There is an old Chinese saying: 「筋長一寸，壽延十年。筋長一寸，力大一分。」 The first sentence means when your tendons grow an inch longer, you can live 10 years more. Of course, it is not exact science. However, the strength and suppleness of your tendons does strongly influence both your physical health, and your overall sense of somatic and psychological wellbeing. Tendon training, Yi Jin Jing exercises can help heal and keep your tendons healthy.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the term tendons also applies to ligaments and fascia. As we age, our tendons shorten and lose their original elasticity. Since our tendons (in the TCM usage of the term) cover, connect, and protect every single organ, nerve and muscle fiber in the body, if they are weakened, many health issues can arise. For example: as your tendons contract, this potentially can pull the muscles and bones attached to them, thereby causing skeletal misalignments that frequently can result in the sort of chronic pain commonly experienced in the neck, shoulders, back and legs. If left untreated over a prolonged period of time, this can lead to numbness in these areas resulting from the reduced blood and qi circulation. That’s why TCM says: 「骨正筋柔，氣血自流」, meaning: if your bones are aligned properly and the tendons are elastic, blood and qi flow will naturally be smooth. A weekly tendon training routine with Yi Jin Jing exercises can help your qi flow smoothly and your body be healthy.
Nowadays, due to the technological revolution, most people spend far more time than ever before, sitting (often with poor posture) in front of their TVs, computers, smartphones, etc. and far less time is spent doing physical work. As a result of these unhealthy habits, the aforementioned patterns of chronic pain, prevalent mostly among the older population, are increasingly becoming more commonly seen in younger generations, who, biologically speaking, are ‘catching up’ with their elders.
「筋長一寸，力大一分。」 The second sentence means when your tendons grow an inch longer, your physical power increases by 10%. If you look at the Chinese character of 筋, it has 3 parts. The top part is the shortened version of 竹, and translates as ‘bamboo’, a very long and elastic plant; left part is 月, meaning ‘moon’, which also represents yin as well as organic matters; the right part is 力, which means force. From this, you can infer that the force generated by the tendons, is influenced by their length and elasticity. Also, this force differs from the force that is generated by muscles. It is a more internal and elastic (yin) force, which inner martial artists refer to as ‘Jin’ 勁. Since this force is generated by the quality of a person’s qi and tendon strength, rather than by their muscles, a small, lightweight person who masters this force, can demonstrate as much, or even more strength (in certain ways), than a heavyweight body builder whose pure muscle strength may be considerably greater. And this inner strength is the fundamental focus of internal martial arts training. You understand now why Yi Jin Jing exercises are so important in martial arts training. Tendon training is not complicated but it does require perseverance.
Modern science supports this theory. Various investigations into the incredible jumping ability of kangaroos, have revealed that the measured physical strength of just their muscles cannot explain the amazing length, power and endurance of their remarkable hopping. Kangaroo muscles alone, just aren’t large enough, or strong enough, to provide anywhere close to the required power. The secret of their incredible skill, is that as they jump, kangaroos are utilizing what in physics is termed ‘elastic energy’, created by the unique characteristics of their tendons and muscles which allow their legs to function like two powerful coiled springs. Each time they land, the unusually long, powerful tendons in their hind legs, are effortlessly elongated, and powerfully stretched, by the gravitational compression of their bodyweight toward the ground. This elongation and stretching of the tendons, creates a substantial tensile force, causing the tendons to become like a powerful elastic band stretched close to its maximum; for a brief moment, a vast amount of ‘elastic potential energy’ is now stored in the legs before it is all released as the tendons contract again and launch the kangaroo powerfully into the air. So, kangaroo hind legs work like springs, compressing and elongating, storing and releasing elastic energy in the process. And importantly, because the muscles in a kangaroo’s legs are impressively strong and stiff, they can easily cope with the stretching of the tendons, which can store up to ten times as much energy as the muscles. A key point in this whole process which is deeply relevant to qigong practice, is that although the muscles in a kangaroo’s legs still work to some extent, to help them hop, the vast majority of the energy they use, comes from the tendons, and unlike muscles, tendons do not fatigue, nor do they require oxygen to function.
Although we humans can’t jump as far as kangaroos do, our tendons and fascia share a similar capacity for storing kinetic energy. Moving with light, quiet footsteps reliably indicates that a person is walking, or running, elastically. Similarly, in tai chi, we should move our legs and feet, as if we are walking on thin ice, or imitating a panther’s stealthy motions as it attempts not to alert its prey. Heavy or loud footsteps indicate that someone is moving in a manner that requires a lot of extra, unnecessary, energy expenditure, which is a mode of walking that is not nearly as efficient or sustainable as moving elastically. Yi Jin Jing exercises can help your walking to efficient with minimal energy spent.
Tendon training is also important for injury prevention. Studies found the most serious and frequent injuries, especially among sportsmen but also in the general population, occur not in the muscles and bones, but in the connective tissue comprising the muscle-ligament-tendon junctions. And in spite of the fact that these injuries most often result from an overloading of the fascial tissue, in particular the tendons and ligaments, most training seems to focus a massively disproportionate amount of time on developing muscle power and cardio fitness, rather than on exercises that improve the strength, flexibility and overall health of the tendons and ligaments and other connective tissues, which play a far more powerful role in protecting us from physical injury.
The good news is that with proper tendon training we can, at any age, restore our tendon health to its optimal state. And if you have been following our school’s curriculum and have already progressed gradually from Level 1 to Level 3, your qi should now be able to penetrate the fascia deeply enough to reach the tendons, where it can provide sufficient ‘qi nourishment’ to revitalise and regenerate them. However, this may require months or years to achieve. Fortunately, there is also another training method called ‘Tendons Changing Classic’ or, ‘Yi Jin Jing’ (YJJ) which focuses specifically on the tendons, thereby providing faster results.
The Yi Jin Jing exercises we present here, that is based on the teaching of Master Cheng Wing Kwong, has 12 simple tensiometric exercises, plus 1 practice for sexual potency (for males). It has much more depth than the other YJJ practices that I have seen available. The way in which the tendons are engaged progressively is very similar to how the nei qi flows in tai chi neigong. Thus, this version of YJJ is a good complement to tai chi neigong, and additionally, it will complement and enhance the practice of traditional tai chi chuan – which is to be expected, since Cheng Wing Kwong is a renowned tai chi master.
For example, there is a 3 Rings Theory in Tai Chi and one of the exercises in Yi Jin Jing provides good training for practicing and applying this theory:
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