Piezoelectric effect is the ability of some materials to convert change of pressure applied through that material into electricity. And vice versa, these materials spontaneously contract and expand with the frequency of an alternating electric current which passes through them. Up until recently it was commonly thought that only inorganic crystals posses piezoelectric properties.
Recent scientific experiments have confirmed that biological systems also posses this property. And very interestingly human bones present piezoelectric properties. If human bone is exposed to a continuous variable pressure, it creates an electric current going from joint to joint through the centre of the bone marrow. And it gets even better. This electric field stimulates bone growth.
Bone
The majority of bones consist of bone matrix that is inorganic and organic in nature. Hydroxyapatite, which is crystalline, forms the inorganic part of the bone matrix. On the other hand, Type I collagen is the organic part of the matrix. Hydroxyapatite has been discovered to be responsible for piezoelectricity in bones.
Origin of Piezoelectricity in Bones
When collagen molecules, consisting of charge carriers, are stressed, these charge carriers from the inside move to the surface of the specimen. This produces electric potential across the bone.
Bone Density and Piezoelectric Effect
The stress acting on the bone produces the piezoelectric effect. This effect, in turn, attracts bone-building cells (called osteoblasts) because of the formation of electrical dipoles. This subsequently deposits minerals--primarily calcium--on the stressed side of the bone. Hence, the piezoelectric effect increases bone density.
Significance for internal martial arts and Chi Kung
Internal martial arts and Chi kung exercises are supposed to be performed in slow continuous and smooth fashion. They are also supposed to be performed in synchronization with your breath and your heartbeat. Stepping should be performed without stomping. During weight transfer a leg goes from yin or empty leg with no weight to yang or full leg with all the weight.
Performing chi kung or internal martial arts exercises in this way creates continuous piezoelectric effect inside the bones, which produces continuous variable electric field with near constant frequency. This stimulates bone building and repair.
During the war in Yugoslavia experiments were performed on injured soldiers in orthopedic clinics in Belgrade. All the solders had complete bone fractures in their limbs, where parts of the bone had to be removed because they were shattered. They were bandaged with special bandages which contained small magnets aligned with the bone. The presence of magnets alone made bones to regrow with highly accelerated rate, leading to much quicker recovery. In some cases few inches of bone was regrown. Changing electric filed, such as the one created by continuous sinusoid pressure change in tai chi, generates magnetic filed in and around the bone. Magnetic field accelerates bone growth.
Many studies have been undertaken which prove that practicing chi kung increases bone density. Osteoporosis is unheard of in old tai chi practitioners. Again, modern science confirms ancient Taoist knowledge.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Bagua - a set of abstract martial arts principles and their applications
In Bagua, there are no blocks, strikes, locks, kicks, sweeps, takedowns... There is stepping, twisting, coiling, pushing, pressing, lifting... You are first taught abstract internal principles. Then you are taught how to perform abstract body movements applying these abstract internal principles. Then in semi sparing you are taught how these abstract body movements translate into techniques.
Depending on the situation, a combination of your body and the opponent body can result in block, strike, lock, takedown... It all depends which part of your body connects with which part of the opponent’s body, under which angle and so on...
Also you can decide how badly you want to hurt your opponent. You can then adjust your body position and perform the movement either as a strike (bad injuries) or a takedown (a bit better but still potentially resulting in bad injuries) or lock (the least harmful unless you proceed with break). It is the same move, resulting from applying the same internal martial arts principles, that can be applied it three different ways.
What I have found while practicing with people from different martial arts, is that learning these abstract Bagua principles and how to apply them in movement, greatly improved the understanding that those people had of their own martial arts, and ultimately made them better at what they do, very quickly.
Dong Hai Chuan developed Bagua as a set of abstract martial arts principles and their applications. It was then taught to students coming from different martial arts backgrounds. Each one of his students has taken these principles and applied them to what he knew. The application of the internal martial arts principles then changed their practice into what became known as their own style of Bagua.
This is why when you look at all different styles of Bagua that exist today, it is difficult to understand how they can be all so different, yet they all call themselves Bagua. But once you understand the internal principles, you can see them being applied in the same way in every one of them.
I believe that in order to learn them, it is important that someone actually explains these internal principals to you. And then shows you exercises that you can use to learn these principals. And then explains to you how these principals generate your techniques.
