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Tai Chi is effective for millions of people around the globe as

a health and wellness practice. Drawing on scientific
research and a lifelong obsession, this book explores the
processes responsible for the success of Tai Chi and its
related disciplines.

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 Dedication

This book is dedicated to a few special people who continue to inspire.

To two of my most important early teachers and friends, Alex Kozma &
Quentin Ball without whom I would have never have found my way onto the
correct path and been pointed up the mountain.

To my wonderful mother, who raised me with the fire in my belly to seek

truth and understanding in the World.

And finally to Sarah, the most thoughtful and wonderful person I have ever
met.

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 Contents:
Introduction
1- Relaxation
a. The nature of tension and its consequences.
i. The Cause of Postural Tension
ii. Stress and Tension.
b. How Tai Chi & Related Practices Mitigate Tension
i. Sung – soft tissues around the bones.
c. Smoothing the circles
d. Slow movement training to recognise sticking points in our
movement capacity
e. Winding and twisting to massage the tissue and squeeze the bones.
f. Physical grounding and its effect on emotion
2- Joints and Circulation
a. Joint mobility
b. 3 external harmonies
c. Opening the Joints
d. Joint health and circulation
3- Tissue conditioning and development
a. The unified body
b. The muscular tissue
i. The Psoas
ii. Muscle development of the lower limb
c. Fascia – the heart of connection
i. Fascia – illness and injury
d. How Tai Chi trains the structures
e. Fascia and the Sensory networks
f. Winding the tissues
4- The major body lines & Tai Chi
a. What are the major body lines.
b. Axis
i. Gravity and spine stacking
c. Crotch Arch
d. Side Lines
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 e. Upper Body Bridges
i. Through the back
ii. The front arm bridge
f. Cross body
5- Moving for Health
a. Defining our movement
i. Sagittal Plane
ii. Transverse Plane
iii. Coronal plane
b. The General Motions
i. Abduction and Adduction
ii. Flexion and Extension
iii. Rotation
c. Combining the General Planes of Motion
d. The relationship of Movement to health
e. Entrained dysfunction and the Fascia Fuzz
f. Underpinning the health benefits of movement. – The Lymphatic
System
g. Sedentary lifestyle and ‘kinking your tubes’.
6- Spine Health
a. Spine Health and Aging
b. Spine health and Mobility
c. Lumbar Mobility
d. Spine Position and Movement Capacity
e. Tai Chi and the appreciation of load.
7- Economy of effort
a. Tension and effort
b. Just enough
c. 70% rule
d. Economy of human locomotion
e. The radiation concept
8- Breathing
a. What is breathing
b. The 3 phases of breath
c. Pressurisation – ‘raising the chi’

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 d. The link between the conscious and unconscious
e. Building the awareness of your breath
f. The postures breath for you.
g. Consciously controlled breathing
h. Breathing as a guide to relaxation
i. Physical Autopilot
9- Training the Mind
a. Postures relationship to the emotions
b. The effect of the form
c. Occupying the mind
d. Proprioception and emotion
e. A single unified whole.
10- The Fun Factor!
a. Enjoyment is no small point
b. Smiling changes our physicality
c. Happiness and health
11- Final Thoughts.

Appendix 1 – How to train

Appendix 2 – Finding a Teacher.

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Introduction

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8
The gentle art of Tai Chi is famous throughout the world for giving its
students and practitioners an increased sense of health and wellbeing.
Indeed, several of the most famous masters of the style credit it with healing
of debilitating illnesses. But why does a movement practice like Tai Chi
promote vibrant health and wellness in its practitioners? Does it really
achieve this or does it simply rely on the perception of the practitioner? This
book aims to answer these questions of function and benefit and give you a
real sense of the workings of Tai Chi- the code that makes it a beneficial
practice for health and wellbeing.

For me, the journey into the art of Tai Chi started from a somewhat strange
place. As a child I had been obsessed with martial arts movies. The height of
Bruce Lee’s fame had passed but I was still obsessed with his works in
addition to the flavour of the moment; Ninja Films! My summer days were
spent replicating the moves I saw in these movies with my friends, with
choreographed exchanges often becoming heated scraps and martial bouts.
We were young boys expressing and testing one of our innate human
attributes- combat! A few black eyes and bloody noses in this period of my
life, affirmed that perhaps I should develop these skills with a proper teacher.
A sensible approach for my mother who can attest to the mischief that lack
of guidance in this area would cause!

So I took up Judo at the local Dojo. This is something that I would recommend
to all parents wondering if Martial Arts are beneficial for their children. Judo
was a fantastic exploration ground for me. I could put maximum effort into
trying to throw my peers down to the floor without any threat of being
punched in the nose or being knocked out. This was the start of my love affair
with the martial arts. The first time I put a Gi (the uniform worn by JudoKa)
on I knew that this is what I would do forever. This affinity was to lead me to
various other martial arts. From Judo I started to study Wado Ryu Karate
then dabbled in Ninjutsu, Kickboxing and Boxing before returning to the Judo
I loved.

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There was something about the Japanese arts that captivated my attention.
They were from the lineage of the Samurai or Bushi: the famous warrior
caste of feudal Japan. They were the arts of warfare and the stoic warrior, a
romantic vision and one that was to shape my mind deeply throughout my
late teens and early 20s. It was during this time that I met my first real Sensei.
A small, unassuming British man called Quentin Ball. His stature bellied his
truly deep knowledge of the Japanese culture and Martial Arts. It was from
Ball Sensei, and through his teacher Okabayashi Shogen Sensei, that I would
first be introduced to the ‘internal arts’. The art that Okabayashi was passing
onto his students was the famous Daito Ryu; a renowned style of Budo that
was the foundational base of the art Aikido. Okabayashi Sensei had
enormous power and apparent strength for someone so small, but moreover
he was extremely healthy even in his late 50s at the time of training. He
would be able to move with more grace and stability than my 20 year old
body seemed capable of. This vision of Okabayashi Sensei sliding smoothly
around the mats has always remained with me.

It was during this early time of inspiration and devoted daily practice that a
programme was aired on British TV that was to change the direction of my
practice forever. It was a show which highlighted the skills of many different
martial arts from Karate to southern Kung Fu, from Street fighters to ‘No
holds barred’ brawlers but it was one performance that really shone off the
screen and held me captivated.

A very small, self-effacing, 50 or 60 something man with bright eyes, slowly

moved through a series of movements with great fluidity and freedom. There
was no hint of the rigours of age, no sign that this man was inhibited in his
movement in any way. He moved like a river, smoothly winding and flowing
gently through a set of hand gestures and postures that created a seamless
unending motion. This was very different to the technical Daito Ryu that I had
studied before, which was full of formality, bowing and posture. He seemed
free, unencumbered, almost fluid and 100% there in that moment.

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This petite man was Master Chen; a teacher of a very old style of Tai Chi. I
had seen Tai Chi here and there before and had always thought of it as
something old people did in the mornings in China to keep their blood
pumping. It had been of little interest to my Samurai constitution and warrior
mind! But there was something about this man that seemed to show great
power within his softness, like the tip of the iceberg bellying the great
expanse below.

I kept watching, transfixed, and the screen changed to this little man standing
in front of a very tall and powerfully built western student; the man who was
to eventually become my second Tai Chi Teacher. In this exchange the small
meek gent moved from gentle contact and control of the student’s hands to
lightning fast strikes, wrist locks and throws. The strikes were audible, like
the cracking of a whip, leaving the big western student crumpled in pain. The
throws or locks would contort his body and fling him many feet away from
the teacher, all the while teacher would be standing, moving smoothly
without apparent effort, with a grace and beauty rarely seen. This exchange
highlighted one thing; not only was this man a formidable fighter, he was also
in extraordinary health for his age, moving faster and with more ease than
most 20 year olds I know.

This experience sparked my interest for the Chinese Internal Arts and I was to
spend the next 10 or so years travelling to study with every expert I could
find. I was introduced to some of the great experts of the 3 major internal
systems; Hsing I Chuan, Ba Gua chang and Tai Chi Chuan. Over time it became
clear that, far from being some magical practice, there are some very real
and interesting reasons for that master’s vitality that I saw jumping from the
TV screen.

I sought out the student from this footage and ended up studying with him
for a number of years very closely. He was to teach me the graceful
movements I had seen on the film and how to apply them. The training was
very demanding but extremely fruitful. I was becoming stronger, more
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rooted, more fluid in my movements and spent all day with abundant energy.
As you will find later in the book, some of the stories of these training
sessions were not always enjoyable! But the end result was that I was
healthier and happier than ever.

Known throughout the world as a functional health exercise originating in

China, Tai Chi is practiced by people of all ages and backgrounds. Many, or
even most, of the people who practice Tai Chi today do so because it gives
them a definitive sense of wellbeing, enjoyment and can help them to
correct and manage illnesses or the rigours of age.

Originally (and still for select groups) Tai Chi was developed as an advanced
form of Chinese Martial Arts. Practitioners of this style were famed not only
for their power and effectiveness in their movements but also for their
apparent softness and sensitivity. The skills of that little man from the screen
all those years ago still attest to this. Over time, Tai Chi gained popularity
and became renowned for increasing health and vitality. Sections of the
complete Tai Chi Syllabus were identified as useful health practices in their
own right and taught to the ill or sickly students to make them stronger. It is
these specific sections that most people practice when they look to using the
system as a health practice.

The popularity of these practices, fuelled in part by the Chinese Imperial

family, spread throughout China during the 19th and 20th centuries. Then,
with the doors to China opening up and noticeable exponents like Chen Man
Ching moving to the west, Tai Chi began to spread worldwide. Today,
millions of people around the world are studying and training solely for
health benefits. Only a small number of dedicated and committed
practitioners study the entire art for its difficult basic training methods and
brutal combative effectiveness. Though I consider myself as part of this select
group of practitioners, there is no doubt that this system also represents a
great tool for improving the health and wellbeing of my students. So rather
than add to the myriad books on how to practice Tai Chi, this book will
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instead focus on why this system has become so valued for its health and
wellness benefits.

We will explore the various aspects that this art develop and how, in turn,
they can produce healthy and happy individuals.

Since I began looking at this system 15 years ago, I have taught people,
including my mother, this wonderful practice and have watched with
satisfaction as their movement capacity, fluidity of motion and awareness
have increased. I have seen softness creep into tense muscles, postures
straighten, I have experienced limps return to strong steps. It is from this real
world evidence that I was motivated to find out why Tai Chi seems to work!

Of course I could have accepted the party line. I could have laid all these
wonderful benefits on the shoulders of that most abstract Chinese Art
concepts ‘Chi‘ but this was not enough for me. I have a mind that looks for
concrete answers, for some explanation of the experience I gain and observe
in others. My approach to this art is one of pragmatism and practicality, so
you may not find much talk of ‘chi’ in this volume. Not because I do not
believe in it as a concept, but simply because it lacks a clear enough
definition to be truly useful to our research. Instead I will be using some of
the latest western anatomical and neurological research in the following
pages, as well as findings from my diligent exploration of these methods.

For those of you who are new to this art or those who have trained a little
while, at the end of this book, I have outlined some advice on what to look
for in a Tai Chi Instructor. As with any popular system of training, this method
has its greats and, well, not so greats so it is worth a little time to find the
teacher who is right for you. It is my hope that for both those who study the
art, and those with a casual interest, this short book will help to enliven some
of the methods and techniques that the clever old masters of China founded
all those years ago.

Happy training!
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 Chapter 1
- Relaxation-

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“Relax” the word rang in my ear for the 50th time that session but my body
was not able to relate. We were practicing the Tai Chi movement known as
“Snake creeps down” and had been refining the details and looking deeply at
the nuance of the transitions, for about 40 minutes now. Imagine, for those
not aware of this position, squatting deeply on one leg with your back
straight and the other leg stretched out in front of you. When performing this
motion start in an upright posture, then sink slowly down into the squatted
position then glide back up and repeat on the other side. It should look
smooth, effortless and flowing, but I was a long way off perfection yet.
“Relax!” My teachers word always arrived at the peak of the demand on my
thigh muscles. I was trying to remain relaxed, but no matter how much effort
I put in to let go my thigh muscles wouldn’t stop shaking! I was a relatively fit
young man who could run long distances, could carry heavy weights and had
a long history in Ju Jutsu and grappling arts. My leg muscles were well
defined and strong but this method was really testing them to the absolute
limit. I continued to plug away, slowly dropping into the position and rising
out of it, legs shaking, sweat beading on my brow. It was then that I noticed I
was beginning to hold my breath for increased support which compounded
the problem as my heart rate increased and the posture started to break
down.

“Relax..!” That word again! I had heard of the term ‘tasting the bitter’ from
my teacher before but now I was really beginning to understand what it
actually meant. Just as I felt ready to call it a day and tell my teacher I could
do no more, I started to drop into position as I had done so 100 times before
and an interesting thing happened. My legs shook violently, like a car
spluttering as it ran out of fuel, and then ... stillness. My legs didn’t feel tired,
my breath flowed like waves lapping a beach, my posture became straight
and upright. I glided down and back up with ease as a state of release flowed
through my body. It was as if the conscious control of my body and all that
effort trying to relax had failed and at that moment my body just let go. All
of the tension I was using to create and maintain the movements was

15
released and it felt as though I was supported by only my skeleton. Teacher
looked over and with a grin said “OK, now you can start to practice the
method properly.”

This was a powerful lesson in the true meaning of the word relaxation. It is a
word closely related to Tai Chi and is one of the most reported benefits.
Practitioners will often be heard to comment on the successful alleviation of
tension through Tai Chi training.

Part of the system’s notoriety as a martial art comes from its ‘soft’ approach
to the problem of combat. It is famous for this attribute and the idea is one
that translates very clearly into the health and wellness practices of the style.

Relaxation can represent many things, from mental relaxation (which we will
discuss later) to muscular relaxation, postural, emotional relaxation and
positional relaxation. In this section we will explore why Tai Chi is so effective
in achieving relaxation for its practitioners and how this method creates
health and wellness in the body as a result.

The Nature of Tension and its consequences.

Perhaps the most famous icon or symbol associated with Tai Chi is the ‘Yin
Yang’. Indeed this famous symbol denoting the nature of opposites is called,
the ‘Tai Chi’. So in order to talk about relaxation we first need to refer to its
opposite; tension. Tension and relaxation are opposite sides of the same
coin, and although tension is often eliminated, it does have its role to play in
our bodies. Without tension we would not even be able to stand up! So
although relaxation is a specific goal of Tai Chi, correct tension should not be
vilified as a result. Note however we are talking about ‘correct tension’,

So to understand relaxation we need to know what parts of our body we are

relaxing and how the tension occurs in the body.

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The cause of postural tension.

First of all we are going to examine how posture effects tension and how
entrained dysfunction contributes to our overall level of muscular tightness.
It would be fair to say that for a lot of us in the modern world, working office
jobs, driving cars and travelling on the tube trains of big cities have a
different posture to our hunter gather ancestors. Even modern farmers or
producers are not placed under the same physical competency demands as
those early humans or existing hunter gatherer tribes.

When we look at a typical city living, office working human in comparison to

a tribal hunter from the Amazon we will immediately recognise the
difference in their posture and how they loco mote and move through their
respective environments.

The hunter will have a relaxed and natural gait, an efficiency and fluidity to
their motion that would be largely absent in most city dwellers. He would be
able to move across uneven terrain spotting food and resources with his
sharp eyesight and accumulated knowledge of his ancestors. He would be
able to lift heavy trees or branches, build shelters, carry water and meat
without injury and would be resistant to the rigours of his environment.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine twisted their ankle a few days ago stepping from
a very flat surface (a sidewalk) to another very flat surface (the road). This
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lack of movement, capacity and complexity, the fragile nature of the modern
human and the difficulties we face with back, neck, hip or knee problems can
largely be laid at the feet of entrained dysfunction and postural tension.

Sitting at our desks, in cars, trains, sitting down to lunch, on couches - we

sure do sit around a lot! This sedentary lifestyle is one of the primary causes
of tension, and one of the reasons many of us don’t move with the natural
fluidity and grace of our ancestors.

The most common parts of the body affected by this way of life are the
shoulders, upper or thoracic back, the chest and almost universally the hips.
These problem areas are characterised by postural distortions, tension
headaches and lack of mobility in the individual.

Perhaps the most debilitating postural tension that I come across often is in
the hip area, and the resulting effect of this dysfunction in the lower back.
Because we spend a large amount of our time sitting with our thighs at 90
degrees to our torso we inadvertently and systemically tighten the Psoas
muscles. When standing, the shortening of these vital postural muscles
misalign our pelvis creating deep seeded tensions in the lower half of our
body. This is a largely unavoidable issue if we spend our days sitting.
Manufacturers of various products like standing desks, posture seats and
kneelers have tried to mitigate the effect of our ‘desk driven’ lifestyle but
these problems are still very much prevalent for a huge proportion of the
population.

One of the main causes of postural tension is the effect of misalignment on

musculature and musculo-skeletal support. A great example of this is
hunching over our smart phones all day, a recent problem largely appearing
over the last few years. A simple look around in public places will highlight
this serious postural problem. The smart phone is a wondrous invention;
granting access to almost all of the information ever conceived by humans,
however it is also proving to be a serious issue for our posture. The

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musculature of the neck and upper back is becoming tense and tight because
of the head down posture we tend to adopt while reading, watching or
messaging.

In his paper named “Assessment of Stresses in the Cervical spine caused by

posture and position of the head” Doctor Kenneth K Hanraj made the
following assessment:

“The weight seen by the spine dramatically increases when flexing the head
forward at varying degrees. An adult head weighs about 10 to 12 pounds in a
neutral position. As the head tilts forward the forces seen by the neck surges
to 27 pounds and 15 degrees, 40 pounds at 30 degrees, 49 pounds at 45
degrees and 60 pounds at 60 degrees

Loss of the natural curve of the cervical spine leads to incrementally increased
stresses about the cervical spine. These stresses may lead to early wear, tear,
degeneration, and possibly surgeries.

Individuals should make an effort to look at their phones with a neutral spine
and to avoid spending hours each day hunched over."

Curing the effect of this increase and re-aligning the head and spine correctly
is a valuable facet of Tai Chi training that we should not underestimate, but
we will delve into that a little later.

For now it is safe to say that the apparently natural act of living in the
modern world, with all of our ‘comforts’, is a huge contribution to the
tensions present in our posture.

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Stress & Tension

Tension, far from being a simple response to postural misalignments or

unnatural loads, is actually perhaps most closely linked with stress. We hear
of people experiencing ‘tension headaches’ or stiff necks when they are
stressed, which occurs when they are mentally or emotionally worn down.
This is the body’s reaction to the perceived stress it has been placed under.
But to really understand this process we need to look at how we evolved to
experience stress and how, in modern times, that process has gone a little
haywire!

Stress can be classified as the body’s natural reaction to perceived threat or

danger. This evolutionary trait would have been a response mechanism for
our early ancestors and would have directly related to threats such as
predation, environmental disaster or tribal combat and war. In these
instances the body will produce hormonal and physiological changes that will
happen naturally and unconsciously. These reactions include the production
of the ‘stress hormones’, Cortisol and Epinephrine. These hormones change
the resting metabolic rate and prepare the body for life saving action by
altering body functions like heart rate, mobilizing energy stored in the
muscles as glycogen, increasing blood pressure and breathing and inhibiting
metabolic processes like reproduction, growth, immunity and digestion.

These threats and the resulting physiological changes would in fact, have
been somewhat spread out and few and far between. For our ancestors it
wouldn’t be a daily occurrence to be hunted by a predator or survive a flood
and the level of stress hormones coursing through their bodies would be
minimal.

Fast forward 20 or 30 thousand years and we find ourselves in modern

society. The actual stress reaction cycle is biologically unchanged but the
environments and mental challenges that us modern humans find ourselves
in are vastly different. Herein lays the problem! Imagine the middle manager

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at a medium sized business. They arrive at work every day at 7.30am and
leave at 6pm. Their day is filled with decisions that will affect the bottom line
if they make a bad call, they are handling their and answering to their bosses.
To put it into evolutionary terms; the working day of this middle manager are
filled with perceived threats, and it is the perception of those threats that
cause the endocrine system to pump stress hormones into the body. But
what does this do to our middle manager in terms of health and Tension?

Well to put it mildly, the body finds itself in a state that it is not equipped to
cope with. The constant low level release of stress hormones into the body
was not a part of our early ancestor’s lives but we modern humans often live
in this state for years on end. The result of this constant low level stress
hormone release is manifested in two ways; inflammation and postural
reaction.

The postural reaction to stress is one that we can see in a lot of people when
we look closely. On our journey to and from work it is easy for us to see the
manifestation of mental or emotional stress in the postures of those we
encounter. Withdrawn people may concave their chest, protecting the heart
centre where emotional response can be felt. The high flying businessman,
with his red face and puffed out chest is displaying a high level of internal
stress that he experiences every day. A tight, un-natural and uneven posture
resulting from stress can point to the deeper or more severe emotional or
mental problems within the individual.

To say that none of these deviations, from the relaxed natural equilibrium
granted by our genetics, are good for our bodies would be an
understatement! But there is very good reason to believe that practices like
Tai Chi, with its focus on relaxing the body and creating an even, aligned
posture can mitigate some of the effects that we see. Indeed, just as the
perceived stresses and mental or emotional difficulties can have a direct
effect on the body, the body position can have a direct effect on the mind.
How Tai Chi truly affects this change will be covered in a later chapter, but
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the resulting effect of alleviating tension in the body by re-aligning, softening
and evening out the position is a classical benefit of correct Tai Chi training.
Let’s look at how Tai Chi achieves these results.

How Tai Chi and related practices mitigate tension.

So now that we understand a little about the causes of tension in the body
and how they manifest in the individual, we can begin to look at the core
principles found in Tai Chi that help to diminish them. The originators and
developers of the internal arts like Tai Chi realised that, not only were some
of the attributes achieved through training useful for combat, they were also
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useful for health. Indeed many of these early methods of health and wellness
training were required before the fighter could truly utilize the arts
combative side. What good is a sick or immobile combatant? The
foundational principles of Tai Chi could almost be said to be designed
specifically for the relaxation of improper tensions and stiffness.

‘Sung’ – the softened tissue around the bones.

Perhaps the most widely known concept of relaxation we encounter in Tai

Chi is the idea called ‘sung’. If you were to walk into any reputable Tai Chi
school anywhere in the world you would most probably hear the teacher
talking about this concept at some point. It is something that you hear
teachers saying a lot, especially to their tense new students.

The idea of sung is the concept and principle of softening the tissues around
the frame created by the skeleton. It is very closely related to the movement
efficiency we will discuss later in the book and essentially means that the
tissue is as released and soft as it can be while performing a given movement
or method. We are using just enough to maintain posture or movement and
the result is that the body feels soft to the touch and the movements are
extremely efficient.

In the internal arts the act of softening is commonly described to actually be

the act of ‘release’. It is not simply enough to demand someone to relax in
most cases, and for the majority of people I have taught, try as they might,
relaxation is not something they are used to feeling. Generally, even when a
student feels that they are fully relaxed the teacher is able to teach further
relaxation with careful instruction. For us to truly achieve a state of
relaxation we need a few tricks and methods to guide, or sometimes force,
the body into a relaxed state. These methods are unique to the many lines of
internal art and each teacher will often have a favourite trick up their sleeve
to deal with tense muscles or a stuck posture. Some of these ideas and tricks
include leading the relaxation with breathing via release or allowing the

23
offending musculature to fatigue so that it essentially ‘gives up’. Some
teachers like to physically press on trigger points to help the student to
identify root causes of tension and even using the wall or floor combined
with detailed guidance to ‘roll out’ the problem tensions.

A very common method of guiding release in Tai Chi is to slow movements’

right down to the point where they are hardly noticeable. We perform a
certain ‘nei gung’ or ‘form loop’ that will immediately impact a tension area
at super slow pace, perhaps taking five minutes to run through two or so
movements.

This slowing of the movements to a literal snail’s pace has two effects on our
musculature, effects that become almost immediately apparent when the
practitioner performs the work for any period of time.

1) Firstly the super slow movements will highlight the points of tension
in the frame and especially the musculature by creating an ache. This
ache appears because of inefficiencies and areas of tension have
caused compensations elsewhere in the body. As the practice
continues, that tension will fatigue the muscles and, at first, they will
simply ache. It is important that we move past this tension however,
and actually allow what my teacher would term ‘failure’. This is when
the muscle can no longer perform in this tense state and has to
retire. When this happens the body will generally align in a much
more efficient way and the tension will be released.
2) Another aspect of super slow training is the identification of ‘sticking
points’ in the joints and their articulation. These sticking points are
characterised by flat spots in circular motion or sudden stops and
starts as we perform a circular action. Once highlighted, this problem
of sticking joints and flat spots in motion can be addressed by the
next method Tai Chi uses to soften the body; I call this ‘smoothing
out the circles’.

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Smoothing out the circles

Smoothing out the circles, as I call it, can be seen in Tai Chi under many titles,
but they all amount to a certain training method that is related specifically to
softening the tissues that wrap or connect the joints. It is like a circle with a
slice taken off to create a flat edge. This flat edge will become noticeable as
you move as a stop/start or jolt, or simply as a little wobble in your motion
that was unintentional. These ‘bumps in the road’ are clear indicators of
tensions somewhere close to the flat spot.

As we will see later, the joints are invariably surrounded by connective

tissues and these tissues can sometimes form in such a way that they support
misalignments and tensions in our frames. This tensioning of the joint will
also affect our joint articulation and range of motion thus creating tensions
further up or down the chain from the original dysfunction. In order to
combat this limiting range of motion and start to soften the connective
tissues we can start to work with circular movement patterns that hit full
range of motion for our major joints.

