Peacedog wrote:To all,
Great thread.
From what I've seen going from longest living to shortest is: xing yi, ba gua, tai chi, yi chuan and finally white crane practitioners.
Theoretically, each of the fists in xing yi corresponds to a major internal organ so by working the fists regularly you should be aiding the functioning of those organs, hence longevity. On a more practical note, more xing yi guys appear to be fit versus the other styles and this may be a major contributor as well.
Ba gua guys are a mixed bag, but I agree with Mr. Wang that the movement involved is pretty vigorous and should help longevity along with all of the flexiiblity elements of ba gua.
Tai chi generally seems linked with longevity, but I've seen alot of people go the other way with this one. Also alot of the yang stylists out there seem to have adopted some of the compression breathing or packing exercises from white crane and this definately hurts longevity.
Yi chuan guys are interesting. They either live a long time or alternatively die really young. I suspect all of the focusing on power generation in the style may have something to do with this.
White crane guys tend to die around 60 if they don't stop practicing white crane and do something else. I suspect the culprit here is all of the compression breathing they do.
Granted all of the smoking, drinking, womanizing, fitness and bad diet stuff also applies to all of the groups as well.
Cheers,
Peacedog
I would venture to say that your findings are purely anecdotal without any scientific basis. Tens of thousands of practitioners would have to be studied over a lifetime, eliminating many variables and referenced to a control group who didn't practice any martial arts would be necessary to confirm your observations. Look at how long it takes to prove the effectiveness of a drug, and then they often get it wrong.