Developing the ribs and chest for power and health.

This evening we were working on exercises to develop the ability to use the chest and ribs in a meaningful way to develop strong up/down force and to promote lung health. When practiced for some time the chest can open and close independent of breath and the practitioner is able to create a large volume of power from this one aspect of generation.

The bonus of these exercises is that they are very good for health of the lungs. I recently suffered the onset of Asthma from lung damage due to a chest infection, combined with a high volume of cardio vascular work. These exercises have cleared the asthma from my chest entirely so I can personally vouch for their effectiveness.

There are a few primary rules to stick by when working with the chest area and they are there to make sure that you don’t ‘raise the energy’ or compress the heart or associated structures. The primary ideas to stick to are.

• Relax the chest and upper back. This is easy to write… it is not easy to achieve! You need to work hard to relax the chest without disrupting its structure in order to free it up and give it the ability to move.
• Do not compress the chest inwards. This is a common issue seen in internal arts stemming from the phrase ‘hollow the chest’. However something hollow is something that is empty inside, not collapsed, so we need to keep the chest open and natural, but without excess tension held in the chest area … then the chest would be ‘full’ rather than hollow!
• Do not force the breath in and out. The main point of this practice is to promote mobility in the chest and promote lung health. We Should not lead the movement with breath or force the breath in and out so that its audible. The breath should be completely natural and go in and out as needed as you move through the postures. There is a saying that ‘The posture breaths for you’ that is useful for understanding this.
• In the early stages do not try to move the chest. Simply do the simple exercises and the chest will move naturally. Eventually the movement of the chest will come to your attention and then it will come under your control. Then you will be able to open each side independently of the other … even with the breath fully out.
• The upper back and chest should open together, be careful not to simply ‘puff the chest out’ by curving the back inward.
• Make sure that after the practice you stand still and focus your body energy into the lower abdomen (hara or dantien). This is not esoteric, but is a simple process of removing any residual tension from the upper body muscles and lead your body to become rooted and centred.
• All of these exercises should be done SLOWLY and SOFTLY. They are not to be forced at all if they are to be effective in developing useful force. There is also the real danger that you could damage your health if you over pressure yourself in them.

These rules should be adhered to in the following exercises. The videos show the method for this movement so I will not describe the movement process in detail. However I will mention some points of importance that I have found useful in developing lung health and Rib power.

Exercise 1. Bird flaps its wings.

• In the beginning lead the motion with your Elbows and have your attention there. This will help to pull your body open as your raise and lower the elbows mobilising the chest area equally without opening the front not the back.
• The arms and hands should be very relaxed and open. The main aim is to facilitate the opening of the chest and any tension in the arms joints will ‘lock’ the chest in place. Its important that the method is achieved through softness and not tension. Relaxing the arms helps to achieve this.
• let the breath naturally flow into the lungs as the arms raise and naturally come out as the arms fall.
• Make sure that the base is set and rooted. When you open upwards draw up with the legs and Crotch Arch leading up and aiding the opening movement. When you sink relax your force down through the legs into the earth.
• If you start to get any sensations in the head, upper chest or neck, such as dizziness or nausea then bring the palms to the level of the lower abdomen and focus on relaxing the body and feel the weight and dense areas drop down to the lower dantien. Then when you feel centred again continue practice with careful attention not to raise up your energy.
• Feel the initial rise come up the front of the body, the front of the chest and side line through the intercostals muscles. The fall should move down from the scapular closing towards the spine and then down through the lats to the base.

2. Slapping down

• This works on each side of the chest one after the other. Try to isolate the individual sides as you open and close rather than opening the whole chest.
• When raising up feel that a slight twist force develops in the body opening one lunch/side on all angles.
• When slapping down try to lead the movement with the chest. The chest motivates the drop and not the arm or hand. This exercise, slightly modified, is also used to develop gravity power(discussed in another thread) But here we are specifically trying to isolate the chest .
• When raising the arm ensure that the shoulder joint remains seated and the traps remain relaxed. If the traps become tense then the shoulder will raise out of its socking disconnecting the arm and side / ribs, halting your ability to lead the chest to open.
• Tilt the shoulder and body forward slightly as you slap down, this helps to fully close the chest without collapsing it.
• Feel that you force goes down through the earth but is powered by the ribs and chest.
• When you initiate the slap down by closing the chest, feel that it stretches the line into the arm, like elastic being stretched the released. This will help the body develop the lines needed to create the downward force

Summary

Give these exercises a try and let me know the results. I have found them to be very useful and they have helped me gain a high volume of power up and down as well as giving me a good degree of lung health. If you have any questions post below and I will be happy to answer as best I can.