The process of smoothing out the circles will involve performing a circular
motion very smoothly and slowly at a consistent pace. The practitioner is
looking for any deviation from the circle in this movement and as soon as this
occurs the practitioner will mentally make note of its location on the circle
for the next pass. As the movement reaches this point the student will slow
their movement to an extremely low speed, almost not moving at all. They
will correct and re-correct constantly as they pass through this area and
continue the circle at a normal speed, then repeat.

After some time training this method across multiple circles in several
directions, the bumps in the movement should have been smoothed out and
the practitioner should be ready to begin the complicated work known as
‘reeling’ or ‘winding’.

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Winding and twisting

In Tai Chi we see many movements that involve rotating and twisting the
limbs. Often known as ‘pulling or reeling silk’, these movements have a
myriad of purposes, but one of the main improvements is in our ability to
remain soft and relaxed. The sort of movements we are looking at here, as
we will revisit later, is actually work to condition the connective tissues of the
body in such a way that their elastic content increases. This reforming of the
fascia (connective tissue) to become more elastic actually allows it to also
remain soft whilst still protecting the joints and muscles, which means you
are conditioning the tissue to perform more efficiently.

Conditioning, as we mean it here, is the twisted stretching of the tissues. If

you think of wringing out a towel for instance you will get an impression of
what the action can be like, although much softer.

One of the interesting aspects to this winding and release is that it has been
found to have a direct effect on the moisture content of the tissue. Fascia is
in fact full of water, much like a sponge. As we wind it is like wringing out the
sponge; the water is released from the tissue, then when we stop the
winding action the tissue fills back up. This process is sometimes called,

26
‘cleaning the tissues’ and some old texts describe this method as a cleansing
of the body or washing of the bones. Now that we have an idea of the actual
physiological make up of our tissues, it is easy to see that these old masters
knew what they were talking about! The fascia is, for want of a better term,
cleaned as the liquid is squeezed in and out over the course of a training
session.

As mentioned there is, in fact, a method is also known as ‘washing the bones’
in some Chi Gung. As the tissue winds and unwinds around the bones of the
skeleton, a slight inward pressure is applied to the bone itself and the
squeezing of the tissues and their fluids are thought to ultimately have an
effect on the Skeleton itself. This hasn’t been tested to any great degree
however, but the idea is that this squeezing and un-squeezing of the bones
themselves has a positive impact on the health of the bone and its marrow.

Grounding for relaxation

Tai Chi uses another interesting approach to lead relaxation that may not
immediately point to removing tension from the tissues. This method is
called ‘grounding’ or more commonly ‘rooting’. In the martial art of Tai Chi
Chuan, rooting is used during striking or grappling exchanges to give a stable
base to the power expressed by the practitioner. But outside of this
combative outlook there are also a few key benefits for the body found in the
practice of rooting and grounding.

Grounding was most probably originally used by Taoist sages and adepts to
connect to the ‘earth energy’ as part of the ‘heaven, earth and man’ model of
spiritual development. There are entire schools of training that put focus on
the rooting or grounding of the individual to stabilize the body and mind
ready for the higher level spiritual trainings to come. This first step in the
process of development is actually also common to methods found outside of
Chinese arts with certain Yogic traditions focusing on the lower ‘root’ centres
for a large proportion of their early training.

27
The link between ground contact focus and health and wellness is slowly
beginning to be understood by the scientific community as a whole, with
pilot studies springing up using grounding as a tool for various explorations.
For instance, a Pilot study was carried out on the effect of ‘grounding’ on
athletes suffering from Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). The findings
of the study, although fairly small in nature and just an initial exploration of
the concept, showed that grounding was in fact a positive first intervention at
reducing the inflammations and tensions caused by high levels of physical
exertion.

“Grounding appears to be the first intervention with the potential to reduce

the time of recovery and improve muscle function from DOMS. These
findings suggest that grounding has enough of an effect on DOMS that a
larger study is warranted.”
Dick Brown, Ph.D., Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., 2 and Michael Hill, B.S.1
1

The reason for this effect is still largely misunderstood, but one possible
reason in Tai Chi is the release of tension downward via the effect of gravity
as we place our attention downward into the earth. Part of the rooting
process involves this deep feeling of ‘sinking’, even though we remain static.
The attention is turned inward and, when timed with the breath, the tissues
of the body begin to feel like they are melting down into the earth. This is
also part of the ‘sung’ attribute we discussed earlier. It could be that the
deep release and softness caused by this rooting training is somehow having
an effect on the nutrient supply to the fatigued and damaged muscle tissue
that causes DOMS and therefore decreasing recovery time.

Another aspect of rooting and the release of tension downwards into the
earth is the way it highlights frame position and alignments. Rooting and
ground contact allows practitioners to recognise tension or balance skews
further up their frame. The mechanism for this awareness is largely based on

28
the increased sensitivity of our feet when rooting practice is studied for a
long period of time.

For instance if we stand still, try not to move even a millimetre, but put our
concentration on the soles of our feet, we more often than not find that our
balance is shifting around constantly. We become aware that we are in fact
rocking side to side, or wobbling or shifting weight between the feet etc. This
occurs at a very minimal level, a level at which under normal circumstances
we would be completely unaware. However, with the entire attention placed
on the feet and rooting down towards them we begin to feel a strange and
constant adjustment.

These micro adjustments are more often than not indicative of a lack of
stability and posture control further up the body. A good Tai Chi teacher will
look at a student and immediately be able to tell where they are tight,
compensating or are unbalanced in their position or posture.

Part of the understanding of our body position or motion within the space
around us is the sense known as proprioception. This is a sense that we will
discuss many times in this book as it relates to a great many health and
wellness benefits but here we can say that it directly relates to the sensitivity
of the feet and muscles of the lower leg.

Proprioception (/ˌproʊpri.ɵˈsɛpʃən/ PRO-pree-o-SEP-shən), from Latin

proprius, meaning "one's own", "individual," and capio, capere, to take or
grasp, is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body
and strength of effort being employed in movement.

Relevance of the foot.

So we have begun to sense the relative position and constant movement of

our frame in our feet. The more we relax and are able to let the feet and
relax the greater our proprioceptive capability will become. In Tai Chi we use
markers, or areas of the foot to improve the feeling of how we are contacting
29
the ground, how our weight is distributed and where corrections for balance
adjustments need to occur. These areas form 9 points; the 5 toes, the heel,
the ball of the big toe, the remaining pad of the other toes and the outside
ridge of the foot.

The 9 points of the feet are a theoretical framework for identifying balance
distributions and the model is very useful for grounding or root training. It
forms part of the training methodology to increase our stability and
awareness of unconscious motion, even when stepping and moving very
quickly.

The basic process for utilizing the 9 points is initially, one of awareness. We
can ‘check’ each point in turn as we stand in a static posture to see if there
are any weight shifts or wobbles that are specifically being received by one of
the points.

Then we try to feel the weight in each of the 9 points in turn. One by one, we
try to put our awareness into each of the 9 points, truly and physically feeling
their contact with the earth without moving at all. Next we start to 'load'

30
each of the 9 points by moving our center of balance very slowly. For
instance, we could slowly move our center backwards in order to shift our
weight distribution into the heel. After loading each area via movement, we
return to the static practice of bringing our observation and awareness to the
entire foot on the earth.

This training has two main purposes.

1) To increase our proprioceptive and general response feedback from the

sole of the foot. This increased awareness is acutely linked to the internal
adept ability to efficiently root themselves.

2) It develops the natural ‘load management’ tissues in the lower leg and
ankle which help to provide smooth and non abrupt redistribution of weight
should we move outside of a good position.

One of the key benefits of this ‘foot awareness’ is that it can help people
increase their ground contact awareness, particularly when recovering from
injuries that will affect their stability. The increased ground awareness and
gentle activation of the stabilization tissues greatly diminishes the chance of
re-injuring an ankle and also means footfall and weight distribution will be
more refined.

The Ankle and related lower leg tissue.

Another region of deep consideration in Tai Chi training is the articulation of

the ankle joint and more specifically how it manages balance and weight
force distribution.

As bipeds we have an extremely refined system of muscles and connective

tissues that keep us upright. Most of the correction and balance maintenance
systems work without conscious thought, they simply activate as and when
they are required. This is, of course, how it should be! If our conscious mind

31
was occupied with firing muscles to remain standing all the time we would be
too pre-occupied to achieve much else!

With that said, we can consciously improve our ground connection by

increasing the sensitivity of our balance maintenance systems. The ankle is a
control joint; it controls balance and weight distribution by articulating in
association with weight shifts using the various muscles, tendons and tissues
of the lower leg.

Tightness in the ankle is one of the most significant factors inhibiting the
ability to feel ground connection, relax fully into a rooted position or
maintain our balance. ‘Clumsy’ people will often have poor ankle and knee
mobility and awareness for instance, meaning that they are unable to feel
surface changes or angle changes effectively. If the ankle remains 'soft' and

32
receptive as trained in Tai Chi then, a clearer transfer of information back to
the central and peripheral nervous systems and balance tissues will occur.

This work would be extremely useful for the elderly as the increase in
Proprioception from foot and ankle awareness is thought to decrease the
likelihood of falling.

Here is the conclusion of a Study performed by the Department of Sports

Science and medicine and the Department of Orthopaedics and
Traumatology at the University of Hong Kong:

"The elderly people who regularly practiced Tai Chi not only showed better
proprioception at the ankle and knee joints than sedentary controls, but also
better ankle kinaesthesis than swimmers/runners. The large benefits of Tai
Chi exercise on proprioception may result in the maintenance of balance
control in older people. "

Pelvic Crossed syndrome – Tension, relaxation and instability in the hips.

An initial point of research for the Internal Arts coach is the relationship
between the various muscles of the ‘center’ (lower Dan Tien or Tanren) and
how they relate to and influence, structural alignment.

Before any of the strength development can occur (pulling silk, winding etc),
we need to address these imbalances which are usually the result of tension
and entrained dysfunction or gross misalignment. If they are not addressed
early then the body will build strength over the misalignment and compound
any pre-existing tension issues. The centre can be thought of as the nexus of
the postural tissue web and a junction point for the major body lines that we
will discuss later. Any tension in this area will cause a knock on effect
throughout the body so ensuring this area is relaxed, aligned and fixed is one
of the first priorities of the Tai Chi instructor.

33
One very common problem that we see in new students is something called
the ‘lower crossed syndrome’. The ‘lower cross’ is a term used to describe a
specific pattern of muscular imbalance in the lower body which results in
pelvic tilting and curvature of the lower back. If left unchecked, internal
strength training where we are specifically working on the connective tissues
and muscles in this area can actually compound postural problems, as well as
increase the likelihood of injury under load in the lower back. So correcting
this problem and restoring the body back to a natural state of balance is a big
goal in early training.

The lower cross is characterized by a combination of weakness in some

muscle groups and tightness in others which combine to misalign the pelvis
and lumbar spine. Specifically we are talking about ‘tightness’ in the thoracic
lumbar extensors which is reflected in tight hip flexors and weakness in the
abdominals reflected in the gluteals. The imbalance is reflected in the
opposite side of the body in a cross pattern.

The cause for this problem is largely due to muscle shortening and a lower
irritability threshold in the shortened muscles which has a knock-on effect on
the motor programming. The effect of this problem can also often be seen in
the hamstrings, the hip joints and especially the lumbar spine where the
anterior pelvic tilt will compress the lower vertebrae.

Internal arts have specific training methodologies to address this issue. The
corrections are achieved through releasing the tightness in the lumbar area
and hip flexors rather than some interventions which call for strengthening of
the weaker muscles to bring a sort of tension balance into the area.

We are aiming to bring the lower cross into a relaxed and balanced state to
create stability from softness, rather than adding pressure into the system by
focusing on strengthening the Gluteals and Abdominals, as some
interventions advocate.

34
Much of the early static standing training, which focuses on suspending from
the head and pointing the coccyx at the earth, is focused on the release of
these tensions. We see that the conditions created when standing for a
prescribed length of time will elicit the release we are looking for.

However, there are also several focused walking methods and movement
practices where the focus is on releasing or relaxing the tensions of the lower
back and hip flexors. Methods like ‘walking on train tracks’ and the ‘toe in toe
out’ stepping will have a strong effect on the articulation of the ‘kwa’ and the
resulting tensions found in the psoas and hip flexor muscles.

These work just as well when the correct level of attention is applied.

35
 Chapter 2
- Healthy Joints -

36
The cold morning air met my face as we stepped out of the warm, cosy
cottage in a sleepy village in rural Gloucestershire. 3 or 4 mornings each week
we would get together to train in the Tennis courts of the local park, honing
our particular area of study regardless of the weather forecast. Paul, a large
strong, cheerful, deeply kind man and a very capable Karate 6th dan, was
studying Ba Gua (a circular sister art to Tai Chi) and I the direct combative
internal style of Xing Yi.

As we walked through the streets, mist hanging over the fields and frost
tipping the grass verges I could feel my hands freezing. I had turned up to
training that morning with nothing but some cotton Kung Fu trousers, a T-
shirt and a light hoody to keep me warm but it was freezing and even during
the short walk to our training ground the chill was apparent. Leaving Paul’s
kitchen with a belly full of warm coffee and walking to the tennis courts I
knew my error and by the time we arrived I was blowing warm air into my
cupped hands in a vain attempt to warm them up.

It was too late to do anything about it. Paul wandered off to his usual spot
and began his morning ritual of swinging his arms and hanging forward from
his hips, bent in half. He would set a timer on his phone and stay like this for
many minutes, releasing one vertebra after another with the natural weight
of his head hanging from his spine. It is a method I would later employ to heal
a mid-back injury, but right now all I could think about was warming up.

I started to move through the 5 element forms of Xing Yi. These seemingly
simple movements hold a great depth of refined and subtle body skills and,
as is still the case today, they were an endless source of research for me. On
this freezing morning I hurried through them trying to build up some fire in
the furnace to heat my hands which by now felt like ice blocks. Nothing
worked. I ran through the Dragon form, a leaping, swooping method that was
demanding on the body and leg muscles knowing that it would get my heart
rate up and warm my body. Indeed my body was hot, I could feel the sweat

37
starting to form on my chest as I breathed deeply from the training, but still
my hands remained frozen.

I stopped; glancing over at Paul as he slowly moved through his circle walking
practice I thought ‘maybe I am approaching this from the wrong direction’.

So I stood in the Wu Ji posture which commences the Xing Yi form work.

Focusing all my effort and attention on relaxing my shoulders and standing
perfectly balanced between heaven and earth, I relaxed my hands and
opened them up. My fingers extended down towards the ground, softly
lengthened and ‘alive’ as my teacher would call it. The feeling was sublime- I
could feel the warmth spread from my body through my elbow into my hand
and then pass through each finger joint.

Relaxation and alignment had brought warmth where there was none. I
would later use this method to warm myself while on sentry duty in the Royal
Marines, where cold conditions and long periods exposed to them took on a
new meaning, far removed from that pleasant morning training in the park
with my friend!

Joint Mobility, Opening the Joints and circulation.

There is a saying in some old texts that we are ‘only as old as our joints’ and
certainly it can be said that healthy joints mean freedom and mobility for a
person and a relatively pain free movement experience.

Movement is at the core of what we, as animals, are designed to do. We have
complex neurological systems and musculo-skeletal structures that have
evolved specifically to allow us a great range and breadth of movement
capacity. Indeed we are the most complex movers on the planet. We may not
be as fast as a cheetah or swim like a dolphin, but a dolphin couldn’t climb a
tree or a cheetah swim in the ocean. This movement capacity, in all its
complexity, is directly related to the health and wellness of our joints.

38
Our joints are often thought of as the meeting points of two bones, but we
need to look at these areas of the body in a much more holistic manner if we
are to understand how the movement practice of Tai Chi helps to keep them
healthy. They are in fact, the articulating areas of the body that are
composed of bone, cartilage, fluids, blood vessels, nerves, connective tissues
and muscles. The composition of the joint is complex array of materials that
work in harmony with each other to produce the required mechanical
effects.

Tai Chi’s slow movement practice and the resulting joint health is one of the
most underappreciated, misunderstood and under discussed aspects of Tai
Chi practice in my opinion. Many instructors favour the relaxation, mental
and tissue development benefits over the effect on the joints themselves as a
primary curative tool. But there are many examples personal to me and my
students that attest to this system having a direct impact on the joints and
their associated tissues.

In my teens I was a very active sportsman competing in an wide range of

different pastimes outside of the martial arts, from basketball to badminton.
One of my first loves at this time was Volleyball and by my late teens I was
travelling the country playing in the National League. Volleyball is a very
demanding sport on the joints and constant jumping, leaping onto the floor
and squatting down took its toll on my young knees. As is very common with
‘jumping athletes’, I developed a condition known as patella tendonitis. This
is related to the fraying of the patella tendon and the damage to the knee
tissues and fluids. I was in pain nightly, and when not warm or in motion my
knees would seize up leaving me immobile and hobbling. Not the ideal
situation for a young, fit guy! After ultrasound and numerous scans at the
local hospital, I was referred to a physiotherapist and was told I should give
up sport for a while. My interest in volleyball was waning by this time, but I
was also delving deep into the art of Daito Ryu Ju Jutsu which is particularly
characterised by some of its techniques performed from a kneeling position.
Giving up was not an option for me.
39
It was around this time that I began looking into Tai Chi and the slow
movement training created some immediate and interesting sensations in my
ruined knees. I could almost feel the fluid in my knees stirring and the frayed
tendon pulling and tightening gently as I moved through the form. After 3
months, the nightly pain and immobility had disappeared and within 6
months my patella tendons had begun to thicken and tighten up. Within a
year I was able to run, jump, roll and perform my beloved JuJutsu absent of
pain or discomfort!

So I have personally cured myself of patella tendonitis and constant knee

pain through the practice of Tai Chi and internal arts. These systems really do
something interesting to the joints that few other training programs seem to.
The process of smooth, continuous, slow, long and open circular movement
is fairly unique to Tai Chi and its related arts like Ba gua and Chi Gung. There
are a number of interesting responses both in the tissues that wrap the joints
and the fluids within the joints from their practice.

Thus as we say above, joint mobility is something that, by our very genetics,
is a fundamental prerequisite for the healthy human. We cannot imagine a
hunter gatherer crippled by arthritic elbows or hunched over from poor
shoulder alignment hunting with great success.

Joint problems can stem from a wide ranging variety of sources, from
muscular or connective tissue instability to dietary insufficiency to genetics.
So it is hard to provide a perfect description of what a healthy joint really
looks like. However we can say with some certainty that healthy joints are
pain free and should exhibit a natural range of motion without inhibition.

40
3 external harmonies and the joints.

In Tai Chi there is a method for identifying the relationship and the role of
our major body joints known as the 3 external harmonies. The association of
these joints to each other was initially part of the martial system used to
identify effective movement and expression of force. But the idea of
associating the joints to one another soon became
important for health and wellness practitioners
too. The six harmonies are the association
between the wrists and ankles, the knees and
elbows and the shoulders and hips.

This association is important because it means that

as we make movements in the Tai Chi forms or Nei
Gong training, we have more of an understanding
of the joint’s function and how it works in
harmony with the rest of the body.

When we work on movement with the knowledge

of the hips and shoulders’ rotational function we
are able to harmonise their actions. As the
shoulder rotates the hips also rotates and so on.
This synchronisation between the joint types will
increase our proprioceptive capacity. This sense of
where we are in the space around us is closely linked to the position of our
joints. As the joints articulate, the central and peripheral nervous systems are
informed of the joint’s position and our brain maps the relative position of
the limb in relation to the rest of the body. So with deep focus we can
mentally align our joints to one another resulting in increased alignment
awareness as well as spatial recognition. Consequently, we are less likely to
operate outside our natural ranges of motion, and equally recognise when
our range of motion is impinged.

41
One of the primary causes of joint pain or wear and tear on the joints
themselves is an uneven posture formed by unnatural habits. Operating
outside of our natural base, alignment, centre of stability or joint position is
very common. This can be caused by people habitually leaning on one leg
when they stand still, sitting at desks with their shoulder slumped forward or
even sitting on seat with their wallet in one of their back pockets! Leaning on
one leg for instance can develop problems in one hip resulting in a lopsided
gait, people who hunch at a desk all day will create a Kyphotic spine, and
manual labourers who always use their right knee will develop uneven bone
growths that impede mobility of the knee joint.

The internal arts like Tai Chi have an entire section of their training devoted
to ‘alignment’ which is one of the first practices that the exponent will delve
into. The practice of recognising alignment issues is a fascinating one because
more often than not, in the early stages we are completely incapable of
recognising when we are lopsided, leaning forward or tilting back. My
teacher would often get me to practice standing positions in front of a large
mirror, or looking in glass doors. This allowed me to look directly at my
posture and work my way through the positions of each joint in relation to
the next. I would stand in the pre-defined posture, looking at the spine
position, the shoulder alignment to the hip, the knee alignment to the elbows
etc. Having this acute sense of the position of our major joints helps us to
recognise the markers of instability or misalignment in a systematic way. It is
not enough for teacher to point out misalignments or issues with your
position; we have to actually feel them for ourselves if we are to truly correct
them. So the three external harmonies is a very useful tool for understanding
the position of the joints in relation to one another, but they are also used to
define the role that the joint plays in movement capacity. We can say that
these joints share a specific set of attributes and this understanding can
inform our practice.

42
Shoulders and Hips

So, the first two joints to look at are the shoulders and hips. In Tai Chi we say
that the shoulders and hips are ‘mobility joints’. This means that they are
responsible for the mobility of the limb and its action in motion.

If we think about the shoulder for instance, it allows the arm to articulate in a
near 360 degree range of motion in relation to the torso whilst remaining
strongly connected, able to apply forces. This mobility is also true of the hip
and this definition of the joint’s role is very useful when we look at moving
through the various positions of the Tai Chi form or, in fact, any movement
practice.

If we are struggling with a particular movement or set of movements, pulling

our attention back to the mobility of the shoulder or hip can award us a focus
that may enable us to perform the action more easily.

43
Elbows and Knees
The elbows and knees are what we refer to as ‘transfer’ joints. They are
responsible for transferring weight/power from the body to the hand or the
foot. They have a strong element of linear functionality and are extremely
powerful in their linear alignments.

In the martial arts, the elbows and knees are a cause for concern in certain
arts where snapping or whipping strikes are a regular feature. Karate-ka are
commonly diagnosed with knee and elbow problems later in life if they have
not taken care of the action in the knee and elbow earlier in their training.
This is because the elbow and knee articulation is focused around smooth
and uninterrupted transfer of force or load from the body, via the articulation
of the mobility joints to the control surfaces of the hand and foot. Any
‘leaking’ force in the elbow or knee caused by rapid articulation to the
extreme range of motion will result in damage to the cartilage and associated
protective tissues. For this reason, Tai Chi employs the 70% rule when looking
at extension of the elbow or knee. That is to say that these joints never
extend past 70-80% extension in the postures or movements.

44
Wrists and Ankles.

The wrists and ankles are ‘control or sensitivity’ joints. These joints control
and distribute forces produced by the body or from external factors to the
body. Imagine an acrobat or a gymnast performing a handstand. Their hands
will be constantly adjusting and redirecting the forces acting upon them to
hold the handstand securely. They are performing controlling actions with
the hands and wrists, while transferring load through the elbows via the
mobilized shoulders.

Perhaps an easier way to understand these joints roles is to simply stand on

one leg and observe the constant adjustments felt in the lower limb muscles
around the ankle. They will subconsciously engage and disengage to retain
the position and centre of balance. In many lines of Tai Chi we see training
where the practitioner will stand on one leg, under deep control while slowly
moving into the next motion. This capability is born out of the control
allowed by the development of the ankle and foot.

45
So how does associating the joints in this way help us increase our joint
health? Let’s say for instance we are performing a slow stepping movement
in our Tai Chi practice (or walking normally in everyday life!) and we have a
clear understanding, honed through the training of awareness of the 3
external harmonies that the knee is a transfer joint. However, we feel a
pressure on the inside of our knee joint with every step; after some time a
dull ache appears.

This increased awareness and sensitivity to changes or unnatural loading will

help us to protect our joints in every aspect of life. A great example of this
can be found in runners who have started to learn Tai Chi mechanics to
improve their running technique. The now popular ‘chi running’ for instance,
helps runners to become aware of spine alignment, knee pressures and foot
fall, which in turn has shown to decrease systemic issues such as ‘joggers
knee’.

With training and the understanding of alignment and joint roll, we should be
able to recognise that the knee joint is not optimally transferring weight
through to the ground. There is a misalignment, and the weight loading a
specific, and unnatural, tissue line. This misalignment could then be
addressed and remedied through focused practice and continued awareness
development.

For most people new to Tai Chi, these revelations about the misalignment or
misuse of the 3 external harmonies will come thick and fast! People will
notice their knees misaligned, their hips uneven, their wrist mobility
impaired. But these noticeable misalignments will diminish through training,
eventually resulting in a body that is powerfully aligned with all joints
working as they should and in harmony with one another.

46
Opening the joints – Free flowing fluid.

When we practice the internal arts for some time, as evidenced by my knee
recovery, we begin to feel that the joints are articulating more smoothly.
Certainly, when my joints recovered from the rigours of jumping and diving
around the volleyball court, there was the clear feeling of somehow being
freer than before. I am sure that most of you have heard of the term ‘well
oiled’, but in Tai Chi and internal training this attribute is known as ‘opening
the joints’.

This idea is related to the relaxation of bound tissues around the joints so
that the synovial fluid of the joint cavity is able to perform its correct
function.

47
The joints are areas of the body where the bones of the skeleton terminate
to allow articulation and movement. In order for this articulation to work
correctly for our 70 or 80 years of life, there are some very refined
mechanisms our bodies use to ensure correct function of all our joints. The
joints are lubricated by the synovial fluid, and they utilise special tissues like
cartilage to allow bony surfaces to work with each other in a smoothly. They
have a series of muscles and connective tissues which work in harmony to
maintain the optimal position and state of the joint during movement.

