Monthly Archives: November 2005

ZZ Total – 6 hrs

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Hit the 6 hr mark for my zhanzhuang practice. That means only have 94 more hours to go! As of late, the standing has been getting easier to manage as the mind does not chatter as much anymore. However, I’m starting to physically feel like my body is off balance. More specifically, the right side of my body is higher than my left side! Weird, eh? I recall reading in Way of Energy that after some time weird sensations can be felt and one of them is this physical imbalance.

I’ve also been playing around with the way I do the chen form. I’ve had instruction from 2 camps.. well actually 3 if you really count the nitty gritty. My first instruction came via the Ren Guangyi camp, my second instruction came via the Chen Xiaowang camp and finally I had some instruction via the Chen Zhenglei camp. True, while all three are considered “chen village” chen taiji, they have their unique differences.

Last night I was working on my posture and alignment at the end phases of the posture. Generally I have to self-correct the posture at the end as my hips may move a bit too far. Another correction is sometimes my hips don’t turn enough too. I noticed that if I do things like how I was shown via the CZL line, I have far less self-corrections to perform on myself. Another interesting note is I feel the form flows much smoother if I do things “his” way. Currently just playing around with these kind of feelings but it’s definintely something to note as I’ve always enjoyed the flavor of Chen Zhenglei.

The Burn

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Wow.. last night about 10 mins into my standing session I really felt the burn in my thighs! I’m taking this to mean the tension is dropping from my hips into my thighs which is a good thing. Started almost shaking a bit until I began to sink deeper into my stance. You’d figure to rise would be better, but actually sinking deeper and relaxing into my posture really helped. I also noticed a bit more tension in the uppper left back region and the tingling in my left foot spiked and then went away. Hopefully these are signs of all the paths opening up or something.

Did some single handed silk reeling to keep the energy flowing and it was nice. I was really able to sink into the ending postures and felt quite solid. I think the standing is really starting to pay off. I did the exercises calmly and not hurrying but really focusing on the flow and sinking into my stances. Not necessarily going lower, but sinking into the gua. As a result, I felt a bit more burn in my thighs, but that’s ok.

This reminds me of some of my sessions where I was corrected on my posture. I would be all low and felt good until the instructor would come along, lift me higher, shift my hips more centered (as I tended to shift my hips over too far in my stances) and then did this “pinching” type of adjustment where he would push into my hips (down) with his thumbs while at the same time lifting my thighs (up) with his fingers. This action really caused me to sink into my gua and I would feel immense pain in my thighs but yet felt solid. This adjustment made me feel as if I was sitting on an imaginary bench or something, quite strange but resulted in a lot pain so I remember the feeling and the adjustments vividly and try to recreate them on my own. At times, I would look down to see where they were but I was told to keep my head erect and try to feel the adjustments, not look at them. This has really helped in my own trainnig as I can often feel where I’m off now.

I kept this mentality while working on the first half of the chen laojia yilu. I focused on the flow and the posture. Trying to sink into my gua with every stance and trying to maintain the calm torso felt during standing practice. Overall, very good session and I was feeeling the burn but at the same time quite calm and relaxed.