The Mechanics of IP

[edededed]

Thanks again... I guess I could just put a bit more emphasis on the lower back than usual, as well as more clearly put the butt in (which is my homework these days, anyway)... This is not easy for me, as I for some reason have a big butt, which is a problem that my classmates do not share

[Chris McKinley]

Guys, please don't try using some kind of forced breath work to do anything of the sort. It could be very dangerous over time and it's absolutely irrelevant and unnecessary. You have to be able to feel the area with increasing sensitivity first, and it will take time. It will help tremendously if you can have a partner, bodywork specialist, massage therapist, etc. help you by actually touching the border points of the sacrum while you focus your attention on being able to feel that area, and later in being able to affect it in various ways by learning to isolate and flex the various muscles of the region and getting internal feedback on how that flexion affects the sacrum. Over time, and it will take time, you will be able to feel the area without anyone touching, and eventually you may even begin to develop some small ability to alter the muscular tension placed on the sacrum, thereby influencing its configuration every so slightly.

Distracting yourself by incorporating specialty breathing methods before this point in time will be an impediment since movement of the diaphragm and the resultant pressure on the organs below it and on the pelvic floor will provide strong proprioceptive sensations that have nothing at all to do with the mingmen, and will serve to at best, delay and at worst, prevent your being able to feel and control the actual areas you are trying to develop.

[Steve Rowe]

The inability to expand the lower back is a common problem and finding the cause often means examining the whole chain of movement. My advice FWIW would be:

Work on softening and mentally connecting the body core (see Tom Myers 'Deep Front Line' for diagram) to find the feet. This will give you much of the essential releases.

Release any excess 'holding' you have in the ankles, knees and hips.

As you release the hips gently spiral outwards from the feet until you feel the kua open, when you do you will feel the base of the spine drop and that should release the lower back to open.

If it doesn't, check the positioning of the head and let the shoulder blades slide apart until you feel the ribcage roll down and forwards and 'sit' on the psoas muscles then the lower back can open ( you were holding it from above).

This method checks where you can be preventing the opening from below and above the lower back. As Chris says nothing should be forced and all releases should be 'eased' constantly working on the minds awareness, focus and sensitivity.

And the final caveat is that it often takes time and continually working on this process for it to happen.

The yoga cat stretches can also supplement this and help to get the sensitivity required both on all fours and then standing pushing against a wall and finally an imaginary wall.

[Bhassler]

Lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent. Breathe gently into your belly for a while, then hold the belly in and breathe into the chest. Practice until you can go back and forth at will. Take your attention back to breathing into the belly, and as you inhale see if you can (gently) get the back of the bottom ribs to expand into the floor. Once you get that, see if you can allow more and more of your low back to expand downwards each time you inhale. Just be gentle and don't force anything. Don't try to flatten the back or tuck the tailbone or any of that stuff.

Once you have the general movement, you can work on getting the expansion on inhalation or exhalation (or either or neither) and then work on integrating it into your stuff as outlined in the posts above. If you relax and let it happen, it shouldn't take more than a few hours (max) to be able to expand the low back more or less at will. (cough, cough, Feldenkrais!) The time comes in integrating it into your default/martial movement patterns.

[jjy5016]

I do the lying on the floor relaxing and expanding the lower ribs so that they touch the floor sometimes. Good exercise.

[edededed]

Thanks guys, for all the information and exercises

I've been trying a couple out gently, but it sure is difficult to keep the abdomen from inflating greatly (perhaps that keeps the rear from doing much as a result)... but little by little...

[Bugang]

Thought i would try to kick off a discussion on the physical mechanics of IP and IP development.

What body mechanics define Internal Strength in your personal Opinion?

What Physical structures are trained?

What is the reaction of those structures to input/output of force (application)?

I look forward to hearing some detail on this.

thanks in advance

Chris

Mean Answer to Question 1: None.
Not that no body mechanics are involved in the training. But they don't define IS. IS comes IMO from Yi-Control/Direction. (Of course the body has to be conditioned to transmit force.) Sorry for not pushing hope for external vocabulary understanding of internal.