However, the realities of modern life can, and do, conspire to interrupt this
natural function. When we sit with our elbows on desks, our knees bent
permanently for a large proportion of the day or our fingers work harder than
they were designed to on keyboards and smart phones. We really don’t do
our natural articulations any favours!

Perhaps the first problem that these positions can create is in the fixing of
the joints in a static position causing what the Chinese would call
‘stagnation’. Basically this means that because we are not moving our joints
throughout the day as we normally would the joints become stiff, the fluids
become more viscous and the sliding surfaces begin to stick. When we do
begin to move again we can hear pops, experience joint pain or even ongoing
systemic issues.

A problem far more wide reaching than the static joint is the way in which
the muscles and connective tissue react to this sedentary lifestyle. The static
position can cause various key muscle groups related to the joints to shorten
or tighten. When this happens the joint is compressed and the fluid
squeezed, the sliding surfaces and cartilage can be pressed into themselves
and we begin to see the signed of this compression in frayed joint capsules
and articular cartilage.

In instances where this unnatural positioning has been enforced over years or
decades, large-scale body wide joint issues can become apparent. Muscles

48
tighten, joint articulation is severely impaired and the resulting posture can
cause pain and discomfort when moderate physical activity is all that was
required.

Although the joint opening methods found in Tai Chi were not designed to
combat these modern stresses, they are very well suited to the job of ‘fixing’
the modern human’s predicament. Some methodologies will introduce a
stretching routine to remedy these issues, and indeed Tai Chi also uses
specific ‘stretching’ methods to combat these problems. But the overall
approach taken by the Tai Chi practitioner has some fundamental differences
to the western idea of stretching.

Tai Chi training for joint health works in a slow manner with a focus on
creating a ‘release’ rather than the pull normally associated with a stretch.
This is slightly different to the stretching methodology in that we are not
adding elastic tensions into an already closed system. If you imagine a joint
with muscles and connective tissues under tension crossing and passing
through it, where would the forces be acting on the joint? They would be
working to close the joint further, adding pressure to an already pressurised
cavity full of liquid and increasing the strain of the cartilage pressing on itself.

The release method involves slow, deliberate joint rotation and extension of
the limbs whilst relaxing the surrounding muscles to a point where they are
only holding the tension needed to fulfil their role of supporting the joint.
This is the natural state of the tissues around the joints and is the ultimate
aim for the Tai Chi exponent. As mentioned in the chapter on relaxation,
there are many methods that we can use to relax the tissues in the body, but
the method of opening the joints is specifically designed to relax the tissues
in order to release the pressure of the joints.

49
Opening the joints of the body in this way will generally feel very liberating
for the practitioner as it returns the joints to their natural state of health.

Diet also plays an important role in the health of the joints, for instance
supplementing with Omega 3’s has been shown to produce beneficial results
in joint health and mobility. During nightly Brazilian JiuJitsu practice tough
workouts and sparring would leave my body aching and my joints sore. Every
evening I would supplement with high quality fish and hemp oil and in the
morning would perform my morning routine of chi gung, Tai Chi and Ba gua.
These soft methods combined with the right diet meant that all my aches and
pains from the night before would disappear dramatically and I would
invariably be left feeling relaxed, open and free to move.

It is important to note that this softer method of opening up the body is

specifically very useful for the older practitioner who, due to pre-existing
deficiencies, is more susceptible to instability and injury if they were to take
up a dedicated western stretching routine. The softer release method of
stretching is far less demanding on older connective tissues which have less
elastic capabilities and can suffer damage from stretching work.

50
Furthermore, the release methods and mobility training of the joints found in
Tai Chi proved to increase the range of movement and movement capacity in
adults with specific diseases that impact movement, such as obesity or type 2
diabetes.

In a study titled “Mobility impairment in type 2 diabetes: association with

muscle power and effect of Tai Chi intervention.” The researchers found the
following:

“After 4 months, Tai Chi provided modest significant improvements in

mobility. Tai Chi was shown to be effective for mobility and other health
outcomes relevant to this cohort, it may present a viable alternative exercise
modality. “

Joint health and Circulation

As we begin to notice the effects of Tai Chi we will feel an important knock-
on side effect as the joints and associated tissues become aligned, open and
working properly. Indeed, often when we train specific body methods we
start to experience seemingly unrelated benefits. This is especially true in Tai
Chi where we could be focused on one aspect of body work then notice that
something else is moving much more smoothly. An example of this is how
blindingly fast the adepts of this art are, something you would not necessarily
expect from a system that has a focus on slow or static training!

So as the process of aligning and opening the joints happens, we see a very
interesting effect within a seemingly unrelated body system- the circulation.
There have been several studies into certain movement methods and their
effect on the circulatory system, even some specifically focused on the
practice of Tai Chi.

51
 RESULTS: Tai Chi practitioners showed significantly better haemodynamic
parameters than the controls as indexed by larger and small artery
compliance. They also demonstrated greater eccentric muscle strength in
both knee extensors and flexors.”

But most Tai Chi Instructors and students will be able to identify this change
in themselves, their students or their partners. People come into class with
consistently cold, white hands for example. This problem is often seen in the
elderly where postural restrictions will impact the blood flow to the
extremities but dramatic changes in people’s circulation can be seen even in
a single Tai Chi session. After an hour of Tai Chi and chi gong training their
hands will become a healthy pink and warm.

52
It is important to note that this effect often fades after the session as the
body tissues, misalignments and joints start to retract back to their entrained
positions. But over time and with dedicated practice, the improvements will
last longer and longer until they become permanent.

There are multiple reasons for improved circulation and we will look at some
of the other aspects such as lymphatic health, compression and release of
the vascular tissue etc, but certainly one of the primary reasons is related to
the release of tension in the joints themselves causing restriction of blood
flow.

The tensions and muscles that are responsible for inhibiting joint motion will
create multiple compressions across the vascular and arterial networks. If
you imagine a person who has very poor natural resting posture and think
about how these postural skews and compressions impact the veins and
arteries that pass through the points of most tension, it is easy to see how
restriction occurs. The body has to fight much harder to push blood through
all of these blockages to the extremities.

Much of the practice of Tai Chi has been created to work the body up and
down, in and out and to open and close. The process of working between two
opposite actions is at the core of Tai Chi and has a large impact on the overall
state of the body’s’ circulatory system.

There have been several studies on the effect of Chi Gung and Tai Chi on the
cardiovascular system; however these studies are usually related to
addressing disease or illness rather than increasing or maintaining general
health and wellness. However, the information helps to reinforce the idea
that correct Tai Chi practice will have a positive impact on the joints and
circulation.

In conclusion, Tai Chi has significant benefits to patients with cardiovascular

disease, and it may be prescribed as an alternative exercise program for
selected patients with CVD.
53
The sensations of improved circulation.

Tai Chi is a fairly unique training method in that it involves deep introspection
and analysis of the methods as they are performed. We are constantly
observing and assessing our posture, our breathing, our extension etc, and
adjusting our positions or focus as new information arises. This is part of the
beauty of this art and those similar and part of the reason the method has
remained so popular. But there is a slight trap to this approach that my
teachers would consistently warn me about and that is the ‘trap of
sensation’.

When we perform Tai Chi or the related internal training methods, it is

extremely common for our body to react in a variety of unusual ways,
especially as the circulation improves. Practitioners can experience tingling,
pins and needles, warmth or heat, a ‘crawling’ sensation as the body begins
to open up and re-align. These sensations are, unfortunately, often wrongly
prescribed by some teachers to experiencing ‘chi’.

The fact of the matter is that as we begin to wake up the body from its
entrained dysfunction, the sensory network in our tissues, the warmth
returning from circulatory improvement, the re-alignment of the skeleton
and the effect of gravity on our improved posture will ultimately mean that
new and unusual sensation present themselves. It is a trap for a lot of
practitioners and a warning my teachers would often remind me to heed. The
sensations are not the goal, they are a result of correct training!

“Don’t chase the sensations; they are not the end, but a by-product.’

54
 Chapter 3

- Tissue conditioning
& development -

55
I remember the first time I laid my hands on my Daito Ryu Ju Jutsu teacher’s
arm. He was about to use me as Uke to demonstrate some of the Aiki No-
Jutsu work and I was shocked at the softness of the tissue of his forearms. It
was as if there was a deep release of the tissue all the way down to the bone,
but inside was a solidity or thickness, a density if you will. Of course after I
had grabbed him I was effortlessly flung to the floor, the density within him
rotating and winding in a way that felt unstoppable, but would seem like
nothing to the outside observer.

Daito Ryu, a Japanese Internal Art with many comparable mechanics to Tai
Chi, was my first introduction to this sort of unique tissue development. It
was an interesting experience to behold as it was slightly counter intuitive for
me at the time. I had trained Judo and other arts throughout my youth and
had been exposed to excellent skill combined with high levels of athletic
development, but this was entirely different. Sensei didn’t look big or
particularly strong, he didn’t have the huge shoulder muscles like my Judo
classmates. He was a fairly unassuming man all around but there was a
solidity and strength to his motion that belied his stature.

Master Okabayashi Shogen was visiting our school from Japan, as he did each
year to deliver seminars to the public and teach higher grades in private
sessions. In these sessions we were being taught the Aiki-noJutsu training
methods, a series of techniques designed to teach the inner principles of Aiki
or the harmony of effort. These methods ranged from subtle off-balancing
techniques to huge throws, but were founded in a series of solo ‘attribute
training’ methods that connected the practitioner with the gravity power of
the style. The idea was to develop the martial body so that when it came
time to perform the set techniques they had a real fuel behind them.

This idea of the ‘martial body’ could be felt when working with Okabayashi
Sensei. He was extremely soft but deeply strong inside- his arms were like
lead wrapped in cotton wool. Truly a manifestation of the characteristic that I
would later hear mentioned in Tai Chi circles. Whenever it was brought up I
56
would think of my Aiki teacher. He had truly attained this body and the net
result was his ability to toss around men half his age and twice his size with
ease. Now it is important to note that we were a very practical school; we
trained every night of the week and focussed heavily on honest attacks and
defences. There was no teacher worship, no hopping around like bunnies and
certainly no mysticism. We trained hard, really hard! As a sceptical young
man I would watch these demonstrations and think “I would get him”, but
then when asked to be Uke, there I was on the floor just like all the others. I
watched as the big strong western Sempai were pinned and thrown around
by this little Japanese man and was determined to understand how he did it.

This brings us back to his body and the development of the tissues. It was
clear upon touching him that there was something different in his
development. The deep density and soft exterior was something I later
experienced in almost all of the internal arts specialists I would meet.

Developing the Tissues of the body

When we think of Tai Chi we do not necessarily think of developing body

tissue. The idea of actually building muscle with these methods seems to go
against what many know about muscle building and the gentle art of Tai Chi.
However, perhaps the biggest and most significant benefit of Tai Chi training
is in fact its ability as a method for conditioning and training the tissues of the
body.

Tai Chi is a relatively unique form of exercise in that much of its training is
performed very slowly; especially when Tai Chi is practiced for health. But
hidden within this soft and slow movement training is an interesting
environment where a series of unusual demands are placed on the bodies
various tissues.

We have discussed the alignment of the body’ frame and how, with proper
awareness, it can assist the body to perform tasks. Now we will look at the
tissues that span and wrap this frame and how they are pulled, stretched,
57
wound, loaded and utilized as we perform our Tai Chi training. Tai Chi Chuan
methods actually changing the make-up of our tissue is fundamental in
maintaining flexibility, strength, postural control and ultimately, vibrant
health.

The unified body

When you watch a Tai Chi or internal arts master practice, one thing becomes
almost immediately apparent: They move in a unified and complete way.
Very rarely do we see just an arm or hand move without the rest of the body
moving at the same time. This is the concept of the unified body or, as some
traditions describe, the connected structure. This is the central underpinning
trait that I have witnessed in all of the internal arts adepts I have researched
and met. Every one of them moved with unity and harmony in their
structure, and this quality underpinned every movement they made, be it
performing their particular martial form, walking through the park or sparring
with students.

So, perhaps the biggest goal of any training methodology is to produce a

body that works in harmony with itself, naturally unencumbered and ‘fit for
purpose’. The specific goal of the Tai Chi adept is for this co-ordination and
harmony to be present whilst maintaining a soft, relaxed and open body
composition.

“One part moves, all parts move”

Tai Chi classics

Unification can be described as the development of primarily the muscular

and fascia tissues working in unison with each other during motion.
Essentially we aim to desegment the body and create a dynamic single unit
made up of a web of tissue linked to an aligned skeleton.

58
This is quite different from many body-training methodologies where
individual muscle groups or singular muscle units will be trained to increase
their capacity. I call this idea the ‘segmentation approach’ to body
development, which is essentially the opposite of what internal training aims
to produce. In segmentation training the athlete may focus their effort on
building the shoulders and their training will work on the various articulations
and muscle groups related to the shoulder in order to strengthen them for
their specific sport. In Tai Chi we exert the shoulders but focus on the link
between them to the deep front and back lines, the connections to the rib
cage and finger tips. We place our focus on a much larger amount of tissue in
order to obtain a more holistic appreciation of what drives and supports the
action of the arms.

When training connection we are working on chains of muscle and

connective tissue along major movement competency paths and minor
supporting paths. We will explore these paths later and how to create
capability and movement capacity in our body. A movement expert with
extensive training in the Martial arts uses an excellent phrase that sums up
the idea behind the internal training body method:

“If you pull on the shirt every atom is affected.’

- Ido Portal

The Importance of training to unify the body

You would think that that as humans we would naturally retain a well-
structured unified body, and to a degree this is true. We have all the
necessary material and structures needed to be a balanced healthy organism
and the networks of tissue we will discuss here is ever present. However, as
detailed in previous chapters, there are many factors that conspire to bring
this body out of balance and that is what unification is squarely aimed at
addressing- the entrained dysfunction.

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 For instance, it could be that due to our job or
lifestyle we entrain a curvature of the spine. The
spine has a curvature in the upper portion
making the chest collapse and the head sink
forward. This posture is created by a number of
modern factors, from sitting at desks all day long,
to constantly being glued to our smart phones!
The posture is compounded over time and
muscular and connective tissues adapt and
change to retain a level of equilibrium in this un-
natural position.

This has been sighted as one of the problems

with some styles of Tai Chi training where an old
saying has directed exponents to actually seek to
create this un-natural and out of balance
posture!

There is a saying in Tai Chi to ‘hollow the chest

and pluck the back’ which largely relates to the
chest position. This famous saying has been widely misinterpreted and
problems with some Tai Chi practitioner’s posture are very visible. The
problems are caused by depressing the chest inwards causing the back to
curve out. Of course this is not a natural position and is disadvantageous to
the natural equilibrium. The error of this posture not only has an effect on
the practitioners back, but also constricts their lungs creating lower total lung
capacity over time.

Interestingly it is also a problem martially as strikes to the body will tend to

remain ‘inside’ as the transfer of force follows the curvature to a point of
culmination. My teachers likened this phrase to a barrel; hollow, but not
depressed in any direction. It is stable with equilibrium on all sides due to its
structure.
60
 Correct Tai Chi practice will create a
similar type of equilibrium within the
body. It encourages stability across
the front, back, sides and up and
down. This largely occurs through the
correct development of the tissue so
that you are not pulling or skewing
your posture in any specific direction.

Beyond the physical development and

conditioning of the tissues, through
the deep introspection of the training and linking of our mind to our sensory
network, we begin to develop an acute sense of ‘balance’. This is not only the
same balance we discussed earlier in the grounding or rooting section, but is
actually the balance of the entire body.

To demonstrate I will talk you through an exercise. Stand as straight and

aligned as you can, then focus on tensing your abdominal muscles. You will
feel that the body curves forwards, leading the weight out into the toes and
that your equilibrium between your front and back halves has been lost.

To a much more subtle degree, this is the sort of problem that Tai Chi looks
to address in its search for greater tissue condition, connection and
equilibrium.

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Muscular tissue
It is easy to believe, when training internal arts like Tai Chi, that muscle tissue
is something to be avoided especially with images of ‘balloon armed’ body
builders that come immediately to mind whenever we talk about building
muscle. However, this view is largely misguided and anyone that has met
masters of a younger generation, we see a high level of muscular
development in their bodies due to their prolonged training. Exponents like
Chen Xiaoxings son- Chen Ziqiang are extremely strong and fit from the deep,
daily, demanding study of their method.

We need muscle for our bodies to function, and without it we would simply
be a loose heap on the floor. But moreover we actually need to develop the
musculature in a very focused and specific way to create equilibrium. Our
muscular system is used in movement during every endeavour, be that
pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying, walking, running, climbing or swimming.

We have a great breadth of movement capacity as human beings and every

one of them requires us to utilize our muscles, so we should not neglect
these structures even when referring to the slow art of Tai Chi for health
benefits.

The muscles can be thought of as the power expression units of the body;
they function to produce force and motion. They are contractile tissues that
fuel our movement, but also allow us to breathe via the diaphragm and to
pump blood around the body via the heart. These different types of muscle
tissue are known as Skeletal, Cardiac and Smooth.

Skeletal Muscle.

This tissue is also known as ‘voluntary muscle’ and is usually anchored to

bone via tendons and is used to creation motion or to maintain posture.

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Cardiac Muscle

Cardiac muscle is known as an ‘involuntary muscle’ and is only found in the

heart. It’s closely related to skeletal muscle in terms of its composition.

Smooth Muscle

This is the muscle tissue that exists within the walls of organs such as the
oesophagus, stomach and intestines. Again, this is classed as involuntary
muscle and is not thought to be under any type of conscious control.

Muscle is classed as a soft tissue and is primarily composed of protein

filaments that contract to change the length and shape of the cell. These
filaments are bundled into packets known as muscle fibres which are
wrapped in ‘insulating’ connective tissues. This combination of muscle fibre
and connective tissue is key to the internal arts practitioner. It means that
even our muscular system is connected together via the connective tissue
network that holds such interest.

With the correct training we are able to make these connections stronger
and unify the body through the musculature. It is this innovated connection
that allows us to begin to work with full chains of tissue rather than individual
packets. When this happens, muscular action is no longer an individualised,
instead being the result of action across multiple muscle groups.

So, muscular tissue has the potential to increase out level of body unification
and is an important part of that process. But there are some things to avoid
in the development of your muscles.

One of the main pitfalls in building muscle for the internal arts expert is
crossing the threshold between not enough, and too much muscle. If muscles
become too big, they will create tension pulls at 90 degrees to the natural
action of the muscle function. This sounds complicated, but can be easily
explained through this concept: Imagine inflating a balloon to a point where

63
its shape is formed but the pressure is still low. At this point grab two points
on the balloons surface and pull them away from each other. This represents
the muscle between its anchors. Now think about inflating the balloon
further. You will start to feel the balloon pulling your anchor points together
as the internal pressures increase.

This is very similar to what our muscles go through as we pass the threshold
of size. It is most clearly seen in body builders who walk around with their
arms constantly bend through the unnatural tensions created within the
muscle due to its size. The pull on the muscle anchors (via the tendons) closes
our joints, inhibits circulation and reduces natural movement competency -
all the things we aim to avoid or address in our Tai Chi practice. Instead we
need to find that ‘sweet spot’ in the middle where muscle building optimizes
the recruitment and function of the associated and integral connective
tissues.

Another factor we must consider regarding our is that their composition and
percentages are defined by our genetics. Some people will be naturally better
at long distance running for instance, while others are better sprinters. The
muscles are made up of a series of fibres of various types and are responsible
for different demands. Some are used for endurance and some for explosive
force generation. But there is something that spans all muscle types and

64
individual compositions -the connection of the musculature to the nervous
system.

Muscular control and the ability to release or tighten muscles with extreme
accuracy is an important part of the internal training process. It is an attribute
that will allow us ease of movement and economy of motion (to be discussed
in later chapters) and one that will help us regulate our daily energy
expenditure. It also allows us to address emerging awareness of any
muscular tensions or blockages that we encounter. How to use our muscle
mass optimally is a very integral part of the health and wellness puzzle.

Tai Chi is an interesting practice in that can it can remove tension in the
muscular system through controlled relaxation and deliberate movement
methods, as well as engage certain muscle groups to develop them and
increase the capacity or efficiency of the tissue. This is especially true of the
deep shoulder muscles, the muscles of the lower back and the muscles of the
abdomen that form the classical ‘centre’.

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Development of the lower abdomen – Dan Tien.

The muscles in the centre or the lower abdomen are an area of constant
focus and research for the internal arts practitioner. Anyone who has laid
their hands on the stomach of an internal arts adept will understand the
deep level of development that can occur in this area. These muscles are
consciously and meticulously controlled and worked to produce a
harmonious connection between the upper torso and the legs. The lower
torso or ‘Dan Tien’ will move and rotate, it will undulate and ‘pop’, it will pull
on the web of tissues that produce a nexus in this area. This ‘lower Dan Tien’
is the engine of the Tai Chi adept.

Firstly, and most importantly, we must look at Dan Tien as a nexus or junction
point for the myo fascial lines of the body and their related muscle groups. It
is composed of material looping in from the hips and lower back, the pelvic
floor the spiral lines around the body, the axis material both front and back
and numerous other internal connections that create an all-round ball of
tissue in this area. Some key muscles and tissues in this ‘centre’ are the psoas
muscles, the diaphragm, the illius, spinus errecti and the muscles of the
pelvic floor

We can develop the ‘centre’ primarily through the pulling and stretching of
the tissues as we move through the various internal training methods, but
also through relaxation. Relaxing everything inside the body’s outer suit of
tissue creates the sensation of filling up the lower Dan Tien and connecting
all the material together. When properly relaxed, the pulling and stretching
methods found in Tai Chi, can be felt directly in this area. This pulling is
actually, over time, conditioning the connections to and from the centre in a
clear and physical way and we will lose the 6 pack and begin to gain a taut
but slightly thicker abdomen.

The base of the centre composing the pelvic floor is also an area of special
interest. It is the area of the body that we can utilize to work from, like a

66
stable platform for the upper half of the body. There are numerous examples
of working from this start point in various body methods found across the
internal arts and certainly in Tai Chi is common place to utilize this ‘platform’.

But in general the development of the centre holds a wide range of benefits
for the practitioner focused on the health and wellness side of Tai Chi.

Perhaps foremost amongst these benefits is the stabilization of our torso

through the development of the deep abdominal muscles. These muscles are
used to support the lower half of the torso, protect the organs of the lower
abdomen and also to connect the upper and lower halves of the body. The
development of this area through focused Tai Chi practice will provide the
practitioner with stability when moving, standing or sitting. The effect of
posture on wellness is something that we covered in the previous chapter,
but it would be fair to say that the lower abdominal area is key to its
maintenance.

Another interesting benefit linked to the control and development of this

area of the body is its effect on digestion. The muscles in the lower body as
well as those wrapping through the pelvis onto the upper femur encase the
lower digestive tract and have been shown to actually aid in the digestive
process through movement and engagement. The release of the lower torso
muscles help to aid the ‘smooth’ muscles in the transit of food and waste
products through the lower digestive system. This process is improved by
well-functioning abdominal muscles which are developed through Tai Chi
training. If the belly is very loose and distended then the function of the
abdominals during movement will be very minimal and the action presented
to the digestion will be diminished.

But there is much more to the lower torso and the classical centre than these
few traits. One of the major areas of study is how through correct training,
our pelvis and lumbar spine positions effect health. The focus for some
researchers is on the importance of these connecting muscles and recent

67
findings show that not only do these muscle groups provide some support or
action but are actually far more important to our everyday health than initial
suspected.

The Psoas – muscle of health

One muscle of particular interest to scientists presently is the psoas muscle.

This long thin muscle connects the lower lumbar spine via the illiacus muscle
to the upper femur. The psoas and its associated muscle the illiacus,
contribute to flexion of the hip joint, bending of the lower trunk of the body
and raising of the trunk from a supine position.

But we may ask: Why is this muscle so important to the health of the
individual? Many of the old traditions consider this muscle or area of the
body as an extremely important part of the body control or develop. Classical
yoga positions utilize this muscle and in chi gong there are numerous
methods where the softening, stretching or lengthening of this muscle is
deemed a primary consideration.

The psoas muscle forms part of the body’s natural fear reflex and when
someone becomes startled the natural reaction is for the body to recoil. This
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action is the result of the engagement of the psoas muscle. Just as fear will
have an effect on this muscle, its association with the startle reflex can be
exploited in the reverse direction. The relaxation, softening and stretching
of the Psoas will have the upstream effect on the central nervous system,
relaxing and calming us. This effect can be seen in practitioners who have
gained the control of the lumbar region in their Tai Chi training.

In fact smoothing out the lumbar curve is often one of the earliest lessons in
training and a prerequisite for later practices. Over and over my teacher
would advise me to ‘relax the lumbar’ area of the body during my earliest
training sessions. As mentioned earlier, relaxation cannot be forced and it
took me almost a year or so to truly get this area of the body under my
conscious control.

The fundamental goal here of course is that through this work we de-
segment the upper and lower halves of the body bringing unity to the torso
and hips. To illustrate this, think of pushing a car. We do not exaggerate the
lumbar curve but flatten it out in order to drive power from the legs to the
hands. The same is true of the general body structure in Tai Chi, if we want to
effectively link the feet to the hands we cannot have any kinks or joins where
the power could leak out.

There are many ideas on how to achieve this vertical stance, from tucking in
the coccyx, pointing it to the floor, tilting the pelvis, opening the back by
lengthening or simply relaxation.

