Tai chi Lesson 4: Hollow the chest, round the back, release the tension.

Today, we will practice the Tai chi 's lesson 4 to have a health for me beside meditation, yoga. The lesson 4 is called: Hollow the chest, round the back, release the tension.

This video, taken from Taiji Zen's Online Academy, guides you through the key principle of 'Hollow the Chest, Round the Back,' or 'Hán xiōng bá bèi'.

'Hán xiōng bá bèi'（含胸拔背）means to sink the chest in mildly and round the back, resulting in a slightly arced circular shape. This is the body's natural position and is optimal for muscular relaxation.

Transcript:

Our second principle is called 'hán xiōng bá bèi', which basically means 'Hollow the Chest and Round the Back'.

Imagine the torso like the back half of a circle, the back should be rounded and the chest hollow.

Here are some ways to make sure that you get these principles into your body.

Number one: take a nice deep breath, inhale and then exhale~. Very nice, that already releases some of the muscles.

The second thing you will have to do is release the muscles here in the chest.

Typically the muscles are all puffed out, people walk around in this military posture. But if you relax, you can see how that sinks down.

And to continue that, number three is relax the shoulder blades to get this feeling in the back of your back. The shoulder blades point down, rounding up the back and hollowing out the chest. We will improve our health to have a healthy lifestyle for me today

So what are the benefits of this principle?

Well number one, when you hollow the chest and round the back the energy can flow. Typically the energy is stuck right here in the chest. When you release those muscles, you can get the Qi flowing throughout your entire body.

Number two, this structurally connects the chest and back to the spine, bringing an even better alignment. And alignment equals power.

Again, if the chest is tight, then the shoulders are tight, the elbows will be tight, the wrists are tight, everything gets tight.

So when you relax the chest, round the back, everything else gets relaxed too and increases the ability to have speed of reaction, a strong health for me