relaxation

[buddhistfist]

Can you guys please help me.I have alot of trouble physically relaxing when I do my forms,applications,exercises,etc. I have alot of natural tension,especially an enormous amount in my shoulders.I try not to be stiff but I cant help it.I do chi gong, but I have trouble physically relaxing when I do this also.I used to lift weights so this was probably one reason.How can I physically relax when I do my stuff?Any help would be appreciated.

[Kung Lek]

meditate more.

peace

Kung Lek

Martial Arts Links (http://members.home.net/kunglek)

[Martial Joe]

Inhale through your nose.
Exhale through your mouth.
And make sure your breathing with your stomach and not upper chest area.Your shoulders and stance will sink right down and you will be more relaxed...

Its my wing chun way...

http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/lolup.gif IXIJoe KaveyIXIhttp://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/lolup.gif
I am Sharky's main man...

[Martial Joe]

Make these inhales big too!

http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/lolup.gif IXIJoe KaveyIXIhttp://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/lolup.gif
I am Sharky's main man...

[Nexus]

If you are doing qi gong, ignore what Martial Joe said as inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth would require you to remove your tongue from your upper pallete unless of course you wanted to do quite an awkward form of exhalation.

Instead, practice Wuji/Embracing The One/Embracing the Womb and Mixing fire and water of the qi gongs. They will do great things for upper body tension.

Another absolutely wonderful exercise specifically for shoulder tension is this.

Stand with feet shoulder width apart, arms hanging loosely at the sides, chin slightly tucked, knees slightly bent as if you are about to sit down on something, but maintain a erect spine. Basically the standard wuji posture from qi gong. From there, roll your arms backwards in a complete circle so basically the arms are going forward up and back in a circular fashion. Once you have made a complete rotation and the arms are back at the waist roll your shoulders backwards. Continue this movement doing the arms and then the shoulders for about 10 breaths if you can handle that much strain on the shoulders. Then do the same exercise except reverse the direction.

It is easy to grasp this exercise when shown, and perhaps a little more difficult to understand when just reading about it, but in a few months of doing so you will notice a greater sense of relaxation in the shoulders/upper back.

- Nexus

[Nutt'nhunny]

learning chi kung over the net is great!!!!


for internal bleeding. Slainte to ya, suckers.

[honorisc]

Tesnse-up your target areas--the shoulders. Tense them until they cramp. Then keep forcing the Tense. They should become differently tense on their own when doing this. This supposedly, is the physical form of chee approaching it's purer Self~ -Ernie Moore Jr.'s Kung Fu, Squirrel; Ernie Moore Jr.

Very some such, perhaps might have been, likely say some, some not.

[HuangKaiVun]

What style?

[S.Teebas]

To relieve tension in the shoulders, ask your spine to straighten. Try not to use the supporting muscles to HOLD it there.
Focus on doing on the right thing, else, your mind is concentrating on the wrong thing so much you actually cause greater tension.


S.Teebas

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

nexus . . the arm rotation is actually one of the last movements in the very first breathing set i learned ... but i have to do it 49 times without the shoulder roll.

one thing our teacher had us do that really helped me was to get in a decent stance and raise your hands above your head. then simply let them drop. do this until they are actually dropping on their own . . dead weight. after doing this for a little bit drop them onto a pad or other striking surface. do this for a little bit and then work on tensing only your palms (and diachien if doing so fits into your style) upon impact. this part is hard to get right, you may get one out of 10 at best initially, but it definately helped me a good bit with shoulder tension.

you could also try doing some qualudes or downers right before training.

where's my beer?

[thumper]

also, when you exhale while doing chi gung, feel and imagine your heart and lungs dropping, sinking into your belly. this will help ease tension in your chest. don't push them down though, but feel them drop.
about breathing with your belly and not your upper chest area, i think it's more important to fill both when inhaling. if you only breathe with your belly, you are not using about half of your lungs. bringing less chi (air)in translates to that much less chi circulating while doing any chi gung. while martial joe means for you to develop the dan tien, it's important to fill both while inhaling.

"...either you like reincarnation or the smell of carnations..."
- Cannibal Ox