This is quite rare in both internal and external martial arts. Very few teachers teach that way. I have no idea why. Maybe they don’t have the knowledge that I am talking about. Maybe they have the knowledge of internal martial arts principles but don’t know how to pass the knowledge to their students. Maybe this is because they acquired this knowledge through long practice of techniques and meditation on those techniques. So they can feel it and can do it, and maybe even explain how you should do the technique when the internal martial arts principals are being applied. But they were never through any coherent exercise system that can teach you how to learn and experience these principles. So you are left to practice your techniques and hope that you will get it one day. Which you might, but it’s very unlikely.
I was very fortunate to meet one of the people who were taught these exercise sets that allow you to learn and experience these internal martial arts principles. It has been an eye opener.
Depending on the situation, a combination of your body and the opponent body can result in block, strike, lock, takedown... It all depends which part of your body connects with which part of the opponent’s body, under which angle and so on...
Also you can decide how badly you want to hurt your opponent. You can then adjust your body position and perform the movement either as a strike (bad injuries) or a takedown (a bit better but still potentially resulting in bad injuries) or lock (the least harmful unless you proceed with break). It is the same move, resulting from applying the same internal martial arts principles, that can be applied it three different ways.
What I have found while practicing with people from different martial arts, is that learning these abstract Bagua principles and how to apply them in movement, greatly improved the understanding that those people had of their own martial arts, and ultimately made them better at what they do, very quickly.
Dong Hai Chuan developed Bagua as a set of abstract martial arts principles and their applications. It was then taught to students coming from different martial arts backgrounds. Each one of his students has taken these principles and applied them to what he knew. The application of the internal martial arts principles then changed their practice into what became known as their own style of Bagua.
This is why when you look at all different styles of Bagua that exist today, it is difficult to understand how they can be all so different, yet they all call themselves Bagua. But once you understand the internal principles, you can see them being applied in the same way in every one of them.
I believe that in order to learn them, it is important that someone actually explains these internal principals to you. And then shows you exercises that you can use to learn these principals. And then explains to you how these principals generate your techniques.
This is quite rare in both internal and external martial arts. Very few teachers teach that way. I have no idea why. Maybe they don’t have the knowledge that I am talking about. Maybe they have the knowledge of internal martial arts principles but don’t know how to pass the knowledge to their students. Maybe this is because they acquired this knowledge through long practice of techniques and meditation on those techniques. So they can feel it and can do it, and maybe even explain how you should do the technique when the internal martial arts principals are being applied. But they were never through any coherent exercise system that can teach you how to learn and experience these principles. So you are left to practice your techniques and hope that you will get it one day. Which you might, but it’s very unlikely.
I was very fortunate to meet one of the people who were taught these exercise sets that allow you to learn and experience these internal martial arts principles. It has been an eye opener.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Leg strengthening exercises that help you develop your root
This exercises set is designed to strengthen your leg muscles, your sense of stability and your root. Developing your sense of stability and root is extremely important in internal martial arts. You need to be able to stand on one leg while using the other one for kicking, sweeping and blocking, without loosing your balance. These exercises will in particularly help you develop:
1.Internal small stabilizer muscles. Particularly foot and ankle muscles.
2.Muscle control infrastructure, which means your brain and your nerves. In order to have a good balance, you need to be relaxed, but alert (sung), and your nerve pathways have to be fast and unblocked, so that you can quickly adjust your body position, by switching on and off your muscles.
3.Your internal feeling in your legs all the way from your hips to your feet. In order to be able to your body position on time, before you start falling, you need to be able to feel what is going on in your legs. You need to be able to feel where your body is spatially, and correct its position in real time, while doing something else, like kicking, or sweeping.
During this exercise set you need to pay attention to these details:
1.Do all exercises in sung state. This means using only minimum of necessary muscle, ligament and tendon power, required to perform the exercise. This does not mean be slumped.
2.Your supporting leg needs to be vertical with foot, knee hip alignment maintained at all times.
3.Your torso needs to be vertical. You should not lean forward or backwards or sideways.
