Flat Stomach Improved Vitality, Tiny Details Great Impact

天門亢

The gate to the Heavenly Palace is haughty

含胸拔背

Containing the chest and pulling up the back

提肛吊肚

Lifting the anus, hanging the stomach

Tiny details inside the body are always hard to describe and may slightly differ for each student according to their body built. Looking for them often leads to investigating more and more the different possible meanings of the sayings. Indeed, at this point, one should not try to reproduce externally what they illustrate, such as the ones quoted, but analyse the internal process which produces such results. It is, after all, the internal arts main focus.

In the search of verticality, every part of the body is actually important and any details from the feet up to the head will have an impact, making verticality an almost impossible feat. Still, one can abide by three rules in such search, stretching a straighten backbone, reconnecting the torso to the legs and reaching an effect similar to the locks.

I. Straightening and Stretching

As far as the backbone is concerned, little changes should lead to an either straighter spine or, when it is already so, a better stretch.

This implies, of course, that the butt is initially tucked, the chin slightly bent downwards and so on… Once the general alignment rules are observed, it is a question of searching for feeble connections. Webs of fascias, indeed, suffer the same issue as a chain, they are as strong and connected as their weaker link. Unfortunately, some of those are tiny parts, especially the ones attached to the bones, make the loss of the connection quite easy.

Therefore, if some connecting points like the upper tips of the pelvis and the lower ones of the three lowest ribs may be hard to envision, the check is always whether whatever is done may or may not stretch further the backbone. Indeed, gravity naturally leads the body to dwarf. Multiple flexible layers become a rigid one, firm webs become lax and protruding… Connection becomes then lost and the work on the whole body power through the fascias impossible, making reconnecting a fundamental issue.

II. Reconnection

If the loss of connection linked to the muscles might be easily spotted, too hard or lax ones, it is trickier when it comes to the bones, not to mention when the connection is actually between them. For the least, one has to carefully stress on the pelvic and chest areas. As refered to in the previous post, a rounded crotch and the belly getting smaller, especially around the waist, are signs that reconnections are being made. One still has to remember that a correct connection will lead to those, it is a consequence, not the opposite, like squeezing the stomach, for example.

Indeed, reconnection is like putting the right piece in a puzzle, not bulldozing pieces together.

III. Puzzle Pieces

Similar to the locks, which correspond to the round body training, reconnecting correctly some fascia webs will lead to an automatic body realignment.

Apart from the bones and fascia links, there are also some parts inside the body, like the perineum for the best known one, which will have a deep impact once one is able to put them back in their correct place or reconnect them with other ones. For example, replacing the perineum at its rightful place, most times higher than it is (the gravity long-term effect) will make the addomen flatter. This makes it actually simple to find out if one’s training is going in the right direction. Indeed, reconnecting leading to a thinner stomach would be deemed correct while any exercise making it bulge more wrong (in the old days, a sash around the waist was used to avoid a growing belly).

At its extreme, one can more or less recover a v-shape without actually losing any weight. Exactly like putting back the pieces of a puzzle to recreate the original shape. 

Flattening the stomach is not only a question of rediscovering verticality to slow the losing fight against gravity, its actual main aim is the source of vitality: the organs.