Introduction To The Russian Health System The most valuable possession a person has is his own life.

The Russian system ho lds life as sacred, even when it is the life of an opponent. Health is the foundation on which life rests. The quality of a life, and indeed life itself, is dependent on health. Your skills in the Russian system will be g reatly affected by your overall health. A healthy warrior is far superior to an unhealthy or injured one. But while nobody really wants to be sick, it s amazing how many people do nothing to prevent illness and protect their health. The constant fatigue caused by mode rn living and its persistent tension, the inability to rest properly and other f actors combine to gradually break down health. Many of us only come to appreciat e and be aware of its importance when we lose it. Even when we are sick, we have a tendency to think only of treating symptoms and not our whole being. Conventional western medicine relies on drugs and other fo reign substances to treat these symptoms but drugs can create even more problems for the patient. Medicine itself is the cause of many allergic, respiratory and skin diseases. Ma ny health problems and stress agents originate in more radical problems like rad iation, chemotherapy and vaccines. It s been reported that in the countries of Wes tern Europe and North and South America, almost 30 percent of all illnesses are caused by medications. In the United States, medications play a significant role in 25 percent of all deaths. No sources cited We don t want to go back to the Middle Ages, of course. There are acute cases wher e pharmaceutical sand the newest technology is necessary for proper treatment. B ut far too often chemicals are used to treat symptoms while the cause of the dis ease inside a person is left untreated. The goal of the Russian Health System is to anticipate dangers to our health and mobilize our natural defensive powers to fight disease before it happens. The R ussian Health System I was taught was perfect by a Russian philosopher and pract itioner, Profiriy /48/ Ivanov, who has successfully been working with it for 50 years. This system was also a part of our training in the SOU. I think that many of its components can be very helpful to students training in the Russian Marti al Art. The RUssian Health System identifies fatigue- whether emotional, physical or int ellectual fatigue as the main enemy. Fatigue has a negative effect on the whole nervous system. As you may have noticed in your own life and those of others, il lness often follows a period of exhaustion. Exhaustion interrupts the natural, healthy order of cell growth in the body. In the best circumstances, there is a constant process of renewal for the cells in our body. When the old cells die, healthy ones grow to take their place. When ex hausted though, the body may begin to poison itself. Healthy cell growth is hamp ered. When we are first confronted with difficult circumstances, the body reacts with apprehension. This is where stress and the road to exhaustion begins. In the nex t phase, resistance is offered to this stress. The body rallies its reserves to overcome the stress factors. But if the stress is sever and our strength and res erves not up to the test, we can fall into an exhaustion phase. With our resourc es depleted, we can get sick. It s important to point out the personal nature of stress, though. When faced with the same situation, one person may really worry and test his reserves while ano ther remains clam and rested. It s not so much the stress, but out response to it that is important. That response depends on factors like character, individual p hilosophy and personality, personal history and maturity. But we also have natural reserves in the body that help us tell every cell in ou r body to help us fight stress and disease. Scientific research tells us that ev ery cell in our body has at least 20 times more energy potential that any virus or bacteria. No source cited If these cells are strong, most disease cannot live in them. As a result, our body organs are much stronger than we believe. Many are not eve n working at close to top capacity or stress levels. The kidney, for example, is

