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I was experimenting with something a few days ago, and am a bit perplexed by it.
Basically, just how down do you point your elbows while doing circle walking?
I think I typically bend my elbows down from the horizontal about 70-80 degrees. I think in hsing-i we made a big deal about pointing your elbow straight down [90 degrees from the horizontal]. I tried bagua circle walking with my elbows straight down, and I definitely felt a difference in my shoulders and back that I liked as such, but I felt like it was “scrunching” my body up much more than I cared for. If you were to take your elbows and bend them beyond 90 degrees, thats what it felt like to me. The forward hand that faces the center wasn’t such a big deal, but the back/lower hand pointing into the dan tien was harder to turn and hold the elbow that far.
So, how literally do you all point your elbows straight down?
I think you just need to relax more. I’ve got it pretty good on one arm but not the other, and that’s just because that arm is looser than the other. At the very least be aware of what is tight/contracted/stretched so that part of your focus can be on relaxing it.
responding to my own post, I was reading through some material lately and found answers addressing my question. In case other people are wondering or dealing with this topic: Module 4 page 19 starts a discussion on this topic. Page twenty states “any specific bagua energy posture may be held at fifteen degree increments between zero degrees and 90 degrees”, then discusses the most common angles. Page 22 states ” usually, a beginner starts fifteen to twenty degrees away from the full ninety degrees and only moves in five degree increments toward ninety degrees as their body softens and tensions release.”
I think that the problem that I had which prompted the initial post is that I jumped from my usual elbow angling to elbows straight down [or possibly even more angled than that] and that, as written above, my body will need time to “soften and release tension” before it can hold that angling.
Anyways, there are several places in the writing that address elbow angling, but the section I quoted is the most basic and “starting point” that I have found so far in my reading.
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