interesting care to share your findings thoughts on this?
Sure,
At a certain point the size of the muscles closes or pulls on the joints and will naturally segment the chain when attempting to perform the sort of whole body actions found in Xing Yi.
Quite often the muscle growth out strips the speed at which the fascia that it is contained within can grow (similar to the condition known as compartment syndrome, in which the muscle swells placing pressure on the fascia). This expansion at 90degrees to the muscle fibres will pull on the muscles tendon connections, over time these cross pulls can change the tissues and the limbs cant function as well as they might. Hence why we see bodybuilders unable to straighten their arms etc. Imagine holding taught two ends of a partially inflated ball, As it inflates further your grip points will be drawn together. A similar thing happens when muscle size exceeds a certain threshhold or grows too fast for the fascia to adapt adequately.
This is not always a bad thing and in rare instances people with high volumes of lean mass can retain elasticity in their fascia and these problems don't occur, such as elite gymnasts. However this man, and the general population would invariably find that once you pass the muscle size threshold, the Xing Yi power will drop off. Again, not always the case and in some systems it is not a factor, Tyson certainly didnt seem to be inhibited by his size.
But the point here is relevant to Xing Yi specifically where part of the power generation is reliant on how force is transmitted effectively through well aligned and open joints. Muscle mass of a certain size inhibits this, like a series of 'breakers' throughout frame. So specifically for Xing Yi, it is worth avoiding going over a certain size in my opinion.
I have seen it numerous times in real life, where people initially had 'heavy hands', then put on loads of lean mass and their punching power seems to drop off. We also see it in some of the true power strikers in the UFC where seemingly less muscular guys or girls have hands that can lay their opponents dead out.
Understanding where this thresh hold is, and how to avoid going over it, is the important point.
Just my thoughts on it.
Chris.
