Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

Yin and Yang are inseparable.

Conjoined opposites.

(Like Sunshine and Olly.)

I’ve had this conversation a few times the past week with some of my students.

The way it works is, when martial artists are first building themselves up, they need lots of Yin work to slowly activate the muscles, and fire up the body’s innate coordination.

(Yoga, Qi Gong, seated meditation, stretching, calisthenics.)

But once they’re strong enough for the Yang work, the proper fighting, (punching, kicking, knees, elbows, grappling, chokes, etc…) they never want to spend time on the Yin anymore.

The Yang stuff is THAT fun.

We all learn, though, too much Yang, and you burn out. Or get injured all the time.

Only with steady practice over many years do we develop our own balance, so we stay limber enough to be max-level-strong.

We need to continue to train our Yin, in order to enhance our Yang.

The water is required to help the fire go.

(Taoism is deep, bro.)

Catch you next time.