Overview: Although trees are motionless, they are constantly growing, growing, and growing solidly. Perhaps inspired by this natural phenomenon, the working people in ancient my country created the "Zhan Zhuang" exercise method. There is a record in the "Huangdi Nei Jing Su Wen" written more than 2,000 years ago that "grasp the heaven and earth, grasp the yin and yang, breathe the essence, guard the spirit independently, and the muscles are as one". It says, "Tranquility is nothingness, and the true energy comes from it. If the spirit is kept within, the illness will always be at ease."
If the cerebral cortex is simply suppressed and the pulse does not increase, it will enter a sleep state; if you perform strenuous exercise, As the pulse increases and difficulty breathing occurs, oxygen debt occurs. In this way, neither state can play the role of Zhanzhuang's contribution. This is the essential difference in the health care role of other physical activities and standing exercises.
I started learning zhanzhuang from Mr. Wang Xiangzhai in 1944. Later, some of its postures were used to promote the recovery of patients with chronic diseases, so it was also called Zhan Zhuang Therapy. According to my initial experience, Zhanzhuang does not appear to be moving in appearance, but it has an effect on the inside of the body, so it is helpful in the treatment of chronic diseases. (Yu Yongnian)
Time standard: The general principle is that it varies from person to person. Generally, beginners should start with 5 minutes; then gradually increase it to 40 minutes, up to 1 hour. The time should not be too short or too long. Don't force people with weak constitutions.
Recovery time: The period of time from when you stop standing to when the various reactions of the body due to exercise completely disappear and return to normal state is called recovery time. The length of recovery time also varies from person to person. Recovery time can be used to adjust practice time. If you can't fully recover after a night's rest, it means the dosage is too high; if the fatigue disappears quickly after practicing without much rest, it means the dosage is too light.
Notes: The first point: Before starting the stance, eliminate urine and feces first; loosen the clothes (collar buckle, belt, shoelaces, watch); The second point: Remember, before or after meals No practice within half an hour. Point 3: Remember that during menstruation, lesbians can continue to perform Zhanzhuang if there is no discomfort, but the amount of exercise should be reduced; if there is a reaction, they need to rest and practice again after menstruation has stopped and recovered. Point 4: Try to avoid nervous, excited or unpleasant emotions before taking the stance. Point 5: When practicing, you should generally breathe through the nostrils, but you can also breathe through the mouth when the nose is not clear. Point 6: Point 7:
Part 1: Lying on a pile
Lying posture training method: Here we mainly practice the third posture lying down. In winter, when it is cold indoors, you can only practice three or four postures, so that you don’t have to take out the quilt with your hands to avoid getting cold. After practicing, you can lie on your side or fall asleep in your usual sleeping position. Key points: Straighten your legs and lay them flat on the bed, with your feet separated to the left and right, about shoulder width apart. Move your hands away from your ribs and get into bed; or leave the bed slightly, keep them in the air, and wait until you feel tired before getting into bed. Put both hands gently on the abdomen with the fingers apart without applying force; or lift it up slightly and keep it in the air until you are tired before putting it on the abdomen.
The legs are in the same position as above. Put your hands gently on the bed, bend your elbows slightly, and leave your ribs. With both hands behind the bed, pinch the tip of the index finger with the tip of the thumb of the left hand, and relax the other three fingers (middle finger, ring finger, little finger) naturally. The gestures of the right hand are the same as those of the left hand. Gently place the back of your hands on the bed, and use your mind to relax your head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and calves. Inhale, exhale, inhale, and exhale. Feel that this part of your body is very relaxed. Each part takes about 2 to 3 minutes.
Part 2 Sitting Position
The feet should be parallel, about shoulder width apart, with the soles of the feet on the ground, and the thighs and calves at right angles. The elbows are away from the ribs, the hands are raised at the level of the navel, and the palms of the hands are upward like holding something. The wrists are about shoulder width apart. The fingers are spread apart and slightly bent.
Lean your knees to the edge of the chair. Lift your legs and separate them from left to right, with the distance between your feet slightly wider than your shoulders. The height of your feet from the ground depends on your ability. Lift your hands to the upper part of your chest. The palms of the hands are turned inwards into a hug shape.