Perhaps the greatest hurdle in achieving a straight back is a tight psoas

muscle and some of the commonly prescribed interventions are actually
counterintuitive when the idea here is to release and relax this muscle. The
idea of physically tucking the pelvis under by tightening the abdomen,
buttocks and hamstrings for instance, can actually aggravate a tight psoas
muscles. This is because, although lengthened, the tensions will result in the
psoas activating/tightening to stabilize the pelvis.

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Therefore we need to be very careful in how we approach the problem of
tight psoas muscles. The traditional method is to 'relax' the buttocks,
abdominals etc and let the pelvis naturally hang like a weight on a string.
When the practitioner learns to really let go in this posture, the position will
naturally stretch in the psoas without making it engage to stabilize or
counteract the tensions elsewhere. The spine ‘hangs’ from the crown of the
head in this practice, as is well known by any Tai Chi practitioner and this
feeling of suspension will allows for the re-alignment of the lumbar spine and
the pelvis.

Once this training has yielded proper alignment and the psoas has relaxed
into its proper function, the lumbar curve will smooth out and this alignment
will become a habit of the conditioned body rather than being a conscious
effort.

Muscle development of the lower limb

Another group of muscles that are closely related to the health of the
individual are those of the lower limb. These muscles may not seem
immediately vital to health and wellness, but their development is central to
our ability to balance and locomote. As bipeds we spend most of our time
moving on two legs and as such the lower leg muscles are honed to keep us
upright even on extremely varied terrain.

However, as we age the sensitivity of our balance control muscles may

degrade and cause us to lose our balance more easily. The slow deliberate
stepping and motion found in Tai Chi and the deep consideration of the
balance is central to the development of the lower legs.

This is thought to be one of the really useful benefits for elderly

practitioners who, with this increased tissue, have a much greater sense of
stability in their gait and less of a chance of falling over. Falls can be fatal for
the elderly so if their safety can be heightened with focused training on the
development of their balance and lower limb strength all the better.
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But this focused development of the lower limb muscles is also proving to be
very beneficial to combat sports athletes. They are beginning to utilise
methods for the development of the foot and lower limb to improve
movement capabilities and explosive motion during their fights or
competitions.

Fascia
The heart of the connected body

When we talk of the connected or unified body, we describe a state in which

the body is connected and unified in its motion from hand to foot. However,
when we talk about muscle groups or bones we describe them as distinct
individual packets or lengths. But there is one tissue that spans the entire
body like a web and that is fascia.

The fascia, or connective tissue, is a fibrous material that is distributed

throughout the entire body. This tissue takes various forms and plays a
number of vital roles such as surrounding muscles, organs, bones, nerves and
blood vessels. It also connected muscle to bone in the tendons, connects
bone to bone in the ligaments and supports the organs in distinct packets to
make sure that they all sit in the right place. It has an appearance somewhat
reminiscent of a spider’s web which spans and permeates every part of our
body.

It also has some properties that are

unique from providing support, exhibiting
contraction in harmony with muscle
contractions and also being one of the
major sources for our proprioceptive
capacity. It is a living web linking every
part of the body to together and is now
being studied by the scientific community
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for its important role in a number of sporting pursuits as well as in the health
and wellness field.

Fascia is primarily composed of 3 types of material: Collagenous, elastic and

reticular.

Collagenous

The collagenous part of the fascia is like the cement that binds it together. It
is the tensile part of the tissue that provides stiffness and strength.

Elastic

This is where potential is stored or released by the tissue. It is an elastic

component of the tissue and is also utilized when the tissue exhibits
contraction and release.

Reticular

This component wraps nerves and sensory tissues, which are also present in
the fascia and provide responses and feedback to the central and peripheral
nervous system.

When we look at how fascia is utilized in the body it becomes clear that
improving this material can have dramatic overall health benefits. There is no
part of the body that is not touched by the fascia web, every part of the body
is connected to another. Your big toe is connected to your eyeball would you
believe!

Fascia plays a large number of roles in the body. It is used for:

 Load distribution - such as in the lumbar Fascia.

 Connection of muscles together - Deep abdominal and ‘core’.
 Connection of Muscle to Bones – tendons.
 Supporting Joints (bone to bone generally) - Ligaments.

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  Sensory feedback.
 Contractile/ load response - The golgi reflex is the most obvious
example of connective tissue responding to stimuli with contraction.
 Wrapping nerves – Fascia is a key contributor to our proprioceptive
sense.
 Allowing tissues to slide over one another
 Keeping the organs in place.

Here is some information from a peer reviewed study on the role of fascia.

Finding #3:The Fascial system is far more innervated than muscle, so

proprioception and kinesthesia are primarily Fascial, not muscular.

This is a hard concept for many fitness professionals to get their heads
around, but it is a fact: there are 10 times as many sensory receptors in your
Fascial tissues as there are in your muscles (Stillwell 1957). The muscles have
spindles that measure length change (and over time, rate of length change) in
the muscles. Even these spindles can be seen as Fascial receptors, but let’s be
kind and give them to the muscles (Van der Wal 2009). For each spindle, there
are about 10 receptors in the surrounding Fascia—in the surface epimysium,
the tendon and attachment Fascia, the nearby ligaments and the superficial
layers. These receptors include the Golgi tendon organs that measure load (by
measuring the stretch in the fibers), paciniform endings to measure pressure,
Ruffini endings to inform the central nervous system of shear forces in the soft
tissues, and ubiquitous small interstitial nerve endings that can report on all
these plus, apparently, pain (Stecco et al. 2009; Taguchi et al. 2009). So when
you say you are feeling your muscles move, this is a bit of a misnomer. You
are “listening” to your Fascial tissues much more than to your muscles. Here
are three interesting findings that go along with this basic eye-opener:
Ligaments are mostly arranged in series with the muscles, not in parallel (Van

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der Wal 2009). This means that when you tense a muscle, the ligaments are
automatically tensed to stabilize the joint, no matter what its position.

Our idea that the ligaments do not function until the joint is at its full
extension or torsion is now outmoded; for example, ligaments function all
through a preacher curl, not just at the ends of the movement. Nerve endings
arrange themselves according to the forces that commonly apply in that
location in that individual, not according to a genetic plan, and definitely not
according to the anatomical division we call a muscle. There is no
representation of a “deltoid” inside your movement brain. That’s just a
concept over in your cortex, not in your biological organization. Apparently,
sensors in and near the skin are more active in detecting and regulating
movement than the joint ligament receptors (Yahia, Pigeon & DesRosiers
1993).

Fascia, illness & injury.

Injuries are very common in sports. Find a local sports team and the chances
are one of the exponents is carrying some sort of injury. What many people
don’t realize is that almost all major injuries are the result of damage to
connective tissue or bone. Minor injuries generally constitute damage to the
musculature.

Trauma to the connective tissues is a problem because it takes so long for

fascia to reform and to re-strengthen. The supply of nutrients to this tissue is
generally relatively low in comparison to muscle, so getting the raw materials
to it to heal injury can take time. It is said in the sport of Gymnastics that it is
10 times more likely for connective tissue injuries to occur over muscular
injuries. Linked to this Connective tissue injuries can take 10 times as long to
heal! So if you were to pull your bicep for instance and that takes two weeks
to heal, a bicep tendon injury would take 20 weeks!

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With this in mind, it is worth us placing some attention on creating a strong,
elastic and capable connective tissue system that can cope with unusual
loading and alignments without failing.

But trauma is certainly not the only problem that we can face with an
unhealthy fascial network. MyoFascial restrictions often caused by
inflammation or surgery can also have dramatic knock-on effects on the
body’s overall health.

Inflammatory response can create an environment where uneven pressures

and pulls on the web of Fascia occur. This inflammation can be caused by
many factors including diet and stress, to overtraining or bumps and minor
injuries. The body’s reaction to adverse conditions through whatever means
is to create an immune response and inflammation.

If we were to imagine a sheet stretched out over a balloon with load sensors
in each corner; as we inflate the balloon those load sensors would register

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and increase as the sheet is tensioned. This is similar to what is happening
inside the body as inflammation increases. The amount of elasticity in the
fascia will have a direct relationship on how much an increase in pressure will
affect our health. This is why younger people may be able to recover from a
debilitating illness more quickly. The inflammation is not creating such
widespread tension because the fascia is more elastic.

Traditional Chinese medical theorists believe organs can be very clearly

affected by this tensioning in the fascia. They are held in place by, for want of
a better term, ‘hammocks of fascia’ which stop the organs sinking down to
the bottom of the body cavity. These pouches should be relaxed and
perfectly balanced as they are there to hold the organs while allowing
optimal blood flow and function. But what happens when the fascia network
around the body starts to pull on these pouches? Long term illness can occur
as well as problems with organ efficiency. The body ‘squeezes’ the organs,
limiting their function and available blood flow.

It is my belief that manipulation of

this web of tissue can help to
resolve these organ based health
problems, specifically because the
tissue wrapping the organ begins
to relax. This is the reason that the
Chinese identified meridian lines
that relate to specific organs. What
they were actually recognizing is
how dysfunction in a chain of
tissue within the fascia can create a
health problem by restriction of
the organs.

The use of needles through

acupuncture or massage could help
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to release or reset the tensions in this network. Over time as the web
releases, the body loses its grip on the organs and health can be restored.

Aging and elastic percentage.

It is interesting and important to note that as we age the percentage of

elastic and collagen components of our fascia changes. The structural
collagenous material in our body starts to take precedence over the elastic
elements in order to provide structural support in the face of diminishing
muscle mass. This is evident when we look at the flexibility of a 5 year old in
comparison to a 20 year old, or a 20 year old in comparison to a 60 year old.
Interestingly, this change in tissue composition is actually used by police
medical examiners as a method for aging bodies. The examiner will measure
the percentage of collagenous material vs elastic and be able to accurately
age the body according to the relative percentages.

The impact of this structural change is wide reaching but is most noticeable in
the ‘ease’ at which someone is able to move. When we have a larger elastic
component in our system we are able to leap, run, roll on the ground and
stretch with relative ease. As the collagenous component of the tissue
increases the body becomes stiffer, less dynamic and less able to stretch or
articulate as it once did. It is thought that the reason for this change relates
to long term load bearing. The longer you carry your weight, the less elastic
capacity is needed and the more a structural system is required. Through
training we are able to reverse this process and begin to balance out the
elastic and collagenous components of the fascia.

The visible structure of the fascia surrounding the muscles in younger people
appears to be crimped like elastic springs. This increases the rebound and
elastic recoil capabilities of the fibres and minimizes the chance of damage. In
older people the fibres are flattened out so loads acting on them have very
little play. (staubesands et al 1997)

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 This is why we see older athletes often experiencing sudden catastrophic
failures relating to the connective tissues.

(image credit Robert schleip)

Perhaps the most exciting development in Sports science in the last few years
is the increasing interest in how fascia relates to performance. Fascia is
responsible and used in methods such as jumping (elastic recoil), running,
preparatory counter movement and proprioceptive improvement and has
gained popularity amongst sporting institutions. As a result, training
methodologies are springing up around training this network to increase its
utilitisation in elite athletes.

Related to the material availability discussed earlier, the training of the fascia
is a somewhat time consuming process. However the connective tissues are
surprisingly and impressively adaptable. We only need to place a specific
demand on them and they will respond with change. The fibroblasts
continually but slowly adapt to the demands under which they are placed in a
process known as remodelling.

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An example of this remodelling is often seen in Jockeys. Due to the large
amount of time they spend in the saddle, they tend to utilize the inner legs
more, thus remodelling of the fascia in this area occurs. Within a few months
of training, a jockey will notice a difference in the structure of his legs. The
fascia of the inside legs will become more developed and strong (el-labben et
al., 1993). Fascia reacts to the dominant loading patterns by altering its
length, strength, elasticity and ability to shear. This reaction is directly related
to the pattern and method of loading undertaken.

A useful property of fascia is in its ability to retain its trained characteristics

long after training ceases. Whereas muscles will commonly shrink as soon as
training stops and return to baseline, fascia will retain an entrained function
for longer. This is once again related to the transit of material to and from the
tissues, but also in the bioavailability of the tissues to the body’s
requirements. The body will metabolise muscle and fat tissues long before it
begins to use the connective tissue.

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Fascia and the sensory network.

Aside from being a connective tissue, the fascia is integral to the nervous
system and its function in the body. Fascia wraps and protects nerves
throughout the body and protected in their paths to the CNS and brain.

These networks are obviously responsible for touch but perhaps more
importantly for our Tai Chi practice they are part of the proprioception
system. As previously discussed, that is the sensory network that allows us to
know our body position in space. This sense of space is deeply developed by
the Tai Chi practitioner and after some time new movement patterns are
easily performed.

One of my teachers would say that the more you understand complex
movements through watching, the better your internal state. This is a good
indication as to what correct practice will do for us.

As we move through the internal training or Tai Chi methods, the body
increases the myelin (fatty tissue) around neurons in the brain responsible
for movement complexity. This is how we retain movement skill, however we
also increase the connection throughout the body via the Fascia. Our
movement capacity increases as our sensory network becomes better
insulated, less constricted and more connected to our mental control.
Obviously we need to work on the mental control side of this as well, which
we will discuss later.

How Tai Chi trains Fascia

So what does this structural and interconnected web have to do with Tai Chi?
Well, quite a bit! One of the primary goals of Tai Chi training is the
‘unification’ of the body as we have already established. By this we mean that
the body works as a single unit; if the hand moves the whole body moves, if
the weight shifts the entire body reacts. This is one of the most important

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fundamental principles of Tai Chi and it is an idea that is intimately linked to
the system of myofascia (another name for the Fascia that covers the
muscles and bones.)

In order to target these tissues, Tai Chi includes a number of exercises

centred on extended bodyweight load training. This means that we are either
static or slow moving with the arms raised applying an unusual load or
stretch to full lines of tissue. These exercises place a prolonged load on our
body which is not what our muscles were designed to deal with, so after a
time the body relies more heavily on the fascia for structural support

We often hear Tai Chi adepts tell their students, when the muscles give up
you will be doing the real work. This is an odd saying as we are falsely led to
believe that strong muscles equate to health and fitness. While this is true to
a degree, for us to retrain and reset our fascia we need our muscles to play
second fiddle to this connective web.

As loads are placed through the structures and the muscles relax to allow
transfer to the Fascia, it will respond by thickening and increasing its strength
capabilities over time. This increase in strength is measured with an increase
in elasticity which is where the many body loosening, stretching and twisting
methods of Tai Chi come in to play. The purpose of these methods is to
create a demand on the connective tissues which forces them to adapt to the
elastic requirements.

Winding the tissues – Silk Reeling.

In the internal arts there is a specific type of effect known as ‘spiral force’
which the practitioner is attempting to express when working combatively.
Practitioners seek out this expression as it holds all directions (up, down, left,
right forwards, back) and all degrees in between within its structure. This
ultimately means it is very hard for the opponent to read. As with almost
everything in Tai Chi, this early focus on advanced body methods for combat
81
created a series of specialised exercises to train and develop the body. The
adepts will spend hours a day working on a very specific type of training
known as ‘Silk Reeling’.

The method is characterised by a deep twist in the body tissues as the

practitioner moves in a circular or spiralling pattern. In Chen Style the key
movement method is known simply as ‘silk reeling’. In the later Yang Style it
was hidden within the long form, and called ‘Cloud Hands’ which is the name
used by several other styles that splintered off the Yang family system. The
essential quality of the method however, remains the same- to twist and
stretch the muscular, fascia and nervous network all at the same time.

Through the deep practice of silk reeling we see some interesting effects on
these three tissues. Firstly, it forces a twist and wrapping of the muscle fibres,
much like the strands of a rope, or cable. This is true of the fibres within the
muscles as well as muscles within a linked group which, before they are
twisted they can be separated individually, but as soon as they are twisted
become bound together as they wrap around one another. This means that
the muscles have no choice but to work in unison as they are unable to
remain aligned to the linear action. Studies show that some of the muscle
fibre attachments in very young Russian power lifters are different to the
average person. Under examination it was found that the muscle fibres were
attached at an angle and spiralled rather than having a linear attachment.
There are several advantages to this sort of attachment, not least being that
more muscle fibres are packed into the same space. A spiral will always cover
more total distance between two set points than a straight line, no matter
how mild the spiral is.

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This reeling or twisting motion adapts the fascia into a ‘younger’ formation.
Over time fascia changes its composition and becomes much more ‘messy’ in
its structure than the original lattice we see in young people. By putting a
twist into the fascia a demand is placed onto the tissues that force them to
re-model. The fascia will regress to its younger lattice like appearance due to
the spiral demands placed on it but it will also begin to twist in the primary
direction so that, again, the overall available material is increased.

The complexity of the reeling, spiralling circular movement, a method not

normally experienced by the movement control centres, will create a series
of changes in the movement centric areas of the brain. The idea of moving in
a complex and repeating spiral becomes more of a demand on the nervous
system and brain. The sensory networks that spread throughout the body
provide an ever changing array of positional feedback responses, and the
brain needs to interpret and consistently adjust to these feedbacks. Think of
a large corkscrew rotating; whenever you fix your gaze on a single point of
the corkscrew it is already moving away from you coaxing you to catch it up.
This is similar to the intense concentration when silk reeling is performed.
The result of this mental pressure is, again, adaption. The neurology of the

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individual practicing this method will be altered by the laying down of more
myelin around the neurons responsible for movement complexity. Think of
this material as insulation for electrical cables- the better the insulation the
less information is lost in transit. This increase in our movement capacity is
not just felt in the specific movements we perform in the silk reeling method,
but in many other complex movements undertaken daily.

So we can see that twisting functions alter the

composition of tissue in the body. But how is it
performed correctly? Well firstly we must
understand that silk reeling requires several
features in order to be successful. The first is
without doubt our ‘intent’ or what the Chinese
would call ‘Yi’. Here, intent refers to the actioning
system that links the mental thought of doing
something to actually carrying it out. Think of it as a
bridge between these two human functions.

In silk reeling, the use of intent enlivens and

inovates the training with deep attention and a
guide for the movements. We can place the intent
in front of the physical action or on the physical action but without it the
physcal actions can become empty. More on the intent system later.

The other condition we need during the twisting and winding training is an
‘anchor point’ and a point of rotation. In order to make the twist directional
we need to simultaneously lead the stretch with the intent (sensory network
and mind) while we physically rotate away from the anchor point. Imagine
trying to wring out a towel but rotating both of the ends in the same
direction-you would not get very far! Now imagine locking one end of the
towel in a vice and rotating the other end; this is the concept of the anchor
point and point of rotation. It will ensure that a deep twist force is achieved
and the tissues are placed under a demand.
84
Yang Cheng Fu Performing Yang Style Cloud Hands.

85
 Chapter 4

The major body

Lines and Tai Chi

86
During my research and training in Tai Chi I have met many teachers and
experts who all had their own individual focus or direction when it came to
movement. They had their own specific and often unique ways of utilizing
their structure during form, nei gong or martial action. Even though they
were from different arts, backgrounds, countries and cities, all of these
adepts were separated by tradition, time, age, and location, but they all had
the same thing in common.

One of the very best of these teachers is a happy, smiling French Taoist who
is the inheritor of several complete Tai Chi systems and whose name is Serge
Augier. I have exchanged with this teacher in combative application many
times, and every time I have been thoroughly defeated. His happy
demeanour and smiling face belies his proficient martial method. His level is
extraordinary in the martial arts, spiritual methods and health and wellness
practices, but more impressive than his many skills is his famous ability to
remain free and unencumbered. There is no questioning or decisions. When
you strike him he acts or reacts in accordance with the moment, it is rare to
find someone so free in these arts.

During one of the seminars I attended with Serge, I closely watched his
movement. Not the movement he was teaching, nor the classical form or the
myriad of applications that flowed from him as he dealt with the various
attacks his partners would throw. Instead I became acutely aware of the
movement outside of those considerations. Throughout the day I was
entranced every time he would show the next movement, direction or
application. Patterns were unfolding right in front of my eyes like pieces of a
jigsaw slowly revealing the completed image. But it wasn’t the Ba Gua or the
Xing Yi he was showing, it was something distinct and simpler that I was
becoming aware of.

All his moments, regardless of context or application were utilizing the same
set of core directional capacities. If the opposite arm and leg were forward a
spiral from one to the other would form. If the same arm and leg were
87
forward the shoulder and hip would align. If both hands were raised the back
axis would be involved closing, the front opening. As he stepped the legs
would retain an internal solidity and stability. This realization provoked me to
look into the fundamental movement patterns of us as humans. My research
pointed to the idea that, through the diligent lifelong practices, the tissues
had been developed to a high degree in order to make the utilization of these
directions as natural as walking in the park.

It turns out that major tissue lines are utilized when we perform action in
these primary directions. It doesn’t matter if we are serving in tennis, or
performing a brush knee twist in Tai Chi. We will utilize the body tissues in a
specific way, involving the entire body.

So as we have seen, one of the initial focuses of Tai Chi Chuan training is to
create a body that is connected and structured with healthy tissue. If you
look at virtually all the physical training methodologies you will see the initial
sections of their training devoted to alignment, strength, endurance and
connection. Tai Chi Chuan is no different, but the strength and endurance we
are looking to build has a slightly alternative outlook.

As we have discussed, the development of the tissues is to create the unified

body, but this can now be broken down a little further into major directions
of force and the related tissue development that is required to achieve action
along them. In this section we will look at how muscle chains linked via fascia
form ‘lines’ in the body that are responsible for the major motions our body
can create. The body lines are the major chains of tissue that we use as
humans, often without realizing.

Major body lines and the planes of motion have been identified for centuries
through various terms and phrases, but the easiest way to witness them is
look at how the human body moves in its actions during normal demands.

Thomas Myers book ‘Anatomy Trains’ is a seminal work on these lines of

tissue. In it, he outlines what they lines are, what muscle groups are involved
88
and how they are used. I would recommend this excellent work to anyone
truly interested in a deep exploration of these lines. Here my aim is simply to
bring these major lines to your attention in order to help re-enforce and
quantify some of the movement in the practice.

But first, I would just like to briefly discuss separation as it relates to

bodywork. It is easy for us to break methods like Tai Chi down into its
component parts in order to examine them in more detail. Indeed, this book
is most probably focused towards that specific point. But it is extremely
important that we remember that these individual concepts are never, at any
stage separated from the whole. The body, mind, breath and the various
chains of tissue are all ‘one thing’ and will always be one thing, so we should
practice with the understanding that ‘one thing’ will affect. Here is where the
good coach or teacher becomes invaluable. Their expertise and
understanding will allow you to develop competency in one aspect of Tai Chi
while the others are improved too.

I mention this here because we are about to ‘slice up’ the body into a number
of specific muscle groups and lines and it would be easy for the reader to
think that these are all that matter. However they are part of an all
encompassing network of connections permeating the body. Much like a
football for instance, made of numerous bits of leather, but none are
independent or separate from the other when the ball is used. The gaps
between these lines are a wide ranging network of minor body lines, webs
and networks that are just as vital to the healthy human as the major ones
described here.

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AXIS
Central Channel

“Take care of your centre!” I must have heard this comment a thousand
times from my teacher when we trained the pushing hands of Tai Chi. I was
flung to and fro with ease time and time again in the early days of training,
despite gaining (my) black belts in JuJutsu! The stability of the centre that he
often referred to related to the control of the ‘Axis’ or central channel of the
body.

The stability during action, movement or standing is first and foremost

related to this central channel of the body and how we control it or move it
through space. If you watch a Tai Chi Adept you will notice that his body is
often upright, the back straight and the head is held as if suspended by a

90
thread. This position of structural stability directly relates to the first of the
major body lines: the axis.

The axis is the central channel of the body and in Tai Chi it can be thought of
as two distinct ideas, both as important as the next. Firstly it can be likened
to a rod straight through the body from the Crown Point to the perineum.
This ‘centre line’ interpretation of the axis is probably the most common. We
see some styles of Tai Chi, such as the Yang style developed by Chen Man
Ching, which focus heavily on this central line of the body in their movements
and forms. This concept is useful when applying horizontal rotation,
insertion point yin/yang pairing and other martial ideas. Many other arts
have the same concept of the centre line associated with the axis, most
noticeably Wing Chun.

The main health and wellness benefit of this theory is in its ability to correct
and recognize poor posture. It is very hard to obtain a good centre line if your
chest is collapsed or your hip flexors are tight causing the butt to stick out. By
working on the axis during Tai Chi you become more aware of when your
posture starts to slip back into its own old ways. Even when sitting at a desk
or at a table you will start to feel when your axis is broken down or incorrect.
This is a useful skill as it has an effect on our breathing, internal body cavity
pressures and their associated effect on the internal organs. As a result
chronic neck and back pain can occur due to poor posture.

More relevant to the pulling or stretching techniques of Tai Chi Jibengong

(basic training), the Axis is the deep front line, superficial front line and the
back lines of the body. These chains of tissue in the body are made up of
muscles and fascia that link the top and base of the head to the lower torso
and pelvis. The axis is often mistakenly thought to be the spine but this
doesn't take into consideration the tissues concerned. We will see how the
spine itself is important to the practice later chapters.

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The axis tissue is responsible for causing bowing in the sagittal and coronal
planes, as well as creating waves and spirals during the Tai Chi forms. It is one
of the first lines to work with in order to correctly align the torso for further
postural development and to develop the springy’ bow like’ body like that of
the expert Tai Chi practitioner.

New practitioners often notice that some areas of tissue along their axis may
be bound or tight, either in the lower abdomen and associated tissues of the
hips, or in the lower back or neck. This is perfectly natural and something to
be expected bearing in mind the sedentary patterns of today. Focussing on
the axis tissues with a recognition and application of movement may improve
our capacity to find and address these sticking spots in the body. Over time
correct Tai Chi methods start to loosen these bindings, open up the tissue
and allow the body to release.

Gravity stacking of the spine vs elasticated stacking.

