Qigong seminar in Boston Feb 09 / fascia

[Dvivid]

Hello,

I would just like to say that it was very nice to finally meet some forum members this past weekend in the Small Circulation seminar! Its always great to be able to put a face to a name. Let's stay in touch.

What a great seminar! I am excited particularly about the fascia topic that we dwelled on...Dr. Yang's energy and passion for teaching never ceases to amaze me.

I intend to follow up on understanding fascia and its relation to health and the energetic system.

See you next time!
David
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKTZU-26Jp4

[joeblast]

The fascia is actually the steel; not the cotton

Curious as to what talking points were addressed with respect to the fascia?

[Dvivid]

First, please explain what you just stated.

[joeblast]

Sorry I missed that reply, D

A description of results of hard qigong refer to getting the bones to the point at which they are "as a steel bar, wrapped in cotton." My intuition: in reality you're not making the bone significantly harder or stronger, the majority of the change is in the fascia itself. I understand that the bones can be trained to the point of being less porous, but the overall delta is far greater where the fascia are concerned.

I'm sure you've seen this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv90DtpHTj4

I'm not speaking to the 'victims' training (i.e. whether or not the dude did any hard qigong, much less enough to see significant results) but you can see that when the impact occurred, the supporting tissue to the bone was not engaged, resulting in the bones breaking.

In "raising the fascia," one is providing such a level of support to the bone that they ostensibly 'can be much harder than they actually are.'

Thoughts?

[Josh Young]

Exercises including taiji related practices have been shown to increase bone density and hardness.

However the stuff about the connective tissue is spot on as well.

For me the cotton and steel aspect has to do with listening and following skills. The idea is that to strike me is to strike a cloud, nothing to push on, no resistance or contest of power. But to be struck by my is to feel as if that cloud hides a speeding car or steel beam, the feel jarring and very hard.

Like steel wrapped in cotton.

Ever wrap a steel bar in some blanketing and swing it around carefully to feel? I did that when i read of the cotton and steel aspect.

[Dvivid]

For me, Im primarily interested in the energetic aspects of the tissues! We noted in this recent seminar that the 7 matching pairs of gates in the body (which correspond to the 7 chakras) are located where the major bands of tendon wrap the body. Fascinating.

[penglai]

When I first read steel and cotton, I was reminded of the bioenergetic work of Reich and others, related to the collection and storage of orgone. Wish I could have been at the seminar.