Vitality and Force

全神貫注

To concentrate one's attention on

神清氣爽

A clear mind in a calm state

聚精會神

To concentrate one's attention on

心馳神往

One thoughts fly to (a place or a person)

Similarly as to the difference between fascias elasticity and muscle contraction, it may be interesting to try to first determine what belongs more to vitality. Of course, since vitality is mainly invisible, contrary to muscle mass, the noticeable differences lie more in effects than on visible or touchable things on one's body.
The two most noticeable effects of vitality are concentration and strength, which, a way or another, improve one's power. They are not the only ones but the easiest to explain and differentiate from muscle force.

Vitality and Concentration

Because vitality brings a calmer and more active spirit/mind, one can improve his/her needed concentration. Calmer and more active is, of course, an oxymoron that will have to be partly solved, the author apologising for that.

Vitality and the Senses

The less vitality one has or the more tired or sick he/she is to say things more simply, the more sensitive one is, unless of course being deprived of one or more senses by sickness. As a simple example, being more sensitive to sound or light when tired after a long night is something that most people experience. According to Chinese practices, senses have impact on the organs and, for the least, there is an obvious relation between the heartbeat and emotions, which in great part comes from sensations. Less vitality means also the organs are weaker and, thus, more sensitive to sensation stimuli. This leads, of course, to being disturbed by unnecessary stimuli, also often bringing unnecessary thoughts, when one is supposed to fully apply his/her concentration. Hence, more vitality leads to less reaction to sensations, leading to a more calm state, which bring a capacity to concentrate more. Concentration leads to more focus, which allows to put more force in a precise point. Same force, more power.

Vitality and Mental Activity

On the other hand, the more tired or sicker a person is, the less sharp is his/her mind, the less he/she is able to concentrate. This is a complementary opposition with remaining calm. Not only one can be easily distracted as described earlier, but it is also hard to just reach a state of concentration, the mind being too tired to do so. And less concentration, less focus, less power.

Vitaly, by bringing a sharp and calm mind, improves one's power through a better focus. Furthermore, being in good health, i.e. having a lot of vitality, brings also more power.

Vitality and Strength

Contrary to muscle mass, vitality can undergo swift changes which will have impact on one's power, more or less strength. And strength is not only a problem of level of vitality but also one's capacity to improve its flow.

Level

Anyone who has been sick or very tired has experienced the lost of strength without any noticeable change in the muscle mass. On the other hand, everybody has also experienced days where one's physical limits are pushed back with no apparent reasons. According to Chinese practices, this is where the level of one's vitality, or good health, intervene. Indeed, the more one has, the more strength, the more power. And it is common knowledge that before any hard physical exercise, it is advised to have a good rest and inadvisable to go out late and drink alcohol for example. For teenagers being full of vitality, the difference may not be always that obvious, but the older people get the more it becomes so.

Flow

According to Chinese practices, vitality is also a flow through one's body. As any flow, it can be faster or slower. In practice, it is mainly the difference between being alert because of a faster flow and sleepy because of a slower one. If the changes one can experience being more or less alert are very similar to the ones described just earlier, improving his/her physical performance, they do not lie in one's general level of vitality but the capacity to have it flow in a faster way. Though it is not used by internal practices because too hurtful to the body, what abnormal practices do by using the emotions to enter into special mindsets, like becoming bersek, is the typical example of how making the flow faster to improve drastically one's strength.

Vitality has also a great impact on stamina, exactly the same way it has on strength, but since this article is about generating power, this topic will be dealt with later on. Force and vitality are complementary to create power, it is never one or the other, but the two in cooperation. That is why it is also important for one to know what kind of effect vitality can have on power in general.