000mg, monitoring myself for cardiac arrhythmia and signs I was dead and increased the amount gradually without any issues. BP is now 120/70!

I've been using this kind of salt as the default salt for 20 years in cooking. The one I use contains 50% NaCl and 50% KCl, unlike "normal salt" that is 100% NaCl.

 

[Gyakuto]

Sounds nasty

It was just a bit annoying; little twitches waking me up.

I've been using this kind of salt as the default salt for 20 years in cooking. The one I use contains 50% NaCl and 50% KCl, unlike "normal salt" that is 100% NaCl.

Ah, very good. Everyone thought it was the lower intake of Na+ that reduced blood pressure but it turned out to be the increase in K+!