Transforming First the Body

三年樁，兩年拳

Three years of postures, two years of boxing

百折連腰盡無骨*

A hundred twists linking the waist, a boneless utmost

練形者，又名曰展筋脫骨**
Who trains the shape, also called spreading out the fascias and bones coming off

Different athletes have different bodies. From a weightlifter to marathon runner, because the physical abilities required and the motion imposed are very different, the type of bodies are very distinct. Even for Martists, sometimes one can recognise who is practicing what just by looking at their bodies and how they move.
To obtain a body in accordance with one's objectives, two types of training can normally be performed, just do the move or have some designed exercises which will improve performance. In other words, a runner will either simply run or train to improve his/her core, do squats, single-leg deadlifts...; a dancer will either lift his leg up while dancing or work on the barre... Hence, one can either format the body by doing the motion or by exercises specifically improving what is needed for a proper motion. Internal arts, strict in their method, considered that one had to first transform the body in order to make it motion and skills friendly. It was, of course, both an external and internal transformation, to make the body aligned and as elastic as possible in order to be able to efficiently use the fascias lines and the organs stronger in order to improve vitality. That is why a great part of the training in the internal practices had nothing to do directly with fighting, the aim was to first transform the body, more fascia elasticity and alignment, a better metabolism.

Elasticity and Alignments

Because martial arts nowadays are hobbies, side activities for people passed the age or just fun for kids, the heavy physical transformation required by the internal practices has become something of the past. This raises a big issue, a hard stick and a soft rope cannot have the same type of motion, and applying muscle contraction methods to movements made for elasticity through the fascias is, for the least, problematic. Indeed, the saying without force is the better force*** cannot be fully understood and applied if someone still relies on contraction for power.

Internal arts were about first transforming the body, making it as elastic as possible, but while keeping some alignments, especially in the pelvic and neck regions, in order to keep the fascias lines connected. That is why the first exercises were heavy stretching, splits and head against the legs being just the beginning, and holding specific postures arms as straight as possible.

Stretching for Elasticity

Searching on the Web, typing basic exercises in Chinese, 基本功, one can still find remnants of the type stretching imposed from the beginning. Martists in those days could totally compete with acrobats as far as flexibility was concerned and dancers as far as grace was. All this heavy stretching main objective was not actually acrobatic skills, but a way to make every small part of the body as flexible as possible, hence grace. Still, only acrobatic flexibility could allow one to reach deep fascia tissues, and especially the visceral ones, a part of the body to be especially watched over for internal practices. The aim was to try to obtain the tenderness you find in a good piece of meat, neither as hard as a stone nor too soft. This tenderness in every fibre of one's body, once obtained, had an external impact easily visible on male students, they would become more effeminate. 

Alignments for Connectivity

The differences between martial arts and acrobatics and dancing was the necessity to keep, however flexible one would be, the body as a whole, one could not disconnect a limb from the rest of the body for the sake of the beauty of a move. Feet, knees, the pelvic region and the neck from shoulders up to the head were, for the least, important parts were a wrong alignment could break the connection of a fascia line. Hence, it was quite common to hold some postures in order to force the body to be aligned. Holding them with the right alignments would force the body to adapt, stretching some parts, adding or reducing muscle mass..., in short transform itself. This had to be done until a posture could be taken with the correct alignment automatically, "定形", to stabilise the shape.

Motion would be introduced only after one was flexible enough and always correctly aligned. Of course, the students being young, teenagers, the process was rather quick, three years at most. One can wonder how to, nowadays, conciliate a training meant for very flexible, elastic and aligned students with adults who already stopped their growth and can hardly bend any part of their bodies.

A Better Metabolism

For internal practices, vitality came from the organs and was depleted by emotions. It was then important to change the body so that he would be less prone to emotions and to reinforce the organs so that they would produce more vitality more efficiently.

Emotionless

As it was described in Foggy Heart, emotions came from a unbalance of the organs and from external stimuli, the sensations or their absence. To become as emotionless as possible one had to have as clean as possible organs and learn to contain the effects of sensations.

Keeping the organs balanced was described in Health, it was mainly done by keeping them shelved in their right place, one of the aims of heavy stretching, the visceral fascias, and cleaning them by making them heat, which holding a posture could do. Done correctly, people would reduce their need to eat and would feel the most at ease in a state of light hungriness.

For the sensations and desires, it was common to have students hold the lotus posture, not for meditation but to learn how to calm oneself through breathing and become without thoughts. Done correctly, their breathing would become longer and deeper and they would naturally always been a bit withdrawn from their senses, hence the sayings "Seeing without looking", "Eating without tasting", "Hearing without listening"....

Stronger Organs

Again, the first work was to keep them rightly shelved by heavy stretching all the way to the visceral fascias and cleaner by heating them to get rid of the poisons they contained. With time, other exercises such as shaking them would be introduced. In better shape, the organs would be able to digest more from the food intake and, thus, need less food, which meant less digestive work, so more time to rest or to do exercises to improve them, a virtuous circle. This improvement of one's metabolism can actually be witnessed through the theory of the extremes****, which joins, when this virtuous circle becomes a vicious one: the tendency for internalists to become overweighted. If the overweight problem suffered by many internalists nowadays is also partly due to the rich food provided in modern societies and the oversight of the use of a belt while practicing internal breathing techniques, it is also due to the forgotten fact that one had to change his/her diet accordingly. Indeed, if one needs less food but keeps his old regular diet, he/she will get fatter, the organs will get bigger, the visceral fascias will lose their firmness due to the extra weight, organs will not be shelved correctly and the stomach will start to protrude, which will put more pressure on the backbone and unbalance the whole body, one's metabolism will worsen... At an extreme, one can very quickly go from beneficial to malignant. But it is fashionable to be overweighted in a lot of internal circles, what one wouldn't do for fashion. Not to mention the one apple every six months Taoist legend, internalists didn't need three meals a day, one, not too heavy, was more than sufficient.

The old practices not being hobbies, what came first and second were very important matters. Furthermore, dealing with teenagers and their easily changing bodies making any transformation quite swift, internal practices were first about deeply transforming one's body before learning how to move with it, or as a non-usual interpretation of the saying "功到自然成" goes: "Once a skill is obtained, it comes naturally" 

*Emei Taoist Boxing Song, 峨嵋道人拳歌
**Fascias Change Canons, Stringed Together Vapours Secret, Training the Shape Discourse, 易筋經，貫氣訣，練形論
***無力優力

****物極必反