HOW TO PACK THE FOREARMS AND HANDS WITH INTERNAL POWER

Scott Meredith

October 21, 2015

In my book Radical Xingyi Energetics, I detailed my Xingyi training background as a teenager training privately with my obscure teacher in Taiwan. I put a lot of his basic concepts into that book. However, there’s a lot more to say about even the basics (without even going into the final section of the handwritten training manual I received from him, which covers advanced energy practices). One of the most basic practices that I did not include in the book Radical Xingyi Energetics is a method for packing your forearms and hands with internal power. Internal power accumulates throughout the body, but in instantaneous deployment for martial arts, healing, or calligraphy, it rises quickly from the soles of the feet, through the trunk and extends out into your forearms and hands. This article covers one way to strengthen and deepen the charging capacity of your forearms and hands, which are after all the ‘delivery mechanism’ of internal power for martial arts and healing applications. I will use the term ‘cestus’ to refer to the forearms, wrists, and hands as a single training unit. The cestus was a thick leather covering, studded with steel spikes, used by Roman gladiators as protection and as a weapon. If you train as directed in this article, the internal energy accumulation in the cestus area of your arms will become unmistakably powerful and useful.

Figure 1 The 'cestus' region from elbow to fingers can be packed with internal energy.

The exercise this article describes is part of a long set of related practices given to me by my Xingyi teacher. I very briefly hinted at the basic idea in one illustration of my book Juice: Radical Taiji Energetics. However, since that was a book on Tai Chi, I didn’t go into the full practice. This article also will not cover the full set of related drills for packing the cestus. However, this article details the most basic practice for the first time ever.

Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-1 The basic concept was partially presented in the book JUICE RADICAL TAIJI ENERGETICS

MECHANICS

The first full drill of this set of internal drills is very simple. It was first taught to me using the stone handrail of a crumbling old footbridge near my teacher’s village. You stand near any railing that allows you to rest your forearms over it with your elbows open to a bit more than ninety degrees. You stand with your legs straight, not in a squat, but do not actually lock your knees. Your feet should be about two shoulder widths apart, somewhat spread.

Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.Error! No text of specified style in document.-2 Spread feet about two shoulder widths apart. Keep your legs straight but without locking knees.

You begin by completely relaxing your arms, let the railing support them entirely. Your shoulders, upper arms, forearms, wrists, and fingers all relax. This naturally causes your hands to droop downward.

Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-3 Begin with your arms fully supported, relaxed and hands drooping naturally down.

When you feel relaxed, begin to slowly raise your hands. Your hands have no special shape, don’t try to make a tiger mouth or anything exotic. Just allow your fingers to straighten somewhat, but without any unnecessary tension. Your wrists are the only active joint in this motion. Your elbows, upper arms, and shoulders remain motionless, relaxed and entirely supported by the railing.

Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-4 The midpoint of the rise.

You continue the slow gentle rise until your hands are beyond straight and your fingers have begun to extend a bit upwards. You pause briefly to check your overall relaxation, then gently, softly and slowly lower your hands along the same track as the rising action. When they reach bottom, check your overall relaxation again, then repeat, over and over. During this whole cycle, no part of your body other than your fingers (with the very slight extension) and your wrists (powering the raising and controlling the lowering) should move at all.

Figure Error! No text of specified style in document.-5 Highest stage of the rise. Do not let your elbows or shoulders tense up or get involved in any way.

ENERGETICS

Just as important as the mechanics are the energetics. Fortunately, they are extremely simple. Through the rising, pausing, and lowering, all the time, your mind distributes your simple awareness (not tense concentration) over four related areas: the inner surface of your hands (basically your palms) and the soles of your feet. That’s it, but be conscientious about it, take it seriously, this mental aspect is the most important component.

EFFECTS As you do the raising and lowering, at first you may feel nothing different or special at all. That’s fine, just keep working it as directed. Over time, you may feel a slight jolt or ripple of energy across your wrists and forearms. This is the beginning of the internal power described in JUICE and Radical Xingyi Energetics. Over time, you will realize that these waves can be far more substantially powerful. Eventually you will learn to perceive and then to control a full body power wave that begins at the soles of your feet. This is a completely real and tangible effect that feels absolutely amazing. The power

you generate is felt as a momentary surge or wave, but each time you perform one cycle, the energy leaves a thin residue in your tissues that eventually thickens into a permanent charge, like a battery. The more you perform this exercise, the greater your persistent energy charge in the cestus region will become, until it sinks into your bones and makes them harder and stronger. Once you have learned to perceive the full body energy wave, you can learn to control its timing and intensity. To check yourself, stand as directed above for the drill and begin to work the motion as described. Have another person stand next to you, just slight behind, and have him/her put a hand firmly but not harshly onto the back of one of your thighs. As you cycle through the raising and lowering, if your mind is properly concentrated and you’ve begun to perform the full body wave, that person will feel the energy rippling through your leg on each cycle. It is powerful and unmistakable. This is the true internal power passing through you – you do NOT move your legs in any way or tense or move any muscle in either leg in any way. Your arms are fully immobilized by the rail and your legs are straight and physically immobile. You are physically absolutely still, but the power moving through you can be felt in its flow. Here we are using a leg test to confirm attainment of one of the common goals of all internal arts: 靜中動 (there is movement within stillness). When you have learned to feel and generate at will the full-body energy wave from the soles of your feet (as described above) you can then modify the exercise. In the next version, you raise your hands to the ‘up’ position in Figure 6 but you keep them elevated and use your mind to maintain a continuous power stream from the soles of your feet to the inner hands surfaces. In other words you move from ‘surge’ (individual power waves) to ‘stream’ (continuous flow). This is a really mind-blowing phenomenon but it will take you some time to get to this point. If you stand in Santi (basic Xingyi stance) after a long period of this practice, you will instantly feel huge surges of internal power from feet to hands. My teacher covered an entire family of simple yet powerful drills of this nature, which I have never publicly presented. This first simple example should be enough to get you well-begun on this fascinating practice method.

DRILL #2 The next drill in the railwork suite is also very simple. The forearms are now supported vertically on the rail. The palms face one another, at natural shoulder width as in the 1st drill. You alternate between slightly deactivated fingers then you slowly extend and lengthen your hands and fingers. Not tensing them, try to do it softly and as an opening rather than tension (which is a kind of closing). Again, as in the 1st drill, you will feel tremendous all-body surge from feet through cestus. Remember no tension in your shoulders - let the rail support your arms completely. Also, no body weight is put onto the rail (that would also tense the shoulders). Your feet are somewhat spread / triangulated, same as the 1st drill.

 Figure  Error!  No  text  of  specified  style  in  document.-­‐6  Deactivated  fingers

 Figure  Error!  No  text  of  specified  style  in  document.-­‐7  Gently  extended  fingers

At the last rep, you keep the fingers extended and feel the constant stream (as opposed to cyclic surge), similar to the final phase of the 1st drill. Always feel the energy coming from the feet through your legs, whether as a cyclic surge or constant stream.