External Comes First

又有三步睡功夫。一曰仰臥，兩腿直，十足指回勾腰控，存想湧泉，雙手搭扣撐住；二曰左偏臥，頭枕左足尖，左手搬左足跟，右換如之；三曰伏臥，雙手抱頭，足跟朝天，十足指尖用力向地，存想泥丸。隨便臥時，頭腰腿要三直*

There are also the three "lying down" skills. First, the one on the back, legs straight, the ten toes hooking through the waist, keeping in mind the Gushing Spring (涌泉, acupoint located in the middle of the foot), the hands locked together to support; second, on the left side, the head lying on the extremity of the left foot, the left hand pulling the left heel, then doing exactly the same on the right side; third, on the stomach, two hands holding the head, the feet arch pointing towards the sky and the ten toes vigorously pointing towards the ground, keeping in mind the Mud Pellet (Upper Cinnabar Field also called sometimes the Third Eye). However one is lying, head, waist and legs have to be kept straight.

External Comes First is also a classic example of the oversight of heavy stretching as first training, because the reasons behind it are forgotten, it is a too strenuous exercise and it usually used to take only a couple of months since the students were normally teenagers.
The old practices believed it was necessary to improve first insulation, since vitality is about heat, and circulation, since vapours/Qi are also a question of flow, the little and big circulation, 小周天與大周天. In the Yellow's Emperor Internal Canons**, the fascia lines and meridians channels (where vapours circulate) are closely entwined as we can see in this picture showing a fascia line on the left and the corresponding meridians channel on the right, they follow more or less the same pattern. Improving the fascias is not only improving the machine through the visceral ones but also, more generally, the flow. Hence, some doctors consider that improving the fascia can prolong one's life span***. Apart from improving the firmness of the visceral fascias in order to keep them shelved in their right place, a flat stomach, which has been already described in previous post such as Health or Foggy Heart and, thus, doesn't need to be further explained, heavy stretching aimed at closing and opening certain parts of the body. Closing to enhance the insulation of the pelvic area and opening to allow a more free flow.

Insulation

It concerns the two openings used to urinate or defecate, which are the main problem one faces when heating up his/her organs. Indeed, heavy stretching was a way to strengthen the pelvic area, and especially the sphincters, in order to resist to the pressure heat was creating, and align it so that the sphincters would stay in a closed posture. Such practice had, of course, visible effects

Heat and Pressure

Nothing is perfect in our world, and where a great part of internal alchemy is happening, the Sea of Vapours, 气海, where most of the organs are located, is very close to the two openings used by humans to urinate and defecate. Since the first and most important thing in internal alchemy is heat, having two openings over there is problematic because it may lead to heat loss. Indeed, heat creates more pressure, which will put more stress on those openings. It is then compulsory to first strengthen them so they can resist to the extra pressure created when one has learned to heat his organs more than usual. Not strengthened, the chances the extra heat created will just be lost are more than great. Hence the techniques called the turtle retracts its neck, closing the oyster, raising the perineum, pulling up the anus, closing the buttock... For internal practices, all those parts contain fascias, which have to be strengthen through heavy stretching in order to make them more elastic and firmer. 

Still, this training was not alone sufficient, one had also to be correctly aligned.

Aligned Hence Closed

In order urinate or defecate, the body takes a certain alignment, the front pelvic region will slightly rotate downwards in order have the needed sphincters open the chosen exit, closing being the opposite. To keep those openings as closed as possible, the idea will be to insist on the upwards rotation, what is commonly called the retroversion of the pelvis. It is often done while holding still a posture in a good alignment, but other more mobile exercises such as pushing the pelvic region forwards while keeping the rest of the body still**** can also be made.

And keeping firmly closed unless needed, called sometime the iron door, has an impact on one's body

Visible Impact

The first most obvious impact will be to reduce one's need to go to the toilets. On a day with a normal diet, one would not have to go more than two times, one for number one, another for number two. Even with age, people would neither have to wake up in the middle of the night for it, nor rush in the morning to the bathroom.

Externally, a correct alignment and heavy stretching would keep the stomach flat (this is not about fat but about roundness), since strong visceral fascias will keep connective tissues from becoming lax and a proper retroversion of the pelvic region will push the organs towards the back instead of the front.

Finally male students will have, at least, a micro penis when resting and will keep testes very close to the body at all times, like a child. If trained at an early age, both penis and testes will totally disappear, the testes being shelved in the two holes left and right close to the base of the penis. For ladies, the effects will be less apparent but such practices were a mean to prevent an old women ailment: pelvic organ descent.

Improving the flow

A simple comparison with a central heating system can be made, the organs are the boiler, which needs to work properly as it was described in previous posts, the fascias are the pipping. Improving the pipping will naturally allow the heat to spread more efficiently all over the body. 

Tight, hard or too lax structures reduces the flow while elasticity allows a more free one. Hence, the training described in the previous post, trying to make every little part of the body as tender as possible through stretching of all the body parts, including arms. A special attention was given to the joints, which had to become more flexible than usual and, again through stretching, could be very lightly dislocated when the fascias would extend themselves, making a small cracking sound. 

Being able to spread more efficiently the heat, a Martist would naturally become less sensitive to cold the first step to the long road of one of the lotus postures described in Foggy Heart.

Then, of course, the slow down or even breakdown of the flow on certain parts of the body has, according to the Chinese medicine, often a link with one's general health and especially the one of his/her organs, which, also, control the speed of the flow (see Heat in Foggy Heart). So as a reverse effect, the freer the flow was, the more pressure it would give the organs, the stronger they would get, a logic very close to the one in Liver and the Grip described in Health. 

The flow improved, only when having firm fascias in the pelvis region and holding naturally proper alignment could the heating part of the internal alchemy start. Done too early, because timing was essential in the study of old practices (see 鍊, quenching and tempering in Train, Refine, Temper), it would be both a waste of time and of energy. 

*Sword of Chaos, Bikun, Ming Dynasty. 渾元劍經, 畢坤, 明朝

**黃帝內經

***"Fascias One Inch Longer, A Life Extended For Ten Years", Zhu Zengxiang , "筋长一寸，寿延十年", 香港名医朱增祥拉筋复位法／钟建夫编。广东人民出版社，2009.5 ISBN: 978-7-218-06232-7（医行天下系列图书）
****Actually the rest of the body is still in the sense it does not move nor changes any of its angles, the exercise often done in a normal standing posture. Still, while pushing the pelvic region forwards the rest of the body from toe to head will stretch itself vertically. One part horizontal, one vertical, a direct application of the principle or the cross.