Zhan Zhuang and Purple Feet

[Sophomore]

Hi all, I’ve been practicing Zhan Zhuang for almost two years, and after about 5-10 minutes, so much blood has rushed to my feet that they turn a dark purple! 
 

If I shift my weight left to right and lift up my heels, my feet return to a normal color. But I’m curious if this is related to an error in my posture, and if anyone else has experienced this.

 

I’ve used the way of energy as my guide (generally I do wuji, holding the balloon, then wuji for a cumulative 25 minutes) until a month ago when I switched to Damo Mitchell’s wuji posture. 

[senseless virtue]

Uh oh, this doesn't sound good at all.

 

I don't think it's good for your health to continue with any Zhan Zhuang unless you receive supervised instructions and corrections from a qualified master directly.

[Sophomore]

Thanks for your reply. My health seems much better since I’ve started Zz, but I’ll take your words into consideration.

[Earl Grey]

I don't know how you stand, but a lot of people who are self-taught do things that involve claiming what they are doing is Zhan Zhuang when it's clearly not upon inspection, and doing it completely wrong while causing more damage to their bodies while practicing.

[Shadow_self]

12 hours ago, Sophomore said:

Hi all, I’ve been practicing Zhan Zhuang for almost two years, and after about 5-10 minutes, so much blood has rushed to my feet that they turn a dark purple! 
 

If I shift my weight left to right and lift up my heels, my feet return to a normal color. But I’m curious if this is related to an error in my posture, and if anyone else has experienced this.

 

I’ve used the way of energy as my guide (generally I do wuji, holding the balloon, then wuji for a cumulative 25 minutes) until a month ago when I switched to Damo Mitchell’s wuji posture. 

 

This doesnt sound right...Id stop and get that looked at to be honest.

 

The way Damo teaches Wuji, it takes years to get it right...and when you do...you'll be well setup for further development.

 

So dont worry about taking some time off.

[Sophomore]

Thank you all. I think I can track down a local qigong teacher to critique my stance. 

[centertime]

16 hours ago, Earl Grey said:

I don't know how you stand, but a lot of people who are self-taught do things that involve claiming what they are doing is Zhan Zhuang when it's clearly not upon inspection, and doing it completely wrong while causing more damage to their bodies while practicing.

So what kind of mistakes can one make doing that?

[Earl Grey]

3 hours ago, centertime said:

So what kind of mistakes can one make doing that?

Enough to need medical emergency care or find out that even the doctors can’t detect what’s wrong even if he still feels pain.

[Sophomore]

Here are before and after photos, and my stance. Brutal critiques are invited! https://imgur.com/a/tI4q1BG

[Earl Grey]

12 minutes ago, Sophomore said:

Here are before and after photos, and my stance. Brutal critiques are invited! https://imgur.com/a/tI4q1BG

It seems you followed a photo from Damo’s style. I do not follow this system framework, but I can say that you may need to check your knees and where you’re placing your weight. The image is not adequate to fully assess also as it’s not known what your intent is or what your spine, legs, lower back, and knees feel as you do it and for how long.

 

 I unfortunately can’t comment further as it is not my system and I am not your teacher.

[Sophomore]

This is helpful for me, thank you. I place intent on softening my knees and actively bringing the weight of each body part to the feet with nothing grabbing the weight on the way down…but my hips and lower body are still very tense. Rarely I’ll get a lovely drop of the lower back and hips towards the end of the 20 minutes, but I haven’t made that release my own yet. Looking at Damo’s pictures in his nei gong book, there are a lot of obvious structural differences between our stances. 
 

I appreciate your focus on feeling and intent. It’s a good reminder for me. I really love this practice.

[Vajra Fist]

On 11/04/2022 at 3:23 PM, Sophomore said:

This is helpful for me, thank you. I place intent on softening my knees and actively bringing the weight of each body part to the feet with nothing grabbing the weight on the way down…but my hips and lower body are still very tense. Rarely I’ll get a lovely drop of the lower back and hips towards the end of the 20 minutes, but I haven’t made that release my own yet. Looking at Damo’s pictures in his nei gong book, there are a lot of obvious structural differences between our stances. 
 

I appreciate your focus on feeling and intent. It’s a good reminder for me. I really love this practice.

 

If you're on the neigong academy, Damo is normally quite accessible through the Facebook group - lots of people post photos and get corrections. It's a very specific standing exercise. 

[Shadow_self]

On 11/04/2022 at 2:44 PM, Sophomore said:

Here are before and after photos, and my stance. Brutal critiques are invited! https://imgur.com/a/tI4q1BG

 

This is not correct.

 

I am not going to give a criticisms and suggestions here because I am not a teacher, and it is not my place to do so. Nobody will ever be doing Wuji correctly immediately. It is a practice that develops over thousands of hours

 

I strongly suggest if you want to practice Damos system, that you join the academy and the support group. You will get all the help you need regards starting to create the proper alignments in your body. When the time comes and the world is more open, you can meet him and other teachers in person and they'll make sure you are on the right path

[Sophomore]

This really makes sense. I’ve signed up for Damo’s online school. 

[Earl Grey]

1 hour ago, Sophomore said:

This really makes sense. I’ve signed up for Damo’s online school. 

Damo teaches primarily for his system of neigong. As you appear to be doing it for health, this is a better way to go.

 

If you were doing this for martial purposes first and health afterwards… your photos and descriptions of intent show everything is wrong.

 

Remember to not mix and match systems when developing your foundation with Damo.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Earl Grey