Moving vs. standing for "health"

[Walk the Torque]

I really don't see one as "versing" the other, but more one complimenting the other, and incredibly well. One thing that standing teaches us is the gift of total balance, real internal balance. From this comes a true lightness and effortlessness that is is harder to come by in other ways.

Once this gift of true lightness and effortless has been felt, it can be found/replicated in movement; and in fact, can be a key factor in the aquisition of speed, agility and power in martial arts.

When the same principles are applied to interaction with another person(s) they can yeild rewarding results.

To those who know this, these words are nothing new. I just thought it might be worth mentioning.



In terms of health, The foundation of internal balance allows a freeing/unbinding and opening of the body's systems. The benificial results of which stem from increasing the efficiency of both the parts and combined whole of said systems.

[klonk]

[...]
So why people prefer ZZ than "moving around"? What can ZZ gives you that 5 miles walking won't be able to give you?

The relaxed kind of ZZ, where you are exploring your sensations rather than imposing an agenda with visualizations and mental keying, is the quickest road to improved balance and body awareness. In my opinion this kind of standing is also good for one's general health. Points of habitual tension can be identified and consciously eased. Any spots that do not feel right can be carefully experienced, concentrating on them for a bit and then forgetting about them, which seems to help with various aches and pains, don't ask me why.

So my short answer is better balance and body awareness is what you get out of that kind of ZZ.

As others have pointed out, this isn't either-or; the only way in which it is, is you can't do ZZ and running or bicycling at the same time.

As to the other kind of ZZ, perhaps the less said, the better. It seems a contentious topic. Briefly, though, visualization and mental rehearsal can ingrain habits of movement and even increase strength!

http://www.psyjournals.com/content/vh41 ... 1140a&pi=0

In my opinion the first kind of ZZ is of far more value than the second, since you can learn certain patterns of movement, and strengthen them, by, you know, moving! But the relaxed kind of ZZ gives you some lessons that, so far as I know, at least, you can't get as quickly with moving exercises. People use slow taiji forms in pursuit of balance and body awareness in a relaxed state, and I have no quarrel with it. They would get there faster, though, if they would slow down even more and come to a complete stop. (Holding static postures in taiji is a good brand of ZZ.)

[Muad'dib]

What can ZZ gives you that 5 miles walking won't be able to give you?

What can five miles walking give you that 5 miles swimming cannot?

What can five miles swimming give you that 1 hour of weight lifting cannot?

What can 1 hour of weight lifting give you that 1 hour of stretching cannot?

The answer should be obvious.

[johnwang]

What can five miles walking give you that 5 miles swimming cannot?

If we are talking about "health" only, I truly don't know which one is better.

[Muad'dib]

But you assume that standing has no benefits, or you are unaware of the benefits derived therefrom?

BTW, when you say walking, do you mean bagua/xing-yi/some other form of MA style step training, or do you mean walking like any other person does?

[johnwang]

Standing can make your legs strong. Walking is just like normal people's daily activity. Again we are talking about health only and nothing to do with combat.

Do you want to spend 2 hour in walking or standing daily (or 1 hour each) when you are 70 years old? My cousin is 70 years old. He lives in Vancouver and he walked at least 6 miles everyday. He is not MA guy but he has excellent health for his age. Another benefit that I can see for walking is you can always see different thing and meet different people.

One Qi Gong master once told me that if you can walk 6 miles daily, you can detect all your body problems and fix it at the same time. I have a personal believe that whenever I feel sick, I'll put on my running shoes and force myself to run 5 miles. After 5 miles running, all my problem will be gone (or my body will be too tired to feel sick any more). Sweating can fix a lot of problems (such as drop body temperature) IMPO.

[Muad'dib]

I walk about an hour a day getting to and from work.

Standing does not give you "strong legs" alone. Stance training places strain on your tendons and fascia. This in turn strengthens then, if it is done to exhaustion, making them thicker, and aligning the "threads" of collagen within them more efficiently. Interestingly, your muscles can lose tone over time through lack of usage, but your tendons do not. Thus as you age, if you lack time to work out but have developed tendons...

Two other things to note.
1. Climbers use a sort of stance training to develop their forearm tendon strength by hanging with their fingertips until absolute failure.
2. The greater the tension, the greater the benefit, so stand low.

