Health

然而練筋易而練膜難，練膜難而煉氣更難也

However, it is easy to train the tendons but harder to train the membranes; and as hard as it is to train them, it is still harder to train vapours*

If you are to meet two sharpshooters and one comes with a weapon that seems a bit shady and especially not well taken care of while the other person with a perfectly maintained one, you may not know who shoots best but you will definitively know who is the professional. In the old days, the body was an essential machine for a Martist, it had to be kept fit and in perfect health.
Actually, if you look at elite units nowadays, being in great shape, physically very performant and tougher than the rest remains not only an obligation but also an early criterion of selection. The big difference is that modern technology has considerably reduced the human factor, and modern medication the sickness one. In the old days transportation was by foot or horse, doctors and drugstores not available everywhere, there was definitively a higher tool on endurance and vigour, making those two an essential part, if not a priority, in one's training for elite units. Of course, for regular troops, it was just a question of sheer numbers, health was definitively not a priority. In the hobby world, one can still see remains of this issue with some martial practices pretending that they impact one's fitness and health, but it is hardly a priority. In old trainings, it used to be the first priority, the issue was, of course, both external and internal and can be described through the example of "the grip and the liver".

External and Internal

In the old days, the greater the Martist, the greater his understanding of his own body, the greater his health (apart, of course, from wounds from fightings...). It was not only about only finding the most efficient way to move, but also the one which would less damage the body on a long term. For regular troops, it did not matter of course, it was all about the fastest and most efficient way to learn basic fighting. Different troops, different training objectives. Keeping one's body healthy was externally mainly concerning the spine and the joints while internally mainly the organs.

External

The spine was about straightness while the joints were a question of alignment.

One can imagine that if, as part an elite, you have to walk or horse ride fifty kilometres with a whole load on you, then stand still for a few hours before going into the fight, starting with some pain due to a bad back will definitively not be possible. The spine is the central part of the body, a very important part of the central nervous system. The adjustment of one's spine can even have a certain impact on joint motion, strength and reflexes. Old practices considered that the two ends of the backbone, the lumbar, sacrum and cervical vertebrae had to be kept straight at all times in motion or still, except for some special stretches meant to improve the motion ranges of the lower back and the head. It was all about straightening up the sacrum, lumbar and cervical curves. Hence the sayings like "尾閭中正", the coccyx has to be straight and centred, "鬆腰坐胯", relax the waist and sit the hips, and "頂要懸", the top of the head hangs. In the search of efficiency, it was also important for a Martist to find a way to move that will not hurt the spine. Any practice leading to back or neck pain would be disregarded because considered not beneficial on a long term basis. Stomach and chest were also important in relieving the spine from any stress, hence sayings like "含胸", containing the chest, and "腸肚入槽", the stomach and the intestines go into the manger/groove.

The same methods were applied for the joints, anything that would end up hurting them would be excluded from training. Hence the alignments to keep them from taking a damaging angle on the long term, like "沉肩墜肘", sink the shoulders and drop the elbows. A particular attention was for the knees, which had to be bended with as little stress as possible, with sayings like "膝不過腳尖", knees don't cross the end of the feet, and "鬆腰坐胯", relax the waist and sit the hips, useful for both the spine and the knees.

They were also trainings to improve the flexibility around the spine and the joints, mainly stretching, some of them quite extreme, and even some to realign vertebrae and relieve the knees from everyday pressure like the ones starting by hanging oneself from the feet.

Of course, the body was not the only needed attention, the organs were also a major concern.

Internal

Since strength was in great part due to vigour, and that vigour came mainly from the organs, Martists were trying to keep them in good shape. If diet and lifestyle were important, they also had to find a way to maintain and improve the organs through exercise. A whole set of them, nowadays known through the term 內功, internal exercises, using special breathing techniques as defined by the term 息, including 吐納, exhaling the old and inhaling the new**, and 吞吐, ingurgitate and regurgitate, was targeting this issue. Massages, extreme stretching and pharmacopeia were also used. 

Martists also needed to know, and not feel, how healthy were their organs and how much vigour they had. First, where internal and external meet, it would would be the question to have all the organs shelved in their rightful place, "五臟六腑，各按其位". For this, the stomach had to be flat, hence the internal meaning of "腸肚入槽", the stomach and the intestines go into the manger/groove. Other parts of the body, especially the eyes and the ring around them, were another way to check very quickly health and vigour. This would allow the Martist to know when and what to train, as well as the risks and toll fighting could have at a defined moment.

To fully understand this logic, it may be better to give an example, the link between grip and liver.

