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Iron and the Soul: By Henry Rollins

I had the privilege of spending a few hours with Henry Rollins about 15 years ago when he came to the University of North Florida for one of his spoken word performances. My friend was a coordinator for the UNF events department and was responsible for chauffeuring him around while he was in town. He knew I was a Henry Rollins fan and I got to tag along. Man, was it an experience. Henry Rollins is one of the most intense, down-to-earth people I've ever met... and amazingly intelligent. He's really no slouch when it comes to just about anything!

Although this article seems to be about his relationship with lifting weights, its much deeper than that. It's more about his relationship with a passion that, for him, encompasses his complete mind, body and soul. For me, this fits my relationship with martial arts to a tee! This essay was written a couple years before I met him (published in Details magazine in '94). I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. -Sifu Adam Williss

Iron and the Soul
By Henry Rollins

I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself.

Completely.

When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me “garbage can” and telling me I’d be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn’t run home crying, wondering why. I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy.

I hated myself all the time. As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn’t going to get pounded in the hallway between classes. Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you’ll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me hard time. I didn’t think much of them either.

Then came Mr. Pepperman, my advisor. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class. Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard. Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn’t even drag them to my mom’s car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly.

Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.’s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn’t looking. When I could take the punch we would know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing. In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn’t want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in.

Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn't know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it.

Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn’t say shit to me.

It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it’s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn’t teach you anything. That’s the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.

It wasn’t until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can’t be as bad as that workout.

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I have never met a truly strong person who didn’t have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone’s shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman.

Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.

Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body.

Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn’t see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads.

I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you’re made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live. Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it’s some kind of miracle if you’re not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole.

I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.

Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind.

The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.

Sifu Adam Williss is the founder of Dragon Family Wing Chun and Program Director at The Dragon Institute. His approach to martial arts combines meditation, energy work and functional self-defense to encompass the full mind, body and soul. Recently, his distance learning program is reaching international exposure.

Internal Wing Chun Breathing

At The Dragon Institute, we practice an "internal" method of martial arts and qigong. This approach focuses upon relaxation and posture to achieve its goals. Whether these goals are self-defense oriented or for healthy living, the approach remains the same.

Since breathing is the basic root of life and it has so much control over our ability to relax, it is what we focus upon before anything else. When we are relaxed, our mind and body can function at their highest potentials.

"In fact, when you
practice lower dan tien
breathing you bring
ten times the amount
of air into your lungs
than when you breathe
only with your chest."

The key to our internal Wing Chun breathing is learning how to breath from your lower dan tien. The lower dan tien is located about three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel. It's considered to be the foundation of standing, breathing, and body awareness.

Lower Dan Tien Breathing
Start by standing with you feet shoulder width apart. Put one hand on your chest and one hand on your abdomen while you inhale slowly allowing your abdomen to expand outward. It is helpful to imagine your lower belly expanding like a balloon as you breathe in.

Start your practice by spending 5-10 minutes a day breathing this way. We include this in our practice of Siu Nim Tau form. The goal is to gradually increase the time you practice up to at least 20 minutes or more a day. Once you can maintain abdominal breathing for that period of time you will notice how much easier it is for you to become relaxed when needed.

The diaphragm moves downward when you inhale, so the stomach muscles naturally move outward. The diaphragm relaxes and moves upward when you exhale, so you don't have to force the air out, it just happens automatically.

Slowing Down your Breathing
The other element of lower dan tien breathing is to breathe slowly. Normal breathing is somewhere between 12 and 16 breaths per minute. Hyperventilation can be 25 or even 40 breaths per minute. When practicing abdominal breathing your goal is to decrease your breathing rate to 2 or 3 breaths per minute. When you start, just focus on slowing your breathing down to about 6 breaths per minute.

In the beginning some people feel like they're not getting enough air and take deeper upper chest breathes. If this is the case, it is an indication your normal mode of breathing may approximate hyperventilation. As best you can, resist the temptation to do this. In time, with practice, this feeling will pass. Just know that you are getting plenty of air. In fact, when you practice lower dan tien breathing you bring ten times the amount of air into your lungs than when you breathe only with your chest.

This is a completely different type of breathing for your body. So give yourself some time to get used to it.

Sifu Adam Williss is the founder of Dragon Family Wing Chun and Program Director at The Dragon Institute. He was a 2010 inductee into the US Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

"Its true. I love what I do. Its not a job, its a true PASSION that I get to do every single day. I get to share this passion and help my amazing students honestly express themselves. Not lying to themselves. Liberating themselves from themselves, their fears, their walls and their insecurities. Their trust in me is remarkable. This kind of trust and honesty is extremely difficult. That's why its easy to do what I do. What's so hard is doing what they do. They are my inspiration. To them, I dedicate this journey."

-Sifu Adam Williss

Wing Chun, Chi & Musculoskeleton

By Patrick Miller

Chi is the "breath" or spiraling energy within our bodies. To the early learner, these spiraling pathways are not easily seen to the naked eye. This is also a feeling that must be felt through the optimal practitioner's (Sihing) or teacher's limbs. After years of practice, the spiraling/ascending, and descending energies become visible and tactile. -Godwin, silver tai chi book

Let's assume that chi is energy of the internal systems of the body. Chi is still a theory and has not been directly proved (or disproven). Indirectly, physicians have a way through calorimetry and other methods to assist in the science behind the mystical "energized breath".

The internal systems of the body are:

Nervous (brain, spinal cord, nerves)
Cardiovascular (heart, arteries, veins)
Musculoskeletal (muscles, tendons, bones)
Integumentary (skin, superficial adipose tissue, special protective barriers)
Respiratory (lungs, mouth/nose, throat/trachea)
Organ (digestive, enzymatic, regulators of homeostasis)
Endocryne (protective, hormonal, and regulatory also)

Focusing on the musculoskeletal, this system may directly show pathways of chi. All muscles spiral in nature. Muscles have a multitude of functions. These organs of the system do not only move in one plane of motion, they all typically have three degrees of freedom or they move about within the three different planes of the body.

