blending. dissolving: general #568

The holding positions that look like ordinary isometric exercises, and the movements while exhaling in the Shaolin method for transforming the tendons might better be visualized and practiced as natural stretching movements, like after getting up in the morning. They are definitely not simple, mechanistic positions or movements of tensing the muscles. When you stretch in the morning, stiffened muscles get loosened up by extending and connecting. It is about integration and becoming more “alive” again—creating an integrative liveliness.

This is also relevant for the Wing Chun forms, especially for those segments and movements often done tensing the muscles in isolated parts of the body.