Yee Gee Kim Yeung Ma - "Power of the Squat" video by chinaboxer

[Sardinkahnikov]

Hello.

Well, I was watching this video in chinaboxer's blog just now. Liked it.

http://www.thechinaboxer.com/2009/10...-of-the-squat/

Now, I've run into a bit of a problem: he talks about turning of the tigh muscles when sinking into YGKYM, so you hold yourself up only through your body structure (if I understood correctly, it is). The thing is, I just can't seem to do it. Everytime I put the weight on my heels and bend my knees, my leg goes automatically goes tense.

Could someone elaborate this subject a little bit more? Any personal training experience you could share, or maybe offer a different opinion on this matter? As chinaboxer mentioned, lots of people experience disconfort and pain while practicing for prolonged periods (and I'm also guilty of this); so, I figured it would be a decent and useful topic of discussion.

[SAAMAG]

Without added weight, it's just a matter of relaxing your quadraceps and sinking naturally.

With added weight, I wouldn't advise this. You always want a slow and controlled drop all the way down to where your thigh and calf are touching. You can't do this with additional weight if your thighs are "turned off".

Then again, you could always ask a personal trainer at your local gym?

[sanjuro_ronin]

Impossible NOT to tense muscles, body doesn't work that way.
Just try to focus on the structure rather than using strength.

[Knifefighter]

In a squat motion there are only two places you can support yourself with "body structure". In a fully straightened, standing position. In a fully squated position with your ass resting against your lower legs and/or heels. In his clip, the only time he is supporting himself with body structure is when he is in a fully standing position.

BTW, it is impossible not to tense the muscle when raising, lowering, or holding unless you are either fully standing or fully squated in a seated, resting position. The very definition of using your muscles requires them to be tensed. If they are not tensed (using a contraction), you cannot be working them.

It's unfortunate that people who have never taken a biomechanics class work as fitness trainers and put out clips like this.

[HumbleWCGuy]

The best suggestion that I have ever heard regarding Chinaboxer videos is to watch them without the sound. His Wing Chun looks okay but his descriptions are full of errors which completely kill the videos.

[Lee Chiang Po]

Hello.

Well, I was watching this video in chinaboxer's blog just now. Liked it.

http://www.thechinaboxer.com/2009/10...-of-the-squat/

Now, I've run into a bit of a problem: he talks about turning of the tigh muscles when sinking into YGKYM, so you hold yourself up only through your body structure (if I understood correctly, it is). The thing is, I just can't seem to do it. Everytime I put the weight on my heels and bend my knees, my leg goes automatically goes tense.

Could someone elaborate this subject a little bit more? Any personal training experience you could share, or maybe offer a different opinion on this matter? As chinaboxer mentioned, lots of people experience disconfort and pain while practicing for prolonged periods (and I'm also guilty of this); so, I figured it would be a decent and useful topic of discussion.

Everyone is correct in that you can not stand without using the muscles. However, with practice you can develop this same technique by which you only use certain muscles and they are not strained. I do not practice this stance at all, yet can hold it as long as I want to. I have to admit that I lose patience and get super bored after a time, but It is a comfortable stance.
I personally do not consider the Wing Chun stance to be a horse. I don't like the horse stance of other systems because it hurts me. It is a stance that you have to strengthen over time, and it still hurts. I can not handle it myself. Yet I can maintain the Wing Chun stance easily. My theory is that if it hurts or is uncomfortable, it is wrong. The easier and more smoothly you can do something, the better and the more of it you can do.

[uki]

i do iron ball juggling while going from standing to squatting position and back up... stopping to hold the squat or to practice one legged squats while iron ball juggling. i also find that if you squat like a urinating woman while iron ball juggling, that it has such a profound effect on your entire body, you can't even begin to describe the feeling here... save that you are squatting like a woman taking a tinkle pee. hehe. *puts hand over mouth*

[t_niehoff]

Hello.

Well, I was watching this video in chinaboxer's blog just now. Liked it.

http://www.thechinaboxer.com/2009/10...-of-the-squat/

Now, I've run into a bit of a problem: he talks about turning of the tigh muscles when sinking into YGKYM, so you hold yourself up only through your body structure (if I understood correctly, it is). The thing is, I just can't seem to do it. Everytime I put the weight on my heels and bend my knees, my leg goes automatically goes tense.

Your weight should be on the balls of your feet when you do YJKYM.

[Lee Chiang Po]

Your weight should be on the balls of your feet when you do YJKYM.

HMMM, I just checked, and my weight is all over the feet. Not just on the toes or the heels, but the entire foot. I am sure it changes back and forth as I move, but in a standing position, while in stance, the weight is evenly distributed. Then I am also flat footed, and most anything I do will be in a flat footed manner. Also, in checking, the only muscle I use for the stance is the large one that runs from hip bone in front down to the knee. I am sure there are others used as well, but this is the only one that has any flex at all, which is very little. When you are on the move, none of these muscles are used more than a flash back and forth. Just standing in place really don't do much for you I don't think. To strengthen your stance, you should use a stepping routine. Footwork if you will. Doing all sorts of shifting and moving while in stance will probably be more beneficial.
I read somewhere that the horse stance looked like one was mounted on a very fat horse. I do not like that at all. While YGKYM is more like holding goats between your knees.