4.Don't break your hip. To break the hip means to stick you hip to the outside to counter balance the weight of your opposite leg when its lifted up. Breaking hip creates an angle between your supporting leg and your torso. Your supporting leg and your torso should be inline and vertical at all times.
5.Keep your core muscles engaged at all times. This will cause your pelvis to be slightly tilted forward and up, and will straighten your lower back making your coccyx point down. This will prevent you from sticking your bottom out to counter balance the weight of your leg when its lifted forward.
6.Do not hold your breath. Keep your breathing smooth and continuous. Use lower dantien breathing. Your waist should expand on inhale in all directions, from your lower ribs to your pelvis.
You can repeat each of these exercises 10 times, holding for 3 breaths. You can then increase the number of breaths during which you hold your leg up.
If you can not balance properly and hold the required alignment, you should do these exercises while holding onto something, like a wall. Do the exercises using support until your core muscles and your leg stabilizing muscles are strong enough to allow you to do the exercises without support.
Here is the video that shows how to perform this exercise set.
1.Internal small stabilizer muscles. Particularly foot and ankle muscles.
2.Muscle control infrastructure, which means your brain and your nerves. In order to have a good balance, you need to be relaxed, but alert (sung), and your nerve pathways have to be fast and unblocked, so that you can quickly adjust your body position, by switching on and off your muscles.
3.Your internal feeling in your legs all the way from your hips to your feet. In order to be able to your body position on time, before you start falling, you need to be able to feel what is going on in your legs. You need to be able to feel where your body is spatially, and correct its position in real time, while doing something else, like kicking, or sweeping.
During this exercise set you need to pay attention to these details:
1.Do all exercises in sung state. This means using only minimum of necessary muscle, ligament and tendon power, required to perform the exercise. This does not mean be slumped.
2.Your supporting leg needs to be vertical with foot, knee hip alignment maintained at all times.
3.Your torso needs to be vertical. You should not lean forward or backwards or sideways.
4.Don't break your hip. To break the hip means to stick you hip to the outside to counter balance the weight of your opposite leg when its lifted up. Breaking hip creates an angle between your supporting leg and your torso. Your supporting leg and your torso should be inline and vertical at all times.
5.Keep your core muscles engaged at all times. This will cause your pelvis to be slightly tilted forward and up, and will straighten your lower back making your coccyx point down. This will prevent you from sticking your bottom out to counter balance the weight of your leg when its lifted forward.
6.Do not hold your breath. Keep your breathing smooth and continuous. Use lower dantien breathing. Your waist should expand on inhale in all directions, from your lower ribs to your pelvis.
You can repeat each of these exercises 10 times, holding for 3 breaths. You can then increase the number of breaths during which you hold your leg up.
If you can not balance properly and hold the required alignment, you should do these exercises while holding onto something, like a wall. Do the exercises using support until your core muscles and your leg stabilizing muscles are strong enough to allow you to do the exercises without support.
Here is the video that shows how to perform this exercise set.
Friday, December 2, 2011
There are no internal or external martial arts, there are just martial arts
After all the years of practicing martial arts, I firmly believe that there are no internal or external martial arts, there are just martial arts. What I mean when I say that is that every martial art has its external and internal aspects. The external aspects are visible as techniques. The internal aspects are the abstract principles like full body power, connectedness, awareness, sensitivity, responsiveness… the external aspects are just manifestation of internal aspects. The more you understand the internal aspects of martial arts, the easier it is to use the external aspects. When I used to practice taeqwando, everyone was bouncing up and down, in a proper taeqwando fighting stands during the sparing fights. Everyone was jumping during sparing except for my teacher. He used to just stand there calmly, and watch us. He would wait until you had both feet in the air, and would suddenly leap forward and push you off balance. He wouldn’t even have to kick you or punch you. He would use his hands. How was he able to do it? He attacked us through the gaps in our consciousness. We were all too busy thinking about what we were doing, and did not pay attention what he was doing. Especially when we attacked, we all gapped and completely lost the connection with what was going on around us. We committed not only our bodies but our minds as well. So he used internal principal of awareness, connectedness and full body power, and we didn’t. This is why his taeqwando was so much better than ours. This use of internal martial arts principals is very common in “external” martial arts. Good boxers for instance use this gap punching all the time. They wait until the opponent commits to a punch and his consciousness gaps, and then attack through this gap. This is a use of internal martial arts principles in what are commonly considered to be external martial arts. Also I have met so many people who practice internal martial art, who don’t understand and don’t use any of the internal principles. This is most commonly seen in tai chi. This is why tai chi is regarded as rubbish for fighting. Tai chi means supreme boxing. And if you get it, it is supreme fighting style. Here is an example of what you can do with tai chi when you get its internal principals.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Bubbles
One of the people I know told me once: I wish I could get excited about anything nowadays, the way my 2 year old son gets excited about bubbles.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
How do we learn martial arts
How do we learn martial arts? We learn by practicing, by repeating? Every time we perform an action, we learn from the action outcome. The outcome is not just the end result of the action. It’s all the information that our brain receives and processes during the performance of the action and after the performance of the action.
