Do you warm down?

A while back, there was a good thread on warming up and gentle stretching before MA practice.

Do you warm down after MA practicing?

How do you warm down?

:D

After a workout, I do some deep stretching.

Stretch, do a couple of gongs, then sit in Ch'an for 5-10 minutes. after that, rub the joints give a little shake and done!

There are many ways of warming down from different styles and different teachers.

A. In Tai Chi, there is a walk while rotating your waist to the left and right and using the elbow to lead. The whole body relaxed and breathing normally. The other one is a walk while using both hands circling diagnonally in the front. ---

B. Common ways of warming down: One common way is to use the front of your foot to tap the back muscle of your lower leg. This helps to relax the leg muscles after a lot of horse stances for a long time.

And yes, there is also gentle tapping the muscles all over your body to relax and promote blood circulations locally to the muscle. This is called gentle Pai Da Gong.

And yes. rotation of all the joints slightly and gently.

C. In Tong Bei, there is putting arms close together and exhale. And expand the chest with arms out and inhale. You also move your back forward and then backward slightly.

In general, some are massaging muscles and loosening the tensions. Some are smaller general versions of previous bigger, harsher and rigidier movements. To tone down or to reduce activity gradually in intensity and so it is not an abruptly change for the body.

:D

Fight a small gang...or...

do some stretching, then still meditation for a bit. I skip the meditation if all I am doing is endurance training, but if I practice technique or form, seated meditation for reflection.

I generally don't really. Lately we've been working on music after class so that serves as sort of a warm down, but I have to drive about 40 minutes to get home so that typically cools me down :)

Our classes typically have a 'warm down' built into them. We do most of the intense stuff at the beginning of class and at the beginning of the second half of class. The last stuff is typically forms-learning, which we do really slow.

When I'm working out by myself, I generally run through my forms slowly + relaxed after my 'main' workout, then work on my taiji.

No matter what I'm doing, I take a hot shower afterward.