Spoiler? I was just talking about the ending - the Epilogue, called "Mada, Mada." It's just a fun progression to go thru the book and come to the epilogue, that I didn't want those who have been waiting for the book to miss the
experience. I'm going to the post office this morning and will send out the last pre-ordered books. Most international orders, by report, have gone thru pretty quickly.
Some things are power-building without, perhaps, a calculated intention to do so. Don't mean to be crude here, but consider squat toilets - that requisite activity, done in that fashion, makes the hips flexible and legs stronger. On certain occasions (ahem), one spends a fairly long period of time immobile in that stressed position. In the third world, people squat effortlessly. In fact, one of the reasons that many believe that there were US prisoners of war held in SE Asia, after the end of that war, is an aerial photo of a group of men sitting cross-legged in a jungle clearing - the point being that no local people would dirty their clothes by sitting on the ground, they being able to squat for hours, with only the soles of the feet touching.
I think ukemi - in the sense of taking falls - is another example of this. I no more think that taking falls was <devised> as a body building exercise than iidori (working on one's knees) was <devised> as a hip-strengthening practice. But the latter, done properly, has that effect, and the former certainly makes one stronger and more resilient.
And, I would wager - I haven't done this yet, but it makes sense - that taking falls could be integrated with breathing to <specifically> work on some of the components of internal training, specifically what Mike Sigman calls "suit."
OH yeah, Janet, regarding the cover. Read the title again. Then look at the picture. Read the title. Look at the picture from another perspective. Read the . . .
Best
Ellis Amdur