Wellness and Fitness Classes with Andy Selters

I’ve been active all my life, especially in backcountry mountain sports, and athletic good health has always been something I’ve practically taken for granted. Then, in 2001, a plane crash left me with several crushed vertebrae. After months of inactivity, as the bones stabilized in their new shape, I had to redevelop my spine even to be able to sit comfortably.

I drew upon the yoga and T’ai-chi I’d done previously, and with persistence my spine has steadily gained substantial freedom and resilience. Recovery has been a sort of starting over, gradually expanding through successive limitations, but never letting external expectations pull me toward imbalance or re-injury. I’ve learned a tremendous amount about how we move and how we can listen to what our bodies are saying they love to do.

Today T’ai-chi, ChiRunning, and ChiWalking are all a positive, synergistic parts of my life. They help me also enjoy climbing and skiing again, and compete in local running races too. And, I’ve found I really enjoy teaching wellness and fitness practices to others. In 2007-08 I became a certified ChiRunning and ChiWalking instructor. In 2008, at the request of Mono County Dept. of Mental Health, I began teaching T’ai-chi.

ChiRunning and ChiWalking
Running and walking are basic to our evolution and our makeup. They are foundational exercise, and our easiest way to maintain health and to add enjoyable exercise to the day. However, natural and efficient running and walking form are not something we learn automatically. From tensions, misconceptions, compensations, protections, and often out of simply trying too hard, we develop habits that are inefficient and often hurtful.

When we age, or when we stress ourselves with more miles or more speed, we often get injured. When any system that’s not well integrated is stressed, the weak links break down. After my back injury, I never imagined I’d enjoy running again, but the ChiRunning form allows me to run for fun and focus. Despite a fairly low weekly mileage I’ve even have done ok in some races, including a 46-minute 10k, and a 2:48 30k.

The Mammoth-Bishop area is one of the best running and walking areas in the world. Some of America’s best runners choose live and train here, and you too can enjoy the many backroads and trails. 

Click here for a testimonial from Bishop’s queen of ultra-running, Marie Boyd.

ChiRunning and ChiWalking are modern methods based on the principles of T’ai-chi, and basic biomechanics. They enable us to move in a way that’s integrated from our core, in the most efficient way possible, and with much less risk of injury. They were developed by Danny Dreyer, and associates. Now I’m one of a team of certified instructors worldwide helping thousands of people run and walk with much greater ease, confidence, and often speed.
The pillars of the ChiRunning and ChiWalking form are:

• Aligned Posture
• Appropriate Lean
• Relaxed, Fluid, and Efficient Limbs
• Hip/Spinal Rotation
• Appropriate Cadence and Stride Length

An introductory ChiRunning or ChiWalking clinic is a foot-to-head makeover of how you move and how you think about moving. It takes 3-4 hours. 
Scheduling: For local runners and walkers in the Eastern Sierra, I collect names and contact info and preferred days, and try to schedule 3-5 students for a class. Sunday is often the day that works best. 

Once you’ve learned and practiced all the basic focuses in a class, we encourage you to run frequently at a modest pace and distance that allows you to keep checking in and adjusting to the different focuses. Gradually you’ll transform your running habits. After a few weeks or months we encourage you to come back for a follow-up, refresher clinic, where we’ll check in with your progress, learn additional drills and more about hill techniques and speed adjustments, and do a video analysis of your stride--which usually is eye-opening.

I also teach ChiRunning in a full-day 7-hour format. This allows more time to run and incorporate the form under my guidance. The ChiRunning book and/or DVD can be quite helpful, but there’s really no substitute for having an instructor lead you through the steps and then observe you and give you personal feedback on incorporating the principles into your movement. 

“After 30 years of running, and finding that my times were gradually slowing, I took 2 classes from Andy Selters.  He demonstrated the Chi Running technique very patiently and thoroughly, incorporating the principles of effortless running with minimal effort.

We started by doing simple stretching, followed by a very slow methodical learning of the gait, forward lean, and hip movements.  At no time did I feel rushed, or intimidated by the new techniques.  By gradually adding to my base of knowledge, with explanation, demonstration and return demonstration, I was able to learn the method quite easily.

