Chia's Taoyin book

[Yoda]

I've been getting into Sonnon's mobility work and really benefiting by it, so I decided to pick up Chia's recent (republished?) book on Tao Yin. Really amazing stuff. It focuses on sitting and lying which compliments the many standing forms out there. He says that tao yin can be defined as anything "chi kung" which is pretty vague, but I think the focus is on strengthening, stretching, and joint mobility exercises, especially of the spine.

 

The basic drill which is the foundation of much of the book is what I call the "taoist situp". On your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground, do a gentle situp/crunch where your head and chest curl up off the ground and the tail bone curls in too so the whole spine is like a bowl. Do this while exhaling, then inhale and completely relax back to the ground and chill out and repeat. It's one part exercise and one part meditation. The focus is to use the psoas to do the situp more than the stomach muscles, but don't worry about recruiting the stomach muscles too.

 

I've been doing situps for the last few weeks after Trunk put me on to Pilates, and this one especially is a nice one to use at the end of a workout--draws all the energy back into the center and allows a nice transition to the corpse pose.

 

Chia says the energy benefits of tao yin practice comes from the rest after the exercise, so don't shortchange that part.

 

A nice aspect of this sort of training is that it doesn't require much skill to benefit from--it's probably the easiest taoist practice in this respect.

 

-Yoda

[neimad]

the sit ups sound similar to sonnon's be breathed sit ups.... which are awesome for core strength. after only a couple of weeks of dedicated practiced, can direct breath to any part of my entire trunk (chest or abdomen).

 

tao yin actually sounds very similar to feldenkrais. it's also done mostly lying down and rest after each series of movements is vitally important for letting the body learn new muscular coordinations and for building new neurons.

 

on my trip i was practicing a somatic system with some guy, one that he'd come up with, and i learnt to really appreciate the value of rest after exercise..... this really helps you to learn and to relax and to release. very important.

 

have also learnt the virtues of napping!!!!

 

naps are great.

actually i might go have one now.

 

(also good is sighing, yawning, stomping, jiggling, rocking, skipping (not jumping rope but skipping along - this is fantastic!!!), and all the other little things kids do).

[DanC]

Yoda,

Tao Yin sounds what I have been looking for, I have been playing around with the seated brocades but Im looking for something with more stretching involved. Does this book contain plently of stretches and is it a simple straight forward book and does it also have a daily set of exercises you are to follow.

 

Dan

[Yoda]

I own that seated brocade book, but it never did anything for me.

 

If you have any level of interest, I'd encourage you to try it.