I was doing a bit of reading the other day and came across a weight lifting training manual published in India in the 1930's (http://www.sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Sengupta/sen-intro.htm). Interestingly, it turns out weight training has a long history in India, with formal training programs using various apparatus documented as far back as 1100 CE. Along with the weight lifting, they practiced what came to be called muscle controlling. In modern bodybuilding, this would be the skill of flexing the muscles to enhance their appearance and display during posing competition.
In ancient India, one would practice weight training for some period and after the muscles showed development, then muscle controlling would be added to the training. What I found most fascinating in this publication was that the first lesson in muscle controlling was to learn to relax all the muscles in the body thoroughly. Only after one learned relaxation, could one proceed to learn flexing. It was believed that proper relaxation helped muscle development and health, and made it possible to finely control which muscles were flexed and to what degree.
Perhaps Tai Chi ought to be in the toolbox of every weight lifting athlete today.
Use the Mind (yi) instead of Force (li).
If you use Mind, and not Force, then the Mind goes to a place in the body and the Internal Energy follows it. The Internal Energy and the blood circulate. If you do this every day and never stop, after a long time you will have nei jing [Real Internal Strength]. The T'ai Chi Ch'uan Classics say, "when you are extremely soft, you become extremely hard and strong." Someone who has extremely good T'ai Chi Ch'uan kung fu has arms like iron wrapped with cotton and the weight is very heavy. As for the external schools, when they use Force, they reveal Force. When they don't use Force, they are too light and floating. Their Power is external and locked together. The Force of the external schools is easily led and moved, and not to be esteemed.
- Yang's Ten Principles of Tai Chi (http://sites.google.com/site/taichiplay/tai-chi-literature/yangs-ten-principles)
No comments:
Post a Comment