This information also includes our intent. It is against this intent that the information gathered from our senses is compared, and the action is corrected to fit more and more closely to the intent. Based on that information our bodies and in particular our nervous system and our brain are physically reshaped. New neurons are created to help gather and process the information necessary for controlling the action, new muscle and connective tissue fibers are created to allow our bodies to perform the action. The more we repeat the action, the more our bodies get changed by it. Here Michael Merzenich explains how that happens. But if there is no intent present during the action performance, a crucial element of this learning mechanism is missing, and learning becomes difficult and sometimes impossible. This is why in internal martial arts there is so much insistence on performing actions with intent. Clear intent alone, as Bruce Frantzis explains i this video, even without any physical movement, causes the process of body mind reshaping to start taking place. With clear intent, the mind will act on the body. Without clear intent, the mind will react to the body. There is a huge difference here. The intent is like a blueprint that our body uses to reshape itself. In order to have a clear blueprint, we need to have a clear and powerful intent. To have a clear and powerful intent we need to have a clear mind. Thoughts and emotions not only distort the intent, but interfere with our senses and the way the information that comes from our senses is processed. Our thoughts and our emotions get jumbled together with our intent and all the information that comes from our senses, and that informational mess is used to reshape your body. Imagine what that does to you. If you practice angry, you will hardwire that anger into your body. That is bad for your health. It will not make you stronger or more powerful. It will just make you sick. This is where “Practice internal kung fu happy.” advice becomes very important.
Another reason why intent is so important in practicing internal kung fu, is that if you don’t have a clear picture of what you want to achieve, how will you ever be able to achieve it? This is where communication between you and your teacher, and your teacher’s ability to explain exactly what he wants you to practice becomes extremely important. What if the action you were performing was not what your teacher was trying to teach you, but what you thought your teacher was trying to teach you? What if the intent is wrong? Then you are on a wrong path, and the harder you practice the wronger things get. This is where advice: “Practice internal kung fu smart.” becomes very important.
When does this hardwiring development stop? It stops when we reach a particular “satisfactory” level of performance. This level is arbitrary and is determined by a conscience decision that we have now acquired a required skill. Most times it is determined by our teacher telling us that we have acquired a satisfactory level of skill. Some people even call it “perfect” level of skill. From that moment on, we repeat the same action in exactly the same way, automatically, and most of the time unconsciously. The action becomes “hardwired”. But this is wrong on so many levels.
There is no “perfect” level of skill. One of the Bagua teachers was once asked if he has ever performed his Bagua perfectly. And he said “O yes. And then the next day I did it better.” Every internal martial arts practice can be done better, with deeper understanding, with more awareness; smoother, easier, stronger, more connected, with smaller gaps… there is no end to it.