Although not the axis itself, the spine is very important to the correct
alignment of the central channel of the body and its usage. In Tai Chi
‘potential’ is a large subject and one not often discussed by many adepts who
prefer the subject of relaxation. But what good is it developing all of this
connective tissue and changing the quality of our muscles if we are not going
to take advantage of that increased capacity.

A great metaphor is to imagine stacking the spine like a pile of bricks on top
of each other or suspend the spine like a string of pearls on a line. Everything
either side or around the spine should remain soft and relaxed. This is
commonly popularized by some Tai Chi lines where the main focus is keeping
a vertical spine. Much of the training is focused on noticing any deviation
from this verticality.

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This concept contradicts the leaning posture seen in some of the older Yang
or Wu styles. These styles actually incline in the direction of expression, much
like a sprinter in the starting blocks, in order to create optimal alignment and
potential for directional force production.

Wu Chien-chuan demonstrating brush knee push

But there are some pitfalls inherent in the ‘vertical’ spine concept. For
example, what happens if you push the centre of a free standing stack of
bricks? They will topple over! To secure this neutral yet precarious stability,
the development of the tissues in the axis is needed.

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Through the training of the tissues on the front and back of the body, we can
align the vertebrae in a similar way but aim to take the slack out of the front
and back lines. This makes the unit springy, as if it is supported by thick
elastic bands. In doing so, if hard pressure is applied, this elastic material
stretches as if drawing a bow, creating real potential energy in the system
that can be utilized in direct response or directed elsewhere via the Dan Tien.

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CROTCH ARCH

(Dang Jin) - The bodies inner support structure

Just like the Jockeys as we discussed earlier, the laying down of thicker and
stronger tissue on the inside of the legs is a core component of Tai Chi
training. The postures that develop these tissues are often called a ‘horse’ or
‘horse riding’ stance. When done a certain way the practitioner will
effectively ‘sit’ on the inside lines of the legs like the arch of a bridge. This is
the ‘crotch arch’ and is normally the second line of focus in training.

The crotch arch constitutes the inner tissue lines of the legs and is
responsible for the support, movement, lightness and springing qualities we
witness in the Tai Chi forms. It runs from the centre of the plantar fascia (the

95
arch of the foot) to the perineum and feeds into the hips and pelvis. As
previously mentioned, this is the main support for the trunk of the body and
much like an arched bridge distributes the load most effectively towards the
ground.

The crotch arch is often used to create an upwards direction leading into the
axis and Dan Tien. This ‘upward’ direction relates to two of the primary
‘powers’ found in Tai Chi. ‘Peng’ (expand upwards), and ‘Ji’ (press or squeeze
forwards). Conversely, the sinking of the arch is related to the ‘Lu’ and ‘An’
powers that is to lead or roll back and to push downward. When thinking
about the new tissue that forms in the legs we can understand its potential
for agility and movement. For instance, there is a method of utilizing fascia
known as ‘elastic recoil effect’ or the ‘catapult mechanism’. This is the same
process which allows kangaroos to leap large distances. They essentially
bounce off their connective tissue structures in order to catapult themselves
forward (kram and dawson,1998).

Through the training of the crotch arch we are able to condition the leg
tissues so that they can be tensioned like rubber bands, storing the potential
for movement. This not only improves our walking and lower limb movement
capacity, it also increases the efficiency of the movements, thus saving
energy expenditure throughout the day. We will cover this benefit of Tai Chi
in greater detail later.

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SIDE LINES

The pillars of the body.

Almost all Tai Chi forms start in a similar manner; the arms start by the
practitioner’s sides, the posture is neutral, then the arms are raised. As the
arms rise the side lines are revealed and engaged and the support pillars of
the body are utilized like a suspension bridge. We can think of them as bands
of tissue located from the arm pit to the outer ridge of the foot. They are
extremely important in their role for overall body stability and the control of
the pelvic movement out to the sides.

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These lines are developed in a similar way to the crotch arch; in fact they
create a stable opposite side that often works in harmonious opposition to
produce a downward or upward capacity in the exponent.

Moreover, the side lines are probably second only to the axis when it comes
alignment recognition. Awareness of these side lines will allow us to maintain
our shoulder-hip alignment and ensure the proper and most beneficial
positions. If, for instance we are checking our posture in the mirror and the
side of the hip is poking out slightly, we can draw it back in line making the
side line straight and creating the optimal alignment once again.

The side lines are often closely linked to the ‘sinking’ or ‘rooting’ ideas of Tai
Chi. This is especially true in standing post practices where the method often
involves ‘pulling up’ the crotch arch and ‘sinking’ the side lines. When
combined with the spiral lines which also feed into the legs, centre and
pelvis, we have fully formed support structures for the sides of the body and
the legs.

The development of these lines will create consistent alignments between

the shoulder, hip, hand, foot etc so they are extremely important as markers
of alignment. Later during spiralling practices we will create torque and
power from the paired twisting of the lines. In a sister art to Tai Chi, Ba Gua
for instance, as you turn, the side lines pull and twist creating a strong
potential energy for their return, like twisting and pulling on large elastic
bands. This twist force is also seen in Tai Chi methods like Brush Knee Twist
or Repulse Monkey and the side lines are vital to the potential in these
postures and movements. We can think of them as load and release
structures that will store the potential to recoil or return to equilibrium.

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UPPER BODY (arm) BRIDGES
Connection of the arms to the body

Tai Chi is perhaps most famous amongst non martial artists as simply ‘waving
the arms’ around slowly. But as any Tai Chi practitioner knows there is much
more to this art and the demands placed on those waving arms than meets
the eye!

The connections related to the arms run from the finger tips into the torso
and all connections run through the shoulders. The shoulders are one of the
primary focuses when training the upper body or arm bridges because they

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are usually the source of the most tension, misalignment and disconnection
in the body.

For instance, the scapular (shoulder blade) should sit in a flat position on the
back, closed in towards the spine, yet we see a huge number of people with
flared out scapular because of bad postural habits and entrained dysfunction.
Then we have the tissues of the upper back, like the trapezius muscle, that
are intimately connected with mental tension resulting in real discomfort for
those suffering with depression.

Actually, a large proportion of the training in Tai Chi is focused on these

upper body bridges, both strengthening the shoulders while redressing
imbalances or misalignments. The weight of the arm itself is utilized in order
to identify and resolve many of these, often un-noticed, issues in our
shoulders and upper back. As we move through the form and the shoulders
articulate with the various movements it is easy to see how the motions
slowly and deliberately apply a gentle load to the shoulder muscles and their
associated fascia.

So the arm bridges are the links between the hands through to the back and
front of the body that control how we move the arms in relation to the body
position. Obviously our arms are physically connected to our body, but here
we are talking about the chains of tissue leading from inside the torso all the
way to the hands and ultimately to the finger tips. Through targeted training
we can increase this connection resulting in unified motion to and from the
centre.

The front and back of the body are obviously quite different in terms of
muscle, fascia and bone format, so Tai Chi has specific movements for both
sides and how to link both sides simultaneously. We see opening and closing
in the chest area with simultaneous opening and closing in upper back, we
see bending and extending of the arm at the elbow, we see articulation in the

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wrist and movement of the fingers. All of these movements seen in the Tai
Chi forms are directly related to the entrainment of the arm bridges.

Bridge 1 - through the back.

The ‘through the back’ connection links the arms to the torso and runs from
the little finger and back of the hand, through the elbow, tricep, scapula and
latissimus dorsi eventually connecting into the top of the lumbar fascia and
the Ming Men in the centre of the lumbar region . There are two primary
focus points for the through the back connection. First is the bridge between
the scapular and the second is the link downward to into the top of the lats.

The primary muscle groups that constitute through the back connection are
the deeper back muscles relating to the scapular area of the back:
Infraspinatus, Rhomboideus Major, Teres Minor / Major, Deltoids, Lower
trapezius. etc

Bridge 2 - the front arm bridge

The upper front arm bridge constitutes the tissue linking the arm to the front
of the body. It is the tissue running from the thumb and centre of the palm,
along the inside of the forearm, through the elbow and bicep, into the
pectoralis muscles and the sternum fascia which links directly into the dan
tien via the front line of the axis. This bridge looks a bit like a trident and is
largely concerned with the pectoralis muscles. These two muscles, the major
and minor, are vital for the front connection and (particularly in males) can
be require a lot of softening training to truely utilize..

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CROSS BODY
The bodies spiral nature.

Like our DNA forming a spiralling helix, one of the major body lines used in
Tai Chi and internal training is also a spiral. We can think of this line as a strap
that runs around the body both keeping it stable and also connecting both
halves.

This is perhaps the strongest link through the body as it feeds directly though
the tissue nexus of the Lower dan tien Point or QiHai and the back lumbar
point or the Ming Men.

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 Also called the spiral line, the cross body connection wraps around the body
like a corset holding the sides of the body in place and controls twisting
actions. This line is important for its direct connection to the centre but it is
also interesting to note that the cross body line is, by its very nature as a
spiral, multidirectional.

The link to winding or twisting practice will come later and it is one of the
most utilized lines in the transfer of force from one side of the body to the
other via the Kwa. This line naturally engages when spiralling and crossing
methods are used, making it somewhat complex to train.

We can see the utilization of the cross body lines in many different martial
methods, from Irimi Nage to Gyakuzuki. But here we are looking to utilize
these lines specifically as part of a larger network of connection and all-
round support.

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 Chapter 5

– Moving for health -

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As was the way in the early trainings with my teacher, I had travelled across
the country to practice with him for a day, training in the park with his
regular students and friends. I was studying the art of Cheng Ba Gua at the
time, one of the youngest of the internal arts characterised by walking in
circles and the deep twist forces it generated during practice. This busy park
in the middle of London was often full of people sunbathing, reading, playing
and enjoying themselves during the summer months; a stark contrast to the
winter, when we would often have the area to ourselves.

On this particular day I was suffering from a ‘head cold’- an almost

indefinable feeling of stuffiness in my sinuses and a nagging dull headache
that would not clear. Getting up that morning had been a struggle as I had
lived with this for several days now and it was showing no sign of abating.
Still, I had arranged to see my teacher and had travelled several hours to be
with him for the weekend so I knew I had to make the most of this situation
and put the feeling of illness to the back of my throbbing mind.

Training that day took a familiar format. We all stood in a large circle and
performed some warm up loosening exercises; a few specific Nei Gong with
Teacher walking around the circle making corrections, touching people’s
backs and re-aligning their postures. Then we went off to train on our specific
focus, some people head off to run through the Old Yang Tai Chi Form, a few
guys cut straight lines along the grass as they performed their Xing Yi sets as
myself and a friend walked the circle in a corner to ourselves.

I remember the pain in my head like it was yesterday. All I wanted to do was
be in bed with a cup of green tea and thick duvet wrapped around me, but
here I was, walking in circles on a hot day in a park in the middle of London.

Teacher walked over and began to circle with us, his steps swift and fast,
catching us up with ease and urging us to ‘catch the twist’ and let our legs
follow on as we were endlessly drawn into the centre of the circle. The circle
walking of ba gua is a unique experience, quite unlike normal walking or

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stepping found in other martial arts , you would almost ‘fall’ your way around
the circle, like a moon caught in the gravity of its host planet. Round and
around we would go, only slowing to perform the various palm changes of
the style which involved deep twisting and turning movements as the steps
would change to the other direction. Dizziness was a common experience in
the early days of Ba Gua practice, but by this point I had gained good control
of my peripheral vision and wasn’t affected by the endless circling.

Eventually everyone was asked to finish up their training in their own time.
Our circling slowed to a walk then to a halt where we stood still, sealing in
the practice. As was often the experience with extended ba gua practice, the
static posture at the end was anything but static to the practitioner. Twists
and spirals would spin inside the body and you would feel as though you
were still on that circle moving even though to everyone else you were still as
an old post driven into the earth.

We finished up the training and headed to the little Cafe at the edge of the
park. As we walked I chatted to teacher about various points of the style and
form. This was a time I truly enjoyed, receiving answers to my little details.
Questions like ‘When I in pushing palm, should my little finger be here or
here?’ the answer would often be deep and extended leaving no question of
why a position may be relevant. When we arrived at the Cafe I bought a
bottle of water to replenish my fluids and sat down with the rest of the
group. Teacher came over and sat close by, smiled and asked if I was feeling
better. I hadn’t even thought about how ill I was just a few hours before and
now I was feeling fine. It was a shock! That morning I had felt like death
warmed up, now I was full of energy with no sign of the throbbing headache
that had plagued me for the last few days.

This experience was an eye opener. It really demonstrated how focused

movement training can have a direct impact on the health of the individual.
In this section we will delve into how movement directly affects our body and
creates the conditions for health.
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 Defining our movement.

The human animal is built to move. We have very broad movement capacity
in comparison to most other species that tend to be far more specialised.
This capability to move in complex ways has a direct relationship with our
health. Movement and the ability to move freely is one of the key identifiers
of the health of our organism. For instance, if we think about our pet dog or
cat, how do we normally know they are unwell? Often they will be lethargic
and moving less than usual. This is because our energetic systems are closely
linked with our ability to move. As the body requires more energy for the
healing process our movement capacity drops and we become sluggish
and/or clumsy.

But before we get into the specific benefits of movement practices like Tai
Chi, it is worth defining our movement by understanding how we are
designed to move.

Understanding the Planes of motion

To understand how the body moves, one of the first tools we can use is the
dissection of the body along 3 planes common planes known as the Sagittal,
the Coronal and Transverse. These three planes are hypothetical ideas used
to segment the body along specific
directions. They are very useful to
describe the location of body structures in
a movement or articulation, or to describe
the position of a limb in relative space for
instance.

The Sagittal Plane

The Sagittal Plane is the hypothetical line
that splits the body into left and right
halves. Also sometimes called the Lateral

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plane this plane runs in an X –Z direction. The Sagittal plane can sometimes
be broken down a little further into the Mid-sagittal, which would run
through the spine, chin and navel and the Para-sagittal which run through the
shoulder and hip for instance.

The Transverse Plane

This plane runs parallel to the ground and
separates the head from the feet. Sometimes
this plane is known as the Axial or Horizontal
plane. Again, this plane can run through other
structures separating the upper and lower
and is often used to identify if the
practitioner’s hips are level.

The Coronal Plane

This plane runs perpendicular to the ground
and separates the front and the back of a
person, separating the face from the back of
the head for instance.

Applying the planes of motion

So when talking about direction of motion we

can say that we will express it in one of, or
more commonly a mixture, of these core 3
planes. When we run forwards we are
expressing movement along the Sagittal plane while our body is twisting
along the transverse plane for example.

Understanding the direction of motion and movement of one body part in

relation to another is obviously at the very heart of Tai Chi form training.
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During a method like brush knee push for instance, if a student is finding the
movement hard we can talk in terms of direction first, then in terms of how a
limb moves within a quadrant, then how that limb moves in relation to the
other limbs, then tell them to ‘just do it’ and forget all of the steps they took
to get there!

The General Motions.

General motion takes form in several ways but primarily defines the way in
which our bodies can articulate. These general terms often fall short of
explaining some of the more complex motions of internal arts like whipping
or wave motions, however they are worth mentioning. This is because an
understanding the standardised terms for future discussion is valuable,
especially in the internal arts where Chinese or Japanese terms can have
several interpretations. .

Abduction and Adduction.

As with most of the general motions, the

process of abduction and adduction is a pair
of actions (Note: in Tai Chi we would refer to
them as a yang action and a yin action).
Abduction refers to pulling a body part or
structure away from the midline of the body
or another pre-defined point. For instance we
can say that moving the knees apart is
abduction, as is spreading the fingers on the
hand or lifting the arm away from the torso.
Adduction refers to drawing something
towards the centre of the body or another
pre-defined point such as bringing the knees
together or closing the fingers.

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OpenStax College, Anatomy & Physiology. OpenStax CNX. May 27, 2015
http://cnx.org/contents/14fb4ad7-39a1-4eee-ab6e-3ef2482e3e22@7.28.

Flexion & Extension

Flexion and extension relate to angular

changes in the body. A good example is
the action of the elbow opening out or
closing. Flexion is the bending motion
that decreases the angle between two
body lengths. This could be the closing
of the angle in any joint, but also the
movement of the body in relation to
the legs for instance.

Extension is the reverse of this and

relates to any direction where the
angle between lengths is extended.
This would include the opening of the
elbow angle between the bones of the
arm or the bending back of the torso.

OpenStax College, Anatomy & Physiology. OpenStax CNX. May 27, 2015
http://cnx.org/contents/14fb4ad7-39a1-4eee-ab6e-3ef2482e3e22@7.28.

An interesting characteristic of flexion and extension can be found in the

internal arts. Often referred to as ‘bowing’ it is usually the action of flexion
and extension and the acute awareness of angle changes in the joints. This
can create strange and powerful attributes in practitioners. When we
combine this flexion and extension with winding or twisting, the unusual
power of the internal arts is created and anyone interacting with this
movement will understand its strange utility. In the internal arts we often
term flexion and extension as ‘open and close’ which is a good way to
describe the interplay of postures and directions we use.

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 Rotation

Rotation of the body is split into two

categories; internal and external rotation.
This movement combined with flexion and
extension is perhaps one of the true keys of
the internal arts like Tai Chi, and is at the very
heart of methods like Chen Tai Chi’s silk
reeling or Yang style cloud hands. Internal
rotation is the action of rotation towards the
axis of the body while external rotation is the
action of direction away from the body.

OpenStax College, Anatomy & Physiology. OpenStax CNX. May 27, 2015
http://cnx.org/contents/14fb4ad7-39a1-4eee-ab6e-3ef2482e3e22@7.28.

Again these actions are often ‘paired’ where, for instance, one femoral head
will be internally rotating while the other is simultaneously externally
rotating or where the hand is externally rotating while the shoulder is
internally rotating. This balance between external and internal rotation is
used to create a multi-sided support and a balanced movement skill.

The combination of general motion and planes of motion.

Tai Chi is a clever system when it comes to movement complexity. The

movements may be apparently small or simple but they can have bottomless
depth. As we become better artists the movement complexity increases and
refines, delving deeper and deeper into the various ideas of flexion or
rotation. I like to think of the skilled Tai Chi adept like an iceberg; the skill
that is observed at the surface belies the depth underneath. This is perhaps

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one of the more interesting attributes of the internal arts, the deep attention
to the microscopic movements behind the overt physical actions.

Tai Chi’s movement skills are divided into 13 concepts often called the 13
postures. These are divided into 2 distinct groups; powers and directions. The
‘powers’ or utilized qualities; up and out (peng), down and in (lu), Up and
triangulating (ji) down and forward (an), action of leaning and folding
(shoulder and elbow), Splitting away from each other (leih) and grasping
down (Tsai). The remaining 5 concepts are directions of motion; advancing,
retreating, moving left or right and entrained equilibrium.

Tai Chi’s basic idea of five directions, cover some of the core stepping
concepts found in the style but also describe movement along the various
planes. As we move through a Tai Chi form we see that the directions of
steps, motions and focus occur along a combination of these 5 directions.

It is used most simply as a model to recognise your initial movement as well

as the directions of travel in the long forms etc. But there is much more
depth to the concept behind these directions than initially meets the eye.
The 5 directions also represent the concept of one aspect winning over
another to create movement. The movement springs from the central idea of
the 5 directions, equilibrium. But what is meant by equilibrium in the five
‘directions’ model?

Here, equilibrium could be thought of as the intersection of the various

planes, or the point where they all cross through each other. Most crudely, it
represents the potential to move in any direction at any time by following
lines of intent. This direction will usually be formed from the intersecting
directions along the prescribed path. There is a saying in Tai Chi that
‘movement comes from stillness’, however I like to change it slightly;
‘movement comes from the potential inside the stillness.’

After the 5 directions, in most Tai Chi systems there are the ‘eight energies’
or ‘powers’. These eight body methods use a specific combination of general
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movement attributes and planes to create a certain quality to the body or
movement.

Each one of these powers feels unique and is designed to address a specific
problem found in both combat or health. It is said that in combination, as
found in the Tai Chi forms, they represent a flow between the Yang or
forward, upward and expansive directions and the Yin retreating, falling or
contracting directions.

Peng, for instance, is the primary Yang energy of Tai Chi and can be thought
of as an expansive upward direction. The movement is out in all directions
along the various planes, with a combination of rotation, flexion and
extension in every joint with a tendency towards abduction or opening away
from the centre of mass.

Lu, by contrast is the primary Yin energy, and could be described as Peng’s
opposite. It has a greater focus on rotation and adduction, drawing
everything towards the centre.

These two simple ideas of the eight, in addition to the five directions,
highlight how ingenious the creators and researchers of movement were
when they formulated Tai Chi. They have catered for every general
movement pattern and direction by combining these ideas into refined and
complex patterns, helping us to express our natural movement complexity
with every inch of the motion found in the Tai Chi forms and training.

How motion builds habitual memory

We can’t really talk about movement skill without talking about how
movement complexity and capacity is handled by the brain. It is our brains
that give rise to our ability to move in complex ways.

One reason for our large brains is due to the development of our ‘generalist’
movement skill. We are not the strongest animals, best climbers, swimmers,

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acrobats or runners, but a cheetah can’t swim and a dolphin can’t climb a
tree- we can! Our ability to move and utilize a wide variety of movements is
what make us unique in the animal kingdom unique. Much of the general and
wide ranging capability of movement is down to our brain power and how we
learn, store and reinforce information.

There are a few different ways in which we learn skill- some are short lived
and some remain with us for life. For example, when you learn how to ride a
bike or swim your body and mind will usually remember this for life. Even
after 10 years, never touching a bike or a pool, you will still be able to ride or
go for a swim. With many other physical endeavours this is not the and this
difference is due to our neurology.

Neuroscientists at the University of Aberdeen have identified a key nerve cell

that controls the formation of motor skills, such as cycling or eating with
utensils.

They discovered that one particular type of nerve cell –the so called molecular
layer interneuron - acts as a "gatekeeper", controlling the electrical signals
that leave the cerebellum. Molecular layer interneurons transform the
electrical signals into a language that can be laid down as a memory in other
parts of the brain.

Dr Peer Wulff, who led the research in Aberdeen together with Prof. Bill
Wisden at the University's Institute of Medical Sciences, said: "What we were
interested in was finding out how memories are encoded in the brain. We
found that there is a cell which structures the signal output from the
cerebellum into a particular code that is engraved as memory for a newly
learned motor skill. "

It could pave the way for advancements in prosthetic devices to mimic normal
brain functions, which could benefit those who have suffered brain disorders,
such as a stroke or multiple sclerosis.

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 Experp from Aberdeen University News Jul 2009

It is my belief that the correct practice of Tai Chi will build these sort of
habitual skills in the individual. My reasoning is that even after ten years I can
still immediately recall the movements of forms from my early training. It is,
of course, a very real possibility that I represent an outlier. However, this
attribute is also present in some of my students who trained specific Ba Gua
forms with other teachers up to 30 years ago, but can still recall them
without any issues. This memory for movement also equates to other
aspects of life in that it will engrain a movement and proprioceptive
understanding that can help with coordination. Indeed, it is quite common
for people who initially have a hard time learning complex motion to become
better at the process of picking them up, even though the specific motions
can vary dramatically.

The sliding surfaces of the Fascia and entrained dysfunction

Movement and its impact on the various systems in our bodies can address
common problems the modern human may experience. To explore how, let’s
start at the beginning of the day. When a cat or dog wakes up from any
extended period of sleep it will stretch every part of its body in one long
extended motion. This is a sight cat and dog owners know very well. Every
part of the body is involved, there is no stretching one leg, then the other,
then the hamstrings, then the neck. One long open stretch and then they are
ready to go. This is an example of a process I call ‘melting the fascia fuzz’
Using every tissue in the body during the motion is a nice demonstration of
opening up and stretching. But why is it natural for mammals especially to
perform this motion after waking?

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As discussed in an earlier chapter, one of the roles fascia plays in our body is
to allow tissues to slide over each other. However, when we are sedentary
for a long period of time, such as during sleep or sitting at a desk a ‘fuzz’
builds up in these sliding layers which makes them begin to stick. This is the
reason we often feel a little stiff in the mornings and need to make a stretch,
it is also the reason that animals perform their stretches when waking; the
‘fuzz’ needs to be broken down, so that the internal structures of the body
are able to move freely.

If we don’t address the build up of this fuzz and adopt a specific posture for
long periods of time this fuzz can actually thicken and bind certain sliding
surfaces together creating permanent stiffness in muscle groups and joints.
This entraining of dysfunction means that we need to do a lot of work to
reverse this stiffness and unbind the tissues.

Naturally, when we have a joint, muscular or connective tissue injury we will

often hold it still in order to avoid further pain. This creates a build up of
fuzziness between the tissues over time because we avoid stretching or
mobilizing the injury in order to help us to heal. But this actually hinders the
recovery process in some instances as the fuzz continues to build. Eventually
the fuzz thickens and becomes a much denser tissue. This thicker tissue
becomes a problem to shift and we need to work diligently to correct the
situation.
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Here is where the notion of full body movement in Tai Chi plays an important
part, especially in the mornings when the body is often stiff (which is a
common time to see people in the parks of China training these body
methods).

If we were to simply stretch a tight area of the body in isolation we would, in

reality, only hit the portion of the tightness we are able to perceive. The
reality of bound tissue in our body is that normally we are not very well
attuned to the exact location of the bindings or sticking points; people will
often talk of a tight ‘area’ or region of the body rather than an exact location.
To cater for this lack of specificity, Tai Chi and Chi Gung will move and stretch
entire chains of tissue rather than singular points. This movement along an
entire chain means that areas which are bound to other muscle or connective
tissue groups will be released.

This releasing of bound tissue can produce some very pleasant sensations in
the Tai Chi practitioner. The sudden warming of an area of the body, tingling,
relaxation or relief from long standing pains are all characteristics that we
feel as release or opening occurs.

