Originally Posted by
SouthernTiger
So, what makes the YJJ so special? I look forward to more comments (with the exception of cjurakpt) on this great exercise set.
I fail to understand why, exactly, you think I am "anti-YGG"? is it because I refuse to simply accept that things like qigong can only be adequately described by TCM / Taoist Inner Alchemical Practice concepts and terminology? are you one of the brainwashed "purists?" you've obviously gone to the trouble to read other things I've posted, yet it seems that you've completely missed the point of my polemic; it's not that I think things like TCM or qigong don't work: they do - but what I want to know is, why? and as such, what I will not accept is that the mechanisms can't all be described / explained by a more contemporary anatomical / physiolgcal / biomechanical paradigm; I think what the knee-jerk reaction is that, by doing so, it somehow devalues them, makes them less "mystical"; quite the contrary - this doesn't weaken them, in fact, it strengthens them, because it "proves" that they are universal, plain and simple; and the value of doing this is also simple: it makes it more accessible to people who don't know the TCM terms and also who may have trouble conceptualizing YGG from that perspective
so, here's my unsolicited opinion as to just one of the many reasons why YGG is "special" - it's about the fact that we ware not originally designed to stand on two feet, but rather on all fours, and that while we have adapted over time to being vertical, there are still some "problems" with that; for example, if you look at the spine and the organs, when in quadriped, they hang down, with no pressure from the ones above; when you stand though, they get stacked, and what this creates is a few things: one is prolapse of the pelvic organs which leads to them sitting on the pelvic floor; when that happens, you loose some of the capacity of one of the main "pumps" to assist in venous and lymphatic return; so one of the things that YGG does (and by that i mean what i being described here - in our system, again, we call this set Dai Lihk Gung, and it is actually the second of three main "exercises" that work sequentially to do what I am describing) is to stimulate the system to enhance lymphatic drainage, by "simulating" what it's like to walk on your hands - think about the motion Jeff described, it's like what would happen if you did that; and that's why you "contract" your muscles, because if you were walking on your hands, you would be getting muscle contractions as you put pressure on the weightbearing limb, which is what works to stimulate venous / lymphatic return; also, when you do this, it refocuses the breathing to be more diaphragmatic, as opposed to using the accessory muscles of respitration (sternocleidomastoid, scalenes) which has a global effect of decreasing sympathetic tone, and getting you out of chronic, low grade "flight/fight" response, which has the effect of decreasing systemic inflammation, meaning you will have less of those histokinenes and whatnot floating around the system needing to be cleared out to begin with; oh yeah, the opening posture / move especially, is designed to harmonize pelvic floor tone and to work in conjunction with the respiratory diaphragm, in order to help "pump" the abdominal cavity and clear stagnation / congestion from those stacked up guts...
so again, to be clear - I think that YGG has great value, and that it is, overall, a means to enhance the body's ability to regain / retain homeostasis through a variety of mechanisms and systems, none of which require TCM / Taoist terminology to adequately and fully explain the rationale and benefits; that's all;