Part 3 Standing Pose
The feet should be about shoulder width apart. Bend both knees and squat gradually, as long as it does not cause excessive pain. Lift your elbows away from your ribs, raise your hands on your shoulders and under your eyebrows, with the palms of your hands pointing toward the center of the body, in the shape of a cage of breath. Spread your fingers apart, do not lower your head, bend over, or lift your abdomen, and look straight ahead. The principle is to make the vertical line connecting the external auditory canal, shoulder joint, hip joint, and ankle joint form an angle of 90° with the ground plane. All kinds of health piles have this as the basic condition.
The standard action shown in the picture is: the feet are separated to the left and right, about shoulder width apart. Bend both knees and squat gradually, as long as it does not cause excessive pain. Stretch your hands left and right and place them on both sides of your body, approximately at the same level as your navel. Palms down, elbows slightly bent. This is actually a dynamic and luck method that goes down along the Ren channel and goes up through the Du channel. The Laogong points of the two palms touch each other, starting from about a punch in front of the forehead, and follow the Ren channel of the person's predecessor downward. Spread your hands to the Dantian area of ??your lower abdomen, and at the same time bend your knees and squat down, as shown in the picture below. Keep moving up, and continue to raise your hands along the arc formed by the extension of your arms. When the hands are at the same height as the shoulder level, bend your knees and stand upright; continue to move your hands up until the Laogong points of the two palms touch each other. This is a movement. The technique of Xiong Jing Bird Stretching is similar to this. This method is very subtle. I hope you will receive guidance from my master. You must not do it rashly. Otherwise, it is very easy for the Qi to flow improperly, fill the chest with horizontal Qi, and lead to evil spirits.
The feet should be about shoulder width apart. Bend your knees, hold your buttocks inward, lean back, push your knees outwards, pull your calves upward, place your hands outwards beside your hips, about the same height as your navel, slightly wider than shoulder width, palms down, fingers spread apart , the tiger's mouth is rounded, the shoulders are relaxed and the elbows are sunk, and the internal energy is seeping down.
The third posture: Life Gui Kidney Meridian
One leg is independent, the knee is slightly bent, the front leg is raised, the toes are hooked back, the chest is slightly retracted, and the head and feet are pushed. Raise your hands high, twist your wrists and support your fingers, relax your shoulders and elbows, hold your buttocks and draw in your abdomen.
Foot position
About thoughts: Generally speaking, during illness, thoughts should be used to calm the nerves and suppress the brain’s thoughts; after the disease improves, thoughts should be used to adjust the amount of exercise and improve the efficacy. Activities; those with strong bodies should use mental activities that train the nervous system and improve sensitive reactions. For those who are new to practicing zhanzhuang, they only need to assume a posture without moving and actively check whether all the muscles in the body can relax. It is to consciously focus on a certain part of the body and use the senses to check the working condition of the muscles in that part. Whenever you check a part, you must experience it carefully, pay attention to monitor every small change, and control the muscles here to "relax" rather than tense, so as to gradually improve the muscle's ability to relax and the brain's ability to recognize relaxation. Because muscles have not been trained, they are often in a state of tense contraction without being aware of it when undertaking certain important movements. If muscles can relax at the right time, premature fatigue can be avoided. Relaxed muscles can complete the maximum workload with minimum energy expenditure. This is the reason why it is easy to feel tired when you are new to Zhanzhuang. The muscles can still remain relaxed during a short period of time, but the longer the time, the easier it is for the muscles to become stiff due to excessive tension. This state is not easy to detect by oneself in the early stage. Only through continuous zhanzhuang training can the nervous system gradually feel it. This is the first step in Zhanzhuang practice. Further, take the initiative to cooperate with imaginative activities, concentrate your thoughts, eliminate distracting thoughts, and promote various changes in the body in advance. When practicing Qigong, you should carefully understand the occurrence and development of soreness, numbness, swelling and pain inside the body, and the regularity of its transformation into a sense of comfort. Within 10 to 20 minutes after starting Zhanzhuang, there will be chaotic thinking activities. This stage is the stage of life with distracting thoughts. In order to prevent the emergence of distracting thoughts, you can cooperate with appropriate activities to suppress thoughts, such as recalling beautiful scenery, counting silently, imagining support, wading in water, holding a ball, or relaxing and adjusting, and other conscious thinking activities; adding benign stimulation is more effective than simply using thoughts. . Or you can play some quiet music before the stance. The sound should not be too loud. It allows practitioners to divert their attention when distracting thoughts arise, shortening the feeling of lengthy practice time.
