People like mysteries. That may be why so many tai chi players and other martial artists trade anecdotes about incredible feats by past masters, and dwell on the mystical-sounding circulation of energy throughout the body without delving too much into the physical details. Now, I agree that metaphoric language can help students learn. In my own classes, I’m always
telling students to punch without punching and comparing chi to a hydraulic system, but I like to back up that imagery with anatomical precision. There’s no reason to shy away from physical reality.

For the record: I use muscles and tendons to move, and so did my teacher, Cheng Man-ching, and so did his teacher, Yang Cheng-fu. And these muscles are largely the same muscles used by a sophisticated boxer, tennis player or golfer.

Having said that, those of us who study tai chi chuan carefully have discovered some things upon which few sports trainers or biomechanics researchers have stumbled. One of these, I think, is the absolute centrality of the vastus medialis to coordination, explosive power and anatomical stability.

Driving the Engine
It’s not a visibly obvious muscle. Men’s magazines don’t urge image-conscious beachgoers to bulk up their vastus medialis before summer, but it’s a powerhouse. The part that’s visible is the smallish, teardrop-shaped mass just above the knee, on the inner thigh. The obvious use for the muscle is in stabilizing the joint, but that understates its importance. After years of practice and observation, I’m convinced that it has an outsized role to play in running, jumping, golfing, punching, kicking—just about any sports movement.

I like to compare the human body to an automobile. The vastus medialis is like the engine, the big toe is the key in the ignition and the index fingers are like the wheels. To extend the analogy, the energy of the chi (or breath) is like gasoline and the tank where it’s stored is the tan tian point in the lower abdomen, right below the navel. In a car, the key ignites the engine, which powers the wheels. In tai chi, the big toe activates the inner thigh muscles and these drive the fingers. (The fingers move the palms, with the body following, to form the tai chi postures.)

Gentle Contraction
Stepping back for a moment, any tai chi movement begins by releasing the vastus medialis muscle to loosen the inner thigh muscles. Then, when these muscles are contracted they energize the chi flow as the mind directs energy into the fingers. The speed of the movement is proportionate to the amount of energy generated. The slow motion of the tai chi chuan form is the result of a gentle, moderate contraction on the muscles. Rapidly contracting these muscles unleashes a powerful movement of chi, which results in a high-speed movement. This muscle contraction in the thigh isn’t obvious to the untutored eye. After all, tai chi chuan is an internal system, which means that it deals with internal bodywork. To introduce another analogy, the strong muscles of
the outer thigh are like the girders of a building, providing structure.

Once the frame of a skyscraper is built, the height of the structure doesn¹t change, even once the girders accept more weight. Similarly, in tai chi, the movements only take place in the body’s interior.

The practitioner does not bob up and down; no large and visible movements are needed to transmit force from the ground, through the body and out through the fingers. The outer part the leg is not involved in active movements, but simply helps to stabilize the body structure.

Hidden Muscle
Every tai chi movement begins when you release the vastus medialis and the other muscles of the inner thigh. Then, when you contract these muscles, energy flows into the fingers and causes the palms to lead the body into a posture. I call this contraction of the vastus medialis a “pre-action,” as opposed to “reaction.” The body remains relaxed throughout this process. Do it properly, and it feels like the hands are waking up, while the torso and crotch stay completely relaxed.

The complete release of the vastus medialis, followed by its activation, is essential to making each movement effective. It’s central to a whole complex of movements that energize the form, push hands and fighting. Do it slowly and you have the form. Do it with explosive speed and you have a machine-gun fast punch. This is why I can still hit hard and fast even into my 70s.

My expertise is in martial arts, not track and field or basketball, but I see the same mechanics prevalent in those sports. For example, when a sprinter is primed to run, he must first release the muscles and flex the hips, let the torso tilt forward and bend the knee. In tai chi chuan terms, his energy sinks to the base of the foot. Then, when the vastus medialis muscle is contracted, it pulls together all the body’s power. The entire body is involved, of course, but it’s primarily the muscles on the medial side of the knee that direct the force into the ground.

We also see this type of action in basketball. Watch while an NBA player sets up for a free throw. He has to sink down before popping up into the shot, right? People focus on the quadriceps on the front of the thigh that straighten the leg, but the world’s best ballplayers don’t primarily relax the quads. That would drop their center of mass straight back into their heels, like someone doing squats at the weight rack. In reality, you see the torso tilt slightly as the inner leg muscles relax and the body mass sinks through the feet, into the floor. Then, when he activates his body, you see the player’s inner thighs pull in, his knees stabilize and his torso get yanked into alignment. The origin of that efficient transfer of power? The vastus medialis.

Receiving Energy
With all my emphasis on the vastus medialis, it may seem that some things are being left out, especially for someone who insists on talking about anatomical reality. If you’re landing a punch, you must be generating a lot of force from your shoulders and arms, right? Tai chi chuan masters always say that the muscles don’t come into play, but if that were true you might think the art was less martial and more sorcery.

Well, as an instructional matter, it is true, but the details are important. When a tai chi chuan fighter punches—and this is true of elite Western-style boxers, as well—the muscles stay relaxed until the moment of contact. Then they automatically supply just the right amount of force to resist the impact. Let me repeat that: When I punch, my arm stays relaxed. I tell people that if they don¹t believe this, they should run down a flight of stairs. Your legs will resist tremendous forces at every step but you don’t push at the floor, or stiffen your leg muscles before your foot
contacts the steps. Your body automatically fills in the correct amount of resistance.

