Buddha belly

[IronFist]

Will extensive training in qigong breathing or abdominal breathing result in a buddha belly? How much does the abdomen stretch out?

Any skinny people been doing taiji for a long time?

IronFist

[taijiquan_student]

A lot of people say that the dantian doesn't expand and give you a "qi belly", so to speak, and that it's just an excuse for a beer belly or being fat. All I know is that my teacher over the years has had to buy bigger waist sizes because his dantian area has been expanding. He hasn't been gaining any other weight, and I know for a fact that he hasn't drunk even close to heavily since he was in high-school. He doesn't attribute the dantian swell as much to taiji as to the daoist neigong he's practiced for a long time. His teacher wang yen nian has the dantian thing as well. I think a lot of phonies have claimed they have a "qi belly" when they're really just getting fat or drinking too much beer, so now a lot of people think it's completely a fantasy or fabrication.
(my teacher is a skinny guy, about 150 lb.)

[Liokault]

Yup I agree.

Guys (not so true of women) who do our nei gung get a bigger waist line. This is true in almost every case. I think it comes on quite fast but gets better as you do it over a long period of time.


I know one guy who stopped doing them as he thought that his gut was stopping him get a girlfriend.

[taijiquan_student]

The reason my teacher gives for why the men get the qi belly after a while is that the men store the qi more in the dantian, while the women more in the kidneys (i don't know if this would be true for what you do liokault, but it's a possibility).

[looking_up]

If you're training right, you should be working that area a LOT. Of course it will get stronger and probably a bit bigger. Abdominal breathing (which requires relaxing the abdomen) will also let it out since a lot of people tend to hold it in subconsciously.

[IronFist]

booo.

hmm...

[taijiquan_student]

booo? to which response?

looking_up, i don't see how working the abdominal area will make the dantian larger. The dantian isn't a muscle. Plus, with taiji you're not really working your abs a lot. Not in the sense that after doing taiji for a while, you'll have a ripped stomach. The dantian would probably only get bigger as it gets more filled up.

[IronFist]

I already have a ripped stomach (knock on wood). I posted pics in the training forum a while ago. I know it doesn't work your abs really, but I don't want my stomach getting used to being stretched out, cuz you never know what might happen.

That's what I was booing.

IronFist

[Brad]

There's plety of older quality internal guys that didn't get the belly when they were old. It has more to do with a combination of things, like diet, types of exercises, and genetics. Some people just get fat and make excuses :D

[liangZhiCheng]

I'm not sure this is exactly what you guys are talking about, but as mentioned before, training Tai Chi means you learn to relax your abdomen. Combine that with deep breathing, and you might be surprised how far out your abdomen expands. Now this may not be what you're talking about, since my impression is that buddha belly is there regardless of the stage in breathing (the belly contracts on the in/out breath depending on the breathing style). Is that right?

[looking_up]

Originally posted by taijiquan_student
booo? to which response?

looking_up, i don't see how working the abdominal area will make the dantian larger. The dantian isn't a muscle. Plus, with taiji you're not really working your abs a lot. Not in the sense that after doing taiji for a while, you'll have a ripped stomach. The dantian would probably only get bigger as it gets more filled up.

Ok, I'll bite. Filled up with what? And I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. Also, what is the dantian, if not the abdominal area? Are you saying that you aren't working the abdominal muscles when doing taiji? Maybe it depends on what style is practiced, but it shouldn't. I work the hell out of my midsection because I try to make it lead all movements, but I don't contract it like when doing crunches. Open, close, twisting and rotating...

[taijiquan_student]

That's more what I meant--that it doesn't contract like if you were doing crunches. Filled up with qi, or whatever it is that you can circulate around your meridians n' shi.t.

[Kristoffer]

Budda bellys are just fatsies that train to little and live an unhealthy life style.

[Repulsive Monkey]

In all honesty Kristoffer has been the most accurate here in this thread with his last comment. There is a big difference between the abdomen and the Dan Tien. The Dan Tien is an energy nucleus which is actually centered in the middle of the body at the height of 2.5 finger widths below the navel on the level of Ren 6/Qi Hai.

There are many great internalists that remained slim all their life without putting on weight at all throughout there development and for the larger variety historically is what mainly due to a change in their lifestyles and increased income from the more students they garnered from their reputations. The Dan Tien is not physical so it can't expand as such, but indirectly it can have an effect on local organs, but it does not increase fat deposits in that area which is what a lot of Masters suffered from.

Qi belly referes to a particular quality of the belly in its function and application not its obeseness.