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Old 01-24-2013, 04:01 PM   #9
HL1978
Dojo: Aunkai
Location: Fairfax, VA
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 429
United_States
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Re: A simple mechanical model of body use.

Quote:
Chris Hein wrote: View Post
Awesome, I'm glad you used it!

Thanks for the description.

My first question is, what makes up the 'blue path'? Is it other muscles firing from different angles? Is it an internal 'pressure'? What exactly makes up the 'blue path'?
Initially, you can try using muscle, later on its something else entirely. For a simple exercise, at your computer try this:

With your arm resting at your side, raise it up over your head.
Which muscles do you feel activating? For most people, myself included before I was shown this sort of thing, they will feel the top of the shoulder activating. This is the "top" or "back side" I was referring to.

Now try and see if you can use the triceps, and the area underneath the armpit while relaxing and not activating the shoulder. Imagine an inflatable bag is kept in your armpit. As it expands, the triceps and the front side under the armpit pull away from one another. You will feel a stretch build in intensity. This inflatable bag should work i such a way that it doesn't raise the shoulder overhead, but instead moves the arm outwards and upwards.

Now you might not be able to raise the arm all the way overhead, but you should be able to move that arm without using the shoulder.

By the way, this is part of what you should be doing in all that horse stance training various arts have. The shoulders will get far less fatigued, while the front side of the body gets fatigued, with areas progressively lower and lower on the body getting sore as you learn to bear the load until you reach "the middle".

As I detailed in my earlier post, there are 2 other components, but you won't be able to feel/use them until you can start using the front. What I am talking about here though is much more complex than the initial ground path model.

Last edited by HL1978 : 01-24-2013 at 04:07 PM.
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