Stamping

[harry_the_monk]

I taught an old girlfriend to stamp her feet to save money on toilet roll.

[Lipster]

Stamping

Doc,


At the end of our training lessons, we stamp down on our heels three
times; Yanzi says it's to 'get the bad things out of your body'. I've
read as much several times, and stamping your heels is pretty prevalent thoughout gongfu, chigong and so on. Do you know the theory behind this? I mean, how does stomping your feet daily make you healthier?

[doc]

The whole concept of stamping your feet brings to mind some actions that people recommend one do when one is cold. The feet, being very peripheral to the warm core of the body, and, also being relatively uninsulated, tend to get colder in climates of lower temperature extremes. It seems to be a common response, when one's feet are "cold", to "stamp one's feet"; the idea being, to circulate more warm blood down to the lower extremities. As to whether there truly is a real physiologic response to this action, that is, the stamping of one's feet causes a vasodilation of the vessels in the feet, thus leading to more warm blood going to the area, is something that I'm not sure of. Generally, traumatizing any part of the body initially leads to a vasoconstriction of blood vessels in an area,which would have the opposite desired effect. However, stamping the feet requires use of the large leg muscles, which are excellent sources of produced heat. The effect of "warming up" by stamping the feet might have more to do with the physical activity of such, and less to do with the actual impact of the feet on the ground.

This brings to mind the common misconception that people have; that if one is cold, one should drink alcohol to "get warm". Alcohol is a vasodilator, and imbibing it while in cold temperature extremes does lead to one "feeling warm", as the vasodilation in the skin leads to a sensation of warmth, but with the eventual effect of the body actuallly losing body heat, resulting in gradual increased heat loss and eventual worsening of the situation. Again, commonly accepted "theory" based on absolutely no facts at all.

Likewise, stamping the feet to get rid of the "bad humors", might have less to do with the actual impact of the feet on the ground, and more to do with increasing the circulation of the blood through the increased physical activity of the large leg muscles. Also, it is a normal physiologic activity to move blood out of the legs by using leg muscles. Remember, gravity tends to cause blood to settle; the way the legs get the blood to move upwards against gravity, is by contraction of leg musculature.

So. Does stamping the feet help move qi around? Does it get bad things out of your body? AS to where this whole concept of stamping the feet to get rid of the evil spirits, well...

I haven't the slightest ****ing idea.

I guess we have to get back to the whole "what is qi" argument, before we can discuss whether or not stamping one's feet alters it...

[Lipster]

[dave]

good post doc!

i would say that stamping could be used to warm you up, especially if its done with power... im sure when it snows in the north around shaolin and beyond its friggin' cold

Another reason can be to develop power... look how Chen taijiquan does it also. The power goes down to the ground Even during the form sometimes, especially in the second form (both old and new frame), Pao Choi, the cannon-fist... stamping and whole body movement are very prevalent.

good to see the usual people on the new forum

dave

[dave]

one more thing, in some styles of qigong they use a type of stamping also... not to get in to the whole Qi? thing again though

but for example... raining yourself up on the balls of your feet and then stamping your heels down so your feet are flat... thats another method of stamping. In qigong it helps to basically get rid of 'bad qi' and 'raise the energy', and if you feel tired or depressed or something, it kinda shocks your body back to work... as the shock/recoil from the stamp moves everything around. Its used in my style a lot

dave

[Lipster]

"raining yourself up on the balls of your feet and then stamping your heels down so your feet are flat"

Yeah, that's the one I was talking about - we do that at the end of every lesson three times, then once softly. Different stamping to the one in Taichi.








Shi Yan Jiang, our Taichi Shifu performing at Chinese New Year celebrations on Saturday

[dave]

hey lipster...

its a method of "shou gong" in qigong, which means like an ending... in Qigong terms it helps to gather the qi and settle it in the dantian. like i said, it can also make you feel quite 'alive' again if you are feeling tired or slow... it works for me anyway usually it is done for example while breathing in and raising the hands, then breathe out as u stomp down on the heels, hands down also.

Our Qigong has an exercise similar to this in all different places in our main form, even in some standing exercises.

yup the stamping in Taijiquan is different... i think thats more to do with expression of power though but im not sure.

dave

[arhat]

stomping

there's also a lot of stomping, which is something completey different from what you guys are talking about....which I'm sure you've noticed also. lots of foot stomps.

But they are different from the foot stomps I learned in self defense, because it seems like you use them to hold the opponent down and in place...

First post in the new forum. I feel alive again...

[dave]

welcome back Arhat - wheres everyone else?

dave

[arhat]

i dunno....

this basically just kicked in right? I think things will get back to normal soon.

I'm actually getting ready to leave for a month or so...

[dave]

ah ok, have a good one then.
feels weird with no dan or vince or the rest

dave

[bhodi]

The footstomp that happens in the tai chi form I was learning is alot different from the ones that appear in the kung fu forms. I don't think they are the distraction that alot of self defense schools advocate using at the start of a technique either. I was trying to think of times that I have stomped my foot in the cold and usually it was just to get snow off my shoes. Maybe that helped warm me up though.... I don't know. Horses stomp alot.....??? But they do that in the dead heat as well as the winter so there is no evidence there that it has anything to do with regulating temperature. Sorry for the late start on the forum here but things have been hectic .

Peace!
Bhodi

[bhodi]

Alright .....why am I a newbie and everyone else got to keep their titles of old???!!!! And what is that picture under my name???? THe picture I chose was one of me levitating in an inverted lotus with chi flowers raining down from the heavens while a chi dragon frolicked in the background. Any ideas Doc??? Hummmm??

[doc]

POOF!

You're a senior member.

Now, let's all go to church tonight, find a little honey and pray, that dear old doc does not completely screw all of this up again, when he reinstalls the server onto bigger drives.....

(Forum will be down, sometime this week, for a few days. Just some more necessary work to do. Sorry.... )