I have read several books (like Sun Lu Tang's Study of Form Mind-Boxing/Jerry Alan Johnson's Essence of Internal Martial Arts/B.K. Frantzis' Power of Internal Martial Arts) that all elude to standing practice being up to an hour (San Ti Shi posture).
I got the impression that meant total, so I started to gradually build up my time to 20min/side in a San Ti posture (with a slight difference in the placement of the posterior arm/palm). My entire stance keeping takes an 1hr and 15 min with stretching before and centering after. I feel that this amount of time is beneficial and have not experienced any negative effects.
On Tim's Discussion board (www.shenwu.com) you can do a search for "Standing Practice" and find a discussion on this topic where Tim writes:
"Since walking the circle while holding postures is referred to as "Xing Zhuang" (moving post) and stance keeping is "Zhan Zhuang" (standing post) it's apparent that the Chinese view the two practices as of the same training methodology. Personally, I think there is benefit to practicing both methods. In most schools of Ba Gua Zhang, although emphasis is placed on the Xing Zhuang, there is also at least one or two stationary postures that are practiced. In the Gao style, practitioners often stand in the "Guard" posture, "Xian Tian Zhuang" or Pre-Heaven Posture (the basic circle walking position) as well as a variation of the San Ti Posture of Xing Yi Quan, called "Hou Tian Zhang" or the Post-Heaven Posture. I think that spending some time on stationary postures is very beneficial no matter which style is practiced.
Xing Zhuang cultivates the ability to hold the upper body in a unit (correct alignment) and to focus the intent through a particular posture while in constant motion around an opponent.
Zhan Zhuang cultivates the same type of power while emphasizing stability. So basically the two variations of post training emphasize stability and focus of power and intent while staionary and while in motion."
Also:
"As beneficial as stance keeping is, there is a limit. My Yi Quan teacher said that 40 minutes of standing was very good, an hour was the maximum for beneficial returns, and that if you had time to stand longer than that, you need to go out and get a job."
He also clarifies that is should be 40Min. total.
Has anyone tried different sets of standing? If so, have you felt a benefit from it? I am curious because I have recently started to do some Yi Chuan (25 min) in the afternoon and meditation (15 min) at night in addition to San Ti (1:15) in the morning. Just curious...
Happy training!
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Originally Posted by Palmer
