• Bienfaits pour la Santé


    Tai Chi Chuan, santé et maladies chroniques

    Ce qui suit est une liste d'informations intéressantes émanant de profanes adressées à d'autres profanes, résumant le thème de cette façon : Tai Chi Chuan = Art Martial = Bénéfique pour la santé.

    Le Tai Chi Chuan est désigné comme étant l'un des meilleurs arts martiaux chinois et de prime abord il n'est pas évident de voir un quelconque rapport entre l'art martial et la santé.
    Le Tai Chi Chuan est plutôt connu comme sport, pratiqué par les personnes âgées dans les parcs en Chine, développant la relaxation et au mieux, un certain sens de l'équilibre.
    Petit-à-petit il arrive aux oreilles du public que le Tai Chi Chuan est beaucoup plus que cela et de plus en plus de personnes intéressées visitent les écoles de Tai Chi pour apprendre un peu d'autodéfense, un sujet dont on riait encore il y a 10 ans.

    Maintenant, où se trouve exactement l'aspect avantageux - quant à la santé - dans tai chi chuan ? Pour expliquer cela, il faut avoir une meilleure compréhension du corps humain. Notre installation physiologique entière a été optimisée par la nature durant des millénaires vers un but - le MOUVEMENT ! Tous les rajustements au cours de notre évolution ont servi seulement un but, se déplacer de façon plus agile et plus adroite, prenant ainsi l'avantage sur nos concurrents dans le domaine de la chasse et de la recherche de nourriture. Jusqu'au début de l'industrialisation, acquérir de la nourriture était un travail vigoureux, exigeant l'utilisation du corps (de l'organisme) tout entier. Au tout début, on devait grimper aux arbres et faire des dizaines de kilomètres pour chasser sa proie .
    Dans le passé le travail dans les champs était tout à fait manuel, il fallait en plus s'occuper du bétail pour se rendre ensuite au marché afin d'y vendre et y acheter le nécessaire. Les réfrigérateurs modernes et les différentes armoires pour conserver la nourriture n'existaient pas. On voit à quel point tout notre organisme était centré sur le "mouvement".

    L'industrialisation a tout changé. Pour l'expliquer je vais utiliser l'exemple du "MCP" : Pour faire ses courses, MCP est confortablement assis dans sa voiture ou dans l'autobus et prend parfois à la maison des provisions pour plusieurs semaines. Il prend le téléphone pour commander une pizza et le repas est livré à sa porte. Le matin il fait à peu près 20 pas jusqu'à sa voiture, roule jusque son travail, puis fait à nouveau 20 pas jusqu'à la chaise de son bureau, quelques pas
    encore pour se rendre au restaurant de personnel pour le déjeuner,
    utilise dés qu'il le peut l'ascenseur au bureau et prend parfois un tapis-roulant vers sa voiture après le travail. Après cette journée de travail vigoureux pour le MENTAL, il va s'effondrer sur le sofa confortable et s'y détendre avec quelques s chips et un verre de bon vin devant la TV, regagner l'énergie pour le jour suivant. C'est la routine quotidienne typique d'un MCP, un Méga-télespectateur-passif.
    J'espère que la plupart d'entre vous pensent maintenant : "c'est exagéré, ce n'est pas mon cas, ni celui de mes amis" - Ce serait très bien !
    Mais il est aussi effrayant de voir, combien de personnes sont proches de la réalité évoquée ci-dessus. Notre organisme est optimisé pour le mouvement, mais d'autre part il est aussi un spécialiste de la survie. Ce qui signifie qu'il peut diminuer ou même arrêter la maintenance de certaines parties/fonctions du corps pour économiser l'énergie.

    Cela conduit finalement à la désactivation de fibres et de groupes musculaires inutilisés, il en résulte des groupes musculaires diminués car ils sont "raccourcis", où en fait ils ne sont plus simplement aussi flexibles qu'auparavant . Un muscle ne raccourcit pas vraiment, mais donne cette impression. Les muscles qui ne sont désormais plus utilisés , mais sont sous la tension constante, sont fatigués et deviennent flasques. Pour éviter ces effets on peut créer des exercices spécifiques pour tendre et réactiver les groupes musculaires, récupérer la tonicité musculaire et le juste équilibre - ni trop rigide, ni trop souple.

