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Old 01-23-2013, 08:06 PM   #85
phitruong
Dojo: Charlotte Aikikai Agatsu Dojo
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,944
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Re: "Internal" and "External"

Quote:
Chris Hein wrote: View Post
This is a tough one for me to wrap my head around, so if I go off in a weird direction please tell me.
tough for me too. when i started on this stuffs, most things went right over my head. now, most of them still go over my head, but i got a few things here and there so that i have an idea of a map of sort.

Quote:
The more of your body you recruit to do a specific task, the more it taxes the system. So for example, If I lift a spoon off the table with only the muscles of my hand, I am taxing very little of my body. If I use my forearm muscles in addition to my hand muscles I tax more of my body. The more of my body I use, the more taxing it is. Larger muscle groups require more energy from the body.

This is why I said it's not efficient to use the whole body to move a light object. I think we kind of might agree on that, but there is a sticking point here somewhere.
what about distributed power system point of view? as in distribute the work out to your body so that no one part bears the burden of the load? if you trained to always distribute the load to your entire body (and into the ground), in any situation, you would only have one method to handle the load, instead of trying to figure out should i use my fingers? should i use my hand? should i use my arms? and so on. sort of a KISS approach where fewer decisions you have to make by eliminating the choices? sort of asking for a buddhism hot dog, i.e. one with everything so you don't have to select.

Quote:
I personally believe that only muscles move the physical body. I know that sounds like a really obvious thing to say, but I want to make sure we're all on the same page. So, if you want to move the body, you'll have to use muscle. The more muscle you use to move the body, the more you will tax the system. The less muscle you use to move the body the less you tax the system.

Now there is a type of training, where we learn to only fire the useful muscles, in only the correct firing order to do the job we need them to do. This kind of training requires all non essential muscles to relax, and all essential muscles to fire in their most efficient order. This gives us maximum muscle recruitment, for only the duration needed, and keeps all muscles that don't need to work in a relaxed state. This type of training makes the smallest tax on the body possible, to achieve the best results possible.

I would call a kind of training like this very efficient, and so with the definitions I was asking about, I would then call this kind of training "internal".
good starting point. question, what is the most problematic area in human motion, like walking? what would you say the amount of energy we expend to maintain stability? how much would such expenditure in energy for stability went force applied to your body? or when you apply force to something/someone? would stability important in martial context? so back to the example of picking up the spoon. the spoon exerted a downward force (gravity) onto me. i have to deal with such force by direct it to the ground (bring the ground to the spoon) by using mental intent to create a path from the spoon to the ground through my body, say from my right fingers, the ones i used to pick up the spoon, to my left foot. you will soon realize that there are areas in your body where muscles alone isn't enough for stability. what if someone replaced the spoon with a 10kg weight? would you need to change your posture to accomodate? internal folks would say no, because the same path would still be used and the same mental intent still applied.

Quote:
You believe taxing the whole system, no matter the requirement of force, is a good idea?
i wouldn't use the word taxing, but more as outsourcing the workload. please tell me your understanding if the "ground path" concept?

Quote:
Or are you saying that more muscular recruitment doesn't tax the body more?

Or, are you saying that there are ways to move the body that doesn't require muscle?
your body isn't just muscle and bone. it's an ugly bag of mostly water.
when i looked at a human body, i see a composite bow of various materials, binded in sinews and skins. have you thought about kokyu rokyu or breath power? why breath power? why not muscle power? or bone power? why breath? besides some of us could use a mint now and then.

"budo is putting on cold, wet, sweat stained gi with a smile and a snarl" - your truly
http://charlotteaikikai.org
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