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| Understanding muscles | ||
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New starters
New starters are taught how to move their body in a very 'li' way - large,
obvious, crude movements of the joints.
This is necessary.
Fine motor skills are lacking so the hips are
emphasised and leg strength is cultivated.
Li?
Li refers to the use of bones + muscles; usually muscle tension.
It applies to the reliance upon force rather than a
springy, pliable frame.
e.g. scapula pulled too far forward, elbows locked, knees
straightened or bent deeply, pelvis forced under, stretching beyond
70%...
From hard to soft
Short-term, training that emphasises large hip and waist action is valuable
since it teaches the student to think more about the lower body and the larger
muscle groups.
Long-term, it isn't good because the skeleton is being
over-used. The soft tissue needs to do more and the joints less.
A beginner
forever?
The real problem with being a long-term beginner is that everything is
performed in a crude way and is not strictly speaking tai chi or even 'internal'.
This issue cannot be resolved by the instructor because it is the student
themselves who determines what is appropriate.
If a student hasn't passed the beginners syllabus then they are exactly where
they belong and sadly this means they remain external.
Unnatural naturalness
Tai chi requires the student to use their muscles in an unfamiliar,
non-habitual manner.
At first, this is very difficult.
With practice, it becomes easier.
Eventually, you forget that it is even taking place.
Invest
Not many tai chi students attain 'internal strength'.
They know the concepts, the
words and the ideas.
But when pressure tested, the result is always the same:
they resort to conventional muscle use
and that is not tai chi. How come? A lack of investment in the
training.
Concerns
There are 3 main concerns:
Although there are
many other factors relevant to tai chi muscle
use, these 3 should take precedence initially.
Relaxation
Most people have chronically tense muscles.
This is often the consequence of over-working: the task has ended, but the
muscle is still working.
Another cause can be weakness in the
muscles. The outcome of laziness.
But these are purely physical factors.
Mind
The source of tension is usually not
the muscle itself.
It is the mind.
Many people have severely addled thoughts and
awry emotions.
They never become calm and
composed, yet expect their body to magically conform to a standard their
mind ignores.
Workload
Forcing a local muscle (or muscle group) to do
all the work is simply not as
efficient as sharing the workload across the entire body.
Localised muscle usage leads to
fatigue, strain and the risk of joint
injury.
Long after the task is over, the muscles are sore,
tired and potentially damaged. The muscles compensate by
shortening.
Shortened muscles affect skeletal alignment,
causing 'kyphosis' and other problems.
Frame
Good use of balance,
central equilibrium and alignment enables
the body to be employed with a reduced degree of muscle work.
This is one meaning of 'li'. Qigong and
form train this in solo
practice.
The muscles are better tied into the
back; which echoes how we started life in
the womb.
Joints
When a joint remains open wider than 90°, its use is
more economical.
Locked or sagging joints are weak and useless;
they force the muscles to take up the
slack.
Over-stretching is bad for
functional usage e.g. weight bearing. Collapsing is similarly bad. e.g. an unskilled student needs to open their elbow joints way more than
90°.
Kwa
Opening a joint
appropriately engages the kwa - tendons and ligaments - to support the
muscle.
This further reduces the need to use the joint in a
gross way.
Instead of going to the extremes of movement, each joint does less work.
Engage
Typically when a student adopts a habitual arm
position in tai chi, the elbows are not 'engaged'.
The joint needs to be opened slightly.
This must be accomplished without affecting the position of the shoulder
joint; which must remain passive and seated in the socket rather than
pulled forward.
Dynamic tension
By opening the joints in the body, the entire
framework of muscles is engaged.
This encourages 'dynamic tension' - a process involving no tensing-up
whatsoever. Bow tension is cultivated.
Lengthening
The entire frame must be subtly
lengthened without extreme stretching.
Moderation is the key.
No more than
70%.
Keep this in mind when walking too; striding
diminishes balance, reduces nimbleness and
stability. Striding can put strain on the knees and spine.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration will reduce sensitivity and
cause tension once more (see above).
It is very common to see tai chi practitioners adopt an
extremely hyperbolic framework even after decades of training: a
vestigial 'external' habit that denies them the
internal.
Remember - each muscle must be gently drawn into a
longer condition - without being aggressively
pulled.
Contraction
If you work muscles the
wrong way or
too hard, they do not
strengthen and lengthen.
They do the opposite: they
contract and shorten.
e.g. if you shorten the muscles of the lower torso they will effectively pull the
rib cage forward and down; creating a
hunched appearance.
Connection
Connection can be sensed and it can be proven.
If your hands are too close to the body, the feet
feel heavy and sunk. By contrast, when the arms are connected, the feet feel
springy and nimble rather than heavy and dull.
Remember - sinking is a jing; and jing are 'energetic'.
Peng
With connection, movements can be performed by using the back rather than
the local limbs.
When pressure tested, the arms contain a springy dynamic tension without the
need to perform any additional action.
This will eventually lead to peng.
Going further?
Until connection is established and the muscle usage clarified, the
student need not think about sung, martial jing, reeling silk or complex use
of the body.
For now, 'square on the inside' is the priority.
Get the hang of this. Until you do, your tai chi may look
internal but is still fuelled by the
wrong means.
Therefore, it is not tai chi and the applications will not work.
Page
created 15 March 1998
Last updated
04 May 2023
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