Hardwiring is actually desired in external martial arts. People believe that being hardwired means being fast and being responsive. What they don’t realize is that being hardwired means becoming unconscious, means becoming automated, robot like, and thus unable to respond to changed circumstances. It means learning dozens of specific blocks, each specifically “designed” to protect from a specific strike, not realizing that all the “different” blocks and strikes are just the same one block and one strike just performed with different body alignment and from a different angle on a common abstract movement curve. There are actually no blocks and strikes. They are all just generic moves that become blocks or strikes depending on circumstance. Or they can be both blocks and strikes at the same time. Or they can morph from being a block to being a strike and back. Here are 3 videos (video-1, video-2, video-3) by Erle Montaigue explaining the difference between the hardwired and abstract martial skills. In order to acquire these abstract movement skills, you need to practice in an abstract fashion. You need to practice mindfully. One thing that scientists have noticed is that kids are a lot better at learning new skills than adults are. The reason why children are so much better at learning than adults is because children don’t observe the world in the same way as adults. Adults use focused observation which can be compared to a flash light that only illuminates one spot and leaves everything else in the darkness. Everything else is filtered out by frontal lobe logical processing engine, which ignores everything that it cannot understand. Children and especially babies don’t have this filtering. They observe and absorb everything. Their awareness is full, dispersed and can be compared to a lantern, which shines its light equally everywhere around. The way babies learn is much faster and generates more complex and more abstract neural systems. Here is an article that explains how babies observe, learn and think. We can all learn like babies. All we need to do is to switch the frontal lobe off, and you can do it through meditation. This is where “Practice internal kung fu like chi kung.” becomes very important.
This information also includes our intent. It is against this intent that the information gathered from our senses is compared, and the action is corrected to fit more and more closely to the intent. Based on that information our bodies and in particular our nervous system and our brain are physically reshaped. New neurons are created to help gather and process the information necessary for controlling the action, new muscle and connective tissue fibers are created to allow our bodies to perform the action. The more we repeat the action, the more our bodies get changed by it. Here Michael Merzenich explains how that happens. But if there is no intent present during the action performance, a crucial element of this learning mechanism is missing, and learning becomes difficult and sometimes impossible. This is why in internal martial arts there is so much insistence on performing actions with intent. Clear intent alone, as Bruce Frantzis explains i this video, even without any physical movement, causes the process of body mind reshaping to start taking place. With clear intent, the mind will act on the body. Without clear intent, the mind will react to the body. There is a huge difference here. The intent is like a blueprint that our body uses to reshape itself. In order to have a clear blueprint, we need to have a clear and powerful intent. To have a clear and powerful intent we need to have a clear mind. Thoughts and emotions not only distort the intent, but interfere with our senses and the way the information that comes from our senses is processed. Our thoughts and our emotions get jumbled together with our intent and all the information that comes from our senses, and that informational mess is used to reshape your body. Imagine what that does to you. If you practice angry, you will hardwire that anger into your body. That is bad for your health. It will not make you stronger or more powerful. It will just make you sick. This is where “Practice internal kung fu happy.” advice becomes very important.
Another reason why intent is so important in practicing internal kung fu, is that if you don’t have a clear picture of what you want to achieve, how will you ever be able to achieve it? This is where communication between you and your teacher, and your teacher’s ability to explain exactly what he wants you to practice becomes extremely important. What if the action you were performing was not what your teacher was trying to teach you, but what you thought your teacher was trying to teach you? What if the intent is wrong? Then you are on a wrong path, and the harder you practice the wronger things get. This is where advice: “Practice internal kung fu smart.” becomes very important.
When does this hardwiring development stop? It stops when we reach a particular “satisfactory” level of performance. This level is arbitrary and is determined by a conscience decision that we have now acquired a required skill. Most times it is determined by our teacher telling us that we have acquired a satisfactory level of skill. Some people even call it “perfect” level of skill. From that moment on, we repeat the same action in exactly the same way, automatically, and most of the time unconsciously. The action becomes “hardwired”. But this is wrong on so many levels.
There is no “perfect” level of skill. One of the Bagua teachers was once asked if he has ever performed his Bagua perfectly. And he said “O yes. And then the next day I did it better.” Every internal martial arts practice can be done better, with deeper understanding, with more awareness; smoother, easier, stronger, more connected, with smaller gaps… there is no end to it.
