Lower body strength | ||
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Pyramid
Men are often stronger in the upper body, and proportionately weaker in the lower
body, like an upside-down pyramid.
Women are the opposite, with most of the strength residing in the hips, buttocks
and legs: a regular pyramid.
Tai chi
The internal martial arts encourage all students to focus on the use of the
lower body.
It gives a strong foundation of strength.
Leg muscles and buttock muscles are enormously strong compared to the arms and
shoulders.
Internal strength
Students need to avoid using the upper body for strength, and cultivate
movement
that comes from their lower half.
Ideally, the arms and shoulders should do very little.
Leg strength
A student cannot reasonably hope for success when they use their upper body for
strength against a 'pumped-up' opponent.
Biology is against you.
You need to think about your lower body, in particular your legs.
When you measure the size of leg muscles relative to arms, you find that the leg
muscles are significantly larger and can produce vastly more
power.
Connect your arms to your back, and use your legs to
drive your movements.
Bipeds
Monkeys, horses and other mammals have arms and legs of the same length.
Humans are different.
We are bipeds.
Our legs are much longer and stronger
than our arms.
Compensating
Trying to compensate for our natural physiognomy by adding muscular bulk to the
upper body is foolish.
It affects balance and encourages wrong body use.
Many body builders have huge arms and tiny legs... This is
upside down.
Lower body
Ensure that the legs are responsible for power. Imagine that you are pulling or pushing using your waist and legs as a starting
point.
Moving your centre will cause the torso to move.
The centre of gravity is in the intestines because they contain the largest
volume of water in the body.
When the lower body leads the action, everything else follows.
Remember, when moving, there is
no place that does not move. When still, there is no place that is not
still.
(Wu Yu-hsiang)
Unite upper & lower
In tai chi we generate power from the ground, add the strength of the
torso and emit via the hands.
This requires whole-body coordination.
Misguided
Many people try to pump up their shoulders in order to gain a strong,
manly-looking physique. Why bother?
We must work on our buttocks and legs, not our arms and shoulders. No matter how large your arms are, they will never be as strong as your
legs.
Disconnected
Instead of relaxing the lower back and allowing the pelvis to remain
neutral, many people shorten the lower back.
The spine loses its natural curvature and
becomes weaker; more vulnerable to injury.
They are typically unaware of this habit because it is 'familiar' and seems
'normal' to them.
Unfortunately, this habit prevents people from fully utilising their
lower body.
Connection
Releasing the lower back is easy.
Just relax it by thinking to let-go and lengthen.
However, you need to monitor it repeatedly
throughout the day until it becomes an established habit.
Page created
18 March 2008
Last updated
16 June 2023
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