A punch is the same. Watch an elite boxer, with lightning-fast hands, and you’ll notice how relaxed and fluid his body is, until the moment of impact. That’s why a missed punch doesn’t send him off balance and why he can punch repeatedly at a high speed. Land a perfect punch and you don’t feel the impact in your arms, shoulders or back—you feel it in the sole of your foot, as the force is transferred back and forth from the ground.

That’s the real meaning of the phrase “receiving energy,” which otherwise could sound like magic: in essence, the opponent has supplied the power by running into your fist, while you have merely supplied an open conduit between the fist and the unyielding ground. Most people find the kind of punch I’m describing hard to learn. It’s counterintuitive to throw a punch without tensing your muscles or trying to push into the target. It’s hard to hit someone without doing the things that “hitting” normally implies. However, your own muscles do play a role. (Remember, we’re not employing magic here.) First, the vastus medialis needs to be engaged to pull the body into a single connected unit rooted to the ground. The knee must be stable and unmoving. But beyond that, other muscles need to be strong enough to support your frame and provide resistance; that goes for the obvious muscle groups of the arms, shoulders, back and legs and for the internal muscles of the torso that supply the compression needed for explosive power. (When a top-level tennis player grunts with every ground stroke, you can hear the result of internal compression.)

To “punch without punching” may sound like an obscure koan, but it’s really a practical boxing instruction. This sort of punchless punch, or the push without pushing, uses the right muscles in the most efficient way. It allows a relatively slight person to deliver heavy blows. Yet to efficiently use your musculature, you do need muscle mass, and conditioning helps. This includes some forms of training that may not sound like tai chi chuan to many practitioners (i.e., doing push-ups, punching a heavy bag, or lifting weights.

Using Chi
It’s relatively easy to teach a beginner the movements of the tai chi form. But to the practiced eye, it’s clear that, even if he is closely imitating the movements, something is missing. We can call this missing element the internal movement of chi, or energy. The beginner’s movements are stiff, or perhaps limp, and the postures look static—if he were in physical contact with a tai chi player (let alone a streetfighter) his movements would be ineffective. Though he may feel like he’s practicing tai chi chuan, it’s a facsimile of the real thing. But there’s good news: You
don’t need to labor for many years or undergo some sort of spiritual transformation to begin to get it right.

With proper instruction and practice, a beginner soon feels energy flowing, with the fingers leading the palms and ultimately the body into each posture. What you experience is a tingling, dense and warm feeling in the fingers and palms, together with a peaceful mood and a sense that the movements are effortless.

So, how do you learn to do that (or teach someone else)? The vastus medialis is a good place to focus. Tai chi chuan is all about emptying the body of energy and filling it back up again, about yin and yang, about utter relaxation followed by complete wakefulness—those are all different ways of talking about the same thing. The emptying phase begins by relaxing the
vastus medialis and the other muscles of the inner thigh.

There are many ways to trigger the release of these muscles when you are learning. Exhaling will tend to loosen them, while inhaling will tend to contract the muscles and make them firm. Letting your mind relax, as if you are falling asleep, will tend to release the muscles. But then snap into wakefulness and the muscles will contract. If you rotate the pinky fingers outward as the armpits lightly open, the muscles are released. Then, if you energize, or “wake up” the index fingers, the muscles will return to a firm state. When the feet are on the ground the muscles will be released, but when the big toe or the toes press down onto the ground, the muscles contract and become firm. Finally, when you prepare to jump, the muscles are released, but if you change your mind about it, the muscles will contract and firm up. Think stopping halfway through the motion of sitting on a chair. The muscles relax, but if you stand back up, the muscles contract. These are all different ways to approach the same movement pattern.

It’s natural to continually release and then re-engage the vastus medialis muscles; our body machinery knows how to deal with it if we can just stay relaxed. Trouble only arises when we indulge in counterintuitive thinking and movements that disrupt the mechanical art existing in the body. The slow movements of the tai chi form will gradually regulate the nervous system and bring us to a state of relaxation. All our movements will go with the flow.

Not long ago, a student asked me what I think about while I do the form. Is it my hands? My inner knee? My breathing? The truth is, I don¹t think too much. I’ve watched films of myself from decades ago and I can see that my tai chi chuan hasn’t changed much over the years. And yet my focus on the vastus medialis is relatively new.

How can that be? Many tai chi masters, like many elite athletes in tennis or golf, have only an imprecise idea of the anatomical particulars of what they do.In tai chi chuan, not many teachers give clear instructions about body mechanics; they can do it, and they teach by example, but they can’t always explain what is going on. The same thing is true of tennis pros, golfers and boxers. But pay close attention to other players and to your own body over the years and you can develop some insights. If I’m right, we will all be focusing on the vastus medialis in years to come.

Did You Know?
The movements found in tai chi can be translated into mainstream sports, such as golf, tennis and boxing.


Did You Know?
William C.C. Chen was the Inside Kung-Fu Hall of Fame “Man of the Year” in 2001.

Up Close
Name: William C.C. Chen
Birthplace: Chekiang Province, ROC
Birthdate: 1935
Style: Tai chi
Instructor: Cheng Man-ching
Facts: In 1965, established the William C.C. Chen Tai Chi School in New York City’s Chelsea area
Web site: www.williamccchen.com
Contact:

A senior disciple of the legendary Cheng Man-ching, New York-based grandmaster William C.C. Chen is among the world’s foremost authorities on tai chi free fighting.