Exercises for Stamina

Most of us must be familiar with the word "stamina". Stamina encompasses physical strength, endurance, vigour/vitality. Strong stamina means that we will have the energy or the driving force to tackle any tasks, achieve our goals, or even just do activities that entertain us. Although our stamina declines with age generally, there are ways to maintain and strengthen stamina so there isn’t a reason why we should not have good stamina in our 70s and 80s.  

So how do we strengthen this stamina? The answer is simple. We need to strengthen our body, which to be more specific, means to tonify our internal organs. We need to ensure that our internal organs are functioning properly and strongly. This can be achieved by our habits. Of course, at times of illness, restoring organ function will require the help of medical treatments but even then, following the directions below alongside the treatments will help to accelerate the treatment progress and enhance treatment efficacy. These habits are none other than regular and moderate exercise, food consumption, and sleeping. Out of these, we will focus on the exercise part today since we have covered food and sleeping in the previous posts.

While we may think that we need to sign up for fitness clubs and weight training or we may opt for sports like golf to make exercise entertaining, the best, easiest, and least expensive exercise is actually “free-standing exercise”. This accounts for any form of exercise that doesn’t require the use of tools or weights other than our own body. If we do these exercises every day, we can visit the doctor's office less frequently. Stamina originates from the lower back and the abdomen. This is not only the core of the body, but also where the Kidneys are housed. TCM-wise, Kidneys govern reproductive ability as well as store the Essence (Jing) from which our original Qi (Yuan Qi) and our marrows (brain and bone marrows) are produced. Also, the lower abdominal region below the navel (belly button) is where our lower dantian is located. This area contains both Qi Hai (CV6) and Guan Yuan(CV4) acupoints which are essential for strengthening our internal organs by tonifying Qi, Yin, and Yang.

First, we should try to self-diagnose how much our abdomen is protruding (how much weight are we carrying around our waist?) and how flexible our lower back & waist are. When we are standing straight without restraining our belly/holding our breath/flexing our abdominal muscles, and look down by flexing our neck, can we see our pubic region? If we cannot see it, we need to lose weight until we can do so. Recommended free-standing exercises for losing weight are brisk walking, light jogging, and rope skipping. Secondly, we should diagnose how flexible our lower back is. When we are standing straight with our feet together and then bend forward/flex our trunk, can our palms touch the top of our feet? Also, when we lean backwards/extend our trunk, can we see the scene behind us? If we cannot do both or any one of these, we need to soften our bodies until we can do so. The exercises that can help us with that are alternate trunk flexion and extension (see picture below) and hip rotation (see picture below). These diagnostic actions are essential ones that we need to be able to do to ensure that our core is flexible enough to prevent any damage to it from activities in daily life such as lifting a grocery bag or from exercises or sports that may catch us off balance.

Exercises to soften our lower back and the waist were covered so now we need to go into strengthening them. Practice these exercises daily:

1)  Lie down facing up with knees flexed and upright, soles of the feet on the floor. Place both hands on the knees and lift the upper body (see picture below). Repeat 10 times. 

2)  Lie down facing up with knees flexed and upright again. Place the hands on the sides of the body then lift the upper body (see picture below). Repeat 10 times.

3)  Lie down facing up with knees flexed and upright again. Support the back of the head with the hands then lift the upper body (see picture below). Repeat 10 times.

4)  Sit down with the legs and the back straight. Hold up the arms in front of the body and set them apart slightly wider than the width of the legs. Lean backwards while keeping the spine straight and lift the legs off of the floor. Raise the legs and the upper body simultaneously as if we are folding our body then lower them back down until right before touching the ground (see picture below). Repeat this raising and lowering 10 times.

In addition to the above exercises, we can practice the following steps daily to strengthen our lower abdomen where the lower dantian is:

1)     Stand up straight and space apart our feet to shoulder width with toes facing forward. Bend our knees slightly as if we were horse riding (see picture below). Then rub our lower belly below the navel with our palms until we can feel warmth from the friction.

2)     Then in the same position, inhale deeply as if we are trying to expand our lower belly. Pause with the air inside us (don’t exhale yet) and then strike our lower belly with both palms as we are enwrapping it (see picture below). Strike for at least 30 times and then exhale while flattening the lower belly.     

Both the lower back and the region below the navel are also important to keep warm because they are also seen as the location of our body’s firepit. This fire equates to Kidney Yang. The active fire in this region is what allows the convection of Yang and the movement of Fluids along with it throughout our body. Hence to keep our entire body warm and free of water retention, it is a good practice to keep our lower belly and lower back warm by covering them with clothes and making use of heat packs/pads.