body mechanics and chi

As some may or may not no, I have been trying to book learn tia chi. There are a few things I have noticed, alot of the things they teach you are very much body mechanics and developing many small unused muscles. It seems to condition your body perfectly for figthting, becuase you are able to maximize things like balance and strike speed and precision*. It also shows how easy it is to evade and counter an attack with little movement, still mechanical.

If this where all tia chi was all about it would still be a very solid form, but then it talks about chi. Chi seems to be a very important party of tia chi. Yet what REALLY is chi?

The human muscle works at 50% capacity even in extream examples. Say you are lifting weights, only about half your muscle contracts when you do a lift. Is chi simply forcing your body to use all your little stablaizers AND pushing your musclese to above 50%? Or is chi still a semi mysterious force that we have inside? If its a semi mysterious force, I could see it doing that to your muscles.

If it is simply a way of talking about control over your body, then I am baught on the fact that there is no possible way ANYONE ever can throw a ki blast. If its a semi mystical force, then Im still sceptical.

Taiji is based on the manipluation of Qi to a large degree, yes. This is because it is classified as an internal art, and so the inner strength manifested by Qi is the thing Taiji practitioners wish to enhance. You will notice a lot of movements are side to side, or up and down, which is very good for Qi flow.

You are learning from a book. This might get difficult at some point, as the postures are quite exact to get the best out of them, so a good instructor is indispensible.

If you want to know about Qi, there are a few threads that exaplin all about it in this section of the Forum, and some more in Pressure Points.


Mark.

Chi is energy. Plain and simple. Nothing ultramysterious or anything. Its, in contemporary terms, the method of diet, breath, mental awareness, and exercise that allows one to use their natural energies from food, oxygen, and rest in a manner that can increase longevity and/or increase combat capabilities by generating Jing.

"What's Jing," you ask?

Jing is the power generated by the muscles when they've been maximized to their full potential by Chi.

The idea of Chi being mysterious comes from people who either WANT it mystified or just don't know any other way of explaining it. Chi is energy and there are many different types of Chi/energy that flow through the body as they all come from different sources and play different roles in making the body work as one harmonious unit.