What is in the HsingI/Yiquan DVD’s?

[Anonymous]

Cameron,

if you don’t mind me asking you, how did you fight the spinal alignment and tension?

I have a weak spine, I do some exercises targeted on strengthening the spine muscles, I might have some improvement but not so much as I’d want.

[Anonymous]

I still struggle with it. I can get the alignments but it takes 30mins or so to relax into it. I’m working on getting that time down so that I’m in stance all the time in any position.

It really helps to have a mirror, otherwise you’ll just think you’re doing the right then when you may not be. My approach to get my spine straight and relaxed is as follows…

1) Stand tall (normal qigong stance or whatever) then relax your hips in a circle around their axis. This will bring your tailbone down and the front slightly up. Your knees will bend as a result of this, rather than the bending of your knees instigating anything themselves. At this point check your lower back so that you know it’s vertical, straight, and relaxed around the vertebrae. Also check around your groin and perineum for tension. If you have considerable tension then you’re probably forcing it too much. Just be comfortable and relax into it over time.

2) Trace up your lower back with your hand until you find the first part that’s sticking out. If you can feel the energy of your spine you may notice that your lower spine feels “full” up until that point. You’ll need to find a way to bring that in. One trick is to think of the energy of the front of your body moving into your spine, and another is to think of the problem vertebrae relaxing forward. You can also think of the energy of each vertebrae rotating, such that you get the feeling of relaxing down and rising up at the same time.

3) If your neck tends to hunch over like mine you may feel like your neck and spine aren’t energetically connected. This one you can work on while sitting down at the computer or whatever. Feel the energy of the back of your neck, and your top spinal vertebrae separately. I have to give the vertebrae a bit of a rub to get my mind into it as I normally can’t feel it that well. What I have done is to first put my head back in the approximate alignment, then energetically massage that joining region up like i’m working with clay. Rather than forcing it up (which I have done and it made me sick) this technique helps to relax it up and forward. When I get this right it feel like someone is sucking the energy up my spine from the bahui point and my spine raises and straightens by itself as a result.

4) Mix up 1-3 a bit and see what works. Sometimes I feel like the sinking of step 1 and the rising of step 3 work together to straighten out the middle region.

Sometimes it just helps to have someone push on the problem parts too so you instantly become aware of them. Once your spine becomes straight it will allow for the raising energy to happen by itself, and your spine will feel weightless and connected. Another important effect is that raising your energy allows for it to come back down and relax your muscles. The hard part is that you have to relax your muscles somewhat in the first place to get that 2nd stage of relaxation.

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot, Cameron, for your sharing the practice. A few things to think about…

I’ve noticed that you start with relaxing the hips and the lower back. I’ve always wanted start like this but I also remember BKF advice to always start from the top and move down. The problem with that though is that I sart from the top, try to release, and by the time I get to the small back I’m already a bit tired in a sense that about 70% of the time alotted for the practice elapses. So I might try your approach.

As for the neck, my problem is different, my head usually tilts backward (possible result from lots of computer staring). What is worse, it is always tense. I have had a small progress in relaxing the front neck muscles, but the back neck muscles remain frozen.

I’m also trying to strengthen the back muscles with the program Foundation Training (you can google it) but the spine remains very weak. Who would think that sitting is so dangerous.

I suspect that significant portion of my problems results from one my leg being about 1 cm shorter than the other. The most interesting thing about that is that I had been totally unaware about that up until age of 51 when I visited an acupuncturist for the first time. Apparently the western medicine is not smart enough to notice such a small distortion in a body. The point is this tiny distortion wrecks real havoc.

[Anonymous]

I think the thing with starting from the head is the 2nd stage of sinking your energy. Get your body aligned first then start sinking your energy or dissolving blockages from your head down.

I have the unevenness in my legs too, but I think that’s because one hip is more relaxed than the other. It’s very evident when I kick using purely hip rotation. When kicking with one leg my hips stay horizontal, and the other leg one hip raises up because I haven’t let go of the muscles around that area.

With the problem of your neck muscles, try and focus on feeling the connection through your neck down your spine. Feel each vertebrae, feel that they’re stacked on top of each other, and feel them become connected. Don’t even worry about energy so much. Just learn to feel your spine such that you will eventually know for sure what your issues are. This will help with relaxation too, because often things happen all by themselves when I forget about raising or sinking and just become aware.

[Anonymous]

Hello Cameron,
Does the Xingyi course come with documention and online support or is it only the set of DVD’s?
I have been training Wing Chun quite some time would you think Xingyi or Bagua would be more beneficial or easier to pick up for me?

Thanks
Steven

[Author]

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