"heavy" arms?

[everything]

what does "heavy" arms mean to you, if anything?

After a lot of form the other night, my arms felt heavy. Not heavy as in fatigued, and obviously their weight and mass did not change. Not sure how to describe it. Maybe the cheeee is the only other description.

[Daniel]

...hmmm...well, there are several different versions, in my experience.

Some daoist neigong-sets change your bone-density very clearly - they can even do it in different ways depending on the set.

Xingyi gives you very heavy arms, but I am not sure that´s bone-density...I think it´s a matter of the energy in the style. Each of the Five Fists gives you a slightly different kind of heaviness in your arms, just like it gives you a different power in application.

Paoquan arms also pull off (no, not like a GI Joe´s ) pull off the trick, I was going to say, of being both heavy and light, "silk arms".

Taiji has a different heaviness, more like a lead ball gently wrapped in silk under a gibbous moon.

Bagua gets a springy heaviness, but usually doesn´t go all that heavy in my experience. Probably depends on the style and what focus they have.

And all these are beside the obvious changes you get in fasciae, etc.

It´s also a basic technique to be able to switch the weight in your arms from not there, to light, to falling rock, at touch, but this is part of the basic training in using the Four Energies anyway.


D.

Sarcasm. Oh yeah, like that´ll work.

[Bao]

A heavy feeling of the arms means that your arms are relax and that you are aware of this. If the whole body feels heavy that means that your whole body is relaxed and that you are aware of this. If you practice, or try to deepen, your body awareness, then your whole body should feel heavy, not your arms only.

[Sprint]

Some daoist neigong-sets change your bone-density very clearly - they can even do it in different ways depending on the set.

D.

Sarcasm. Oh yeah, like that´ll work.

Do you have any scientific/medical evidence to support this? I'd be very interested to read it if you do.

[everything]

Thanks. My arms did feel very relaxed. Overall body less so. "Feeling the cheeeee" is vague but the only other apt description that came to mind.

[Josealb]

That feeling kicks in when the body starts to improve its ground connection (the frame's alignment with gravity).

[everything]

If I can use it as a gauge of whether I'm on track, things are going only so so.

Thinking about some PH I did today, I suspect I am shrugging my shoulders up to push my arms down. Feels wrong and not relaxed, heavy, and sinking, etc.

[johnwang]

In Chinese this is called 脹把 (Zhang Ba) that you feel your hand is swallow (I assume this is what you are talking about). It usually causes by heavy and serious training and when your body condition is on your "prime".

[johnrieber]

hey, that's great.

sink the elbows with the feeling of that heaviness in a way that makes your shoulderblades fan slightly outward (and opens the kua), seat the wrists with a feeling of resistant buoyancy, like a heavy piece of wood that's just fallen into water and bobbed up to the surface, and breathe into (and out of) of your hands all the way through your fingertips while trying to keep them feeling sensitive and lively (and between your shoulders and elbows when possible--the palm, at least), and that rising in your shoulders will eventually take care of itself.

shoulders are always a pain in the ass. but sometimes concentrating on sinking the elbow (not pushing it down--just letting it be heavy) does more to relax them in movement than concentrating on relaxing the shoulders themselves does.

picking a movement and alternating one-to-one between a very slow condensed form and a sprightly extended one will help you really feel the needle and the cotton in your heavy hands.

ideal is, your hands feel soft to your opponent. and they can't figure out why their arms hurt afterward. or why they feel like they've hit a brick wall when they try to dive into that softness.

the fact that you feel uncomfortable with your new heavy arms is a really good sign. every time you have a real breakthrough, it makes you feel awkward and clumsy and basically demands that you have to wade through the swamp of rebalancing yourself again--all over again.

the feelings of breakthrough that don't are usually not to be trusted.

so hey. congratulations! enjoy.