Kung fu muscles

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Kung fu muscles

Postby yat_chum » Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:18 am

Recently in a capoeira class my instructor said that he could always tell a Capoeira player who had played for a long time because of the peculiar way their shoulder muscles were developed. When I perform White Crane certain muscles on my forearms are really prominent. Is there any unusual muscle development in your style that to the discerning eye could give the game away?
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Postby Josh Young » Sat Jul 11, 2009 3:58 pm

I can tell to a degree if someone is a practicing martial artist by their build and what style they may practice. I can also tell about where their power comes from, to a decent degree.

Wing Chun people have a specific type of build, as do different styles of Taijiquan. Karate varies but can be indicated by build, much harder to pin that down though, the skilled ones have bodies like framers, indeed build and profession are related. And Boxers, they have a specific build in general,even though body type varies.

I can also tell if people are rock climbers, yoga practitioners, skilled dancers in the Indian/Hindu style etc. I can only do this for things I have been well exposed to, so i can't tell if someone is a swimmer, because I have not studied that enough.

Then there is the way they walk and move, this provides a large amount of information because very few martial arts groups place an emphasis upon hiding ones training by learning to approximate normal walking.

Dedicated martial artists have a specific build, but those who are hobby martial artists often have a build that relates more to their line of work than it does their training. So you have a lot of fat people who sit at desks, who have some training but do not take the time to dedicate themselves to it.

You can also tell if they use specific drugs, like steroids, because of the physical changes, like the increase in skull size beyond normal proportions that occur in people. You can see this in some major sports figures in many groups, baseball and MMA and weightlifting included. I can tell by skin tone if a person has had coffee recently too, mostly from first hand experience and testing the theory by asking people who had the look if they had any coffee that day, this does not hold true for caffeine though.

But there is more than just this, the words people use, they way they say them, these thing also provide a ton of information. Just like how I write says so much about me and the way I think and feel. So there is a lot of credibility to the idea that you can tell things about people by appearances, but it has nothing to do with clothing or hair.

You can tell if someone has achieved internal energy mastery by their demeanor too. There is a calmness to them and a willingness to stay silent in a way. They also have a certain looseness, similar to yoga people, but different too.

At least this is my opinion, I could very well be mistaken.
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Postby joeblast » Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:21 am

You can see it in a drummer's forearms....hm, or a bass player's, depending on how soloey they play.

Josh, I totally agree on the demeanor - you can tell when someone does serious cultivation - it produces an impeccable equanimity :)
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Postby Josh Young » Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:39 am

You force me to look up the word equanimity!
Good stuff, I totally agree now that I know what the word means!
I hope to develop equanimity in myself .


I was thinking about this thread a bit over the last couple days.
In my case there are specific things about my build that are notable, I have thin arms, but my shoulders and forearms are fairly well developed as are my thighs. A boxer I worked with once commented on the shape of where my back meets my neck, asking if I went to the gym.

My own martial arts style is very unique, I center everything around taiji but borrow from several styles including wing chun/white crane, Okinawan karate, capoeira, bharatnatyam dancing and ninpo taijutsu. So my own build is not quite like that which any one style tends to promote.

Once my friends were doing push hands in the park and one of them saw me from a distance, he said he did not know it was me until I got up close but from the way I was walking he had said to himself, that guy knows something, has some type of training. I often walk slightly compressed so my head does not move up and down. It is great practice for paintball where you need to be steady as you move so you can stay on target.

There are a lot of MMA guys in my town, they tend to waddle in a funny way. Go figure.
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Postby Ralteria » Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:50 am

As far as I can tell, my Taijiquan has helped developed my calves and thighs well. My back has also gained more definition (low impact, high repitition). My lower abdomen has also expanded slightly and is soft and rubbery like but I still retain a decent amount of definition. No six pack but it doesn't look like I'm overweight at all. Just thicker.

You can usually tell which hand is dominant on a person by which shoulder has the most distance from the persons neck. However, a consistent relaxing of the shoulders has caused my non-dominant side to more permanatly relax and lengthen. It's harder to tell the more I train.

The way I walk has changed significantly just by me noticing things and making subtle adjustments. Nothing that would look unatural, but it's hard not to take the internal sensitivity you learn and not apply it everywhere. Not sure I want to either.
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