For example, the biceps do not just flex the arm. It also flexes the shoulder and acts as a synergist with the supinator muscle (tiny muscle in the deep forearm) to supinate the forearm (as Godwin states in many instances). Also, the brachioradialis muscle that runs from the lateral epicondyle of the humerus to insert on the carpal bones of the wrist, can act as an elbow flexor / (sometimes a supinator or pronator) and works synergistic with the extensor carpi radialis muscles to radial deviate and extends the wrist. This muscle is also called the college student muscle as the motion explained above is similar to drinking. The brachioradialis muscle is the "golf ball" muscle seen from the knife set wrist motions, jum sao, and the one-inch punch. From the elbow on, this is the main muscle for punching power.

These motions look spiral-like when you think about it. They follow nervous pathways. The biceps brachii is innervated by the musculocutaneous nerve and its motion follows that of the C5 nerve root. Traveling distally to the brachioradialis, this muscle is innervated by the radial nerve and mainly the C6 nerve root. Getting into Bil Jee and thrusting fingers, the middle finger is then mainly innervated by the nerve root C7 through the small muscles deep in the hand. Starting from the brain, traveling to the spinal cord, exiting the spinal cord through C5, C6, then C7 cervical nerve roots, the neural command activates the spiraling muscle patterns predicted for an attack to the throat or eyes. This is just one example of a spiraling muscle pattern resembling chi passing throught the body. A picture of dermatomes (nervous innervation of the skin) looks remarkably similar to the meridians of chi in the body.

Patrick Miller is the founder of University of Miami Wing Chun Kung Fu and a graduate assistant at the school. He is a proud student of Jesse Moon of North Florida Wing Chun. Patrick gives credit to his teacher Jesse Moon, Bill Graves and Karl Godwin for everything he knows through the eyes of Wing Chun.

Kung Fu Kids

Sifu Adam Williss with some of his youngest students ready to defend the name of The Dragon Institute from evil.

Martial Arts Are One Big Family

"Martial arts are one big family. Just as you should appreciate all martial arts, appreciate all kinds of Wing Chun. But also understand that there are huge differences between how different arts/styles approach things. Just because its called by the same name doesn't make it the same. Even though they may be trying to accomplish the same thing in the end, how one person/art/style goes about things can be completely different. In fact, sometimes even contrary to one another. Does it make either of them wrong? Not necessarily. It all depends on how you look at it, where you're at in your mind and what path you want to take to get there. No one has all the answers. Finding truth is never about following another person. Truth is found within the walls you've built that hold you back from it."

-Sifu Adam Williss

Chi Sao

"You won't see Chi Sao in a high intensity confrontation. You see the results of it in the person who has spent the hundreds of hours training it. Chi Sao should never be looked upon as fighting. It's a tool sharpening exercise."

-Sifu Adam Williss

Bil Jee by Ng Wah Sum

Leung Sheung student Ng Wah Sum demonstrates Wing Chun's Bil Jee

Bil Jee is the third of three open-hand sets of Wing Chun. Bil Jee builds upon and refines the technical and structural training of the first two sets. In some circles Bil Jee is known as the "emergency set" as its techniques diverge from the centerline and can be seen as guidelines on what to do if your structure is compromised. In other words, it teaches how to "return to the center".

Bil Jee" (標指) literally means "darting fingers" and refers to the way the form trains the practitioner to project energy through the fingertips.

Advanced footwork is taught in this form. The footwork of Bil Jee is more circular in nature and uses the So Gurk often. It teaches how to close the gap as well as leg sweep. This form also has more emphasis on shoulder and hip opening/rotation.

Chum Kiu by Ng Wah Sum

Leung Sheung student Ng Wah Sum demonstrates Wing Chun's Chum Kiu

Chum Kiu is the second of three open-hand forms of Wing Chun. In order to begin the second set, the legs and knees must be trained via the first set to be able to put the body weight on one leg. Once the proper body structure from Siu Nim Tao is trained, the student can then learn how to move that structure by turning and stepping.

The "Chum" in "Chum Kiu" can be represented by two different characters in Cantonese. When 沉 is used the form translates to "sinking the bridge." If the character 尋 is used then it translates to "seeking the bridge." The bridge refers to contact with the opponent's limb.

Fundamental rules of footwork and body unity while moving are introduced and developed in Chum Kiu. The set introduces turning, the small step, and kicking.

Karl Godwin & Bill Graves

Here are a couple old photos from the early 1980's of Dragon Family Wing Chun forefathers, Karl Godwin and Bill Graves.

Karl Godwin applying a pull and punch while Bill Graves responds with a gwat sao

Karl Godwin and Bill Graves practicing Chi Sao at long bridge

"I didn't choose to make martial arts my life's passion in order to learn how to fight. I chose martial arts because of the undeniable peace it brings to everything I do."

-Sifu Adam Williss

Sifu Adam Williss is the founder of Dragon Family Wing Chun and Program Director at The Dragon Institute. He was a 2010 inductee into the US Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

© The Dragon Institute | Orange County | Wing Chun Kung Fu | 34241 Pacific Coast Highway | Dana Point, CA 92673 | ocwingchun.com

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New Year Trial Offer

Iron and the Soul: By Henry Rollins

Internal Wing Chun Breathing

Wing Chun, Chi & Musculoskeleton

Kung Fu Kids

Martial Arts Are One Big Family

Chi Sao

Bil Jee by Ng Wah Sum

Chum Kiu by Ng Wah Sum

Karl Godwin & Bill Graves

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