Hardwiring is actually desired in external martial arts. People believe that being hardwired means being fast and being responsive. What they don’t realize is that being hardwired means becoming unconscious, means becoming automated, robot like, and thus unable to respond to changed circumstances. It means learning dozens of specific blocks, each specifically “designed” to protect from a specific strike, not realizing that all the “different” blocks and strikes are just the same one block and one strike just performed with different body alignment and from a different angle on a common abstract movement curve. There are actually no blocks and strikes. They are all just generic moves that become blocks or strikes depending on circumstance. Or they can be both blocks and strikes at the same time. Or they can morph from being a block to being a strike and back. Here are 3 videos (video-1, video-2, video-3) by Erle Montaigue explaining the difference between the hardwired and abstract martial skills. In order to acquire these abstract movement skills, you need to practice in an abstract fashion. You need to practice mindfully. One thing that scientists have noticed is that kids are a lot better at learning new skills than adults are. The reason why children are so much better at learning than adults is because children don’t observe the world in the same way as adults. Adults use focused observation which can be compared to a flash light that only illuminates one spot and leaves everything else in the darkness. Everything else is filtered out by frontal lobe logical processing engine, which ignores everything that it cannot understand. Children and especially babies don’t have this filtering. They observe and absorb everything. Their awareness is full, dispersed and can be compared to a lantern, which shines its light equally everywhere around. The way babies learn is much faster and generates more complex and more abstract neural systems. Here is an article that explains how babies observe, learn and think. We can all learn like babies. All we need to do is to switch the frontal lobe off, and you can do it through meditation. This is where “Practice internal kung fu like chi kung.” becomes very important.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Starting knee strengthening and stabilization exercise set
The set of exercises I am presenting here is the starting knee strengthening and stabilization exercise set. This set should be mastered before you start practicing any internal martial arts moving exercises.
This exercise set strengthens your whole lower body, all the way from your ribs to your toes.
It teaches you how to connect your torso with your legs.
It teaches you how to move without hurting your knees.
It teaches you how to shift weight fully from leg to leg without swaying.
It teaches you how to ground yourself.
It teaches you how to have a full Yang and full Yin leg.
Instructions:
1. You should have your full weight on your supporting leg. The moving leg should bear no weight even when it touches the ground.
2. The supporting foot should be in full contact with the ground, with the weight equally distributed throughout the exercise. You should never lift your toes or your heel, or the sides of your foot during the exercise.
3. The supporting knee should be over the center of your foot and should not move from that position.
4. Your supporting leg should be vertical and your hip, your knee and your foot should be on the same vertical plane at all times.
5. Your torso should be vertical at all times. Do not lean forward or backward as you step.
6. Your torso should be facing forward at all times. The angle between the supporting leg and your torso should be 90 degrees.
7. When moving your other foot away, you need to lower your body from your coccyx. You are effectively performing a series of mini one leg squats.
8. Your core muscles should be engaged at all times, but only to the minimum required to keep the body in the correct position.
9. Your breathing should be smooth and long. Do not hold your breath.
This set of exercises is sometimes known as Taichi dance. Once you can perform this set, you can connect the movements by shifting the weight from your Yang leg to your Yin leg. During this process of weight shifting, you learn how transform Yin to Yang and Yang to Yin. You learn Taichi.
Here is the link to the video that shows how perform these exercises.
This exercise set strengthens your whole lower body, all the way from your ribs to your toes.
It teaches you how to connect your torso with your legs.
It teaches you how to move without hurting your knees.
It teaches you how to shift weight fully from leg to leg without swaying.
It teaches you how to ground yourself.
It teaches you how to have a full Yang and full Yin leg.
Instructions:
1. You should have your full weight on your supporting leg. The moving leg should bear no weight even when it touches the ground.
2. The supporting foot should be in full contact with the ground, with the weight equally distributed throughout the exercise. You should never lift your toes or your heel, or the sides of your foot during the exercise.
3. The supporting knee should be over the center of your foot and should not move from that position.
4. Your supporting leg should be vertical and your hip, your knee and your foot should be on the same vertical plane at all times.
5. Your torso should be vertical at all times. Do not lean forward or backward as you step.
6. Your torso should be facing forward at all times. The angle between the supporting leg and your torso should be 90 degrees.
7. When moving your other foot away, you need to lower your body from your coccyx. You are effectively performing a series of mini one leg squats.
8. Your core muscles should be engaged at all times, but only to the minimum required to keep the body in the correct position.
9. Your breathing should be smooth and long. Do not hold your breath.
This set of exercises is sometimes known as Taichi dance. Once you can perform this set, you can connect the movements by shifting the weight from your Yang leg to your Yin leg. During this process of weight shifting, you learn how transform Yin to Yang and Yang to Yin. You learn Taichi.
Here is the link to the video that shows how perform these exercises.
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