Originally Posted by
cjurakpt
I take it you are being sarcastic, but that's actually about the most in depth answer most people will be able to offer, unfortunately...
man, that poor musculoskeletal system just takes a beating from "internalists", like it's somehow an "inferior" way of doing things; sorry, that's total BS; ok, WHY is contracting muscles not being "internal"? I mean, I don't care what you are doing, if you are moving, you're contracting muscles - there is no other way to move, sorry, unless you are falling down; so then, maybe it has to do with the QUALITY of the muscle contractions and the way that they coordinate through the body, how about that?
impossible - if you are inhaling, there is this big old muscle called the respiratory diaphragm that is contracting, along with a number of intercostals, the abdominals (kind of important if you want to get a deep breath), the pelvic floor, and if you are standing, all the postural stabilizers from the foot up, unless you want to fall down on your face or asz, because when you inhale you change your center of gravity...
ok, that's a very salient comment - what exactly is one attempting to accomplish with this practice? seriously, what?
that would be nice
ok, but again, why? and "completing the Grand Circulation" doesn't count - that's just a metaphorical descriptor, it doesn't tell you what's going on anatomically / physiologically / biomechanically when you do that...
tendons are non-contractile; they cannot "be worked" or "relaxed" intrinsically - they can only be placed under tension by the action of the muscle fibers;
which is basically "Sino-sized" yoga...
what I'm trying to point out is that there are many very interesting ideas about what is going on in the body when you are doing something like YGG, and the problem is that MOST people do it the way they do it because they were taught to do it that way; problem is, they don't really understanding a) why they are doing it; b) what is actually happening in the body by doing it the way they are doing it; c) how to monitor and self-regulate and CHANGE how they are doing it according to a given circumstance...