Straightening the spine, lifting the chest, opening the heart, curving the shoulders

[Lucky7Strikes]

Several books on Zhan Zhuang suggest creating a concave feel with the chest and the shoulders, curving the upper back and shoulders inwards. A bit of hunched i guess. They caution against having the military style of puffing up the chest.

 

Yet, recently, I've practiced rather straightening the upper spine, lifting the chest a bit, and curving in the shoulder lightly. Not only did this greatly "lift" the pressure from my heart center, but I feel more balanced, stable, and VERY open. The bliss from the heart center is much more palpable.

 

I don't OVER puff my chest. Just enough so that my upper back isn't as curved as much.

 

Thoughts?

Edited November 23, 2009 by Lucky7Strikes

[Non]

Several books on Zhan Zhuang suggest creating a concave feel with the chest and the shoulders, curving the upper back and shoulders inwards. A bit of hunched i guess. They caution against having the military style of puffing up the chest.

 

Yet, recently, I've practiced rather straightening the upper spine, lifting the chest a bit, and curving in the shoulder lightly. Not only did this greatly "lift" the pressure from my heart center, but I feel more balanced, stable, and VERY open. The bliss from the heart center is much more palpable.

 

I don't OVER puff my chest. Just enough so that my upper back isn't as curved as much.

 

Thoughts?

 

man I dont know which is the correct posture tbh. I have scoliosis too so maybe that's blocking the intuitive sense of the correct position.

 

When u say u straighten the upper spine, do u also squeeze the shoulder blades?

 

whenever I tuck the pelvis in (which happens naturally as it relaxes and also tuck in the lower abdomen) it also makes my upper back hunch, or at least makes it harder to get it straight, unless I perhaps squeeze my shoulder blades together.

[Encephalon]

 

This guy has a great video on Embrace Horse for those who haven't the advantage of personal instruction.

[Non]

embracing the horse, not tree, so it's done in a lower stand kinda like the horse stance. interesting. I love ma bu.

[Yuen Biao]

Several books on Zhan Zhuang suggest creating a concave feel with the chest and the shoulders, curving the upper back and shoulders inwards. A bit of hunched i guess. They caution against having the military style of puffing up the chest.

 

Yes this is correct at Wudangshan they refer to this as similar to a turtles back. It's only ever so slight though and not really "hunched" because the neck and head still need to be held straight which allows for the lengthening of the spine.

 

Zhan Zhang is 'rounded' like Taijiquan and this gives us more stability.

[Blind Owl]

[zanshin]

Alexander method teaches shoulder blades lightly down and back (make a V into the lower back) to improve normal everyday posture rather than puffing the chest out or pulling shoulder blades straight back.

[TzuJanLi]

Greetings..

 

It has been my experience and my instruction that the admonishment to 'round the back' is to counter the inclination to 'puff the chest'.. human nature seems to want to embellish certain physical attributes, the males puff their chests to embellish their muscular masculinity, similarly females tend to embellish certain 'attributes', too.. it is my understanding that the appropriate posture is 'relaxed', which lets the shoulders fall slightly forward and the back appears slightly rounded.. when the spine is perpendicular to the ground the body mass is forward, shifting the weight into the balls and arches of the feet.. this is an active alignment, activating energy systems in a 'stilled readiness', and.. it enhances the 'listening' systems..

 

In my practice i center the knees directly above the balls of the feet and 'firm the legs', without 'locking' them.. then, relaxing the girdle muscles (abs, glutes, and low back), the pelvis drops naturally into proper alignment, swinging freely on the stable pivots of the femurs.. there is the tendency to use the abs to 'pull' the pelvis forward, but.. a huge problem for many people is tension in the girdle region, this tension essentially separates the body into upper and lower sections.. this 'girdle tension' traps energy in the upper body and prevents integrated coherency and grounding/rooting..

 

With the relaxed girdle region, and the chin 'pulled toward the spine', not 'tucked in'.. then, 'raising the crown' will create an 'active tension' along the Erector Spinae Muscles.. this 'active tension' activates the Connective Tissue System (CTS) and increases 'energetic coherence' throughout the whole body.. this 'energetic coherence' produces a noticable physical sensation similar to a very subtle tingling, i refer to it as 'white noise', a background sensation that notifies me of successful alignment and 'central equilibrium'..

 

Now, the more difficult task.. maintaining this central equilibrium while moving....

 

Be well..

[sheng zhen]

With the relaxed girdle region, and the chin 'pulled toward the spine', not 'tucked in'.. then, 'raising the crown' will create an 'active tension' along the Erector Spinae Muscles.. this 'active tension' activates the Connective Tissue System (CTS) and increases 'energetic coherence' throughout the whole body.. this 'energetic coherence' produces a noticable physical sensation similar to a very subtle tingling, i refer to it as 'white noise', a background sensation that notifies me of successful alignment and 'central equilibrium'..

I thought I should write something about biotensegrity, what TzuJanLi gracefully refers to as the "energetic coherence" that is activated through the CTS. But then I figured I just link to my article here: http://www.thetaobums.com/Myofascial-Tense...ang-t10483.html

 

The sinking and relaxing of the chest(or the rest of the body) is to relax all improper tensions so that the bodys internal biotensegrity balance can take over. This makes the whole spine longer, the posture stronger and smoothes out all the postural misunderstandings that comes from not listening to your body but forcing it into an unnatural posture before the time is right. Relaxation and bodyconsciousness is the key. Combined with persistance ofcource

 

When I get into "the coherence" it feels like my body disappears and melts with the surroundings, or the universe. Im completely still and supported by the body, just enjoying slow breathing, energy and stillness.

[TzuJanLi]

Greetings..

 

Excellent description, Sheng Zhen.. thanks!!

 

Be well..

[Andrei]

Instead of doing Zhan Zhuang in embrace the tree posture - which has a very obvious martial arts purpose : the heart need to be protected and the force of the spine need to be used like a cobra - for opening the heart I recommend the 5 elements maoshan zhuangs which are obviously done for health and organ balance purposes....

 

t0jNaLW7qzE

 

also you can have a more open posture like here shown:

 

_WuK6XbZQyg

Edited November 23, 2009 by steam