capable of doing ten times the work it normally does in cleaning the body. Desp ite this, we often see kidneys malfunctioning. The Russian Health System believes in keeping the body strong /49/ and preventin g disease instead of treating it as it arrives. Much of its success depends on k eeping the energy level of the person high. It focuses on increasing the level o f vital energy by stressing the following: -Strengthening The Body With Water -Cleansing The Body From Inside -Movement -Proper Breathing -Interaction With Nature It is interesting to note how well these principles match the psychological comp onents of the Russian Martial Art we talked about earlier. Both the Russian Mart ial Art and Russian Health System philosophically mirror and support each other. When used together, they are a perfect example of synergy- they combine to prod uce a result far greater than the sum of their individual parts. Strengthening The Body With Water This involves pouring a bucked of cold water over your body twice a day. While I don t require this of my students, I will stress it to those who are open-minded to it. As a result, many have caught on to its benefits. Its positive effects are almost miraculous and it s not just for people training i n the martial arts. My wife and I both use it. In fact, she carried on with it t hroughout her pregnancies and we started our children on it when they were two d ays old. Many in Russia swear by its benefits and many of my North American stud ents who have tried it are equally convinced of its powers. It s a simple procedure. You just fill up a large bucket of icy cold water, as col d as you can get from the tap, and our it over you head. This should be done one before 12 noon and once before midnight every day. As it was explained to me in Special Forces, this way you get the two cycles of the day involved and receive both positive and negative energy charges from the earth. /50/ It s almost like having a mini-explosion take place inside of you. Your body tempe rature rises to nearly 42.2. degrees Celsius (thats nearly 108 degrees Fahrenhei t). It feels like a pleasant warmth and surge of energy inside. Meanwhile, this explosion of warmth will kill off most bacteria and viruses. Indeed, 40 degrees Celsius is deadly for most viruses and bacteria and this procedure raises body t emperature 2 degrees Celsius (and nearly 4 Fahrenheit) above that! The optimum way to perform this procedure is standing on the ground, barefooted. We always do it outside even if the weather is bad and we have to stand in the snow. But be aware. You may see some remarkable things. With the body releasing all that negative energy and disease it must have somewhere to go. That somewhere is through your feet and into the ground. Many times, while using a special deep breathing procedure, I actually burn hole s in the snow doing this exercise. We have this on video tape. After pouring the cold water over my head small, neat holes were formed under my heels and the ba ll of my foot where the negative energy left the body. Snow just can t melt this w ay. I knew people personally who could burn holes in pavement doing this exercise. I n some cases, the negative energy leaving the body even broke the pavement! It s ounds very strange, and it is, but this exercise really does work. It also gives the martial artist more energy. You feel rejuvenated after the pro cedure. It s also a daily act of will power and, as such, a way to add inner stren gth and personal reserves. It is never pleasant to do this. Many times you ll be f eeling lazy or cold. You never get used to it, especially during the winter mont hs. But its benefits are so great, you will yourself to get out and do it. And it must be done twice a day no matter how you feel. This is especially impor tant if you feel sick or have a cold coming on. In fact, in cases where you feel like you might be getting a cold or flu you should perform the procedure every two hours. It will help you /51/ fight off the illness very quickly and without any medications.

The water basically runs though our biofield, cleanses it, strengthens it, bring you into harmony both in internal and external relationship s and balances circ ulation in the body s energy channels. Impure, sick and negative entities are flus hed from the body. If you ve got a cold or flu or feel like you re getting one forge t the cold medicines at the pharmacy. Cold water is a much more effective treatm ent. It s also less expensive and more accessible. Please note, this is not the same as a cold shower or washing your face. Whole wate r , in the form of water in the bucket, has a charge of energy far greater than sh ower water. As for washing your face, why stimulate just that area when you coul d be helping your whole body? Think of it this way. Cold is the most important stimulant in our metabolism. No thing makes the body work faster than cold. It is the best way to mobilize our b ody s reserves to pull together and fight weakness. Pouring cold water over your b ody causes your central nervous system to call upon each part of your body to wo rk better and direct more energy to weaker areas. This procedure has become very popular with my students. They find that it not o nly aids overall health but also leads to a better, more energetic performance i n the gym. Cleansing The Body From Inside Fasting, or not eating food and water for a period, is very important. It cleans out not only the digestive tract, but other parts of the body as well. It also helps to destroy unhealthy cells in the body. If you re going to fast, you should do it for at least 24 hours once a week. You s hould have your last meal at 6:00 at nigh and eat no more food or water until 6: 00 the next evening. You can perform all your regular activities. You can train, go to work and recreate in whatever way you choose. Just don t eat any food or dr ink water. It is important to continue with the cold water rinse when you re fasting, though. When in the womb, a baby takes water in though its skin. We don t practice this a fter birth by we still have this ability. Fasting with the cold water rinse will teach your body to absorb water through the skin again. This absorbed water wil l aid /52/ in giving you more energy to get through the day. I believe the optimum fast lasts 42 hours and this is the fast I perform during the week. As mentioned above, not drinking water kills unhealthy, sick cells. Wh en you get thirsty, these sick cells are the first to demand water. They are als o the first to die out, beginning to perish right around the 20 hour mark of a f ast. After a full 42 hours, most of these bad cells will die from lack of water. Healthy cells have the reserves to get through a period of no water. Bacteria an d viruses don t. Without drinking water, our bodies also begin to make water out o f fats and mucus where bacteria could normally multiply. For these reasons, shor t fasting without water may be especially helpful during respiratory illness lik e the common cold and resulting infections. A lot of people may worry about the lack of water during a fast. Modern medicine often recommends drinking a lot of water for health. So does yoga. In fact, yog a generally recommends 8 glasses of water a day. Is this really effective? If you re living in India or another extremely hot climate, yes. You need the wate r for the heat. Likewise, dehydration is bad for the body. But the same system of yoga that suggests drinking 8 glasses of water a day also warns us that, A pitcher of water by the bedside of a sick person can kill him f aster than the disease itself . Despite the focus on drinking water, the yoga practitioner also realizes that it s important to live without it sometimes. He knows this will clear out bacteria, viruses and harmful elements that can t exist without water. Drinking water in small sips is also stressed in yoga. Small amounts are taken i nto the mouth where they moisten the mouth cavity and are savored. In this way, water is mixed with saliva. This is important because, when water is mixed with saliva, it changes. A lot of harmful bacteria die under the influence of protective chemicals in saliva. Sal iva is a remarkable substance. Dogs and other animals lick their wounds, as do s ome tribal nations, to take advantage of the protective substances in the saliva

