[Fondueset]

With winter full on - water now down to 40f and air in the 20s - this is exactly what I've been thinking about.
To date I mostly have been doing Taiji (old yang style - contains 'fa-jing' - explosive movements that are a kind of muscular galvanization of the whole body) and Bagua - more vigorous - done in a tight circle with lots of twists and back bends - outdoors usually morning and evening and diving several times a week.

I need to do more and may start doing some asana work again. Personally I have to be careful about flexibility - having overemphasized that in the past. But arm balances and sequences with differing breathing patterns can be quite aerobic or anerobic depending on how you work the breath. I may also learn the Bagua linear form - which is one of the longest forms in martial arts and quite vigorous.

My swimming is exclusively in open water and with a monofin. I love cruising along the bottom applying the principals of Taiji to the fin work. Taiji awakens very subtle movements in the spine and the objective is allways to let extraneous effort fall away. In monofinning I try to apply this and what in Taiji is called 'sung' - what I think of as moving without moving. So the body moves as a single unit - but also in sensory harmony with the environment such that there is a 'softening' of the ostensible discreet sensory surfaces by which we feel ourselves defined.

Pete - I'd like to hear your thoughts on monofins. I am using a hard Waterway with the Nemo pockets and find is much easier to conserve energy with it than with my soft fin. I'm wondering about going to the open heel pockets - and/or to a wider fin.