subject: The Most Important Part of Your Tai Chi Training [print this page] The Most Important Part of Your Tai Chi Training
The most important exercise in Tai Chi Chuan is called Zhan Zhuang. Translated from Chinese, it means "standing like a post," so it is usually referred to by Western instructors as "Standing Stake" or just simply "Standing." It is Taoist in origin and it involves meditation, but it's far more than that. It's an important part of any internal martial artist's training.To the untrained eye, it appears that someone doing Standing Stake is just standing there with his arms around an invisible tree, but as with everything related to Tai Chi, looks are deceiving, and there is a lot more going on than meets the eye.Standing Stake helps you develop a centered stance. It helps you learn to "sink your energy." Now, don't take that literally. There's nothing mystical about it and it doesn't mean you're sinking some mysterious energy waves. It simply that you learn to not carry your weight in your chest, as a lot of us do, causing us to be off-balance. As you train in Tai Chi, you learn to relax your weight and the bottom half of your body becomes stronger and more solid.Standing Stake is also an outstanding way to strengthen the legs. After only a few minutes, most beginners find their legs shaking and burning from fatigue. By the time you're an advanced student, you should be able to stand for a half-hour minimum.By practicing Standing Stake, you can also develop a sense of "peng energy"." This is an expansive feeling that should be present throughout all movements in Tai Chi.Here is a basic description on how to do Standing Stake:1. Stand with your feet parallel and shoulder-width apart.2. Relax the knees and let them bend slightly.3. Relax. Drop your weight. You want to feel as if all your weight is dropping into the ground through your legs and feet.4. Lift your hands to chest level as if hugging a tree.5. Keep your head up and chin slightly tucked in.6. If this is your first time, you are probably leaning backward. You don't even realize it. From the waist up, tilt forward until it feels like you're leaning slightly forward. At that point, you're probably about right.7. Your weight should be in the center of your feet -- not the heels or the toes or ball of the foot. It should be in the center of both feet.Now, you're in the proper position and you can get down to work. And that's what this is. Make no mistake. There are self-described Tai Chi "experts" that will tell you that to be One with the Universe you must detach and think of nothing.That's not true. Here are some of the steps you can take as a beginner:1. Relax every part of the body. Start with the head and neck, then relax the shoulders and let them drop. Keep your arms in the tree-hugging position, but keep them very relaxed, using only enough muscular tension to hold them up and maintain peng jin. Relax all the way down the body.2. Imagine energy coming into the body as you inhale. Imagine it collecting in your dan t'ien area (just below the navel and inside the body -- about the size of a grapefruit). Each time you inhale, imagine energy coming in and collecting at your dan t'ien, growing warmer and warmer.3. Do what is called "reverse breathing." As you inhale, pull the abdomen in. Next, as you exhale, push the abdomen out and let the dan t'ien area expand and drop.4. Try to establish a feeling of "peng jin." Imagine your arms embracing a big bubble of energy. Imagine that bubble expanding as you exhale. Your arms are holding it in, keeping it from getting larger.5. Detach your mind from worries about your life, your job, bills to pay, family stress -- try to focus on relaxing, breathing, rooting and centering, and peng jin, the feeling of expansion. Relax. If you begin thinking of other things, simply turn your mind back to your breathing, energy visualization, and centering.The first time you do Standing Stake, hold it for 5 minutes. Each day after that, try to add a minute to your time. You'll feel it in the legs if you're allowing them to bend slightly and relaxing your weight.Now, here's the payoff. When you go to work, or go home, or are out driving through traffic and you come across a situation that normally creates stress or tension or anger -- relax your body, put your mind on your dan t'ien, and try to find the "centered" feeling of detachment that you work on during Standing Stake.It doesn't come easily. This takes work -- physical and mental work. One of your objectives is to be able to find your "Center" and balance yourself even in the most nerve-wracking situations. I've been doing this since 1987 and I can testify that it works, but only if you do it.It also builds leg strength for Tai Chi, a crucial element of your practice, and it builds your ability to maintain peng jin, the expansive feeling, through every movement -- also a key element of Tai Chi.Your training schedule should include Standing Stake. The benefits can help you in all areas of your life.