Requirements for standing posture skills
When standing, those with weak health should not close their eyes to avoid dizziness and instability due to closing their eyes. Normal people will feel relaxed for more than 20 minutes at a time. When you feel comfortable, you can close your eyes naturally; your lips should be slightly closed, do not close them tightly or open them; breathe naturally and steadily, do not hold your breath artificially or speed up your breathing; if you feel that you are not concentrating during the exercise, you can memorize the number of breaths to help stabilize your mood; Turn your back to the sun, and the sun should not be dazzling; it is especially comfortable to stand while basking on your back in autumn and winter; when the leg muscles tremble and the body swings back and forth, attention should be paid to controlling the swing range to avoid leaning forward. You can also consciously swing left and right to limit the front and back swing, but the swing should be slow.
When you stop standing, you should slowly straighten your legs, gently put down your hands, and rest on the spot for 2 to 3 minutes with the backs of your hands on your hips. After the soreness, numbness, swelling and pain in the limbs gradually disappear, you can then leave the spot. .
Patients with insomnia should practice Qigong before going to bed. You can fall asleep soon after practicing.
There are also some people who get excited after practicing, so these people need to adjust their practice time. They can practice 2 to 3 hours before going to bed so that they can have sufficient recovery time and fall asleep more easily after being excited.
When some people start practicing Qigong, due to fatigue reaction or lack of confidence, even standing for just one minute will feel like it is a long time, making them feel upset and irritable. When standing, you can use some pleasant things or interesting stories to put your mind in a relaxed and happy state, and a "smiling but not smiling" expression will naturally appear on your face.
When standing in stance, the shoulder muscles are most likely to become tense. Therefore, you should always check whether there is shoulder shrugging; whether the shoulder muscles are overly tense; whether breathing is natural and comfortable; whether there is a feeling of stuffiness in the chest, etc. If the above phenomenon occurs, you should first take a big breath to expand the chest as much as possible, then straighten the spine upwards, swing it slightly to the left and right several times, and exhale slowly at the same time. In this way, the shoulder muscles can naturally relax as the chest shrinks when exhaling. It is best to do it every 4 to 5 minutes, taking 2 to 3 deep breaths each time.
When standing, use the big tree or wall in front of you as an imaginary object, expand your mental strength, and make the tip of your index finger or hand respond to the target object and connect it with each other, which means to pull the big tree. Come over, and then push it out, and make sure that "the force penetrates the back of the object and leaves traces outside the body." At this time, the root joints of the upper limbs, that is, the shoulder muscles, must be relaxed, and the fingertips or hands of the upper limbs must be "tight". Furthermore, the neck part can be made to respond to the target object, creating a suspense connection effect. Furthermore, you can imagine that three feet away and within seven feet, snakes and beasts are snaking and swooping from all directions, and then imagine them fighting for survival. This is the most advanced mental training of Zhan Zhuang Gong.
When standing, the hands and elbows are positioned, changing the usual sagging state for a period of time. This affects the lifting of the ribs because the muscles on the shoulders, back and upper part of the thorax maintain this posture. It makes it difficult to complete chest breathing, but it naturally forces the diaphragm muscles to descend, increasing the role of abdominal breathing exercises to make up for the lack of chest breathing. Therefore, although there is no conscious training of abdominal breathing during Zhanzhuang practice. But it will happen naturally. When practicing Zhanzhuang, the naturally formed abdominal breathing will be deepened and enlarged due to the lifting with both hands.
Mental Technique
Grip the ground with your toes and raise your heels slightly. The soles of the feet are springy, and the ankles are shaking.
Stretch your knees and twist your legs with your hips. Lift the anus to suck the abdomen, and wrap the hips around the legs.
The back is straight, the waist is straight, and the chest is slightly tucked in. The shoulders are supported with the elbows horizontally, and the wrists are supported with hooked fingers.
The head of the head is erect, the mouth is grinning and the jaw is closed. The hair wants to rush to the crown, and the teeth want to break the tendons.
The whole body is swaying, and the strength is stretched far away. He is involved in all directions, and his hair is like a halberd.
The shape is curved and the force is straight, the shape is loose and the intention is tight. Loose but not tight, tight but not stiff.