Internet-based Lessons
Two useful wrist exercises - any level; art and style unknown
I learned these two exercises 45 years ago taking Shorinjin karate. I have no idea where the exercises are from. I never asked and the sensei never said. Some old time judo comrades in arms have been doing the exercises that long or longer. But they claim the exercises are NOT from Danzan style. I am pretty sure they are correct. So there are two problems.
1. I have no idea if these two exercises were a complete transmission - the sensei may have
not learned any others or may have declined to teach [to me, at any rate] anything else
2. I do not know where to look for history. It is clear that the two wrist exercises were taught in multiple martial arts in Hawaii. Perhaps that means an origin in aikido or Kodokan style judo from Japan or in the Hawaiian art of lua. There is not much evidence of Chinese martial arts being taught to non-Chinese in the islands at that time.
So the American Jujitsu Institute has kindly consented to publish a short article in hopes it rings some bells.
Currently the human genome contains about 20,400 protein coding genes and about 50,000 other known sequences. In the available North American and Western European data we focus on a disappointing swirl of deletions, micro-deletions, mutations, trans-locations and nucleotide repeats in about 300 genes: 190 linked to the autism spectrum, 40 linked to the arthrogryposis spectrum, 20 to the cerebral palsy spectrum and 10 linked to Down Syndrome.
For reasons not well understood yet - not even by some of the genetics researchers - in the arthrogryposis and cerebral palsy spectra [and probably some other conditions as well] there's often but not always a painful loss of flexion in the lower arms, wrists, hands and fingers. So far, no common metabolic pathway has been identified - that means right now that none of the dozens of genes implicated in various types of cerebral palsy are also implicated in arthrogryposis. The pain and tightening appear to be progressive and can extend to elbows and even shoulders. In a limited sample in some cases there are similar problems with feet. There is a canonical Chen Family style wrist warm-up exercise (link below) that seems to help. The best tai chi tools for these problems are the tai chi bang and the tai chi ruler - more coming on them soon.
 
Here's a link to a short YouTube video for the Chen style wrist warm-up exercise:
https://www.youtube.com/c1j8urf1D0k
Here's a link to a short YouTube video for the first wrist exercise:
https://www.youtube.com/7bTMzjPq4qY
Here's a link to a short YouTube video for the second wrist exercise:
https://youtu.be/2W9LTa79iSg

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