Underpinning the health benefits of movement - the Lymphatic system

Perhaps the greatest benefit of regular movement comes via the lymphatic
system. This is a circulatory system, similar in structure to the cardiovascular
system of veins and arteries. However, rather than carrying blood, the
lymphatic system carries a fluid called ‘lymph’. Lymph is very similar to the
plasma in our blood and can be thought of as the transport network for the
immune cells of the body. It primarily carries lymphocytes and other white
blood cells which are responsible for resolving or fighting disease and illness.

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The lymphatic system is comprised of a series of lymphatic organs, lymphatic
vessels and nodes that spread throughout the body. It is very closely linked to
our bone marrow, which is responsible for the production of some of the
most important cells in our body: the T cells. These cells are vital for human
immunity, they are our protection network against illness and disease. In
addition the Thymus and Spleen are also closely linked to the lymphatic
system and are responsible for producing antibodies.

There is a key difference between the lymphatic system and the circulatory
system in that the lymphatic system doesn’t have a strong ‘pump’ to push
lymph around the body. Some animals actually do have this pump, but in
humans it is believed to be inactive and a remnant organ in humans. The
transit of the lymph is in fact achieved by the action of the body’s motions
and movement. As we move the lymph is squeezed and pushed around the
body due to a series of valves and nodes in key compression areas. We also
have some lymphatic muscles squeezing the system at various points.

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This natural transit of lymph around the body through movement is
something that evolutionarily we would have achieved with our natural
hunter gatherer lifestyle. We would have healthier immune systems due to
the natural transit of lymph around the body because of a constant and
consistent level of movement from day to day. However, the modern
environment has conspired to break down the effectiveness of the natural
pumping action of the body due to our sedentary lifestyle. As we sit for long
periods of time we often suffer from weak immune systems as a result.

So, any method which helps us to move around is advantageous to our

immune system and our capacity to remain healthy. If someone seems
forever ill, look at the level of movement variety in their day and often you
will see that they are not moving much at all. They may only be performing a
standard number of movements consistently rather than the wide array of
movements we are designed to do. The inventors of Tai Chi and Internal Arts
recognised this problem and were very clever in finding a solution.

The Tai Chi forms are centred on the idea of moving using a number of pre-
defined directions and attributes (eight energies). The combination of these
motions and the way they are ordered is designed to maximise lymph
movement within the body, both by increasing movement complexity but
also by applying compression and release as you move through the yin and
yang movements of the forms.

The Tai Chi adepts will move in such a way that openings follow closings,
raisings follow fallings or that pushes follow pulls. This idea of flow between
paired actions could be thought of as the very essence of Tai Chi and its close
association with the concept of Yin & Yang. This opening and closing, or
paired opposite actions, actually applies compression to the lymph nodes and
squeezes lymph around the system increasing our immune capabilities a very
clever system indeed!

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The many stories of those taking up Tai Chi in their older years in order to
mitigate certain diseases or health issues, only to see them completely cured
or reversed, could arguably be owed to this one aspect of proper and correct
Tai Chi training.

Sedentary lifestyle and ‘kinking your tubes’.

There is another very interesting facet to this opening and closing,

compression and release action found in the Tai Chi form, this time related to
the vascular system, the intestinal track and the nervous tissues.

Think if you will, of a hose pipe with a kink in it. Not enough to completely
halt the flow of water but a kink small enough to slow the flow. Now imagine
the same kinks caused in our bodies from sitting still for long periods of time
and how a static position could affect the millions of tubes in the circulatory,
lymphatic, intestinal and nervous systems. Our tissues are extremely flexible
and able to cope with a lot of wear and tear, stretching and pulling, but if we
sit for long enough, often enough, issues such as poor circulation to the
limbs, shooting pains and digestion issues can appear.

Obviously action in these tubes will not be completely halted by the static
positions; our body is far better built than that. But it is not hard to imagine
how constantly sitting on your butt with your thighs at right angles to the
chair could affect the material in your hips.

This is another instance where modernity can have a long term affect on the
body’s ability to move, heal and function naturally. A whole host of illnesses
have been attributed to the sedentary lifestyle many of us now lead, from
cardiovascular problems to depression, and new research is beginning to
show that a lack of movement and its knock-on effect on our body’s natural
pathways could be somewhat to blame.

Problems such as peripheral vascular disease, although primarily the result of

fatty build up inside the blood vessels, is also thought to have some basis in
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the kinking of the blood vessels and their natural thickening or reinforcement
due to this kink. In this disease some people experience very isolated
problems that affect a small proportion of the body or limb. This isolated
problem can almost always be resolved through movement as the patient
moves around regularly or begins a more regimented program of movement.

Again, the creators of Tai Chi were very clever in their design of their systems.
Up and down, left and right, forward and backward movements and the
opening and closing of the body’s tissues work directly to resolve and
straighten out the body’s kinks and misalignments. We will bow and unbow
the body, open and close the armpits and hips and change the height, tempo
and direction of our motion. All of these actions work on the tissues that may
have been entrained to remain slightly kinked from years of sitting. Comfort
is truly costly!

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 Chapter 6
- Spine health -

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When returning from my regular Ju Jutsu class in the evenings I was worn out
and feeling slightly weak, and this was the order of the day for much of my
early 20’s. I was training every night of the week, often several times a day.
My manic obsession with the martial arts had up to this point only paid off.
My skill level was increasing at a startling rate and I was beginning to
understanding my teacher’s methods more quickly than most of my peers.
But sinking into bed one evening I noticed a small nagging soreness at the
bottom of my neck. Nothing to write home about and certainly not dissimilar
to the many aches and pains a devoted martial artist lives with on a daily
basis. But it was something that caught my attention before I drifted off to
sleep, exhausted from the day’s training.

My 6am alarm buzzed to welcome me back to the waking world with a start
and immediately I noticed that something was wrong. I attempted to roll
onto my side as I normally would, but the action was met by a shocking pain
that ran from the base of my skull just behind my ear down to my mid back.
Married to this acute pain was a stiffness paralysing this side of my body, as if
someone had strapped a splint to my spine during the night. It was very
unexpected and quite worrying!

I managed to swing my legs out of the bed and onto the floor, reaching up to
clutch my neck and attempted to massage away the pain and tension. It was
no good, I was locked up. I could turn my head almost fully to my right but
not at all to my left. What had I done to myself? I couldn’t have slipped a disc,
or vertebrae- the effect of these injuries would have been far more instant,
but this pain and immobility was extremely debilitating!

Wandering gingerly down the stairs to my conservatory, the area where I

would train my Tai Chi every morning, I found my mind racing, searching for
ideas to relieve some of the tension and pain I was feeling. I walked into the
kitchen, flicked on the kettle and gripped my neck again, my face contorted
with pain.

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“What have I done this time?” I found myself saying aloud. The kettle boiled
and as I was pouring the water my coffee mugs a flash of inspiration came to
my mind. Years before, training in the park with my teacher, we would
perform a spinal health practice that involved releasing each vertebrae
sequentially and letting the weight of the head hang at the end of the spine.
“Well it couldn’t do any more damage.” I thought to myself, so hobbling into
the bright light of the morning sun streaming through the conservatory
windows I began to perform this ancient technique.

Raising the hands out to the sides as best I could, I took a deep breath,
opened up my body, and began to allow my spine to fold forward one
vertebra at a time. My head felt as if it was attached to a wooden pole rather
than my usually flexible spine, and initially refused to fall forward but
matching the release with my breath I managed to achieve the ‘folded in half’
posture that this method uses. Everything in my back was tightening up,
trying to protect the cause of the problem. But I persisted.

During my early training days, in the tennis court with my Kung Fu brother
Paul, I would witness him hold this position for up to 15 minutes! At the time
even though every fibre of my being wanted to stand back up and go back to
bed. I knew this was the only method that could potentially sort out the
problem; if it didn’t work I would be heading straight for the doctors.

Minutes passed, and my back remained in the same state. I took a deep
breath, a sign of my growing acceptance that my immediate future held a
visit to the doctor’s waiting room. But as I breathed out and completely
relaxed, a ‘clunk’ and the pain and stiffness retreated back to a single point
then disappeared. “YES!” I exclaimed aloud! It felt fantastic to be soft and
relaxed again and I shook my head from side to side, wobbling my torso to
experience every part of the release. This problem was caused by a slight
misalignment in my back which, over the course of the night had caused a
muscle to spasm, protecting the misalignment.

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Without a doubt the spine is at the centre of our movement capacity. A
healthy spine means a healthy ability to move in most cases, and the ability
to move well is an integral part of the health equation as we have already
seen. But we can take the importance of the spine further, into the
consideration of static positions, ordering the body unit and arranging the
organs within the body cavity. The spine is the primary dictator of our
posture and is often an indicator, through postural cues, of the health of an
individual.

Spine health and aging

“you are as old as your spine”

This phrase is well known in the Chinese

systems. It describes how, as we age, the spine
can degrade or lose its once dramatic flexibility,
instead becoming locked into positions, stiff or
immobile.

Many of the postural problems and resulting

health issues we see in the elderly are directly
related to the health and mobility of the spine.
As we age one of the most common occurrences
in the west is for our spines to become what is
known as Kyphotic. The reason for this
exaggerated curvature of the thoracic spine is
thought to be related to loss in muscle tone and
possible disc degeneration. Kyphotic spines are
not simply a postural problem, they are actually
thought to contribute to an increased likelihood
of falls in the elderly and this, as we know, is a
major issue.

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Several causes of kyphosis are somewhat out of our control. Genetic
predisposition to the disorder as well as the type of work we do can all have
an effect on the condition.

But if kyphosis is to be avoided, we should start by looking at the most

changeable and adaptable tissues related to the spine, the muscles and
connective tissues. Early intervention, with a focus on postural balance and
strength is perhaps the best way of ensuring that the spine doesn't
degenerate due to muscle weakness. But if rebuilding of these tissues is to
occur, then it needs to be a slow process. The level of articulation in the spine
means that any incorrect method of correction could cause knock-on
problems down the line for the practitioner.

When considering training the back and its relationship to Tai Chi we must
first understand that there are many forms of Tai Chi, all with their own strict
interpretation of how the back is used. So the information presented in this
section will draw from the styles with optimum spine positioning. The reader
should note however that some styles can actually lead to kyphosis, as can be
witnessed among their practitioners. This is largely due to the term “round
the back” which is interpreted differently in various forms of Tai Chi. There
can be some beneficial power generation results from this spine position, but
there is most certainly a health trade off and, as the focus of this book is on
health, we will turn to other methods as markers for Tai Chi’s relevance to
spine health.

The spine is a complicated part of the body, composed of vertebrae, discs,

nerves, connective tissues and is the anchor for muscles throughout its
length. It is perhaps the most complicated mechanical system in the human
body. This complex series of bone, cartilage, discs and soft tissues can, and is,
easily affected by sedentary lifestyles or excessive comfort!

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Probably the most common version of the modern spine problem is found in
the office worker. The average office worker may sit for between 6 - 8 hours
a day, often with his arms stretched in front pulling the scapular away from
the spine and the upper back becomes curved with the head slung forward.
This position sounds as un-natural as it is! We did not evolve to cope with
these sorts of postural demands and it shows in the terrible posture, the un
well expression, the gait and the constant need to stretch that the office
worker exhibits.

Lengthening the spine

In Tai Chi perhaps the first thing we

do is ‘lengthen’ the spine. This is
often called ‘Suspending from the
head top (BaiHua)’ but it is equally a
relaxation of the lumbar region
beneath this point. The process of
suspending from the head
straightens out some of the curves
of the back, allowing load to follow
the proper alignment. It also means
that the correct muscle groups will
work properly and in harmony with
one another. As the practitioner
learns and practices this method it
does, however, cause some aches
and pains because the muscles have
become used to their previous role
of maintaining poor position.

As our Tai Chi training progresses this position of the back will become very
natural and practitioners will become acutely aware of when they are
slouching or slumping. This is because after a period of training, the support
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tissues of the back have returned to their proper state and when we misalign
we instantly feel it. Returning to misalignment often causes discomfort so the
practitioner will consistently seek the correct position. Certainly, when I
began training, after a year or so, my office chairs started to feel
uncomfortable. They were padded, thick, on a spring with height adjustments
but no matter how I positioned myself I could never get comfortable.
Eventually I used a gym ball, then a kneeling chair, and whenever my back
remained unsupported by anything but my own posture it felt great!

This is one of the major benefits of Tai Chi training for the healthy spine. We
train our minds to feel the correct postural position, and then we work on the
fascia and connective tissues to maintain that proper alignment. The knock-
on effect being that improper alignment becomes quite literally a pain!

Spine health and Mobility

There is an idea in Tai Chi that the movements are like water flowing around
rocks or like the waves on a beach. This image of fluidity in motion is one that
we see permeate many of the Tai Chi styles and is a description of how we
should be able to move freely. The concept behind this image is that we
should, much like the water flowing around the rock, be changeable and
adaptable in our response to external factors.

For instance, a rather embarrassing moment from a recent trip abroad is a

very good example of why entrained fluidity is useful! While on holiday with
my partner we had travelled across the island to see a horse show. The
famous stallions dancing and performing for the crowd were a site to behold;
powerful, graceful and joyous in their movements. I sat there for some time
watching their movement very carefully, as was my usual way, missing much
of the beauty of the performance in order to analyse the capabilities of their
bodies and motion.

Once the performance had finished we were walking back to our transport
and still thinking about the thick leg tendons the horses had, I felt a thump on
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my shoulder. I had walked straight into one of the buildings supporting
columns in front of a crowd of hundreds! But there was no laughter, I was
not damaged in any way, my stride was hardly broken. My body had felt the
change in circumstance and immediately and subconsciously adapted to the
new pressure. I flowed around the column like water around a rock, entirely
without thought and no one perceived it as anything but natural.

Obtaining fluidity in the spine so that we can acquire changeable and

adaptable movement skill is something that can be overlooked in some of the
Tai Chi lineages. These lineages often prefer stability and straightness to
fluidity, bowing and undulation. But for many, a method known as the spine
wave is at the core of this skill.

The spine wave is an interesting method. Imagine if you will that the pelvis is
an anchor for the spine, with the coccyx rooted in this anchor. Now think of
the crown point as another anchor, fixed in relation to the coccyx. These two
anchors will not change, but the spine between them much like a stretched
elastic can wave, undulate, bow and un-bow, coil and stretch. This is an
interesting and integral part of some Tai Chi styles and you will often see
practitioner’s bodies from these styles waving and rippling like the classic
image of the Chinese dragon.

This ability to wave the spine is closely and intimately linked to our level of
spinal mobility- how free the tissues and muscles are and how well we are
able to articulate the spine in action. Spinal mobility is largely achieved
through the flexibility and capability of the soft tissues in our backs rather
than the spine itself. If these tissues are tight or bound we will have a poor
movement and mobility of the spine. Here is where a lot of the hanging and
swinging exercises come into their own that we discussed earlier. They allow
the practitioners to apply slow rotations or undulations to the torso which
will open, release and massage the tissues of the back.

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Lumbar mobility and the importance of the lower back.

In most Tai Chi styles we find that the initial training methods (Jibengong)
may focus on helping us to relax, stretch or open the tissues of the lower
back. The lumbar spine is composed of the 5 vertebrae between the rib cage
and the pelvis known as L1 – L5 and is used in twisting and bending motions,
but is key in the connection of the spine to the pelvis and upper femur.

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The lumbar region, which is the roughly the lower third section of the spine,
is covered by a large thick sheet of connective tissue called the
thoracolumbar fascia. This sheet of fascia is one of the most important parts
of the body in Tai Chi training because of its ‘load management’ properties
and also its close association to the core muscles of the lower Dan Tien.

The tissue is thick and strong, somewhat akin to a leathery material, and as
such can take a long time to be affected by training. This is partially the
reason for its early focus in basic skills training, you won’t see results for a
relatively long time! The classic, smoothed out lumbar of the Tai Chi adept
can take many years of dedicated training to achieve.

The thoracolumbar fascia can be thought of as a junction between the lower

half of the body and the upper where forces are transferred during loading
and movement. The thickness of this area is in part due to the demands
placed on it in almost all the movements we make. The area is composed of 3
layers; the anterior, middle and posterior layers, each with their specific role.
But generally we can say that the lumbar is connected to many of the various
muscular and skeletal systems and actually links them all together.

Specifically the lumbar connects many of the joint and mobility systems of
the body from the hips, pelvis, lumbar spine and the thoracic spine. These
various systems are linked to the other areas of connection in the body such
as the cervical fascia and all the way to the cranial regions. It truly is a linking
junction box for the whole body. In addition to its connections to other
sheets of fascia, the thoracolumbar is directly linked to the transverse
adbominis, the internal obliques and the quaratus lomborum muscles which
provide a range of fundamental functions like ‘core’ stability and
intrabdominal pressure control. (gracovsky 1981).

The Tai Chi adepts identified this area’s importance early on in the process
and much of the initial standing training can be seen to work on this area.
This flattening can be seen via the relaxation and increased elasticity of the

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lumbar fascia and its relationship to the various important muscle groups like
the psoas. Spine health and mobility can be greatly impaired if the
thoracolumbar is immobile or consistently tensed. So soft work to release
and relax the thoracolumbar is a very interesting and productive part of Tai
Chi training that can have a subsidiary effect on the rest of the bodies
systems once it is successfully trained.

Spine position and the effect on movement capacity and energy levels.

Once we have gained some mobility in our back from the releasing of the
connective and muscular tissues and through the correct utilisation of the
thoracolumbar fascia we can begin to appreciate how the position of the
back and spine affects our movement capacity.

A small observational test is a great highlighter here. If you go to any busy

town or city, take a seat on a bench and simply watch people walking around
‘naturally.’ You will see a huge variety of posture, position, gait, mobility and
ultimately energy. You can see some people hunched over their phones
glancing up at the crowds as they bump and knock their way through the
streets, you will see old people shuffling along with Kyphotic spines, you see
business men rushing with hurried walks, chests puffed out and red faced.
But every now and then you will see someone moving smoothly, softly
weaving in and out of the crowds walking effortlessly, with their head up,
legs carrying them along at a good pace without any tension. It is this state
that we should try to ingrain in Tai Chi practice. The effect of the position of
the spine on our general every day movement patterns is dramatic, and
simple observation highlights that to the fullest! But why is it that the people
with healthy backs and good posture seem to have more energy?

Well a study on the lung volumes of women with thoracic kyphosis is a good
arrow for the answer, the study found that:

RESULTS: Vital capacity, inspiratory capacity, total lung capacity, and lateral
expansion of the thorax were lower in the osteoporotic group (P < 0.05).
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 There was a significant negative correlation between kyphosis angle and
inspiratory capacity, vital capacity, and lateral expansion of the thorax.

CONCLUSIONS: Lung volumes and rib mobility were significantly impaired

in women with thoracic kyphosis.

Low lung capacity is probably not something most would consider when
thinking about spine health, but these findings are a stark reminder that the
body is a single unit and every system, if it displays dysfunction, will affect the
others.

Tai Chi and the appreciation of spinal load

One of the foundations of Tai Chi is the ability to identify how we hold our
weight in relation to the base. For example, if we were to lean heavily
forward with the weight in our toes we would become intimately aware of
this skew. One of the important attributes of Tai Chi fighters is their ability to
retain their ‘centre’, both in terms of foot position, but also in terms of body
mass in relation to the base.

Perhaps most key to this capability is out appreciation of the position of the
spine and its associated tissue chains in the axis. For instance, let’s imagine
the head as a bowling ball on a stick, the stick being the spine. When the stick
is vertical the ball is neutrally supported, but should the ball move even a
millimetre in any direction uneven loading will occur and for the stick to
remain upright counter forces will be required to maintain the position.
These counter forces have to be generated by the tensioning of tissues. For
example if the head were to extend out to the front then the tissues of the
back would have to engage to compensate. Now if we imagine that someone
is constantly hanging their head out in front of their spine, can you imagine
the amount of work placed on the muscles of the back? In fact the muscles
are not strong enough to constantly maintain this position and the fascia will
grow to cope with the load. As we discussed earlier, this ‘entrainment’ of

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dysfunction can be extremely time consuming to reverse once it has taken
hold.

Tai Chi with its extension of the spine in the practice attempts to mitigate
these problems. In the forms and various training loops some styles of Tai
Chi advocate the vertical posture at all times, others advocate an alignment
or inclination with the direction of travel or force, but they all advocate
controlled movement inside the base.

The vertical spine model is one favoured by the Chen Style of Tai Chi and
some of the Yang Derivatives and the concept revolve around all around
potential and alignment with gravity. Certainly during slow movement
practices and the specific Chen style body method of bowing and un-bowing
the spine this standard position makes a lot of sense. But when moving fast
with stepping and not retaining a static position with the feet the idea breaks
down. This is because the muscles have to compensate for the acceleration
of the head on top of the vertical spine. Again we can use the stick and
bowling ball example. Imagine balancing the bowling ball on the stick then
accelerating the bottom of the stick quickly in one direction. The ball will
want to remain in position so a strong counter force at the base is required to
maintain the vertical stick.

Some of the early Yang styles and the Wu styles recognised this reality. Their
solution was to introduce an incline towards the direction of travel in order
to lessen the requirement for the muscles to cope.

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 - Chapter 7 -

Economy of effort

135
 We had just finished our vegetarian lunch and were midway through the first
10 hour day of training in the art of Ba Gua. Everyone had been sat around
for an hour or so, drinking green tea, eating our food and talking about the
morning’s sessions but now it was time for the next bit of training.

We walked into the single garage, 8 of us cramped into this relatively small
place wondering what the next session would hold! “We are going to work on
some of the ChinNa and wrestling work of this system” teacher said. I smiled;
this was my element. Five years of daily Daito Ryu would have prepared me
well, indeed teacher later commented that my basic body method was
already well refined. However, in the ensuring exchange it certainly didn’t
seem to be!

After some time demonstrating techniques here and there, we began to play
a ‘locking and countering’ game. One person would put the other in some
sort of hold and the other would escape using the circularity and spiralling
techniques inherent to this style of Ba Gua. Teacher, knowing that I had
studied grappling arts for most of my life, paired with me and we began the
game. Well, I was thoroughly defeated. I began with a sort of wrist twist or
arm lock and teacher was able to feel the point of escape, spin around it and
lock me from the point of contact. I struggled to escape as his power seemed
to spiral through my frame, but eventually I got out only to be caught again
the next time. This constant play between being locked up and escaping was
taking its toll on my muscles as well as my ego. Sweat beaded on my brow
and I was breathing hard by the end of the exchange some 25 minutes later.

“Time for a quick cup of tea” said teacher, his breath calm and natural, his
skin dry and a grin on his face. Later I asked him how on earth he was able to
stay so relaxed and composed despite the obvious effort I was exerting. His
simple answer was that he was not over exerting himself when he didn’t
need too, so had ended the session with nearly as much energy as when he
had started.

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Saving, building or moving ‘energy’ is something that we hear discussed in Tai
Chi and Internal arts all over the world. Many times this has been translated
as moving a phantom mass of energy around the body, building it up or
focusing its potency. But there is another less esoteric and much more
understood type of energy saving method that we see in these arts. It
involves minimising our energy expenditure via refined understanding of
what is required of us in a given exchange.

The body is a complicated system that has evolved to change food, air and
water into energy. The sort of energy we are talking about here is nothing
mystical but is simply the energy that we use throughout the day via
movement and the general functioning of our organism.

This process of transformation or conversion is in a constant state of

movement and change. In physical training we can change the composition of
our bodies with what we eat, how we breathe and through hydration. Our
body fat percentage can fluctuate, our mood and energy level can be
affected by the oxygenation of our blood, our eyesight and flexibility can be
affected by our level of hydration. This complex and interwoven series of
systems spans from the gut and lungs to every cell in our bodies. When you
stop to think about that is truly is a marvel of. But this balance is easily tipped
in a number of directions should certain factors be right.

If we look at a day in the life of an average human, we will see an ebb and
flow of the energetic requirement as demands are placed on us. Hormones
like adrenocortcotropin, released when we wake from a sleep cycle, prepare
the body to rise. Food provides calorific intake allowing us to mechanically
move around for the day and helps our organs to function. The vitamins and
minerals contained in our food are transported to the relevant tissues where
they are utilised for each bodily function from heart beat regulation to
neurotransmission. Our breathing adjusts and changes based on the physical
demands our muscles are put under. Our organs work hard at all times

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ensuring we are able to function without illness. The day is filled with intake
and expenditure, even for the most sedentary among us.

Understanding how we are in a constant balancing act of energetic output

and raw material input is perhaps the clearest way in which to view the
‘energetic’ benefits of Tai Chi practice. We do not need some undiscovered
energy system in this model; we need to understand how and why Tai Chi
can help us save our daily energy expenditure, which in turn takes stresses
off our natural body systems and gives us the perception of more ‘energy’.

Tension and effort

Perhaps the most common (but least recognised) effect on overall effort is
the impact of tension on a person’s daily energy expenditure. We can look at
the actual load forces and mechanical effort that a given action takes for a
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relaxed and aligned person in comparison to a tense and misaligned person
and see a multiple time increase in the forces required. This shouldn’t be too
surprising to any mechanical engineers reading considering the nature of our
articulations.

If we look at one of the most common areas of effort magnification, the

shoulders, we can see how this affects many normal everyday tasks. For the
healthy shouldered individual, picking something up from the floor is a
relatively easy and simple task. The healthy and aligned individual will be able
to squat down slightly, incline forward a little letting the arms hang naturally
as they grasp the object then the legs, posterior chain, and forearms will
tense and work in unison as the object is lifted.

