Gravity and the Circle

界是功能之限

Realm is the threshold of capacity.

Gravity, like breathing, is a constant in our lives. For those who are studying old practices, it is, as far as training is concerned, the perfect example of how virtuous and vicious circles will shape training and fundamentally change it. In this case, it is very simple. As long as we grow, up till maturity, the influence of gravity is positive. It makes our body stronger and exercices will tend to use at its best this opportunity. Once we become grownups, it is reversed; gravity slowly impedes us on all and any level. Basically, we quickly heighten towards the sky until the end of our teenage years and steadily shrink down to earth from the beginning of adulthood. This has a great impact on one’s training because if gravity is an ally in our younger years, it turns into a relentless enemy after. Furthermore, leisurely training does not improve the equation. Indeed, in ancient times people had to reap the physical benefits of training, mainly during their teenage years. After, it was more a question of maintaining their physical abilities as long as possible, i.e. slowing the ageing process as much as feasible while bettering their skills through experience. Nowadays, with limited training time and a lot of people starting after reaching adulthood, everything has become so mixed it is hard to stick to the old-time training philosophy. Still, one cannot escape the effects of gravity and knowing what belongs to when can be a precious help in one’s training.

Understanding how our relation to gravity changes once we attain maturity, one can then adapt his/her goals and method of training.

I. From Friend to Foe

As for everything in internal practices, it is a matter of trend, of what one should focus on, certainly not a question of definitively good or bad. Still, basically, one has to consider that, because of the drastic change from virtuous to vicious circle, as far as gravity is concerned, what is beneficial up to the end of puberty tends to become detrimental afterwards. Furthermore, one also has to evolve from an unintentional process to a deliberate one.

1.1 Virtuous to Vicious

The principle is easy to understand. Basically, everything increasing the pressure exerted by gravity during growth will improve the body while, after, it may accelerate its decay. Hence adding weights, low postures and so on… are part of the training issues one will have to consider.

The other problem is the main effect of gravity on a body which does not grow any more: compression and leaning. Indeed, ageing, slowly but surely, will strain the body. Then, because of that and, of course, the deterioration of connective tissues, one will not be able to put his/her joints straight as an arrow and the spine will bend, mostly forwards. This can have dire impacts on joints and backbone health, alleviating agility. Therefore, after reaching adulthood, training should focus on maintaining straightness as a means to reduce the ageing process.

1.2 Unaware or Mindful

Since a part of growing up is to go against gravity to heighten one’s body, apart from lifestyle-related bad postures, the body tends to naturally adopt the most beneficial posture to fight against gravity. That is to say, one does not have to think to stand more or less upright, the body does it for him/her. As we age, since we do not grow any more, it does the opposite, which is if we do not deliberately force it to stay vertical, the body will shrink and lean more and more, as it was mentioned earlier.

In other words, after reaching adulthood, one has to basically reset himself/herself in order to always keep straight and fight against joints and spine compression, which is quite a challenge, as it is an almost 24/7 habit to be taken. Of course, having previously trained 24/7 during their puberty years, already deeply transformed their structure so it can much better and longer resist the effects of ageing and also being used to will the body into something 24/7 until it became a second nature, such training was not that difficult for old days students. It is a whole distinct matter in nowadays leisurely training and having once or twice a week a more or less correct posture in course of a few hours of training will, unfortunately, not suffice. In simpler words, when the structure is already there and the mind used to always be in touch with anything happening in one’s body, it is obviously a goal much easier to reach than while lacking structure and not really connected to one’s body.

Knowing the difference between gravity vicious and virtuous circles, one will have to change its routine accordingly. 

II. Building or Maintenance

Very few people would start training martial arts at an intensive level when already grownup in the old days. It was not impossible but certainly not the norm, especially if one aim was to create elite martists¹. Hence, at puberty, and even before, the training was mainly aimed at building a body stronger and more suited to the needs of fighting. Reaching adulthood, comparatively, not a lot could be really improved, the body not growing any more; it was, then, much more about maintenance.

One can get an idea of the difference through three issues, whether training roundness or straightness, heavy or light and, finally, breathing.

2.1 Round or Straight

As described in an earlier post, some styles started to train straight to reach roundness and finally, round locks, allowing to fight with only very narrow moves. But this type of motion, if efficient when handling a weapon, is actually not ideal for keeping the body fit as far as the struggle against gravity is concerned. Indeed, one shall train pure straightness, especially for the joints (hence arms and legs straight as arrows). That is why some practices would make a difference between bear and crane locks, for example. Bear was about round locks training for fighting; crane was about straight ones to keep, as much as possible, the body from the decaying effects of ageing and gravity. As locks, they had both to end up tensing any and every part of the body at the same time, the difference being that one was for motion and the other actually mainly, if not only, practised in stillness.

2.1 Heavy or Light

When building, one would focus on everything that would put more pressure on the body, weight, low postures and so on… After, and mainly due to the influence of gravity, the training would be oriented in more trying to keep as light as possible. This has to be separated from the other prerequisites linked to the type of martial arts and weapon used, which might in themselves prioritise heaviness or lightness. Here, again, one shall not confuse what would be required for fighting and what is needed to keep the body fit. This is a bit hard to understand for leisurely modern practice, as students are often given one type of training good for any and everything, a kind of magic and probably not too realistic pill. It was very different in the old days, since one had to know what type of training was for what, and in what proportions it should be trained according to one’s objectives, age and health for the least.

2.3 Breathing Down or Up

Mentioned in the last post and other older ones, breathing used to be very evolutive, not confined to one technique, like the famous ‘Sinking the Cinnabar Field’. Normally, while building, one should have reached the empty breathing where the stomach is like swallowed. One also, for the least, would have moved from the down cinnabar field to the middle one, if not the upper one. Training to fight against gravity will then be about applying breathing to become even lighter. This concerns pneumatic bones and a type of breathing technique which totally empties the pubic area and pushes and pulls all the way to the top.

One can nonetheless built as an adult, especially when still young, but the time it needed to transform the body will take longer and longer as one ages. Furthermore, they are, unfortunately, some changes that can only be achieved during our teenage years or earlier. Once again, old practices were also all about trends, not absolutes. For this, one has to know him/herself in depth to be able to decide the proportion between building and maintaining, according to one’s age, health, training intensity and so on… Finally, this post is all about the machine, the body, not how to use it, the techniques, which is also another part of training and another realm. Not to mention the needed experience…

1. Actually, like any sportive activity, one cannot expect to become excellent if he/she began at a comparatively late age. Never heard about a world tennis champion who started to learn only when he was 18…