Thus,

[klonk]

Walking around and finding out about things is my favorite exercise. This has been true since I learned to do it, many years ago. Sometimes I will walk a long way when I don't have to. It is a good way, as you say, to see things and meet people. I have gone on long walks in San Francisco (Hilly in the interesting parts!), in Yosemite, in the Rocky Mountains, on the Appalacian Trail, in the Alps, also in various other cities here and abroad. Yep, you can't beat a good walk. Good exercise, and most informative. Hikers see and know things know one else does.

At some point, though, the standing and MA affected my walking, the idea of crisp weight transfer and solid balance became things that seemed right to do in walking. If you look at most people walk, they do not walk well. Things like suspended head top, 100/0 weight distribution with balance, don't occur to them, they are falling forward and catching themselves with the forward foot. One time (maybe it was at the Grand Canyon) I saved myself a slide down a rocky hillside by knowing how to concentrate my weight under me. Most people have no idea of rooting.

So there is walking and there is walking. I would suggest people go out walking whenever they can. Some of the how-to lessons are in ZZ. "Ridiculous!" some may say. "I learned to walk when I was tiny." Yes, but did you learn everything there was to know about it?

[johnwang]

Old Chinese saying also said, "To Walk 10,000 miles is equivalent to read 10,000 books". I'm going to the Galcier National Park again this summer and I'll hike my favor 20 miles loop in Two Medicine Lakes again. I do hope that I can still finish it within 10 hours (it involve steep claiming).

[somatai]

What can five miles walking give you that 5 miles swimming cannot?

If we are talking about "health" only, I truly don't know which one is better.

gravity

[klonk]

Old Chinese saying also said, "To Walk 10,000 miles is equivalent to read 10,000 books". I'm going to the Galcier National Park again this summer and I'll hike my favor 20 miles loop in Two Medicine Lakes again. I do hope that I can till finish it within 10 hours (it involve steep claiming).

Lovely! Just the kind of thing I like. But my point is this, if you stumble on the trail, will you stumble and recover like a SC master, or like an untrained kwailo? There is a difference!

[C.J.Wang]

Standing can make your legs strong. Walking is just like normal people's daily activity. Again we are talking about health only and nothing to do with combat.

Do you want to spend 2 hour in walking or standing daily (or 1 hour each) when you are 70 years old? My cousin is 70 years old. He lives in Vancouver and he walked at least 6 miles everyday. He is not MA guy but he has excellent health for his age. Another benefit that I can see for walking is you can always see different thing and meet different people.

One Qi Gong master once told me that if you can walk 6 miles daily, you can detect all your body problems and fix it at the same time. I have a personal believe that whenever I feel sick, I'll put on my running shoes and force myself to run 5 miles. After 5 miles running, all my problem will be gone (or my body will be too tired to feel sick any more). Sweating can fix a lot of problems (such as drop body temperature) IMPO.

You are right in saying that sweating can cure sickness. In traditional Chinese medicine, sweating, vomiting, defecating, and urinating are all used as means to purge toxins from the body to improve health.

Running 5 miles is great if you are young, but what if someone is too sick or too old to run? That's when standing and slow moving Qigong comes in.

As a sidenote, I actually sweat more from 15 minutes of ZZ than 15 minutes of running.

[Muad'dib]

someone is too sick or too old to run? That's when standing ... comes in.

I do not know about you, but the kind of standing I do is a lot harder than running.

[johnwang]

if you stumble on the trail, will you stumble and recover...

It happened to me just yesterday. One of my feet lose footing and stepped on a much lower surface than I expected, my 2nd foot took over before my 1st foot even touching the lower ground. It's a strange feeling and very hard to describe it. If you have been stumbled all your life, stumbling won't bother you any more.

I do not know about you, but the kind of standing I do is a lot harder than running.

Here are some of the ZZ that I do in my system. It's much harder than running and that's for sure.

http://johnswang.com/Chang_13Tainbu.wmv

I can see a big difference between these 2 type of ZZ. The older you are, the harder that you can stand on single leg for a long time (you body will start to vibrate).

http://johnswang.com/Chang_13Tainbu.wmv

http://www.56.com/u65/v_NDE2OTgwNjI.html

[DeusTrismegistus]

Moving isn't always good. Today I noticed most of the people on the machines at the gym had insane amounts of tension in their shoulders and chest. All too often physical exercise only reinforces how people carry tension and makes people even more tense. Which is NOT healthy. I would rather do whatever will relax me the most.