    Des groupes musculaires "Raccourcis" et flasques engendrent souvent une cause à effet direct, comme par exemple la cage thoracique qui se resserre ou les muscles arrières-supérieurs devenus flasques cause des épaules affaissées vers l'avant. Voici une liste des groupes musculaires concernés par cette dynamique :


    Ces muscles ont tendance à devenir "plus court" et peuvent être corrigés par des exercices d'étirement. Ces muscles ont tendance à devenir flasques et peuvent être corrigés par des exercices fortifiants.

    Muscles de la cage thoracique

    Muscles du haut du dos

    Muscles du bas du dos

    Muscles abdominaux

    Muscles de la région des hanches

    Muscles fessiers

    Muscles intérieurs de la cuisse (adducteurs)

    Muscles extérieurs de la cuisse (abducteurs)

    Muscles du devant de la cuisse

    Muscles de l'arrière de la cuisse

    Muscles du mollet


    Partie des muscles de l'avant de la cuisse

    (translation in progress)
    Simplified one can say that all our rear muscles serve to keep the body upright and the front muscles are used to bend forward and to balance the power of our rear muscles. Only when these two parts are balanced in harmony will the body be working free of pain. To put in Chinese, Yin (front) and Yang (rear) must be in harmony. In addition we have to regard the muscles on the sides of our body, which work in tight relation with our front and back muscles, and play an immensely important role in our proper body alignment and posture.
    In previous times, sagging shoulders and a rounded upper back (flaccidity of the back muscles and "shortening" of the chest muscles) have been an ailment of the elderly. Nowadays it is most often seen already with kids and teenagers and one can pinpoint it mostly on: much to little moving combined with long periods of sitting in school, in front of a computer and in front of the television.

    Then lets not forget the three mayor pumping stations in our body.
    The best known pump is our heart. One notices quite fast if the heart is not pumping properly, appearing dizziness anxiety in the chest and inefficiency are common symptoms for that. Normally everyone notices this symptoms and goes to a doctor for a checkup.
    The second and less known pumping station is our diaphragm. The diaphragm contracts and expands in cycles thus enlarging and reducing the lung volume, pumping air into our lungs. With newborns and infants one can see this quite beautifully. Due to this diaphragm breathing (aka: "abdominal breathing") the belly area expands and contracts in all directions. This causes a light massage/stimulation of all the inner organs in the abdominal area, causing better functions of these organs. This kind of breathing (contrary to the commonly used chest breathing with an unused diaphragm and static abdominal region) is also the unconscious breathing which is used automatically in a truly relaxed state of body and mind, if the abdominal muscles are not yet flaccid or tense. Furthermore this kind of breathing uses up least of our energy, and due to the effect of the inner massage it lowers the blood pressure and supports the digestion process.
    The third great pumping system is our set of legs. Ever since Newton found out about gravity everything in our body feels drawn to the ground Not only our organs tend to sag downwards, but so do all our fluids, like blood, lymph and water. While just walking normally our leg muscles contract and expand automatically, thus helping to pump up into our upper body all these fluids, supporting the complete circulation of all fluids around in our system.
    Now back to our MCP, this "TV watching -potato chips munching - non mover".
    If we look at the daily routine of our MCP, we notice that he is almost never using his the pumping stations at normal level. The legs are mostly resting and do not support the transport of fluids. Due to a lot of sitting the diaphragm breathing has shut down and made way for chest breathing only. While this is absolutely sufficient to stay alive, non of the massaging/activating activities to the inner organs are executed and also there is not a very high rate of air exchange within the lungs so stale air stays much longer within his system. Since he is very passive in all his movements his heart is not stimulated much, and so the heart muscle also stepped down in gear. We won't even look closer at the condition of his further muscular system, for that went into retirement quite some time ago due to inactivity.
    Since one can not avoid all the time to move in a certain, unusual way, like when lifting something heavy into the trunk of a car, bending down to tie the shoes, etc. the body would normally use these "out of commission" muscles to do so. Problem is, this reactivating does not happen at "speed of thought" but takes some time. This is when another incredible ability of our body kicks in - improvisation. Since we do not only posses this one relevant muscle for the job at hand, but hundreds and hundreds more, our body activates the "next best" muscles for the coming movement, even though they are not primary designed for that, and this is where the problems all start. Due to the uncommon strain tension arises in the muscle fibers, which lead to sever tension and as a result of that to chronic (tension based) affliction. Mental stress lead to a further rise of tension in the body, adding up on the already existing, physical originated tension. All this is commonly taken in as "normal" status of life, or as a sign of showing age or circumstances of life. Help is usually sought in medication, which do not cure the ailment, but suppress them for some time. Another approach are surgeries, which are to "repair" or remove the aching parts, because this is what is thought the usual way, or because normal bodily effort is found to be to arduous.
    Modern medzin often gives the impression of a battlefield (the body) upon which a battle (surgery/medicamentation) is fought against an enemy (ailment/illness). It is encouraging to see, that more and more effort is put into a holistic view/approach on the human body and its casual relations that cause problems. Experts on this field of casual relations on body mechanics are well trained osteopaths' for example, who can do "marvelous" things because they see the body as a whole unit, and not just look at one isolated arm problem.
    One can very well help oneself, ideally in prevention, but also in actual situations - and that is "to move". With moving one stimulates natures finely tuned marvel called "body" to regulate itself and to get back into ballance. The more severe the accumulated dysfunctions and impairments are, the more likely it is that one should also consult a medical expert to guide one in movement and recovery.
    The art of tai chi chuan now offers an opportunity to prevent dysfunctions and chronic tensions due to its whole body movements which softly stimulate all muscle groups from the toes up to the crown of the head. For solid rooting/standing one concentrates on the proper foot-, knee- and leg postures, for stepping, leg rotating and kicking one works with the adductors and abductors, as well as with the opening and closing of the hip joints and the general flexibility in the pelvic area.
    For techniques in the upper body region one works on achieving a flexible waist, the flex and stretch ability of the upper body, the flexibility of the rib cage and rib cartilage as well as the flex, stretch and torque ability of the spine.
    Especially the torsion and mobilization of the upper body, spine and ribcage area are major strong points in Snakestyle Tai Chi Chuan of the Yang family.
    For arm techniques the shoulder area and joint flexibility is of major importance and is trained accordingly for flexibility, movability, natural positioning and power. Following that up, the elbows, wrists and finger joints all get integrated into that workout.
    Also the neck/throat/head positioning, mobility and relaxation are specifically trained.
    Due to training in deep, relaxed breathing the 2nd pumping station, the diaphragm, slowly gets back online, and with stepping, sinking, rising and kicking the 3rd pump, the legs, also join in again.
    For the body moves again, and all the cells demand more and more oxygen our 1st pump gets into gear again, so the heart looses all interest in a prolonged winter sleep - so the whole system "human" becomes more and more activated again.

