Irresistible
Resistance band sets have now hit the online store. We’re super pleased with them. They make a great training aid as well as a treat or gift. The storage bag looks awesome with the new TCE flame logo and can hold the full set of bands for a pocket size travel gym, or you can repurpose it for anything you please. The bands themselves are of varying tensile strength to suit different physiques and allow for progression. They are small loops which allow you to get really creative with internal power type exercises. Working with the type of springy feedback this sort of apparatus provides feels so much more functional and nutritious than old fashioned isolated weight training. What follows is a few exercises we have come up whilst playing with them since their arrival. This should give you a jumping off point to have some fun and make up your own movements.
Wrap the appropriate band around the outside of both wrists. When you perform the movement one hand will turn thumb inwards so the band makes contact with the inner wrist, this will be your back hand. You don’t need to go crazy with high resistance and getting a muscular burn, slow and steady wins the race in this case. In accordance with internal martial arts principles we want to develop the connective tissue at least as much if not more than the muscles. This will promote springy power as well as providing a conduit for running energy. Perform a ward off type movement on alternate sides (albeit the warding off arm will extend further forward creating a more obtuse angle at the elbow than typically seen in the Tai Chi forms, and the back hand will tend to have the fingers pointing down at roughly 45 degrees to hold the tension in the band). We have been doing a step and slide with it, training this movement in lines. Whilst you ward off with the front arm your opposite hand moves back towards the waist, if you have palm down with the rear hand as described above the band will rotate into an off axis figure 8 type shape and the respective arms will create opposing resistance. Obviously you won’t get full extension with both arms but it is great fun. It is kind of a take on the rattan ring found in the southern Chinese styles, watching some video of this will give you a good point of reference for how you will play with the bands although of course our movement is much more fluid. If you move smoothly the band will not crumple and remain flat against the surface of your respective forearms, this adds another layer of focus and sensitivity. This exercise will develop a unique flavour of jin, not necessarily peng as traditionally associated with warding off but something that feels great and is worth exploring its qualities.
Tuck the band under the upper arm, as close to the armpit as possible with the opposite end tucked into the second joint of your thumb (same arm). Make a light fist and push out sets of straight punches. The band does tend to crumple but we have been getting through sets of 100 or more reps without it slipping down the arm. When repeated without resistance you will find that you have really levelled up in terms of short force. More power to your elbow!
You don’t have to neglect the legs, we have also been wrapping the bands around the ankles and strengthening the muscles of the legs and hips as well as promoting mobility moving in various planes. A chair leg rather than your own opposite leg may function better as an anchor when working in the sagittal plane. This will also develop short power in the legs as we have done with the arms in the exercise above. Obviously the potential for comical trips and falls is high whilst using them in this way so of course take all the necessary precautions.
Make sure you work in a complementary way to maximise the strength, health and energetic benefits. If you’re training pushing jin (electric line of force) you want to be working with pulling jin (magnetic line of force) too.
Until next time have fun with your training. For those in the northern hemisphere get out there and enjoy moving and meditating in the summer sun, breeze and cooling rain. For those on the other side of the world build that protective chi and get out there and do zhan zhuang whilst embracing the physical and metaphysical elements. Be well.