In contrast, someone with tense shoulders and trapezius muscles, may also
squat slightly just as the healthy person and incline a little, but then a
cascade of issues will become apparent. The shoulder(s) will begin to rotate
to the front causing the thoracic spine to bow, disconnecting the posterior
chain of tissue. The scapula will pull away from the spine as the head sinks
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forward. The body is trying to find a mechanical alignment that avoids the
tensions occurring in the body. This postural skew means that the weight of
the head is coming into play on the overall structure; the body’s core muscles
start to fire to stabilise the posture as the load is grasped, individual muscle
groups fire at high states of tension to counter the loss of whole body
connection. The load is being handled in segmentation as the tension causes
a series of muscle fires throughout the body.

So the load is lifted in both instances, but in the first the body works as a
mechanically unified whole, and in the second it is often that the individual
doesn’t realise the battle that their body just endured in order to perform
such a simple task!

So, what effect do these two scenarios have on the body’s energy
expenditure? In the first instance we see that as unified effort is utilised, the
individual muscles and their associated connective tissues work in
cooperation with each other. This reduces the stress on any one individual
muscle and instead allows the body to work as a unit. This process creates a
lower expenditure in the individual muscle units and a naturally lower overall
expenditure for the given action.

In the second scenario we see a very different story. The muscle groups are in
a state of segmentation. Here the chains of tissue are not capable of
connecting mechanically because of the tensions present. The tensions stop
the smooth unified mechanical advantage that we see in the first example.
The body finds alternative routes for mechanical competency resulting in
much larger individual muscle effort. The body will often halt breathing in
order to help find some more stability due to increased intra-abdominal
pressure, mainly when the core musculoskeletal stability is failing. Energy
expenditure in this instance is often several times that of the first instance.

But we don’t need to look at such dramatic representations to really start to

appreciate how mechanical issues or postural tensions can affect our daily

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energy expenditure. Imagine for a moment the cumulative effect of shoulder
tension on the body systems throughout the day. For example, if we think
about lifting coffee mugs, getting up from chairs, opening doors, typing on
keyboards etc if the shoulders are holding systemic tension we can see how
many cumulative misaligned actions can add up. Every one of these actions
will have an energetic cost and throughout the day this expenditure builds up
to quite staggering figures!

How many times do we see tense people who are absolutely wiped out by
the time they get home from their sedentary office job in the afternoon?
They may not have done anything that could be considered a ‘workout’ yet
they appear to be as drained as a marathon runner crossing the line! The
amount of effort they have had to put into everyday tasks, without even
realising it, mounts up and by the time that fuel tank is empty they hit a full
metabolic crash. The knock on effect on hormone levels and regulation,
inflammation in the body, cardiovascular health, blood pressure, digestive
capacity and a host of other body systems can be dramatic.

So how does Tai Chi help us to regulate and normalise our energy
expenditure throughout the day? The very simple answer is that Tai Chi has,
as a fundamental part of its practice, the aim of aligning the body, softening
the tissues and utilizing what we call the ‘just enough’ concept.

Just Enough ...

The ‘just enough’ concept is one that we see in the soft movement training of
Tai Chi as well as many of the chi gung and static posture training methods
where positions are held for a period of time. The idea here is to use the
absolute minimum amount of expenditure to perform a given movement or
to hold a static posture.

For instance, as we raise our arms in the opening movement of the form, the
idea is to only be using the amount of muscular contraction, connection and
mechanics needed to raise them. This process can become painstakingly
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deep and for most practitioners is a constant and ongoing process of tension
recognition and release. I still work on this simple opening movement from
the Tai Chi form every day as a focused practice for the ‘just enough’
concept.

This method illuminate’s unnecessary expenditure as you relax deeper and

deeper into the motions. The technique used is a mix of neurological training,
whole body connection and muscular training. But before the connection and
muscle state can be addressed we have to possess the sensitivity to actually
recognise how much effort we are expending in any given movement. This is
where the slow motion movements of Tai Chi and internal training come into
their own!

There is a physical law known as the Weber Fenscher Law which states:

’The higher the speed of a given movement, the less able we become to
recognise the power required to perform it.’

So if I were to slowly raise my hand I would be acutely aware of the amount

of effort it takes for me to lift it. If I were to lift it as fast as possible, the
movement of mass would mean that I would be unable to perceive the
amount of energy it had taken me to move the limb. This law explains how
our sensitivity to a given effort decreases as we move faster and faster. So
slowing the movements down to a snail’s pace allows us to recognise how
much effort we are exerting.

Understanding how muscular chains and connective tissues work to reduce

the overall demand, allows the Tai Chi adept to move in a way that is whole
and connected. This means that loads that would ordinarily be placed on a
single muscular unit are shared across a multitude of tissues. Often a key
component of static posture training, the adept will use the load of their own
arms to highlight when certain muscle groups become overworked. When we
find that these muscles are working extra hard we can start to release them,

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to come back to the ‘just enough’ idea and re-establish this optimum body
usage.

The 70% concept

Another interesting idea in Tai Chi is the concept of 70% extension. This idea
states that when extending the arm out from the body for instance, we only
go to the 70% of the total extension. Now, in addition to the positive impact
on our energy, this concept is useful for a number of skills we aim to develop
in Tai Chi training. These include curved structure, circularity of motion and
protection of the joints. However there is a direct energetic expenditure
consideration too.

If for instance I reach to pick something up off a table but reach out to 100%
extension with my arm rather than simply move my entire body closer, the
effect of the weight of the object on my structure will be magnified.

We see in this diagram how, as our mass gets further from our centre there is
an increase in the total effect on the structures that support it. In some of
our Tai Chi training we utilise this concept of extension to increase (the)
effective load. We sometimes want to ‘hang’ weight (the weight of the limb
itself normally) out from the centre, in order to condition the tissues. But this
is not ideal if the goal is ultimately movement efficiency.

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This method of finding the ‘sweet spot’ in extension and contraction
translates across all methods and all movements in our daily lives from
picking things up, to carrying things, to bending or extending.

Economy of Human Locomotion.

In the process of training Tai Chi, as mentioned in earlier chapters we begin

to become acutely aware of how our weight is distributed through our feet
and also the position of our centre of mass. This increased awareness can be
used in our everyday locomotion; walking, running, turning, changing
directions and even jumping.

Optimising our movement patterns in order to retain the most amount of

energy throughout the day is an interesting area of study that came directly
from Tai Chi body mechanics. But first let’s look at how the standard
movement model can be compromised and our movement capacity skewed
away from the natural condition.

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When observing an ordinary busy street, at first glance it may appear that
everyone is walking the same manner. Of course they will usually all be
walking on two feet, one leg after the other, but if you look a little longer and
more deeply into how they take each step you may notice some differences.
Observe how their knees align, if they swing their arms or not, the position of
their spine as they walk and you will invariable notice quite a few differences
from one person to the next!

This variation is the result of a variety of factors that can range from body
weight to flexibility to muscular development, bone structure or even the
type of shoes they are wearing! Even emotion has been shown to have an
effect on the individual’s locomotion. (Barliya A1, Omlor L, Giese MA, Berthoz
A, Flash T.) So how does this wide range of attributes affect our movement
capability?

Well, they all have a direct impact on the body’s nervous system, the tissue
system or the centre of mass. The body will naturally adapt to the limitations
placed upon it and will try to optimise the gait by changing the mechanics of
the individual’s walking pattern. If the person is withdrawn and sinking their

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chest the gait of the person will adjust accordingly. If they are wearing high
heeled shoes, the knees will take a beating and the achilles will become
obsolete and will change the gait dramatically.

With this in mind, it is clear that to truly change a person’s movement

capacity and decrease their required energy expenditure for a given task, we
need to be take into consideration the wide variety of possible causes for
inefficiencies.

Tai Chi offers a set of tools to help the practitioner optimise their everyday
walking and gait.

1) Using the centre

The first method we can draw on from Tai Chi is understanding and
using the centre of mass located in the lower abdomen. If for
instance, we are stood still as at the start of the (Tai Chi) form, the
centre will be directly between the feet. In order to start to moving
forward we just need to shift our mass forward in front of our base
and we will at some point feel the need to begin take a step. This
‘falling step’ as it is known, is a very economical way to walk, where
you are constantly leading your centre of mass out in front of your
base then catching it with your step.

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2) The 6 harmonies.
We talked about the harmony of the body in a previous chapter, but
practising this when simply walking will solve any alignment
problems and re-establish the correct walking mechanics. As we walk
we need to keep a side by side vertical alignment through the ankle
knee, hip and shoulder. This alignment means that there is no lateral
loss in the joints or a corresponding adaption in the gait to
compensate.

3) Ankle softness and footfall awareness.

As we walk one of the most common problems that we see is ankle
stiffness or lower limb tension. This is why people can twist their
ankles simply stepping off a curb.

As we train Tai Chi, slowly we become acutely aware of the ankle

position and the tensions in the lower leg. During the form stepping
it’s important to have this deep awareness so that tension is released
and rooting is achieved. However, when simply walking, especially if
the terrain is uneven, we also need to retain this natural ability of the
foot landing with softness should an unexpected angle present itself.

The way in which we deal with

unexpected angle changes is directly
related to our footfall awareness and
ankle sensitivity. We either keep
walking like nothing happened, or
twist or possibly even break the ankle.

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 4) Gravity power
Part of the initial training in Tai Chi relates to the interplay of heaven
(gravity) and Earth (the ground support) and us (man). This paired
concept can actually be utilised to increase our efficiency of motion.
In this idea we utilize gravity to fall forward with every step, as if the
support of our legs is removed then suddenly returned as the next
leg steps. This method is very closely linked to the ‘using the centre
concept’ discussed above.

The Radiation principle.

Radiation of tension or relaxation is a concept we also see in disciplines such

as power lifting or strength training and is a very useful tool to increase the
efficiency of our movement or method. The basic idea is that if we tense or
release a specific muscle or small muscle group, the tension or relaxation will
radiate out into the surrounding muscles. Lifters often use this method; they
squeeze the grip and the butt which immediately increases the stability and
power of a given position allowing them to increase their max weight. This
little trick also works in the opposite direction. A Tai Chi practitioner notices
blockages or points of tension so they are able to focus deeply on that one
point, breathing the tension out of the muscles and in turn relaxing the
surrounding tissues. For efficiency, this is a very useful concept. As we
discussed earlier, efficiency can be scuppered by isolated tension. But more
than this the isolated tensions have a dramatic effect on neighbouring muscle
chains as they begin to take up the slack in order to achieve a similar
mechanical goal. So the radiation concept will allow the practitioner to not
only deal with the root cause of the issue or the point of tension, but also
allow the supporting tissues that are compensating to relax and release.

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- Chapter 8 –

Breathing

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 “You know science has proven that people who don’t breathe will die!”

This was a little joke that a teacher would say to their students when he
caught them holding their breath- usually whilst they were deeply
concentrating on some difficult motion. He would walk around the room
looking at people and just know intuitively when the breath would be held,
interrupted or stuck. He would then lead the students to re-connect with
their breathing cycle and start to identify the natural instincts that cause
changes in breathing. I recall one training session with my teacher which
highlighted how important the breath is during practice.

It was a warm day in Spring and I had travelled for several hours by car to
train for weekend with my teacher as I had many times before. The subject
for the weekend was the Yin style of Ba Gua and the day was filled with
learning one of the many forms of the style known as the Liang Yi. This
method involved deep spiral twists in all of the movements and long
extended postures. It was, by its very nature, a demanding practice and
touched every inch of the body with its deep spirals.

As we trained in the various initial movements during the morning I distinctly

remember the instruction to “twist more”, “turn more” and “twist deeper”. It
was uncomfortable to do and just when you thought you had rotated your
arm as much as you could you would hear ”Twist more!”.

As the day wore on I began to notice that I consistently, and apparently out
of nowhere, would become short of breath, my body was gasping for a large
intake and taking a few moments to settle back into a relaxed rhythm. Why?
I was a relatively fit young man, training hard in Daito Ryu Ju Jutsu and Tai
Chi, I ran regularly and was able to cover half marathon distances with
relative ease. So why were these still postures leaving me gasping for breath?

The answer came when we moved our training onto the beach. After
practicing some more deeply coiled and twisted postures, we performed a
specific exercise known as ‘deer running’ where you bound and leap off of
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the connective tissue in your legs, springing into the air, travelling quickly and
covering a large distance. We all bounded towards the sea, focused on the
technical details of the method, trying not to ‘muscle’ the jumps but to
rebound and launch into the air like a deer or springbok. We came to a stop
at the water’s edge, a stiff breeze blasting us from the ocean waves.

At that moment my legs started to give way, I began to feel sick, faint, my
whole body started to misfire, like a car with an engine fault. I dropped to my
knees for a moment and tried to recover. My hands were buzzing with pins
and needles and the sickness was growing in my stomach. It was a miracle I
managed to keep the vegetarian lunch we had just eaten down. After several
minutes my body began to recover its composure, I stood and walked back to
the group who were now training the form movements again.

Without saying a word I got back to work and joined in with the deep twisting
practices. My teacher wandered over and simply said, “Maybe you won’t
forget to breathe this time huh?” This whole painful experience had been
caused because I had held my breath whilst my mind had tried to focus on
the complex movements and methods. It was a stark reminder of how our
breathing is linked to everything we do.

The fundamentals of breathing.

Breathing is the process by which we obtain oxygen to release in cells via

cellular respiration. This oxygen is provided by the breath and transported by
the circulatory system where, when used in the metabolism of energy rich
molecules like glucose, it is turned into carbon dioxide. This ‘waste’ gas is
then returned to the lungs, again via the circulation where it is release during
our exhalation.

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It is fair to say that the complexities of the breath cycle and the associated
transport of oxygen to every cell in our body is an amazing process.
breathing, often thought of to only be related to the lungs, is in fact a whole
body concept which truly involves every part of our body down to every cell.

Breathing is often referred to as a ‘cycle’. It is a constant and ongoing process

of ebb and flow, of in and out and yin and yang. The breath cycle is a huge
focus when studying the meditative aspect of Tai Chi training. It is a well-
known and useful marker for improving the efficiency of our thought
processes and reducing the ‘noise’ in our minds by giving a point on which to
focus our attention.

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The ancient inventors of traditional Chinese medical theory and martial arts
intimately knew the importance of the breath to the human species. The
practices they developed ranged from elaborate to very simple. A special
word was associated with the breath system and the effects, feelings and
consequences of its control, the well-known but hotly debated term, ‘Chi’.

The 3 phases of breath

In western medical literature breathing is often described as two phases: in

and out. However, every breath we take is, in fact, a cycle of three distinct
phases, the inhalation, the exhalation and the time between these phases.

The act of breathing and its three associated phases can be thought of as
interaction between high pressure, low pressure and the transitional
moment between these two states. The filling and emptying of the lungs is
entirely dependent on how gases act when there is a pressure differential.

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- Inhalation -

Inhalation is the ‘in’ breath. The in breath is the result of low pressure inside
the lung, created by the action of the diagram and muscles connected to the
rib cage. This low pressure needs to equalise with the high pressure of the
surrounding air and so the lung fills. The purpose is to provide oxygen into
the blood stream. If you have ever felt the curious effect of hyperventilation
you will realise that the transit of oxygen into the blood from the lungs is very
efficient!

Inhalation is much more difficult to control than exhalation, and in order to

control this phase it does require much more mental focus. The reason for
this is not clear but it seems that because phonic exhalation (speech) is a
conscious process, the motor neurons used in the exhalation phase call for a
much deeper level of control.

- Exhalation -

Exhalation serves several purposes, but first and foremost is it is the process
of removing carbon dioxide from the body, which is a waste product of the
metabolic process. This transit of carbon dioxide from the cells via the
circulatory system to the lungs and then out into the atmosphere is achieved
by a pressure differential once again. This time the higher pressure lung must
equalise with the surrounding air. This process is also helped by the action of
the various muscle groups ‘pushing’ and controlling the exhalations. This
control is used for speech or noise generation, known as a ‘phonic
exhalation’.

We are also able to perform what is known as forced exhalation, where the
elasticity of the lung is also combined with forced contraction of the
intercostals and associated muscle groups to rapidly force gases out of the
lung. This is how we would blow out a candle for instance.

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- Pause –

This is perhaps the most interesting and often completely skipped aspect of
the breathing cycle. The pause is the point between the in and out phases
where the breathing cycle completely stops. It occurs when the body
transitions between the in and our breaths so the lungs will either be
pressurised or released.

This transformation from inhalation to exhalation during an empty pause is

very important to some lines of Nei Gong or Chi gong. It represents the
transformation from Yin to Yang or vis versa and great attention can be
placed on this part of the breathing cycle.

Pressurisation – ‘Raising the Chi (breath)’

The idea of raising the breath is one that we see in a number of internal arts.
It can normally be observed in new students as puffing the chest up,
interfering with their breathing pattern and pressurizing their upper body.
This is normally a result of excessive tension or complex motions where the
students mind is deeply focussed on the task at hand.

The problem originates largely in the mind but the knock on effect is felt and
seen in the body. In training I like to use this model of competence in order to
describe the student’s progress (level). It comes from the brilliant MovNat
system of training founded by Erwan Le Corre which I would recommend
everyone look into.

Unconscious incompetence - we don't know when we are not doing

something well

Conscious incompetence - we know when we do something incorrectly but

are unable to rectify it yet

Conscious competence - we can perform something correctly when we really

think about it
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Unconscious competence - We perform things correctly with no thought.

It is in the first 3 stages that raising of the breath normally occurs and most
commonly the middle two stages where struggle is at its highest. If we are
consciously incompetent for instance, the thought process can interfere with
the breathing cycle. What is the classic image of someone in thought? They
look up! This is very good indicator of the direction associated with deep
thought, and he consequential effect on our posture, frame and breath.

It is natural to hold our breath as we try to figure out how to do a certain

movement or method, but we should not ignore it, instead we should seek to
address the habit. Holding our breath during motion can put pressure on the
body cavity, and this has knock on effects for on the organs and their Fascia
'pockets'.

When we 'raise the breath' the lungs inflate and the pause phase is
prolonged. During this time the position of the body will invariably change as
we flow through our movements or motions. This change will apply a
‘squeeze' to the already pressurized body cavity. If we mis-time the breath
and our movement we will consistently apply this little 'squeeze' at the pause
section of the breath cycle; this ‘squeeze’ will become a habit.

This is where ‘raising the breath’ can have a negative impact on the health of
the individual. Over time the cumulative effect of this ‘squeeze and release’
will cause problems in the Fascia, encasing the organs and the tension pulls
as discussed earlier will appear. The pressure also has an impact on our
cardiovascular system, so you will often see people who have a habit of
raising the breath with red faces and cold hands.

After some time training and with correction from a well-trained coach, we
can become unconsciously competent in a movement and our breathing can
return to a natural state, allowing our bodies to relax as they should.

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The Link between the conscious and unconscious

Breathing is one of the few body systems that spans the conscious and
unconscious. We can consciously control our breathing patterns but they are
also somewhat automatic and will change as the demand for oxygen
increases. This spanning of the conscious and unconscious creates an
interesting bridge for both our mind to impact our body and our body to
impact our mind.

During the training of the Tai Chi form, focussing on the breathing both in
awareness, and control will help us to affect our mental and physical state.
We can use the form as a method of breathing awareness, a moving
meditation, and observe how our breathing stops, starts, holds, changes
tempo or rhythm as the movement complexity increases. This is a direct
marker indicating how the mind is coping with the movement demands
placed upon it.

When we have become intimately aware of the breathing changes we can

reverse the process. Here we concentrate on smoothing out the breathing
cycle, minimising the pause phase and allowing the breath to naturally flow
in and out as the movements dictate.

Building the awareness of breath

The first stage of breath work is simply the observation of the current natural
breathing pattern. In this instance we do not try to change the breathing but
simply look at how we breathe in and out and how the pause feels. This stage
is initially performed in the various static postures or when sitting still.

In this first step of training it is important that we do not try to enforce a

specific breathing pattern or change to our natural state. This defeats the
object of the task as we will actually be observing our ability to affect the

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breathing cycle. Here we must try as hard as we can to simply sit, or stand
and observe with no notion of how the breath ‘should be’.

What most people find is that as you observe the breathing pattern there
may be an irregularity between the in, the out and the pause phases of the
breath. Some people will hold their breath when they have breathed in fully,
even for just a second and then the rest of the cycle will become even. Some
will have a longer inhale and a shorter exhale. Both are fine at this stage, we
just need to observe the reality of our breathing cycle without any thought of
addressing the highlighted problems.

Once we have observed the breathing in isolation and in a static position we

need to frame the breathing cycle within the context of movement. This is
where things can become tricky because as the physical demand on the body
rises and the need for oxygenation increases and our breathing cycle will
unconsciously adapt to these demands. But at this early stage of training we
shouldn’t necessarily be looking at the breathing work. It is much more of an
exercise in awareness and observation. Later, as the work proceeds and we
look to address certain breathing deficiencies, the ability to accurately
observe the breath state becomes vital.

The postures breathe for you

After gaining a good degree of awareness of our natural breath cycle, many
traditions then move the practitioner onto ‘postural breathing’ or training
where the posture dictates the breathing pattern.

This concept can be clearly found in the sequential opening and closing of
postures found in the Tai Chi Long Forms. By their design the forms
encourage the flow in and out of the breath as the form is performed. This
ebb and flow of breath is often likened to the sea gently lapping a beach in
order to highlight the soft and flowing nature of the exchange.

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There is a very interesting benefit to this type of training. As we begin to let
our posture breathe for us, we reduce the over pressurisation of the body
cavity that we see in ‘raising the breath’. The breath simply and naturally
flows out as the postures start to close so there is no sticking point at the
culmination of the breath for this pressure to occur. This clever, physical
method for optimising our breath cycle requires that the earlier observation
training be engrained, but also that the breathing is unobstructed when a
posture begins to close.

One way we can begin to train this is to focus our attention on recognising
any ‘sticking’ of the breath in transition between open and close. If we
recognise sticking points we can pre-empt them with further relaxation and
release. This will often bypass the sticking point as relaxation levels are
ramped up prior. We are still not controlling the breath in any way, simply
attempting to get to a point where the breathing is a natural flow in and out.

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Consciously controlling the breathing

After we have gained a strong ability to observe and allow the postures to
breathe for us, there comes a huge variety of consciously controlled methods
in the classical breath training. These methods vary from playing with the
pause, where we will intentionally halt breathing at the top or bottom of the
cycle, to adjusting the breathing tempo as we perform the fast ‘fa jing’
movements of the fighting form. Needless to say these methods are the sole
realm of the knowledgeable teacher to impart and not suitable for this
volume to impart.

However, we can say that often during this training the form is performed as
if on auto pilot, with all the mind’s attention turned inward. The change of
focus from the physical shapes and movement to the breath is the process
one of moving from external to internal consideration. We are building the
bridge between the mind and the body via the.

Breathing as a guide to relaxation

Often in Tai Chi physical tensions are very apparent in the beginner. They are
unable to lift their arm without building isolation tension in the shoulder, or
relax the hips to step in accordance with the proper form. In these cases a Tai
Chi adept will often instruct the pupil to relax with every out breath in order
to guide them in isolating and relaxing the specific points of tension.

This use of breath is one that we see in many disciplines, from healing
practices to stretching or gymnastic systems and there is a very good theory
as to why leading with exhalation is so effective.

As we have already discussed, the out breath is the flow of gas from the high
pressure environment of the lung to the relatively low pressure of the
surrounding environment. But perhaps most important to our ability to relax
is how this changes inter-abdominal pressure. It is the change in pressure and

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how this consequently affects the fascia network that is the real key to
breath led relaxation.

As we inhale the inflation of the lungs causes a change in body cavity

pressure. Essentially the organs will all experience a slight change in state as
the fascia surrounding them gets tensioned from the action. Then as we
release the breath, the internal system relaxes and returns to a state of
softness. Now I must highlight that this process is not an un-natural one, the
body is of course more than adequately capable and in fact is designed for
the various increases and decreases in pressure. The increase in pressure is
often utilised by the body for structural support when lifting large for
instance. But this process is one that feeds an entire series of consequences
for our ability to relax.

As we discussed earlier, if we think of the web of tissue spanning the body

being directly linked to this constant change in pressure, we will see that the
breathing cycle affects every part of the body from the finger tips to the toes.
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As we breathe in, the pressure change in the torso pulls on the tissues linked
to the ribs and diaphragm will tense the web. Tai Chi adepts will be able to
feel this effect, even in their fingers with the deep introspection gained
through practice. As the breath flows in the body feels like it is being
threaded together and linked.

Then after the transformation of the pause, the breath flows out, the body’s
cavity de-pressurises and tensions release. It is this natural physiological and
subconscious release that we can use to guide the relaxation of tight muscles.

The teacher will ask the student to focus fulling on this releasing method.
They will be asked to focus fully on the point of tension during the out breath
and physically feel it release as the rest of the body does.

Once we are able to feel this ebb and flow, through our connected structure
we are able to direct our attention to specific junctions of the web, the
meridians, and actively work on their relaxation and opening.

Physical Auto Pilot

At some point in our Tai Chi Chuan training, the physical motions of the form
nei gong or Chi Gong become so embedded in the neurology and physicality
that we no longer need to consciously think about them. Remembering what
comes next or how to perform a specific motion fades from our conscious
mind and we begin to enter a state of physical autopilot. This state will be
discussed in more detail in the next chapter, but it has an interesting
advantage when considering our breath training

The unconscious competence displayed in the movement training at this

stage means that we are able to completely focus our training of the
breathing cycle as we more through the form. The breath becomes the point
of focus and attention, with the movements flowing naturally from open
posture to closed and visa versa.

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Here is where some of the most interesting breath training happens and this
work is the gateway to the ‘moving meditation’ so often cited as a primary
benefit of Tai Chi training.

In Autopilot mode we are able to set a pace for the movements we perform,
then let them play out. It could be that we would like each posture, counter
posture and transition to be timed with a single breath cycle so would match
these movements to the in, out and pause flow. It could however be that we
would like the transitions to represent the in or out phases, with the defined
posture only being reached at the pauses and then passed straight through.