Question 2 seems more useful to me. (but it's too late now to think hard of what to say, sorry)

[windwalker]

Thought i would try to kick off a discussion on the physical mechanics of IP and IP development.

What body mechanics define Internal Strength in your personal Opinion?

What Physical structures are trained?

What is the reaction of those structures to input/output of force (application)?

I look forward to hearing some detail on this.

thanks in advance

Chris

Mean Answer to Question 1: None.
Not that no body mechanics are involved in the training. But they don't define IS. IS comes IMO from Yi-Control/Direction. (Of course the body has to be conditioned to transmit force.) Sorry for not pushing hope for external vocabulary understanding of internal.

Question 2 seems more useful to me. (but it's too late now to think hard of what to say, sorry)

+1

Direction of what

[Bugang]

Brian,

Got anything on the mechanics of suspending the crown, since obviously there's nothing above the head physiologically to hold it up?

Yes. I've explained before in previous threads that it is anatomically and physically impossible for a human being to elongate his head/neck along the longitudinal axis. Therefore, from a purely technical point point of view, the classic admonition to 'raise the crown' is based on a proposition that is false. We also know that anatomy/physiology/physics/biomechanics, etc. have come a very long way since the days when a series of mostly illiterate and uneducated laymen who happened to practice the societally lower class practice of martial arts first came up with their various sayings, admonitions and axioms. However, strict technical accuracy isn't absolutely essential when we take these sayings as the analogies and metaphors that they were always understood to be. In this case, the feeling (kinesthetically and proprioceptively) is such that it feels very much like one's head is stretched and suspended along the longitudinal axis of the body, even if it isn't.

What's actually happening here is that the head is brought into parallel with the transverse plane of the body, and very slight contractions of the erector spinae and trapezius straighten the spine to its full natural length. Similarly barely perceptible contractions of the latissimus dorsi, infraspinatus, rhomboids and deltoids serve to pull downward on the shoulder/pectoral girdle, with the resulting pull on the scapula and clavicle producing a very slight stretch of the trapezius, resulting in a feeling of the head stretching away from the body.

Great Post, thanks!

This is IMO a very good exmample of the fact that Physical Explanations as the sole focus often don't help as much as the oldfashioned metaphorical and physically even wrong Explanations that sometimes even seem "esoteric". I am not advocation using untestable mystical spaced-out jargon, but there might be a reason why the classics speak about Yi, Shen and such bogus...

[Bugang]

Mechanics when issuing force or using jin:

The spine rotates as a whole. No twisting or wringing like a towel. Shoulders stay in line with the kua.

I don't think this is true for Bagua.

Nor for YSC, Chen Panling, Yang Small Frame, Tung Yang or Wu Taijiquan.

[Bugang]

Mechanics when issuing force or using jin:

Use of six (minimum)directions in which the body (and limbs) stretch. (support)

The spine rotates as a whole. No twisting or wringing like a towel. Shoulders stay in line with the kua. Torso rotates right and left like the agitator in a washing machine.

Knees stay stable allowing force to come up and be transmitted through the legs to the waist. If the knees wobble or move then a lot of force gets lost.

Back is spread out taught. Shoulders down, connected to the rest of the frame. Not floating up.

Weight is forward in the feet not centered over the heels.

Head is stretched up slightly with the bai hui point as if pulled up by a string. Spine stretched down as if a weight being supported by the hui yin point.

Arms do not push using the strength of the shoulder or triceps muscles.

Ti or lifting force in the elbows and knees.

These are the physical mechanics I look for in someone.

+ 0,85

Good list. Except for the Spine rotation (lots of very valuable info in this thread, thanks to all) and the Weight point of the foot which is interpreted very differently depending on style, lineage, school... How about a thread to discuss about why the Weight should be on Yongquan, Three Points, Nine Points, Heel, "Horseshoe" etc...?