Of course, the proof is in the pudding!  Two of my best races recently have shown the benefits of Chi Running.  I added 7 miles to a 24 hour race distance last October, running 93.4 miles, to break a National Record for a 61 year old female for that timed event.  Additionally, last month I took 35 minutes off last year’s time at the Calico Ghost Town 50k to win my age group, 60 – 69.   Interestingly, I had very little leg soreness or stiffness following each event."
                                                                                    -Marie Boyd

Contact Andy about a ChiRunning or ChiWalking class.  

Click here to link to the International ChiRunning website

T’ai-chi ch’uan

I teach T’ai-chi at:

Flowmotion Pilates Studio, Bishop
Bishop, 126 N. Main St.
Current schedule:
Tuesday evenings 6:30-8pm, and
Wednesdays 10:30-12 noon

LeCentre Dance Studio, Mammoth Lakes
Current schedule:
Thursdays 7:45-9am

I learned Yang-style long form in the 1980s, when I lived in Bellingham, from grand master T.Y. Pang. I also took classes from his protégé master Robert Fong, and I’ve been practicing ever since.

T’ai-chi (“ultimate unity”) is a movement practice that evolved out of ancient Chinese martial arts. The different stresses of modern life point us toward T’ai-chi not so we can become better fighters, but, in the words of Mr. Pang, because “our bodies need exercise and our minds need rest.” The path of T’ai-chi leads to “internal art.” That is, it’s a structured form that finds increasing effectiveness through refining ever deeper into subtlety, and we learn about directing energy around in our bodies. This becomes apparent as the choreography of the form becomes intuitive, and as we let our body find natural alignment and become fluid, relaxed, rounded, centered, and rooted.

Some things that I learned from Mr. Pang directly:

~ Our society may know a lot about treating sickness, but we don’t know so much about generating health.
Practicing T’ai-chi diligently generates life energy and general health.

~ What seems natural to us is often simply habitual. In T’ai-chi we learn to leave habitual patterns behind, and to find mindful, natural movement.

~ It is not automatic, instinctual, or easy to move naturally. But with practice we make progress, depending on our organic potential and diligence.

~ T’ai-chi is a living philosophy. By practicing the form, we build and refine conscious participation in yang-becoming-yin, and vice-versa.

~ Striving and reaching create problems. At every level of practice we learn to give up trying to achieve something. We listen for the sound of peacefulness, and move from there.

~ T.Y. Pang is a grand master of many Chinese health arts including Qigong, PaKua, and herbology. He learned T’ai-chi from Dong Yingjie, who was a student of Yang Chengfu, creator of the Yang form.

~ I started taking Mr. Pang’s classes almost on a lark, but from the first one I sensed in the way he moved that he had something very special going. After some longer classes in particular, I noticed that rock climbing seemed unusually easy, and I simply felt lighter, as if gravity had less drag on me. Because of his youthful energy and appearance I assumed Mr. Pang was in his mid-30s. When he told me he was in his late 50s, I really knew there was something unusual going on. And I know now that he never showed us anything close to the very athletic T’ai-chi that he was capable of.

~ Other things I have learned out of listening to my own practice, and gleaned from other sources:

~ When we align in good posture, we invite life energy to course through our body. We become a conduit between earth and sky.

~ To make our posture and movements effortless, we have to work mindfully at losing effort and struggle.
We tend to think of fitness as a matter of muscular strength or endurance, while in T’ai-chi we learn to move based on what our skeleton and joints do most effectively and easily.

~ In showing us how to move effectively and thoroughly, T’ai-chi trains the mind to anticipate and shift without strain.

~ Between the strain of overexertion and the stagnation of under-utilization, healthy living travels a middle path that integrates exercise and rest.

Compared to Mr. Pang, I am an absolute amateur. But I have been able to show students the doors that T’ai-chi opens.

I encourage you to come to T’ai-chi with a commitment of at least several weeks. It is unreasonable to expect progress from an occasional or single session.