Zhan zhuang (站桩) day 2

A step-by-step method of exercising by standing still, in poses which burn fat and tone muscles without strenuous exercise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhan_zhuang

• Each position is a progression from the last, so work up to about 20 minutes in each posture before moving onto the next.

• Make sure to warm up before, and relax after, each exercise.

• When your stamina has improved, try standing for 5 minutes each in all 5 positions. It's hard work, so please be patient and do stop if you feel faint or too hot!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• zhan zhuang
• chi kung
• get fit
• stand still

[weemarky]

@chizzadbc HELLO YOU START BY LEARNING THE FIRST TWO MOVEMENTS,FOR A FEW MONTHS,AS YOU WANT TO GET YOUR BREATHING AND BODY RELAXED...START OF DOING IT TO VIDEO,THEN BUILDING IT UP TO TWENTY ,LIGHT INCENSE OR MUSIC SO YOU KNOW WHEN TO FINISH...HOPE THIS HELPED MARK

[chizzadbc]

how long should one hold each pose for in order to achieve a good session for each day?

[Valholm]

@Valholm "Bad begins when you exert too much stress on the joint and it doesn't have enough time or energy to recover. "

Ok the correct way to say this would be "Bad begins when you exert stress on the joint, but it doesn't have enough time or energy to recover." If you exert too much stress on the joint, you pretty much lost already.

[Valholm]

@Helllocutiepie So my point is that some exercises with knees going past toes, like that warmup, are pretty harmless, unless your knees are really fucked up. Some advanced exercises allow knees go past toes, but the advanced athlete performing them has worked up to the level (hopefully) where it is sensible to push your knees that far. And there are other exercises where your knees should never "cross the line", because it's just a suicide mission. And with ZZ I think it is a suicide mission.

[Valholm]

@Helllocutiepie If you have noticed, a lot of hardcore exercises (pistol squats) or martial arts forms have tons of motions with knees past the toes. That will actually make healthy knees even stronger, if the proper amount of rest and NUTRITION is administered and the connective tissue is allowed to recover. It takes longer to recover than muscle tissue, though. How much longer? Depends on the how conditioned the athlete is.

[Valholm]

@Helllocutiepie well, there are different schools of thought, regarding the whole "knee past toes" thing. My position is that the old school general idea that "letting knees go past the toes puts stress on the joint and ligaments" is true, but stress is not necessarily bad. Bad begins when you exert too much stress on the joint and it doesn't have enough time or energy to recover. Then it starts to deteriorate, and you pretty much made things much worse.

[Helllocutiepie]

@Valholm Hey Valholm, thanks for your comment! Very helpful. I only have one question. Did you see the day 1 zhan zhuang, where Master Lam was doing the knee warmup exercise, doesn't it look like he was letting his knees pass his toes? Maybe that is just my impression... Comment, pls? Ty.

[Valholm]

@pchow2ca what you need to remember about the zhan zhuang is that it is an exercise and any exercise done improperly will destroy your body. Also make sure that you give yourself time to recover, as with any exercise. You saying that ZZ destroyed your knees and back is like me saying that push ups destroyed my shooulders and elbows. You know? Push ups are still "Good".

[Valholm]

@pchow2ca what you were doing wrong is letting knees slip past your toes. As a kinesiologist I can tell you that if you knee(s) is(are) in front of your toes at any point, the gravity will apply the weight of your body onto your knee JOINT ITSELF, not muscles that are supposed to support it, since the muscles of your legs would be off balanced. That will DESTROY your knees over time. Bad knees = bad hamstrings = no complete support for your back from your core = bad back. Sorry mate.

[goibhniu13]

This is a great exercise and helped me create a foundation for my martial arts in the 29 years that I was involved in law enforcement. Excellent video.