The Standing Chong
This is another breathing exercise that you’ll do standing up. We use it in tai chi practice to make fine adjustments to posture. Traditionally it is used to enhance the flow of chi in the upper body, the practitioner allows the chi to flow through the arms and across the chest in a circle. Whether or not we are impressed with these ancient ideas at the end of the day it works and these theories simply explain our experience. We can take another perspective on what is happening.
Movement is energy, enhancing the flow of energy is the same then as enhancing the ease, or flow, of movement. For movement to be easy we need to remove as many of the postural and myofascial obstructions as possible.
- Stand in horse stance
- Bring your arms up in front of you as if you are hugging a tree. You've almost made a circle but your handsdon't meet. They should be about 30cm (12 inches) aprt.
- Allow your arms to rest as much as they can. Relax your shoulders and let your elbows fall to your side so that you're using the absolute minimal muscles toine to hold them up
- Imagine your wrists leaning on a rail so that your arms have no weight at all.
- Go over your stance and make sure you are solid in your legs and relaxed in the upper body.
- Lift your sternum and relax your chest.
- Breathe gently into the abdomen and feel your chest soften with the rhythmic movements of the breath. With every out breathe remember that sense of falling that you learned in the breathing exercise.
If you stay here for a little while you’ll start to develop little aches where the myofascia is tense/blocked. As you focus in and relax these areas the muscle tone will change and you’ll fall into a slightly different position. This is much different to the old approach to postural problems where you were told to lift your head, or pull your shoulders back. Rather than actively pushing yourself into a new shape you are passively allowing yourself to fall into one. Not easy at first but much more effective.