Back to Information For The Medical Community

Going back once more to Tai Chi Chuan’s root as a “soft” style of martial, since the art is based upon the principals of relaxation in motion, how can “power” or “force” sufficient to the needs of a martial artist be generated? This seems paradoxical.

The general view of how the body most effectively produces “power” is that it is accomplished through the exertion of the muscles through tension. Tai Chi Chuan practitioners agree with this, but state that the opposite reaction, that of muscles “letting go” is equally important to the generation of force.

The Tai Chi Chuan model of the body sees the body as a complex system of levers, the bones being the levers and the joints the fulcrums or pivot points that allow the levers to operate.

As a result practitioners observed that in “tense” motion the musculature pulls on all sides of the bones and joints simultaneously, rendering the leverage design of the joints dysfunctional, and in consequence limiting the power generated to the force the muscle can generate and the strain the muscle tissue can bear. What would be preferable in their view would be to have the muscles that need to exert force exert force, but to have the muscles that should remain passive during the motion remain passive. After all, if using a lever to uproot a tree trunk, one would not push down on both sides of the lever as one’s exerted force would cancel itself out.

And yet in movement we do just exactly that. We tense the entire system, causing the musculature to argue with itself with the dominant muscle group in play winning out. Tai Chi Chuan proponents attribute this to the way we learn co-ordination and muscle development from our earliest age. The main focus is given to the activity of the motor nerves which send the signal from the brain to the muscles causing them to contract. Muscles of course, being binary in nature are either “on” or “off”, dependent on whether or not a signal to activate them is present. Since we are trained in co-ordination through the motor nerves alone, the preponderant effect is that our muscles are slightly “on” at all times when we are awake.

Practitioners believe that this normal method of training co-ordination is inefficient. Their theory is that motor nerves are not the only part of the nervous system involved in the generation of motion. The proprioceptors of the extended nervous system are considered equally important in the training of co-ordinated motion and the generation of force. The proprioceptive nervous system of course is that part of our nervous system that feeds information from the organism to the brain, allowing us to sense where our body parts are in relation to each other and allowing the brain to monitor the internal systems.

It is the believed in Tai Chi Chuan that in order for motion to be properly co-ordinated, the mind's focus must be equally divided between the activation of the motor nerves and the receipt of data from the physical system through the proprioceptive system. The theory being that this then allows sufficient information for the body and mind to activate those muscles which need to be active in a given motion, while also, and perhaps more importantly, determining which muscles should be passive to allow the motion to occur.

Tai Chi Chuan practitioners “engage” the proprioceptors by keeping their “focus” on the extremities of the body and the joints while training movement.

A simple exercise demonstrates this principle.

If one holds one’s hand palm facing outward in front of the shoulder and then extends the palm all the way forward with the fingers pulled back, when one reaches the full extension of the arm tension is felt in the wrist and forearm and a “shuddering” in the arm is felt toward the end of the extension. This tension and shuddering are caused by the muscles competing with each other through the movement.

If, holding one’s hand palm facing outward in front of the shoulder a second time, one focuses on the palm, “feeling” the palm in their mind, its’ curvature, its’ positioning, its’ warmth, and then moves the hand forward maintaining their focus on the palm, a different quality of motion is observed. The movement is smoother with no resulting shuddering or tension.

Tai Chi Chuan practitioners believe this is the result of the integration of the motor and peripheral nerves in motion. Enough “data” becomes available to the mind to calculate which muscles need to be active in the movement and which passive, allowing thereby the appropriate muscles to “let go”.

Proponents believe that the constant strain on the joints from over-use of muscular tension can produce, over time, improper joint alignment and cartilage wear.

For those suffering from injuries to joints, tendons, ligamenture or muscles, learning economy of force in motion can be of great assistance. This type of motion training also helps the individual develop more awareness of their own body, helping to improve balance, confidence in movement and co-ordination.

Once this method of motion training is understood, the next step in development is learning how the various joints (levers) of the body can co-operate with each other in co-ordination of the upper and lower body through the hip.

The results of this method or style of motion are; the overall reduction in tension in the body, the saving of energy and the reduction of stress on the joints during movement.

This kind of training has been of great interest to medical practitioners working in the areas of parkinsonism, multiple-sclerosis, repetitive strain injury reduction, geriatrics and physiotherapy.