The Benefits of Tai Chi: Relaxed Strength
When I first started Tai Chi (in high school), I was mystified by its relaxed strength. In fact, when I first learned about this element of Tai Chi, it was with a teacher who wasn’t teaching Tai Chi at all. He was teaching what might be called a “hard” or “external” martial art, and yet he was someone I would say was quite relaxed yet very strong. He would just be standing in a single position with his arm out, and when I pushed on it… I would be the one who moved! He would be totally still and at ease, but I would just push myself off of him like pushing on a wall. He could also put me into a joint lock by just grabbing my hand and giving it a single twist, whereas us students would often be trying to figure out the right angles, leverages, etc, sometimes settling on approximations of the technique.
Later, he was talking about Tai Chi, and I asked if it was that thing “old people do in the park”, not a martial art. But he assured me, it was challenging and powerful, and I learned then that he used to practice Tai Chi. Eventually I learned, through my research and through talking to him, that this “relaxed strength” was called “Peng” (掤, pronounced like “pong”). When I met my first Tai Chi teacher, he embodied this quality quite well.
In a way, this quality manifests most strongly in a somewhat later stage of learning where we most fully embody the principles we cultivate early on; in that way, it absolutely depends on them.
In the beginning, we learn things about alignment, weight distribution, relaxation, etc. The head must be suspended, the weight in the heels, the hips relaxed and sinking downward, the chest relaxed and the abdomen full, the elbows aligned with the knees, and so on. These aren’t just rules for the sake of rules, as they have a tangible effect on our body and the way it moves. In particular they build a “frame”, or a structure, where the body is naturally more stable and at its strongest. It is because of this structure that we are increasingly able to relax; when we are feeling unstable, relaxation is quite difficult, so we must first adjust our basic structure.
In a way, this relaxation can be likened to the strength of a tree. If you’ve ever cut a branch off a tree that was thick with leaves, you would find that the end with the leaves (and thinner branches) is significantly heavier than the thicker base of the branch, and yet it does not easily break under its own weight, especially if the wood is still green with life and moisture. This is because the wood is strong and fibrous, and the tree has a distinct structure that is physically advantageous.
But, there are also other elements which can make this deeper. One is intention, where the mind’s thought informs the movement and naturally causes the body to maintain the appropriate structure during movement, or to establish it with cues such as “raise the top of the head”.
Another element is chansujin, or Silk Reeling Force, which is a natural and gradual consequence of integrating the principles into our practice; the body gradually begins to move with the joints in stable positions, and the muscles acting in such a way that the bones are not moved excessively and the soft tissues are able to move around freely, in spiral-like patterns.
Early on, to facillitate this process, besides observing basic requirements I think it is also helpful to develop a good understanding of joint anatomy, such as how the forearm rotates, how the arm bends and rotates in the shoulder socket, etc. The more we understand and respect basic anatomy, the better able we are to avoid moving our body in unnatural and harmful ways.
In the video below, we can see how a very advanced level of skill allows for high levels of mobility in relatively tight motions, with the joints remaining stable, and how this can translate into fairly effortless martial applications. But in the beginning, it is more than enough to observe basic rules of alignment and joint stability to develop relaxed strength!
