the cause of stiff legs?

[theileon]

so i am interested in getting into the full lotus as well as improving my flexibilty....i am quite a way off at the moment and am wondering what caused this stiffness in the first place. many people state that stiffness is due to blocks in the energy networks of the body, which have increased throughtout the persons life, perhaps why old folk are generally the most inflexible. this is interesting for me as i remember i was the only child at school who could not sit cross legged, even from a very early age. i was born with only one functioning kidney and from what i know of chinese medicine the kidney energy influences the level of flexibility in the body. but perhaps it was a blockage due to emotions that i inherited? i was wondering if anyone had any specific practices they use for targetting the energy networks of the legs for flexibility, rather than approaching it through muscular skeletal stretching methods.

 

ileon

[taiji_phoenix]

I did a search on google for chi blockage and energy, the only think I could find was the benifits of tai chi. Usually what causes the stiffness (imho) is inabillity to relax. If you can relax the muscle you will be able to stretch deeper. When my taiji teacher wants us to relax he starts to hit us in the area with tension, not hard but not to light either. From my understanding, when you tense up you are blocking qi flow and the hitting serves to release it.

Maybe someone else can help with the energetics. I can help with stretching exercises if you would like.

 

Taiji phoenix

[goldisheavy]

It's important to maintain some level of honesty with regard to phenomena. For example, relaxation as we understand it is part of the equation, but it's not the whole story. For example, can you make your arm be 3 meters long just by relaxing it more and more? The answer to that is "no". To do that you need 2 things: first you need a mindset that doesn't block such experience from occurring. Second, you need to intend for this to happen. So intention, plus absence of obstacles equals result.

 

If you are like me, you believe at least in some level of physicality. That means you believe, either consciously or subconsciously or both, in the power of ligaments for example. So if you relax, but your ligaments are not stretched, guess what? Relaxation won't be enough. The ligament tissue can stop your limbs dead cold -- it is very very strong tissue! Trained ligaments can carry loads of thousands of pounds and probably more. There might not even be a limit to it. That's just from a mundane physical perspective. So if your ligaments are short, your range of motion will be limited no matter how relaxed you are.

 

But, the mind does have amazing power. So for example, I believe a lot of people are not 100% physicalist in their mindset. So they really deeply believe that subtle energy can transform the physical manifestation. So it is possible that just by unblocking this energy their ligaments manifest in a longer state. I also believe that someone can manifest longer ligaments just by pure intention without using the concept of energy at all. Alternatively ligaments can be gradually stretched using the purely physical approach to stretching. And there are probably 100 other approaches.

 

A human being is a very intricate and nuanced vision. We have bones. We have blood vessels. We have ligaments. We have muscle tissue and fat tissue and so much more. We have so many tissues and systems that I think even biologists who study human tissues do not know them all. This amazingly intricate and subtle system, which, depending on your core beliefs about reality can include spiritual energy channels and much more (or much less), it all operates interdependently. There is not a single "part" of a human being that operates in isolation. So if you relax your muscle but your ligament is short, that's a "part" by "part" approach that will likely yield only a limited result. Instead if you approach the human being in a holistic fashion and perhaps try to relax even your bones and even your idea of who you are and what you are capable of, then maybe you'll get better results.

 

When we train we train every cell. It's not just muscles that we train. We train liver, bones, marrow, blood, phlegm, lungs, brain, cartilage, and even hair. And even the space around you. There is nothing that's not trained during training. So if you know this from the outset, your intention during training can be more all-encompassing. And then perhaps you just have to be patient. As long as you feel small improvements, maybe that's good enough, unless you're in a hurry.

[DaoChild]

It's physical conditioning to get into lotus.

 

Practice every day, push yourself a little more, and you will get it. Just like stretching to attain a full split.

[orb]

Sir,

 

That was a great explanation - I read it 3 times. Very insightful. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

It's important to maintain some level of honesty with regard to phenomena. For example, relaxation as we understand it is part of the equation, but it's not the whole story. For example, can you make your arm be 3 meters long just by relaxing it more and more? The answer to that is "no". To do that you need 2 things: first you need a mindset that doesn't block such experience from occurring. Second, you need to intend for this to happen. So intention, plus absence of obstacles equals result.

 

If you are like me, you believe at least in some level of physicality. That means you believe, either consciously or subconsciously or both, in the power of ligaments for example. So if you relax, but your ligaments are not stretched, guess what? Relaxation won't be enough. The ligament tissue can stop your limbs dead cold -- it is very very strong tissue! Trained ligaments can carry loads of thousands of pounds and probably more. There might not even be a limit to it. That's just from a mundane physical perspective. So if your ligaments are short, your range of motion will be limited no matter how relaxed you are.

 

But, the mind does have amazing power. So for example, I believe a lot of people are not 100% physicalist in their mindset. So they really deeply believe that subtle energy can transform the physical manifestation. So it is possible that just by unblocking this energy their ligaments manifest in a longer state. I also believe that someone can manifest longer ligaments just by pure intention without using the concept of energy at all. Alternatively ligaments can be gradually stretched using the purely physical approach to stretching. And there are probably 100 other approaches.

 

A human being is a very intricate and nuanced vision. We have bones. We have blood vessels. We have ligaments. We have muscle tissue and fat tissue and so much more. We have so many tissues and systems that I think even biologists who study human tissues do not know them all. This amazingly intricate and subtle system, which, depending on your core beliefs about reality can include spiritual energy channels and much more (or much less), it all operates interdependently. There is not a single "part" of a human being that operates in isolation. So if you relax your muscle but your ligament is short, that's a "part" by "part" approach that will likely yield only a limited result. Instead if you approach the human being in a holistic fashion and perhaps try to relax even your bones and even your idea of who you are and what you are capable of, then maybe you'll get better results.

 

When we train we train every cell. It's not just muscles that we train. We train liver, bones, marrow, blood, phlegm, lungs, brain, cartilage, and even hair. And even the space around you. There is nothing that's not trained during training. So if you know this from the outset, your intention during training can be more all-encompassing. And then perhaps you just have to be patient. As long as you feel small improvements, maybe that's good enough, unless you're in a hurry.