Liver and the Grip

For the purpose of the demonstration, let's just imagine a fencer starting with a very simple knowledge and evolving to higher ones.

Since you cannot hit someone with the liver, it would first be to devise a few exercises targeting the hand in order to improve his grasp of the sword. Then, he/she would realise that the rest of the arm, and especially the joints, wrists, elbows and shoulders could be of help, learning connection, the motion theory. Then, he/she would realise that angles taken by the articulation could have an effect on power and on the health of his/her joints, correct alignments and force vectors theories. Later on would come to realise that the way the rest of the body was moving had also an impact on grip, one had to learn coordination, harmonies and advanced motion theories. Then came the realisation that it would be even better if one could put all his body weight and power to help with the grip, the body as a whole theory. Finally, it was all about devising ways to use only needed muscles, with less intensity if possible, in order to improve endurance, the softness theory. Externally, it is more or less what could be done.

Now, practices that prioritised the internal side would take a different path as far as the whole body power is concerned. They considered that, in order to reach the whole body, one shall reconnect all his/her fascias lines, the main ones being described in the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canons*** under the section 經筋, the fascia channels****. Heavy stretching and alignments with the objective to improve drastically the flexibility of those lines, both elastic and springiness, were the means to an end. Then, going further, it became a question of what was at the origin of the fascia tissues. The special relation between them and the liver is described in different parts of the Yellow Emperor's Internal Canons:

"Liver creates fascias", "Liver controls the fascias", "Liver joins with fascias, it flourishes in the nails" and "the nails are the surplus of the fascias"*****...

Due to this special relation, a better liver would mean better fascias, which would mean a better grip since it is all about fascias for an Internalist. The first thing would be, then, to watch out one's diet, make it less damaging for the liver. Actually, a change of diet can improve one's flexibility by itself and without any stretching. It is also not wise to do heavy stretching on a hangover or after a very rich meal. 

Since the liver is joining with the fascias, stretching the fascias could make it stronger. In other words, very intense stretching and/or stretching of the extremities would stimulate the liver. And Martists would use to the phrase of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classics, "Liver joins with fascias, it flourishes in the nails" and deliberately pronounce the last character 爪 zhuǎ instead of zhǎo. Indeed, this character has two pronunciations and when pronounced zhǎo in the Canons, it means nails, but if it is pronounced zhuǎ, it means claws. Then, the phrase would have a total different meaning "Liver joins with fascias, it flourishes through the claws". Indeed, training claws, open and closed ones, 開爪和合爪°, was the kind of over-stretching of the fingers used to stimulate the liver. 爪 was the link between "其華在爪", Its flourishes in the nails, and "其充在筋", Its fullness is in the fascias. This training extended to the feet, hence 足抓地, the feet scratch the soil like claws, and to the head through the jaws leading to 牙爪, a special relation between the teeth and the nails, the grip and the gnaw. At this stage, it was not only a full circle from training the hands to improve the grip back to it, but also a way to differentiate external from internal practices, both doing similar hand exercises but one focusing on the impact on the hands while the other on the liver.

The training of one extremity of some lines of fascias being made through the jaws and with the teeth, it made a link with training the kidneys and the bones, since kidneys joins with the bones,"腎之合骨也", and the teeth are the surplus of the bones, "齒為骨之餘". So, from training the fascias you would end up also training the bones, and the heavier they are, the stronger is one's grip. Furthermore, bones and fascias have also a special relationship: marrowbone creates liver cells, "髓生肝". So, the stronger the bones, the stronger the liver, the stronger the fascias, another full circle. And you could go on to the spleen, which flourishes in the lips and is controlled by the liver "其榮脣也，其主肝也", and so on...

Then, one would have to consider internal alchemy and how vigour affects also performance and grip. Still, for an introductory text, it is better to stick to simple things known by everybody, organs and their health related importance. Indeed, when one is decided to study internal practice, the first step is to simply start to understand that his/her training should first concentrate on the impact it has on one's organs.

Health was one of the first priorities, a way to built a very strong basis for one's training. This was essential but not sufficient, not the solution to everything but quite the opposite, every detail being of major importance, like for a Formula One car.

*Fascias Change Canons, 易筋經.

**The official and very unsatisfying translation. 息, 吐納 and even 吞吐 all needing separate explanations.

***黃帝內經

**** 黃帝內經，靈樞經，經筋. Yellow Emperor Inner Classics,  Divine Pivot, Fascia Channels

*****肝生筋; 肝主筋; 肝之合筋也，其榮爪也; 爪為筋之餘

°Or the more known Baoding Balls, 保定健身球.