Focussing on breathing during auto pilot has a myriad of variables that the
Tai Chi practitioner is able to play about with.

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 Chapter 9

Training the mind

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“Now just stand”. The wind hit my face as I closed my eyes holding the first
basic standing posture of the Zhang Zuan method. I was focusing on my
breathing phases; in and out, in and out, minimizing the pause and
concentrating on relaxing my body with every out breath. The posture was
such that my body was optimally positioned for circulation and my hands
started to warm up. I felt a fullness and connection between the extremities
of my body and I began to relax into the position and moment.

Suddenly a verse from the Led Zeppelin classic Stairway to Heaven rang in my
head. I tried to refocus, again on my breathing, my posture, feeling the
breeze on my skin, the warmth in my hands but the song would not fade. It
played over and over in my mind, distracting me from practice. As amusing as
it may seem it was becoming a serious distraction. I was no longer training
the posture, the breath or the connections as my mind is pre-occupied with
this never ending tune.

Frustration and annoyance started to creep in and my body began to tighten,

my brow started to furrow and I lost track of my breathing. “This little tune is
ruining my training session, I am not learning anything here” I thought, and
with each negative thought my furrow deepened.

I felt this was turning swiftly into a real problem but one I was unable to
rectify. I could feel the muscles of my shoulders start to ache, my legs start
to fatigue, my breathing became more shallow and urgent. The more I tried
to get hold of this situation the deeper I slipped into tension. I wished for
teacher to end the session so that I could be released from this cycle of ever
deepening problems.

“Chris?” My teacher’s words pierced through my imaginary hell like an arrow

shot from a bow. I was back in the field, back with the wind on my face, “try
to smile instead mate”. I looked into my teachers smiling face and realised
how silly I must have looked, stood there in the park doing chi gung with a big
scowl on my face and a hunch as I tried to concentrate deeper! I let out a

165
chuckle and a smile and returned to the practice with a head shake. “Back to
the practice with a clear mind.” I told myself.

Posture’s relation to the emotional & mental state.

The relationship between the emotional and mental state and the posture of
the individual is well recorded and commonly observed. This relationship is
largely regarded as a product of our evolution as social animals. It represents
a physical identifier for those around us as to the approachability or the
potential social outcomes of interaction. But in modern times this acute
ability to notice postural cues has been somewhat lost or confused, and as
people are now seen adopting strange positions when looking at mobile
phones etc, it is increasingly difficult to actually appreciate this relationship.

The relationship persists however, and can easily be observed in times of

‘extreme’ emotional state. The deeply grieving person may concave their
chest withdrawing into themselves inward, whereas the extremely angry
person on the edge of physical violence may push their chest out pulling their
shoulder back, standing tall. These physical responses are not conscious ones
and are automatic in nature. They are part of our DNA and the evolution of
the human species but they can be tamed. Much like the emotion can affect
the posture of the individual, the posture can have a direct consequence on
the emotion. When we go about our day with an upright, balanced posture
for instance this can be reflected in our general mood, which may be more
balanced.

The link between posture and our emotions is an interesting one and one
that the Tai Chi masters of old understood very well. The forms and basic
trainings (jibengong) often involved ‘balancing’ the body to the front, back,
left and right. The training would define how being centred was one of the
most important qualities and how we should not ‘let the Chi rise’ which
denotes how anger can affect our position.

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When we consider the origins of Tai Chi and many of the internal arts it is not
hard to see why this was of such importance. These practices were rooted in
fighting and in protecting of others. Talking from my experience in the Royal
Marines, an elite branch of the British military, it is easy see how emotion can
affect those who undertake combat in different ways. Think of the
infantryman in an army for instance, they need to have forward aggression
and a willingness to run towards the enemy. Their job is largely predicated on
this willingness to run towards the danger.

This requires a certain emotional state which is fostered by the training staff
in their basic training. But now think of the elite Marine or Special Forces
operative; someone calm, and surgical in their approach. To them the state
of high anger and aggression could, in many situations, be a hindrance as it
can inhibit their ability to adapt and change quickly to new demands.

For the Tai Chi fighter the primary goal is sensitivity to change. To truly be
able to adapt and change to forces applied we need to start from a centre
point both physically and mentally.

But how does all this talk of fighting relate to health and wellness? Well the
same idea applies to a ‘centred person’ in any aspect of life. The ability to
change, to roll with the punches or to adapt their outlook to suit the
changing environment is a quality that many strive for but seldom achieve.
One of the places we can look to address our emotional state and become
‘centred’ is the posture we adopt for the majority of the day.

Practices like Tai Chi will normally start from a position of equilibrium known
at the WuJi position. This posture is neither sinking nor rising, neither
forward nor back, it is the position of perfect centring. This is also where the
practitioner will return to at the end of training, be it the form or the Chi
Gung practices. This movement from centred and balanced, to motion and
back to centred is a strong practice for the mind. Tai Chi is often considered a
moving meditation practice and whilst this is true it is also very much a

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standing meditation practice that helps the mind smoothly transition from
one thing to the next.

This changeability is very closely linked to emotion, for it is often a change in

situation that will cause a rise of emotions in us. It is the sudden appearance
of a problem, the sudden meeting of a person you love, the sudden
confrontation that will normally trigger our emotions to become apparent
and cause our mental state to change.

Of course this is completely natural and not to be avoided. But when you
learn to become centred in Tai Chi training and familiar with the idea of going
from nothing to something, it is much easier to go back to the ‘nothing’, the
body and mind become used to it.

The mind’s ability to map its surroundings –proprioception and extended

proprioception.

One very interesting quality of our mind is its ability to map the body. That is
to understand the size, relative position and movement of the body surfaces
through space. This process is interesting but there is something else that is
truly amazing about this attribute of the mind- it can apply this mapping to
the things we touch.

Take for instance when driving a car. Our mind opens up to become the
extremities of the car. If we have trained this part of the mind or have a
natural capability we can treat the car like an extension of ourselves, moving
between or around objects at great speed with great accuracy, we can park
with great precision. Our mind actually maps the car and that is the extremity
of the mind’s reach.

This process of extending the mind is a key feature in Tai Chi. Mainly through
the use of various weapons like the Jian and Dao the Tai Chi practitioner will
constantly work on extending their awareness into the surrounding
environment. For the martial artist it is something that becomes unique and
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extremely effective in combat. We are able to extend our minds into a space
enclosing the opponent so that we can navigate their attacks and movements
as if they were part of our own bodies.

This is called, extended physiological proprioception, and it is most commonly

linked to phenomena such as 'phantom limb' syndrome in amputees where
people will continue to feel sensation, even when the limb is missing.

I recently learned of an investigation into proprioception and extended

proprioception relating to people with body dysmorphia. Some researchers
believe that these problems are linked to an inability of the mind to map
body position or size due to lack of feedback from the body surfaces. They
are attempting to increase the mind’s ability to perceive these things with
the use of compression clothing, which squeezes the skin giving clear
feedback on size and position of the body. They are also using tools to help
increase the mind’s ability to map the body and the space around it.

But for individuals seeking health and wellness this process of body
awareness and extension of our awareness is closely linked to how ‘clumsy’
we are! I have seen people go from being called ‘clumsy’ to becoming
graceful and this change can be laid squarely at the feet of our mind’s ability
to extend into the environment around us.

During one session on the Chinese straight sword with my teacher we were
working on this very aspect. We would stand in a still position with the Jian
extended out in front of us like a magician’s wand. The goal was to extend
our awareness out to the tip of the sword initially, then beyond, aiming to
extend all the way to the horizon. It was a highly demanding practice but one
that bore fruit for everyone in the room!

The effect of the form.

As we have discussed previously, Tai Chi is perhaps best recognised by its

long form. This is a series of movements strung together to create a long
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flowing interplay of motions. But we can further break down these
movements into two basic actions: open and close. In Tai Chi the terms open
and close are used to describe a large number of different ideas, from the
action of yin and yang in the body, the action of the kwa or hips to the
postures as they are performed in sequence.

Here we will look at the effect of open postures and closed postures on the
brain chemistry or the mental state. It is well known, for instance, that a big
open stretching posture can have a lifting effect on the mood and this has
been evidenced in several scientific papers researching the correlation
between posture and mood in the depressed person.

A study by Alison Woolery, MA, Hector Myers, PhD, Beth Sternlieb, BFA,
Lonnie Zeltzer, MD found that regular use of open posture in yoga was a
useful intervention for young adults suffering from the symptoms of

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depression. It is fair to say that as Tai Chi is a comparable physical endeavour
the effectiveness could be similar.

This is an extremely interesting topic and I recommend the reader heads to

TED to look at the very interesting talk by Psychologist Amy Cuddy on this
subject.

Amy Cuddy has researched how large body postures change brain and body
chemistry. When people sit or stand with their bodies taking up space, arms
expanded, legs open, they produce more testosterone and less stress
hormones. They are also more likely to take risks. For instance, in her
research she has subjects take large body postures for two minutes before
they do things like going for a job interview. The results are quite astounding
and performing a "large body" pose for two minutes resulted in different
behaviour, and therefore significant changes in their attitude.

This is a truly amazing finding and one that, when we relate it back to Tai Chi
practice, points towards how clever the ancient inventors were. Not only
were they focusing on the ‘open’ postures but also working with the closing
positions to balance the psychological effects of the training.

This two sided balance is at the heart of Tai Chi and creates the ideal
situation for the body chemistry and brain function to act like a ‘pump’ or a
breath. The flow between opening and closing can be thought of as a type of
‘workout’ for the posture and the mind. The body/mind unit is in a constant
state of change and flow. It certainly would be interesting to examine the
brain wave pattern of the practitioner moving between open and close
postures!

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Occupying the mind.

There is an idea in some meditation traditions that the mind is a ‘crazy

animal’ that must be tamed. This is a concept that we see in several
traditions, but the Taoists often approach the mind from a different
perspective. An idea that I think is especially pertinent to Tai Chi practice is
the concept of occupying the mind.

This concept is similar to the use of mantras in some Buddhist training and it
is an idea that has been adopted by meditation practitioners worldwide. The
basic concept is that in order to calm the crazy directional, and erratic nature
of our everyday mind, we need to give it a job. The mind needs a focus and
help to guide it to a quieter place. As I have mentioned, this is often achieved
in the form of an internal mantra or one that is spoken aloud but in Tai Chi it
is the act of moving so slowly that it becomes automatic. Obviously it takes
some time to arrive at this position of unconscious competence in our form
work, but when we do the practice truly becomes a ‘moving meditation’.

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The mind is essentially occupied with the motions its muscles, fascia, etc
perform, the directions the arms move and the steps that we make. It gets
lost in the connection of itself to the movement and the net result is a
quieter, more peaceful mental state.

Linked to this idea of occupying the mind is the concept of movement

complexities’ effect on mental chatter. There is evidence to suggest that as
we begin to move in more and more complex ways, the background mental
chatter decreases.

This idea is one that lends itself to the very complicated movement practices
like Taoist Ba Gua or some of the more complicated Chi Gung sets which have
deep seated impacts on the practitioner’s mental states. Ba Gua practitioners
for instance will often discuss the ‘light’ feeling they sense from practice or
how time flies where an hour seems like a few minutes. This is because the
mind must deal with the deeply complex movements and the general chatter
we normally experience running in the background is turned down to a
minimum.

A single unified whole.

It is very easy, especially when reading a book such as this to think of all of
these different aspects of the system as separate, individual and unique unto
themselves. But it is very important for us to recognise that in reality the
body, mind and spirit unit is one single thing which has no cracks, breaks or
separations.

For practice we can separate our aspects to focus on and train them, but if
we train one aspect, we train everything. It is impossible to do otherwise. As
the body moves through the Tai Chi form the mind will be affected, as the
mind centres in Wu ji the body will be affected and as the breath flows in and
out everything else will be affected. In practice it is worth always bearing this
simple and almost obvious point in mind because sometimes we can get

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stuck during one part of our training and forget that if we spend too long in
one place we will begin to take root!

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 Chapter 10

- The fun factor -

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For much of my time training the martial arts I have maintained the attitude
that ‘pain is weakness leaving the body’, or that you must ‘taste the bitter’ in
order to gain real skill. This is, of course, true to a point. We need to commit
to methods and training that may be tedious, physically demanding or
downright painful at times if we are to force our body and mind to adapt and
truly change.

However, for the longest time I really didn’t have any idea why I was putting
myself through these things. Sure, in the beginning it may have been to fight
the bullies of my youth or to free myself from the fear of being physically
outmatched, but after a time these things seemed to fade away and I was
just training because, well, that was what I did!

For many years I would train for several hours every day in a variety of
methods, honing and refining individual movements over many months. I
would struggle with my practice, trying to understand the essence and the
lesson behind the superficial. I would dive deeply into the little flick of the
wrist in a particular movement or examine the alignment of the fingers as I
moved through the form. I was (and still am) obsessed with these arts and
methods. It was almost as if they were part of me, part of my being and
without these practices I wouldn’t be me!

This deep practice has continued for years, but I distinctly remember the
moment when the practice changed entirely for me. You see, as martial
artists or movement practitioners there is a tendency for us to aim at some
undefined point of mastery. We endeavour to be like our teachers, guides or
senior fellow practitioners. We look at these strange things they can do and
want to do the same. I was very much in this position as, at our first meeting,
I grappled with my teacher and was thoroughly outclassed. My black belt in
JuJutsu didn’t make any difference. “Wow” I thought “I need to be like this
guy!”.

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Years pass however, and as time moves on I started to realise that trying to
‘be like’ someone else is a destructive endeavour. I can only be me, you can
only be you, and this is the nature of the universe.

This really sank in one day when I had been away on holiday for a weekend.
There was no opportunity for me to train during my time away and so I
hadn’t practiced my Tai Chi for maybe 3 or 4 days. I had overindulged in food
and wine, I had slept in on the mornings and lazily lumbered around during
the days. My body was crying out for some movement practice.

So I went out into the hills near my home, stood under a great old oak tree
and began to practice my Ba Gua and Tai Chi form movements. It was then
that realisation hit me- I was happy! I was truly and deeply enjoying these
movements. It was a sincere deep and all-encompassing feeling that filled me
to the brim with a light joyous energy.

I found myself chuckling out loud. Hearing the light breeze rustle through the
old oak tree, the sunlight shafts piercing through the branches down onto the
forest floor where I slowly moved through the Tai Chi form I was overjoyed.
The whole session was a wonderful experience, full of energy, happiness and
smooth perfect movement.

Wandering back down to the car park I was aware that I really felt different
after that practice when compared to the hard deeply concentrated sessions
I had undertook previously. The ‘fun’ of the session created a real and
quantifiably different sensation in my body and mind. Maybe there is
something to be said for the ‘fun factor’.

Enjoyment is no small point

Probably the most dismissed aspect of internal training and practices is

enjoyment. We train our bodies, hone our minds and polish our spirits but
rarely do we consider the enjoyment we get out of training and the knock-on
effect that this enjoyment has on our emotions, mind and body. We can view
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enjoyment as the fuel by which our desire to train is fired. Without
enjoyment it is very hard to get out of bed in the morning on a cold day to
work on your ‘snake creeps down’ movement! But with enjoyment we will
happily get up and go down to the frosty garden to begin our practice.

The idea of training these arts often begins with a desire to get somewhere.
We see a great teacher who can hit like a truck or walks around with
boundless energy at the age of 80 and we think ‘I want the same as him’! But
after a time we train for the training, we learn that the journey is what we
really enjoy about these arts.

The fun factor is something that I remind my students of a lot. We should be

smiling when we train! We should be happy and light as the practice unfolds,
even when physically hard or complicated. A smile can allow us to tap into
the higher reaches of our mind and un-stick some of our mental blockages.

Smiling changes our practice!

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile
can be the source of your joy." ~Thich Nhat Hanh

There is, in fact, a growing body of evidence that links the muscles associated
with smiling with the release of serotonin in the brain. This research is
showing that when we smile through joy or via a natural expression of
happiness, serotonin (the happy chemical) is released and we feel happiness.
However, it is also showing that if we ‘force’ a smile a similar pathway is
triggered and our mood is increased. (Merci, Colette.)

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So it is no surprise that the act of slightly smiling is a part of many Tai Chi
traditions. One teacher I know, for instance, would walk around the room
commanding students to put on their ‘happy face’ as they were trying to
figure out particularly complex motions or movements. It would make an
almost immediate difference as mental tensions were released and they
would soon get the movement down; often making that smile even bigger!

Happiness and health.

If Tai Chi doesn’t make you happy ... don’t do it! This is the very best piece of
advice I have ever received from a teacher. The reason is much deeper than
the simple idea that we should only do things that we like. The fact of the
matter is that happiness has a direct correlation to our health and wellbeing
and we should be careful to protect our happiness at all costs.

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There is a growing area of science that deals with the topic of ‘subjective
wellbeing’. It is focused on the correlation between wellbeing or happiness
and, primarily, longevity. The findings are quite interesting and show positive
correlation between happiness and longevity. But perhaps more importantly,
this means that if we spend our available time practicing and studying
something that we do not truly enjoy it may actually be affecting our lifespan.

One study shows that happiness is also perceived to be directly related to the
health of the individual on a daily basis.

“Italian Province of Trento in March 2011. Based on probit regressions and

instrumental variables estimates, we find that happiness is strongly
correlated with perceived good health, after controlling for a number of
relevant socio-economic phenomena.”

This finding lends more credence to the enjoyment of Tai Chi being a strong
influence on our overall health and wellness, both in physical expression but
also in our perception of our health.

So enjoy your practice my friends!

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 Final Thoughts
Thank you for taking the time to explore the health and wellness benefits of
Tai Chi and the internal arts with me. This art has been a large part of my life
for many years now and the research into its effectiveness in many areas
something of an obsession.

I am sure that as new information is released from the scientific community

some of the findings in this book will be expanded on, better understood or
able to be rejected, as is the way of a true researcher.

It is my hope that this book serves to inspire you to learn more about these
wonderful systems and will give you some depth to get others interested in
their practice.

I wish you all happy and joyful practices and good health.

C.N Davis

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 Further Reading
Much of the specific information in this work is expended upon or covered in
far greater detail in some specific works which I recommend below. Some are
papers and will need to be searched online. Others are books available from
retailers.

Training principles for fascial connective tissues: Scientific foundation and

suggested practical application.
By Robert Schleip

Anatomy trains; Myofascial Meridians for manual therepy

Thomas Myers

The Vital Psoas Muscle

Jo Ann Staugaard-Jones

The Art of Learning

Joshua Waitzkin

Shen Gong and Nei Dan in Da Xuan

by Dr Serge Augier

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 The Tai Chi Code

By C N Davis

For further information on the teachings and practices explained in this book,
please visit the authors website where you can find an online academy with
hours upon hours of functional video instruction in the internal arts as well as
free information on his blog.

www.internalpowertraining.com

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Additional notes on training

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 Useful notes:
APPENDIX How to train
One of the questions I get asked the most by potential students or people I
coach is, ‘How long should I spend doing this?’

This is an understandable question to ask your coach or teacher and should

be met with clear guidance in all instances. However my answer is not quite
the same as the ones I most often got from my old teachers.

In the internal arts (in fact many arts!) there is an attitude of ‘just do the
work and things will come’ or of ‘just do as the teacher says and you will get
better’. These are two methods of learning that I followed for many years. I
was putting some of the responsibility for my progression on the teacher, the
lineage, the ‘quality’ and ‘authenticity’ of the material itself rather than ALL
of the responsibility on my own shoulders.

But since going it alone, so to speak, I feel that this old way, although very
good for some, can also wildly miss the mark of effective learning for others.
This is evidenced by the fact that we are not living in a world with millions of
IMA masters walking the streets.

So here I would like to outline my ideas on how to train for optimum results.

1) Set yourself Goals ... little goals.

It’s impossible to achieve something if you don’t know what you’re aiming
for. This is probably the most important basic idea to wrap your head around
when it comes to effectively achieving something through training.

Setting goals for yourself is often thought of in a grand and large scale, with
long time frames and airy, often non-descript ideals. This is precisely why the
majority of goals never seem fulfilled. It is no good to meet a great IMA
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master, then set your goal as ‘I want to be like him’. This could be a great
ideal to strive for but how will that inform your training methods?

So start small and make it personal to you. For instance, you could set the
goal of being unmovable in push hands for at least two seconds. Even if you
are being flung around by your senior every session, setting this little goal can
really help you to progress that initial contact and you’re rooting capability
on touch. Everything that you are is focused into how to become immovable
for those 2 seconds. After some time really aiming head on at that goal you
will find you have fast tracked the progression and (due to analysis which we
will cover in a moment) can change your goal for the next few weeks or
create sub goals to aid the primary goal.

Your goals can be any number of little ‘wins’. It could be smoothing out a
movement, increasing a range of motion in the hips, treading like a cat the
whole time ... even things like not allowing your middle finger to misalign!
(note ... you may get some funny looks in the park when waving your arm
around while constantly checking your finger and wrist alignments!)

2) Analysis ... The KEY to it all!

Ok so you have set some goals. And you’re working your way through your
goal list week to week, month to month, and year to year. That is your first
step to effectively learning your method and making it your own. But how
can we tell if we are truly being effective and what we should set as a goal
next? The answer lies in analytics and testing.

Analytics are the gateway to supercharging your practice potential and

setting your goals along a path towards your overarching ideal. We can use
feedback throughout our goal training to illicit active change in our training
schedules as we identify potential inefficiencies and problems.

Taking the example of the push hands guy above, it may well be that he is still
getting thrown about from touch by his superiors even after a few weeks of
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focusing on his training goal of two second stability. If he doesn’t recognise
WHY they are getting him and how he can change his training or goal in
accordance with that reason he may end up training towards that little goal
forever!

To understand why something isn’t working takes thought, deep thought and
analysis of the whys and wherefores. If you get REALLY stuck, ask the teacher
but this should absolutely be your last resort if you want to lock in what you
are doing. Self-study and struggle with problems will make them stick with
you for life. Asking a teacher and being spoon fed an answer will invariably go
in one ear and out the other. It’s simply not how we were built to learn vital
skills.

So when analysing his method, our friend may decide that the reason they
keep getting him is because his shoulders are tense. Enter sub-goal 1: Loosen
the shoulders every day and before training. Return to main goal and test to
see if loosening the shoulders has helped.

Let’s say it hasn’t after a week or so and push hands man now thinks maybe
his ankles and legs are too tight. Enter sub goal 2: Loosen and strengthen the
legs through pulling. Off he goes to work on his pulling in the legs. Re test .
hey it worked!!

Ok so it probably wouldn’t happen quite that quick, but you see that from the
one little goal of 2 second stability, our friend identified and trained deeply
on 2 other related areas, due to Need and not just syllabus.

Sometimes you will have to devise unique ways of testing. Don’t beat
yourself up that you’re not doing the ‘Tai Chi testing’ or the ‘aikido testing’.
Invent and innovate to see if something is working out. For instance, I would
use young trees and tree branches to provide resistance to test connection
and contractile function in my pulling practices ... This is definitely not a
standard part of any system, I had to innovate and invent to test my solo

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training. I would identify a weak spot, adjust my training, train, then go back
and test. Repeat.

This struggle of analysis, test, analysis, test is something that will lock
information into your mind and body in a far more efficient and long term
way than simply ‘asking the teacher’.

It’s not as fast, but the guy who struggles through this process is far more
likely to come out the back of it with a real functional understanding of what
is required to stay rooted for two seconds against a more skilled opponent
than the man who got spoon fed by his teacher.

3) Keep it quiet!

To really get good feedback in two person training what do we need? Honest,
realistically acting partners! The easiest way to get a partner who will be
completely honest with you is for them not to know what you are trying to
achieve.

It is important to note at this point that your goals can fit in with all of the
training normally found in structured classes. It is not that you go off and do
your own thing. It is that you try to achieve your goal in everything in the
class.

In Brazilian JiuJitsu I train this way all the time and it fast tracks progress like
no other method I have encountered. For instance, I may have the goal of
escaping side control for a week or working on my framing capability. I let
people pass and freely give up positions that if rolling normally i would never
just give away.

But really they are helping me out by being completely genuine in their
action and reaction cycle. If i were to say ‘hey I want to train my side control

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escapes, can you jump into side control for me?’ the energy of the situation
would not be the same, and my training would suffer.

Similarly for our push hands man, If he were to tell everyone in his class “ hey
I have set a goal of not being uprooted for the first 2 seconds in push hands
can you guys help me out?” The focus of the partners would change entirely.

So keep your personally little goals to yourself, only letting them out when
you need guidance from the teacher.

4) Drop the ego!

Sometimes to focus on something you have to give something else away ... or
lose! For instance in BJJ if I am training a side control escape, I will let
everyone pass into my side control, even brand new white belts. I
deliberately ‘lose’ to create the best opportunity for me to focus on my
learning goal.

“Invest in loss”

You have to just accept that you might hear rumblings of ‘Hey I bounced him
straight away!’ or ‘Hey I passed Chris’ guard 4 times in one roll - he must be
having an off day!’ Just accept that this is actually a good thing - you are
working your method and no one else has any idea that you are refining
yourself with every session. When the goal changes everyone will have a
shock!

5) Finally never stop the process

Sometimes it can be difficult to maintain a constant mindset of goal > test >
Analyse > sub goal > test > Analyse ... etc. But if you let go of it, it can take
some time to return. The mindset of how you train is as important as the
training itself, so you need to view the two as all part of the whole picture.
Once you are in the flow and constantly striving you will notice that all of a
sudden you are surpassing the level of your peers, your advancement is being
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noticed by those around you, and you are being questioned thing like; ‘Hey
what are you doing at the moment? You’re on fire!’

Never stop the process ...

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