    All the old masters of tai chi say, that simply by training the tai chi chuan form ones health gets boosted immensely, but that the full effect of it only comes to light when also training the martial aspect of tai chi chuan.
    Now, how can it be healthy if my training partner just knocked me back, and I am sitting on my buttocks on the floor? Well, for one it helps to remind one of mister Miyagis advice:"...don't be there, if a punch is thrown at you.." J but more important in that regard are two other factors.
    Number one is, that in training with a partner one is forced to do unusual body movements all the time, that do not occur in normal form training - for nobody "threatens" to hit oneself in that. One has to adjust to all unexpected actions of the training partner and thus activates a fireworks of impulses that stimulate all these unused muscle areas and awakens them over time.
    Number two is the mental orientation. One leaves behind a supposed victimhood with growing experience in fighting and self defense applications, one develops more self-esteem, self confidence and more self-reliance. This also reflects outwards and oneself (and others) does not regard oneself as a target, but more as one who is able to help and support others
    It is, of course, not nearly as easy as taking a little pill against pain. One has to train regularly, but therefore the benefits are long lasting and one becomes able again, to take care of ones health oneself.
    Many tai chi students of my own and other tai chi schools have stated that their back pain, hip problems, dysfunctional sense of balance, and so on have reduced or are gone for good, since they started to train tai chi chuan regularly. To achieve that, one has to invest about 15 minutes daily, leading a "normal" lifestyle.
    If one already is an "MCP", additional changes in lifestyle, and unhealthy habits have to be done. Tai chi chuan is not magic, neither in martial aspects nor in health aspects. It is good and solid biomechanics combined with the proper use of our body energy system (Qi/chi), lead by a spirited mind (shen) focused on a goal (Ji) that one wants to achieve.
    Like with everything else, it is important to check out thoroughly the place and the teacher where one is going to train , so that one will not be disappointed if after some time one notices that there is no basis, no solid knowledge and skill and that the training was a waste of time

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    Seminar with Bob Boyd in Serbia, october 2010.

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