Hey Guys, I’ve been doing some research into IMA and weight lifting. In my opinion it’s not really a dead horse yet because there are so many varying opinions as to whether or not to lift weights. I’m going to bring up a lot of stuff in this post and I’m not an anatomist or anything so please bear with me. In addition, I’ve only every studied Taiji so I can’t speak for the other internal arts.
Anyways…some background on my understanding…
The fundamental goal of IMA’s (ie the big 3) is whole body unity. This is achieved through maintaining:
- Liu He or “Six Togethers” ie Six Harmonies,
-Zhong Ding (Central Equilibrium) - 3 levels (head, shoulders, hips)
-Song (muscles relaxed but not limp)
When all the above requirements are met in coordination we have “Body Unity.”
The result of Body Unity is Peng Jin or “Inflated Energy.” The character for Peng consists of the radicals for “moon”, “drum” and “drum beats.” So we can take Peng to mean something like “inflated like a spherical drum” or in modern language “inflated like a balloon.”
According to my Taiji teacher Peng Jin is a result of the joints opening and expanding. When the joints can open and expand making space so that Chi can flow through.
So where does Chan Si Jin (silk reeling energy) fit into this equation? I’m not exactly sure. My theory is that in order for Peng Jin to be maintained that the body must move in a spiral motion. If not the space between the joints would collapse and Peng Jin would be broken.
My understanding is that everything in Taiji depends on Peng Jin. All techiques are built from this basic energy. Without it the form is useless. At the point you lose Peng Jin you’d be better off doing an external art where Peng Jin is not reqired.
So here’s my problem with weight lifting. When you lift weights you are breaking body unity. Even if you are doing a mostly “whole body” excercise like a clean, snatch or dead lift you are still not LITERALLY using the “whole body” (ie every joint in the body simultaneously) in the same way that you would if you were doing Taiji.
My Taiji teacher has told us that lifting weights is counterproductive to Taiji practice because it tightens the joints and lessens the space between them. It’s not so much about building big muscles as much as it is about the effect on the joints.
Having talked to a couple of former power lifters they confirmed this. They said that after years of power lifting their joints had become stiff and they had lost some range of motion.
I could see how this would be especially detrimental for Taiji because joint articulation is so important for Chan Si Jin. And according to my theory without Chan Si Jin you lose Peng Jin. The core of Taiji’s effectiveness.
So what to do? Do you just leave weights and in general western style conditioning out of the equation if you want to be an internal martial artist?
I looked into a few strength training methods that seemed to be more “whole body”, specifically clubbells, kettebells, something called gyrotonics.
Gyrotonices seemed to be the closest as it uses a spiral motion but it is not really strength training at all, something more like Pilates.
But overall there seems to be no strength/conditioning exercises would not hurt Taiji practice in some way.
The most widely used supplemental “strength training” devices in Taiji seem to be the Taiji Sphere (like a bowling ball) and the long pole. Both of these exercises incorporate “whole body” power in the IMA sense of the word.
The reason I’m concerned about this to begin with is that I also study an external martial art Choy Lay Fut where strengthening and stabilizing the muscles and joints and training for explosive muscle power would be very beneficial. Peng Jin is not a requirement for CLF. (CLF is more like a rock at the end of a rope type power.)
In addition, I like being in tightened and toned muscular shape. I have a tendency to gain weight if I don’t get some cardio excercise and do weights. I have Taiji classmates that are overweight and out of shape in the western sense of word. I feel that I would cream them in a fight simply because I could move in quickly and bash them before they even knew what happened.
Don’t want to be a body builder or anything but I also don’t want to look like my teacher who has arms that look like they are going to break (but can throw you across the room…of course.)
In the past I’ve used only machines. But recently I’ve tried messing around a bit with free weights and cable machines. I’m trying to find something that would allow a weighted spiral motion to rain the strength of the joints and deep muscles rather than give me big pumped up muscles.
Any ideas, suggestions, people to consult, etc. etc.
Any internal martial artists who incorporate weights into their training. I’m specifically interested whole body exercises with kettlebells and clubbells, etc.
Peace.
I
