knee strengthening

[GreyMystik]

anyone know any good knee-strengthening exercises? specifically the inside of the knee ligaments and tendons and all that need strength... all the twisting and such in baguazhang is wreaking havoc on my knees (and my legs aren't real strong to begin with)... i know constant practice will make them stronger, just wondering if any specific exercises any of you have used would help strengthen them.
thanks

[Sam Wiley]

walking the circle

[GreyMystik]

been walking the circle, that's what i'm talking about... the twisting while changing directions, that's the stressful part. i'll keep doing it and practicing, just wondering if there are any other ones you may know of or can recommend besides circle walking (which i'm also doing)?

[Sam Wiley]

I think I see the problem. You should not be twisting at the knee, but at the waist. I imagine that the bottom half of my body is a mountain, like a centaur sort of, when I am in a kou bu stance. That might help a bit, too.

When you do an outside change, one foot moves slightly before the other. For instance, if you are walking with your left palm in the center, and do an outer change when you left foot is forward, your left foot turns inward as you begin to turn and transfer weight, and then your right foot begins turning. Doing it this way, as you face the other direction, your left foot, now your rear or weighted foot, is already in position and you right foot simply continues turning into position. If you change with both toes coming off the ground at the same time and both toes landng at the same time, you will have trouble maintaining your balance and root, and are likely to twist at the knee. It's a really quick change of stance, from bai bu, to an outer facing kou bu, to bai bu again.

You might want to watch how deep you go in your stances and when you walk the circle. Make sure your knees do not extend beyond your toes. Also, check your forward weighted stances to make sure your feet are wide enough. I used to have trouble with my knees after practice, and I noticed that my feet were not wide enough in stance. As they say, if you have a problem, look to your stance. I noticed that after correcting the width of the stance, my knee problems almost disappeared. Now the only ones I have are from where I broke my knee several years ago.

Make sure that when you mud step, you do not extend too far along the circle. You should be able to pick up your front foot without changing your weight back after having slipped it forward.

As far as other exercises go, you might want to try 3 Circle Standing Zen (some call it holding a tree), which is a standing qigong. It seems to really help my knees on humid days, of which there are a lot in Georgia. Also, you might try holding the stance slightly wider than shoulder width. I prefer to stand about one footwidth wider than shoulder width. Not one foot wider, but the width of one of my feet.

Also, be midful of your weighted foot when you do Duck Lands on Water (kind of like Snake Creeps Down, but your shoulder is on your knee, just in case you use a different name for the posture). If your foot is pointed too far out or too far in, it will cause knee problems.

You can also try standing in your walking posture for a period of time. If you stand with your left palm into the center, weight on your right foot, with the left weightless in the front, and hold it, it might help. While you are standing there, imagine the breath coming in through your palms and down to your dantien, and then going out from your dantien through your palms to imfinity on the out breath. On the in breath, extend the center of the palm out, and on the in breath, allow it to collapse in, so that the movement of your palm flexing is opposing the breath. Do this for as long as you are able to stand on that leg, and then do an outside change and do the same exercise on the other side. When you need to change sides again, take a step along the circle to switch to the other leg, and when you need to switch sides again, do an inside change. This is the way I practice Bagua's Iron Palm qigong. Remember that each stance is 100% weighted on the back leg, so that you can lift the front leg if you want.

You could also do an exercise from Taijiquan called Holding the Baby. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, place all your weight onto the one leg, and step straight out to the front with the other so that you are in a back sitting bow stance with most of the weight at least on the rear leg. Bring your hands up so that you are holding two Thunder palms in front of you. If your left foot is forward, you left palm will be a bit forward, and your right fingertips should point to your left forearm about halfway down toward the elbow. (Like the opening of the Bagua form, called Leaning on your Horse and Asking the Way.) Hold this until you need to change sides. You should pay attention to the Three Things. First, your thigh will feel like someone has stabbed you there. Second, the pain will spread over the thigh. Third, you will begin to shake. When you begin to shake, change legs, or else your muscles might collapse. To change legs, turn the toes of the front foot outward and shift weight onto the front foot. Once the weight is transferred, step straight forward with the other foot into a back sitting bow stance on the opposite side. This is like stepping forward in Brush Knee Twist Step. As you step forward, brush the right arm beneath your left arm until it is the forward arm. Now you are standing in the completely opposite stance. Observe the Three Things again.

Note: You should also take note of the Three Things when you do the Bagua Iron Palm qigong above.

If you know any Taiji, Single Whip heals the joints, and has an amazing effect on the knees. Start from Press Forward. Do Sit Back Ready, Snake Fingers to Eyes, then Fishes in Eight, and then Single Whip and hold for about a minute. Do on both sides. My form is different than what is normally seen of Yang Style Taiji, as in my form there is the Sit Back movement before Single Whip, and Single Whip is done without withdrawing the foot before stepping but by swinging the foot around just above the ground. If you practice another form where hte sequence differs from this, I can't say that it will work, but it couldn't hurt to try. Even if it doesn't heal your joints, it will be good for your stomach.

Just for the heck of it, you might want to get some of thay herb that's supposed to be good for your joints. Chondroitin is the one, I think.

[vingtsunstudent]

try the basic wing chun stance.
i played rugby league for 13 years & it took its toll. by the time i was 22 & just starting wing chun i already suffed from seriously sore knees in winter.
guess what no more & i am now 33.
i have shown this stance to numerous people with 100 % success.
vts

[GeneChing]

SPRING 2019

Avoiding Knee Pain from Taiji Practice
Edited and translated by Andrew Wong

[GeneChing]

Are Your Knees Dead?
Tai Chi and Knee Health
By Xinghong Wang


SUMMER 2019

[No_Know]

Use a corne of a wall or door as if tripping someone wrap your leg--end of pole on ground outside foot wrap inside of knee to press or hit stick strengthens for inward turns
No_Know

[Wdhc]

Here is a link of a form I done today. I also had a muscle test at the VA earlier for knee pain and shin splints.. Tomorrow I'm going to post a video of how i fix this.
https://youtu.be/_SFOjWJJfyU

[No_Know]

Walking and doing stepping Toe-Out pulls out. Stepping Toe-In (pigeon toed?) should strengthen the inside parts to balance pull-on for your particular case knees.-Ernie Moore Jr.

I No_Know