I'm quoting from another thread because the subject I'm introducing here is different.
Quote:
Mark Johnston wrote:
O-sensei looked like a pit-bull when he was younger (that is under 60), he must have worked out.
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Quote:
Christopher Li wrote:
Sure, there's nothing wrong with it - it's just tricky to work with the internal stuff. Perhaps I should have said "it's tricky enough that I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who's really interested in Internal work" until they get to a certain point in their training.
Best,
Chris
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Let me preface this by stating I agree with Chris completely. Having said that ...
I've been wondering lately about the body style of IP/aiki people.
In certain areas, a person's body is more of an inverted pyramid. A whole lot of upper body strength that is not proportional to the lower body. Pro weight lifters sometimes showcase this kind of body.
On the flip side, we hear about Chinese arts where it's supposed to be a pyramid, with the lower part of the body (legs mostly) which should be highly developed but not being proportional to the upper body.
Ueshiba's self portrait seems to take a third road. If we look at Ueshiba after his Daito ryu training, he portrayed himself as having muscles in the upper body with a large belly. I'd guess that his lower body (legs mostly) was just as developed.
If we look to the A-UN statues, we see something similar, except not as large a belly as Ueshiba portrayed. Ueshiba could have been portraying how his dantien felt relative to his body, thus giving him a larger belly in the painting.
Do we have a body that's sort of two pyramids, one upper, one lower, all connected by a large dantien? Two triangles, with tips touching and a circle connecting both?