Zhan zhuang / Yiquan / Taikiken

[AndyMaBobs]

Do they make you stand in different posture/stance? I imagine you don't stand bolt upright for half an hour?

 

[CFGroup]

Do they make you stand in different posture/stance? I imagine you don't stand bolt upright for half an hour?

It should include a variety of stances. The "tree hugging" drill is a light horse stance that should give no strain to the knees. It's the accumulation effect of time, up to an hour, that's supposed to be physically beneficial. I do 6 different stances held for 5 min each as my warm up. And I'm definitely feeling muscle burn in different areas of my lower body.

Of course I don't exclusively rely on this stuff and do an hour of striking and footwork drills beyond whatever formal training I'm doing.

 

[wang xiangzhai]

Oh come on, old bro. Don't give up so easily. Was it you in one of those bagwork vids?

Srsly tho, I am eager to hear any input, especially from someone who has trained Zhan Zhuang or Yiquan himself.

BTW I recently hurt my left knee and I have a suspicion that Zhan Zhuang may have had something to do with it - not the practice itself but rather the warm-up exercise - knees together and rotating clockwise and anti-clockwise. Maybe I was doing it too fast, not sure.

Lol no, the guy in the bagwork is Yao ChengGuang but yeah I´m somehow related since he´s my instructor´s instructor.

One of the main principles in Yiquan is Hunyuan Force, which means "universal force", or "force expanding in all directions". In other words, a punch is not just a punch but involves a lot of different forces in the body, which is kinda useful since in fighting there is a lot of bumping of body parts besides the main action (legs, arms, etc), in other words, any punch, kick is also a "way of entering". Look at this video and you might get an idea of it, then look again at the bag video just focusing on the feet´s work and may be you start to see something else going on other than "shit bag work".



Regarding the Zhan Zhuang and the knees, you should be very careful while doing it. Chinese martial arts are full of fucked up knees, so a competent instructor is a must, specially at the begining. The knees require very careful positioning and requirements. If you put up some video of yourself we can over it in great detail. At the very least, they should be straight, with a feeling of "lifting up" and some combination of contracting and expanding, the alignment of the body should be perfect as to not put any oblique force on the knees. To draw a metaphor, i don´t know if you ever tried to balance a broom in your finger as a kid but you can try now

Compare the effort of using your finger(its like the broom is made of air) with holding it upright with your fist, how is it that it takes more effort even if the grip is much better? cuz when your are keeping with the fist theres always some obliqueness that puts leverages on your grip. The same happens with the spine in Zhan Zhuang, there should be a feeling of suspension, the knees shouldnt do any work.

Regarding the warm up exercise it should be done slowly - its a warm up exercise! - and again the spine should move accordingly




minute 2:30, look how the body moves. you should be pay attention to realeasing the inner back of the knee, thats the important point of blood circulation

 

[wang xiangzhai]

It should include a variety of stances. The "tree hugging" drill is a light horse stance that should give no strain to the knees. It's the accumulation effect of time, up to an hour, that's supposed to be physically beneficial. I do 6 different stances held for 5 min each as my warm up. And I'm definitely feeling muscle burn in different areas of my lower body.

Of course I don't exclusively rely on this stuff and do an hour of striking and footwork drills beyond whatever formal training I'm doing.

The tree hugging is the most important. but you can do all of them also while sitting, lying, etc. Its important to practice it in all kinds of setting, even walking as to incorporate, "incarnate" in a definite, perennial manner the changes to your spine and posture

Obviously at the begining you will feel some burning, mostly in the shoulders, knees, etc and a lot of discomfort while practising since you are using muscles to keep upright. Humans have a very precarious balance - one could say that we are always falling someway or another. When you start to get some awareness - and this takes a lot of time and effort - then you can stay for long periods of time, feeling great comfort all the away. It ain´t easy thou to get there, i wont lie, and the hardest part is the mental aspect, and to get health benefits you need total - mind & body - relaxation, otherwise the "blood cells autorepairment" wont work, you need to relax to open the capillaries so the blood can circulate freely. For us westerners, to really void the mind is hard as hell...

The two main results are:

First: you get physical benefits from the relaxation, the blood circulation, small "vibration" of the muscles, etc
Secondly: You get a Zero state ( the least amount of muscle tension you need to stay upright against gravity). This Zero state will the baseline you will measure any exercise against. With that baseline you start to build fine neuromuscular control over body movement, building that way, muscle by muscle, tendon by tendon, block by block, your "new fighting body", so to speak

 

[RichardN7]

I've recently started Zhan zhuang.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhan_zhuang


I have found it to be much harder than "standing still" sounds at first glance. Longer sessions can tire the muscles quite a bit and paired with deep breathing it sometimes makes me dizzy. But I must say that I am enjoying it - I feel calm during practice and pleasantly invigorated right after. I have found it to be beneficial both pre- and post-training. I think you can pretty much do it on your own, once you get the basics down.

An interesting aspect that I want to discuss further:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiquan


Yiquan is closely related to Taikiken (or Ikken) which is often practiced as a complimentary art by Kyokushin Karateka.

http://the-martial-way.com/history-of-taikiken-in-kyokushin-karate/


http://www.kyokushinkan.org/en/?page_id=235


Very interested to hear opinions on Zhan Zhuang / Yiquan / Ikken from our Kyokushin (and other Karate) representatives - @shinkyoku, @Azam, @AshiharaFan? @Jukai, @Tayski, @Jimmy Jazz, @Ryukyu Damashi ?
Any Kung Fu / Qigong experts here?

Have you tried it? Did you like it? Did it have any effect on you?

Thanks.

Boxing destrois u brah