Why does the upper part of my stomach muscles cramp when I stand relaxed, tailbone down, knees bent?

[4bsolute]

Dear Ones,

 

I want to sort this issue out of my practices and I could not figure out where precisely the reason for this lies.

 

Whenever I stand in a standard relaxed pose for my Qi Gong workouts, do breathing practices, the upper part of my abdominal muscles start to cramp, making it hard to get relaxed overall.

 

Is this because I (try to) mainly breath into my perineum and dont even have to? I am used to doing so in meditation but am not yet familiar with Qi Gong breathing and so forth.

 

Does this have to do with being new to this kind of standing position? Since my unconscious pose normally was a little duck-ish (lots of computer work, typical). I corrected that by pulling myself up at the head for several months... but especially This relaxed posture with the bend knees, still makes some trouble.

 

Is this possible by bending the knees too much? Having the spine and head not really straight up? Or is this simply a process of familiarization, for the bones but mainly for the muscles?

 

I seek advice and I am grateful for any response.

 

Thank you, kind regards.

Edited June 12, 2013 by 4bsolute

[idquest]

Are you sure this is your muscles and not your stomach? You might somehow constrict movements of your diaphragm when you try to breath in a conscious way rather than doing natural breathing; and that might affect your LES and/or stomach.

[ChiDragon]

Dear Ones,

 

I want to sort this issue out of my practices and I could not figure out where precisely the reason for this lies.

 

Whenever I stand in a standard relaxed pose for my Qi Gong workouts, do breathing practices, the upper part of my abdominal muscles start to cramp, making it hard to get relaxed overall.

 

Is this because I (try to) mainly breath into my perineum and dont even have to? I am used to doing so in meditation but am not yet familiar with Qi Gong breathing and so forth.

 

Is this possible by bending the knees too much? Having the spine and head not really straight up? Or is this simply a process of familiarization, for the bones but mainly for the muscles?

 

I seek advice and I am grateful for any response.

 

Thank you, kind regards.

 

It sounds like you are not ready for the abdominal breathing.

 

In Chi Kung breathing, you don't need to breathe into your perineum but into your abdomen so to speak. For a beginner, you may not be able to breathe into the abdomen or lower dantien if you have a breathing problem to begin with. What you need to do is give yourself a breathing test to see how far down can you breathe. Find out where does your breath stops to establish a baseline. What I meant is for a good start, you practice your breathing by stopping your breath at the baseline and increase the depth progressively.

 

Why don't you try to stop your breath at the baseline each time you breathe and see if your cramp goes away. If it does, then you are on the right track. Later on, you can increase the depth slowly in your breathing until the cramp is gone.

 

Edited June 12, 2013 by ChiDragon

[松永道]

First of all, see a teacher. This is a foundational posture, so get someone who knows how to do it to set you up right.

 

But if you can't find a teacher and insist on standing practice, then start with natural breathing. There could be any number of things going wrong with your postural chain that lead to the cramping but most likely it's the breathing. Just relax the shoulders, neck, and upper back and let the breath come down on its own.

 

As for the knees, never past the toes.

 

Again, I really recommend you see a teacher. Get good foundations and you can mostly self study from there on out, but if you get off on the wrong foot you're setting yourself up for serious problems down the line.

[joeblast]

Dear Ones,

 

I want to sort this issue out of my practices and I could not figure out where precisely the reason for this lies.

 

Whenever I stand in a standard relaxed pose for my Qi Gong workouts, do breathing practices, the upper part of my abdominal muscles start to cramp, making it hard to get relaxed overall.

 

Is this because I (try to) mainly breath into my perineum and dont even have to? I am used to doing so in meditation but am not yet familiar with Qi Gong breathing and so forth.

 

Does this have to do with being new to this kind of standing position? Since my unconscious pose normally was a little duck-ish (lots of computer work, typical). I corrected that by pulling myself up at the head for several months... but especially This relaxed posture with the bend knees, still makes some trouble.

 

Is this possible by bending the knees too much? Having the spine and head not really straight up? Or is this simply a process of familiarization, for the bones but mainly for the muscles?

 

I seek advice and I am grateful for any response.

 

Thank you, kind regards.

stand against the wall with your heels 2-3 inches out, flatten your back up against the wall. relax the whole front. are you still carrying that tension there? if you're hunched over in a chair all day, if your thoracic is bent a little forward, that may be the cause of you holding tension there. I agree with natural ab breath to help sort this out since the structures on the inhale are all yin phase except for the diaphragm, it will help you relax more fully.