nice to see where he's coming from;Originally Posted by Sam
however, he propagates the myth that when you use so-called "internal" power that you are not using muscles to move and generate power; sorry, but this is physiologically impossible: when you move, you use muscle; however, the way in which you use muscle can be very different, and when you function out of a so-called "internal" context, you are coordinating muscles with each other and with non-contractile connective tissue in a way that generates this phenomenon;
also, when he talks about using the spine, this is also a bit of an artifact: the spine, or rather the muscles around it, is always being used; the key is activating spinal musculature in a way that creates a coordinated firing sequence through the core spinal musculature that is sequenced with the peripheral muscles; specifically, the way the spinal multifidi organize their contractions is a basic component of this; that's why he can demonstrate on his heels, on one leg and in the air, because he is using multifidi to "unite" spinal function, and as a base of support is using pelvic floor (one of three primary transverse diaphragms in the body, the other two being respiratory and cranial / tentorium cerebelli) and that is what all the internal mumbo-jumbo is really about: coordinating transverse diaphragm movement with the breath, coordinated spinal movement, respiratory functions of the arches of the feet (anyone who has read Chuang Tzu will recall his comment that "the superior man breathes down to his heels") and coordinated response to ground reaction force travelling up through the connective tissue structure of the body (if you really want to see yin / yang principles at work in the body, go read up on tensegrity and its relationship to the continuous tension / discontinuous compression properties of connective tissue - it explains pretty much everything that Cama is talking about in terms of shock power, vibration, root, etc.);
and this is what sam bo gin (or any so-called "internal" form) trains and why it "works"; and when you function out of this you get that resilient balanced tension Cama is demonstrating when he assumes the mantis spirit...
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