Tag Archives: knees

Taiji Tidbits – 11/18/08

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This whole ‘tidbits’ thing is kind of fun and a nice way for me to kind of document and track what I am doing.  Anyhoo, last night was kind of a rough night packed with a tight schedule.  I wanted to catch up on my episode of HBO’s True Blood but at the same time I wanted to be more ‘productive’.  So, I decided to do my zhan zhuang while watching the episode.

Is doing zhan zhuang during a TV program cheating? Maybe, but I did it anyways. In fact, back in the day, this is exactly how I started out doing zhan zhuang. I would do standing, stance work, push-ups, sit-ups, you name it, during TV programs.  While not ideal, I believe I was still able to benefit from the physical aspect of zhan zhuang.  In fact, after about 20 min into the session, I began feeling quite a bit of soreness at the outer upper thigh region.  The funny thing was touching my thigh, it was not hard, but felt soft to the touch, yet the pain was there. I worked on trying to melt the pain, but after no such luck, I decided to sit down on the edge of the chair and sit.

This morning after waking up, I noticed some pain in my left knee. Maybe the blanket was too heavy causing some torque in my knee?  Who knows, but I decided to switch shoes and put on some newer shoes as my older pair of Ecco Shoes are due for the trash. They have a slight split in the sole and the orthopedic foot pad may also need an update.  Luckily my newer pair of Ecco shoes has pretty decent arch support. I’ll see if changing shoes makes a big difference.

Taiji Tidbits – 11/18/08

Posted on
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This whole ‘tidbits’ thing is kind of fun and a nice way for me to kind of document and track what I am doing.  Anyhoo, last night was kind of a rough night packed with a tight schedule.  I wanted to catch up on my episode of HBO’s True Blood but at the same time I wanted to be more ‘productive’.  So, I decided to do my zhan zhuang while watching the episode.

Is doing zhan zhuang during a TV program cheating? Maybe, but I did it anyways. In fact, back in the day, this is exactly how I started out doing zhan zhuang. I would do standing, stance work, push-ups, sit-ups, you name it, during TV programs.  While not ideal, I believe I was still able to benefit from the physical aspect of zhan zhuang.  In fact, after about 20 min into the session, I began feeling quite a bit of soreness at the outer upper thigh region.  The funny thing was touching my thigh, it was not hard, but felt soft to the touch, yet the pain was there. I worked on trying to melt the pain, but after no such luck, I decided to sit down on the edge of the chair and sit.

This morning after waking up, I noticed some pain in my left knee. Maybe the blanket was too heavy causing some torque in my knee?  Who knows, but I decided to switch shoes and put on some newer shoes as my older pair of Ecco Shoes are due for the trash. They have a slight split in the sole and the orthopedic foot pad may also need an update.  Luckily my newer pair of Ecco shoes has pretty decent arch support. I’ll see if changing shoes makes a big difference.

Everyday Knee Strains

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I think it’s rather strange that my knees are sore pretty much ALL the time, regardless of what activity I am doing! In fact, even sitting in an office type chair, my knees feel rather tender, sort of warm and tingly. In light of this, I have decided to think about the possible ‘everyday strains’ on the knee.

At night, when I sleep, I used to sleep with one leg crossed over the other. I then began to notice this resulting in a slight strain in the knees, shifting them a bit sideways.  So, I changed my sleeping position to just legs straight, however I am beginning to notice a potential strain on my ankle as the blanket can push down my foot. I could either pull up the blanket so it doesn’t put too much weight on my foot or I could sleep on my side (not preferable, though may try).

I commute roughly 2 hours round-trip 5 days a week. I noticed that sometime my left foot is placed very close to the seat, resulting in a slight strain on the top of the knees due to the knee being over the toe.  I have been trying to put my foot on the provided foot rest as that seems to reduce the strain a bit.

When sitting at my office chair at work, I have noticed that if I begin to tense up, I will often have both of my feet really close to the base of my chair. Again, this puts some unnecessary strain on the knees.  If I am too relaxed, I my cross my ankles, putting some strain on the knee.  My solution has been to try and do some active sitting where I do not use the chair backrest and I sit on the forward 1/3 of my seat cushion. Not only does this provide some exercise for the back, but it also forces me to look a bit more at my posture (strain in shoulders, placement of feet, relaxed kua, etc).

I would like to provide a little shout out to ZenMindSword for providing a bit of thought on my knee issue.  I think in regards to zhan zhuang, I still try to root downward in my training. I will have to continually remind myself NOT to do this.  I must have slipped back into old patterns …

The Intent of the Knees

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Man.. this could not have come at a better time as I am still experiencing some knee pains.  Anyhoo, while perusing taiji literature, I ran across the following passage:

7. The knees

Avoid downward pressing of the knees. Imagine the knee is always directed upwards when squatting down, pushing forward or forming a horse stance.

– Source: Neigong.net – The Quintessence of Wu (Yuxiang) Style Taijiquan

In my own training, I have been intently focusing on sinking down into the soles of my feet. I imagine the tension in my body going down into the ground. As such, when I do feel some strain in my knees, I imagine that tension going down. I guess, in a way, I am willing the pain to go down into the ground. However, after reading the above passage, my mental intent is most likely resulting in a downward pressing of the knees!

So, in doing some zhan zhuang, I imagined my knees directing up. Whadda ya know.. less strain. I tried some side to side chen style shifting, less strain. I formed a bow stance and imagine the knee pushing forward, less strain. The strain is lessening to the degree that I barely feel any strain or tension in the knees.

Amazing what a little bit of intention can do.. :)