My TaiChi ChiKung & 11 Smiles ChiKung, snow, field of reeds, right side view - 01/15/09 (Winter)
Throughout this 4 minute video, my legs bend and straighten approximately 50 times.
Bending my knees exercises all the joints in my legs, not just the knees. My feet and ankles adjust each time my knees bend. My hip joints move each time my knees bend. Also, all the discs between my vertebrae expand and contract slightly during each mini knee-bend.
This action of bending and straightening my legs develops "springiness" throughout my entire body; energizes all my tendons; helps me maintain a "spring" in my walk. All the intertwining, interconnecting elastic tissues throughout my body are exercised by this action of bending my knees and straightening my legs.
I don't lock my knees when I straighten my legs. There's still some "give" in each joint. My elbows don't lock. I maintain a rounded, curved quality to each part of my body, even when my body rises and straightens.
This type of bending the knee and straightening the legs action appears in almost all the exercises I do every day. It's an important component of cultivating "total body jing" / total body power.
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When my bent leg straightens, many events occur simultaneously:
As my weighted foot presses down against the ground, it generates an equal and opposite force from the earth, which causes all the bones in my leg to push upward against each other. Each bone in my straightening leg presses against an adjacent bone higher up the leg. The rising force passes through the joints of my foot, through my ankle joint, through my knee joint, through my hip joint, and pushes up against my pelvic bone. As my leg straightens, it causes my entire pelvic "platform," and everything resting on that "platform," to rise higher - - like a hydraulic lift. Since my spine "sits" on my pelvis, my entire spine is lifted higher by the rising action of my bent leg straightening. Each vertebra in my spine pushes against the vertebral disc between itself and an adjacent vertebra and passes the upward rising force to the next vertebra higher up my spine. The force then passes through my shoulder joints, through my elbow joints, through my wrist joints, through all the bones of my hands, all the way out to my fingertips.
All the interconnected bones, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and muscles of my body work together to generate this "total body jing."
Much more is happening here than just chi circulation through acupuncture meridians (as might happen in seated meditation, or standing still chi kung practices). Chi is being utilized to ENERGIZE all the tendons and muscles of my body, to generate integrated, coordinated total body motion.
All body movements are synchronized with breathing. Sometimes an expanding movement of body and arms occurs during an inhalation. At other times, an expanding movement of body and arms occurs during an exhalation (especially throughout the "11 Smiles" form).
Whenever I bend down, I exhale. As I descend toward the ground, I empty my body of air, like a rubber tire that is deflating. As I rise, I expand, like a balloon being inflated with air.
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On page 135 of the book "NEI JIA QUAN / Internal Martial Arts," Paul Gale observes: "...the sequence of everything that's moving... [is] from the bottom of the foot through the legs, through the body and out the arms. Most people are moving the other way; they're moving their hands first."
Whenever I exercise, I am constantly practicing dropping my mind into my feet; initiating all body movements from my weighted foot's connection to the earth.
"Feel your leg in your finger," I keep reminding myself.
"Send your leg through your finger."
"Project your leg through your finger."
"Put your leg into your finger."
"Put the power of your leg into your finger."
"Connect your leg to your finger."
"Is your leg in your finger?"
"Is your leg connected to your finger?"
"Can you feel your leg in your finger?"
"Can you feel the power of your leg in your finger?"
"Is the power of your weighted leg passing through your finger?"
ChiGuy396
ChiGuy396@yahoo.com
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