. /53/ You don t necessarily have to lick yourself, of course, but it is wise to drink yo ur water in small sips to make full use of the healing powers of saliva. Movement Movement is also very important to health. Lack of movement leads to atrophy of muscle tissue, joint stiffness, slowing of the metabolism, mental and physical s tagnation and rapid aging. In short, you must move and exercise your body to sta y healthy. The most direct and important effects of exercise take place on the circulatory system. When you exercise a muscle, your body starts to expand the system of blo od vessels around that muscle. The network of capillaries, the tiny blood vessel s surrounding each muscle fiber, grow. A working muscle demands more blood and t he body actually builds new capillaries while the old ones begin to expand and c ontract better, thus improving the capacities of the muscle. There is a big difference between the exercises you do in training for the Russi an system and other exercise programs. In bodybuilding, for instance, you work m uscle groups separately. For example, pumping a bicep will improve blood supply to the bicep area. Little improvement in other areas will be seen. The Russian system makes you use all muscles in the body. They re not worked group by group. In this way, your circulation improves evenly. All body parts work to gether, not separately. In traditional exercises it s generally the muscle belly, or fleshy part of the mu scle, that gets worked. In the Russian system the tendons, or cord-like parts of the muscle attached to the bone, are the focus. As a result, you don t end up add ing bulk like the weightlifter, but you keep muscles limber and avoid stiffness. Muscles are more ready to act without warm-up if a sudden threat presents itsel f. Joints and muscles are also connected to the inner body organs thought the body s system of nerves and energy channels. The unusual movements of the Russian syste m help improve energy flow through these channels. The elliptical movements of t he Russian Martial Art also aid in strengthening protective energy fields that k eep body parts from injury. /54/ Proper Breathing One should learn to breathe rhythmically and deeply, using the whole chest and s tomach. Correct breathing uses three body components diaphragmatic, intercostal and upper respiratory. Lower breathing, making use of the diaphragm (the wall of muscles between the ch est and abdominal cavities), is essential. The diaphragm is a very powerful, wid e muscle that moves down slowly when activated. When it does, it pushes on the l iver. This eases and directs the flow of bile from the liver and provides better circulation in the abdomen. It also pushes blood in the veins ahead toward the chest cavity. Intercostal (rib) breathing is also a part of correct breathing and it must be i ncorporated and linked with diaphragm and upper respiratory (or nasal) breathing . Nasal breathing is often ignored but it is as important as it is misunderstood . It has long been noted that people who don t breathe though their nose properly du ring early development later find themselves lacking in mental skills, memory an d other physical skills. The nose does a number of important jobs- smelling, cle aning the air of dust, warming the air in winter, negating the effects of harmfu l substances to the body- and operating at less-than-peak efficiency can have gr ave effects on health. The air taken through the nose also cools and ventilates the main sinus of the s kull. The back wall of this sinus lays against the most important gland in the e ndocrine system- the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland controls the productio n of all the body s natural hormones. For proper functioning, this gland needs rhythmical cooling. It only gets this t hrough nasal breathing. Without the cooling, the pituitary s work is disrupted and

this can have a harmful effect on the body. That s why the Russian system stresses taking air in forcefully one nostril at a t ime. Simply breathe through one nostril and exhale though the other. Then altern ate so you re taking in air thought the other nostril and exhaling through the one you originally inhaled through. This is excellent for cooling the main sinus an d pituitary and is a strong source for biostimulation. /55/ As mentioned earlier in this manual, breathing by counts can also be a helpful e xercise. A good starting pattern for the beginner is to take in eight complete c ounts of breath, hold it for eight counts, exhale for another eight and hold aga in for a final eight count. This can also aid in relaxation, meditation and prop er maintenance of the nervous system. Interaction With Nature The Russian Health System is founded on the belief that if you are good to the w orld around you, that world will be good to you. Loving and appreciating nature, spending time with it, being good to other people and respecting human life are all important parts of this belief. Religion is also important. Realizing that, despite your skills and experience, you are still below God is essential. Humility must be served (sic). Staying in contact with your good side and regular prayer are essential to a true master of t he Russian Martial Art. It s also essential to the Russian Health System that keep s the warrior healthy and at the top of his form. Conventional western medicine doesn t have all the answers. In some cases, it can do more harm than good. If you want to become a master in the Russian Martial Ar t and live a healthy, strong, productive life, utilizing the Russian Health Syst em could be the key to opening the door to a new world of physical, psychologica l and spiritual strength, safety and well-being.