the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

I want to get a sense of view on the following.

Many years ago I came across an ima instructor who mentioned that it was not recommended to perspire in training & he classed what he did as combat oriented. This did not make sense & his justification was very chi theory oriented so I moved on.

Since then I have not come across any combat oriented instructors who agree with this. In fact the guys who rank as capable would all say things like "training - many sweat".

Now I am curious. Is this a universal agreed idea or are there views to the contrary?

The first time I heard this was from someone who didn't practice any martial arts but somehow knew a lot of tai chi, yijing, ... theory. She asked me if I sweat when I train and when I said yes she told me that I didn't practice the "real" tai chi.

I have seen many amazing internal martial arts fighters but all of them would sweat in the training. The only possible situation that I can think of is in the winter when I don't practice low and just play with the form for a short time.

Any type of training and all types of training (physical condition), sweat is the end result of work done. It is natural.
The only exception is modern taijiquan I just don't how you can believe otherwise. Even when you are scared, you sweat! When I started training in rappelling off buildings (I didn't show that I was scared but my sweating gave me away) we had to stop at the edge of the building position the body to 90 degrees and stay there for X period depending on how scared you appeared to be. Luckily it was less than 3 minutes or so but it felt like 1 hour! That was 30 years ago how time flies!

From TCM perspective Yang Qi holds the fluids in the body and when Yang Qi is weak you have cold sweat which is not a good sign but normal sweating from physical activity is just natural.

Anyone that doesn't sweat during combat training is a robot from the future and is to be avoided!

I thought sweating while doing Qigong or Taiji forms was a good sign.........

With regards to combat training - if you're not sweating, surely you're not training intensely enough.... I get it if you are doing some easy, relaxed Tui Shou while chatting away about your day, but if you are training for real encounters, it's inevitable

I wonder whether this idea of not sweating has been a case of 'lost in translation'. I'm constantly being told to release the tension in my body which will allow my IMA techniques to become faster and more powerful. In English 'release tension' and 'relax' can be interchangeable in some situations, relax could be misconstrued as not to make an effort which could then be interpreted as 'don't break a sweat'. I work with a lady from mainland China and she talks about 'playing' Taiiji whilst I talk about training or practicing.

If it sounds like mystical bullshit, its probably mystical bullshit.

Maybe that has to do with exhaustion, don't train like in a western sport, always do your Shougong, to prevent depletion.

I do sweat a lot training in the heat of Taiwan, and during the SARS summer, I probably overdid it with 5 hrs a day in the summer heat, sweating out all electrolytes, and only drinking RO water. That gave my dizziness for months, before I could replace lost electrolytes.

Thanks god, it's cooling down now, but I still add adequate minerals to replenish, because I do sweat.

Happy sweating!

"If it sounds like mystical bullshit, its probably mystical bullshit" - that is brilliant and I would like official permission Mr Fish to adopt this as my new slogan. One of the truest things I have ever read on this site.

"In addition to advances in skeletal structure and stabilization, adaptations that led to increased efficiency in dissipation of heat were instrumental in the evolution of endurance running in Homo. The duration for which an animal can run is determined by its capacity to release more heat than is produced to avoid lethal temperatures.

Evaporative Cooling: The majority of mammals, including humans, rely on evaporative cooling to maintain body temperature.
Sweating vs. Panting: Most medium-to-large mammals rely on panting, while humans rely on sweating, to dissipate heat. Advantages to panting include cooler skin surface, little salt loss, and heat loss by forced convection instead of reliance on wind or other means of convection. On the other hand, sweating is advantageous in that evaporation occurs over a much larger surface area (the skin), and it is independent of respiration, thus is a much more flexible mode of cooling during intense activity such as running.
Human Advantages: Because human sweat glands are under a higher level of neuronal control than those of other species, they allow for the excretion of more sweat per unit surface area than any other species. Heat dissipation of later hominins was also enhanced by the reduction in body hair.[5] By ridding themselves of an insulating fur coat, running humans are better able to dissipate the heat generated by exercise.
"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_ ... hypothesis

You have to put lot of sweat in to get to a point where you don't sweat

Studies have shown that trained people actually sweat faster than untrained people (regarding middle to high intensity work).

Permisson granted