Regulating the sympathetic nervous system

This part of the ANS controls the “fight or flight” responses. It can produce body reactions such as increasing blood flow to the skeletal muscles as much as 1200%! Whoa. I would think zhan zhuang is more about calming the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system (controls “rest and digest”). However these systems are [...]

A humorous story about Wang Xiangzhai

This story is an excerpt from a book called Yiquan: Kung Fu Revolution. Guo is Guo Yunshen, a famous xingyiquan master. Wang would have been only 13 at the time. 1898 was the year Guo died, in his mid-70’s. The story makes me think of several Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon scenes. First, assisting the convoy [...]

Clues to Wang Xiangzhai’s art by looking back at Guo Yunshen?

I assume there is some aspect and explanation of Wang Xiangzhai’s teachings and answers that must hark back to the nature of his lessons with the legendary Guo Yunshen and the age of Wang at the time. From a karate site, http://www.shimakarate.com/sensei_kim.shtml:
“One story says that once, when Guo got cold, and despite of this went [...]

Basketball “application” of zhan zhuang

One day my older son had been playing his favorite team sport - basketball - and was complaining that no one was passing the ball to him. I tried to explain to him that he needs to get open and also look ready by having his hands up and his eyes looking toward the person [...]

Zhan zhuang and biofeedback

A friend of mine who recently started training in baguazhang brought up an interesting idea that he’d like to use biofeedback to help him learn the right feeling for relaxation faster. He pointed me to some links on research in using EEG biofeedback in meditation. One that I found very interesting was called How Will [...]

yoga and zhan zhuang and bjj

There is a wuji sort of asana in yoga called tadasana (mountain pose). Its purpose is like wuji standing in some respects as far as I can tell - to help quiet the mind. They both are about balancing “heaven” and “earth” energy. That similarity leaves off in zhan zhuang practice that is more about [...]

Tabby Cat mentions gyroscopic effect

See this great article on his recent yiquan revelation.
It’s like, you know when you’ve got a little gyroscope really, really going fast, and you cup that in your hand and it doesn’t exactly move you externally but you can feel the coolest, smoothest feeling of whirling power from within it. Now imagine every body organ, [...]

San Ti calm alertness and video game

The main thing I practiced this weekend was San Ti Shi standing. I had one good experience with it where after a while I got that better soft focus / peripheral awareness and calm alertness you are supposed to get in doing this standing practice. Felt great that it actually seemed to work like [...]

Zhan zhuang from a style I’d never heard of

http://fallingleaveskungfu.blogspot.com/2007/08/zhang-zhuang.html - a really nice blog site.

zhan zhuang on the vibrating platform

There have been a lot of articles in the past few years on whole body vibration, where people just stand on a vibrating platform or do exercises on the platform. Below are a few links:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/07/08/new_buzz_on_an_old_workout_fad/
LeBron James Workout includes squats on a vibrating platform
Soloflex offers a consumer platform
Criticism of Soloflex version
Many articles mention that scientists do [...]