TIANGANS |
heavenly stems |
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Above, is a photo of Joseph Zeisky on the grounds of the Morro Fortress in Puerto Rico, holding a posture from baguazhang's heavenly stems power stretching set. |
Tiangan stretching sets are designed to simultaneously open and condition the body, strenghten the legs and buttocks, refine your intuition, and develop the power to perform baguazhang's unique throwing skills against an opponent. |
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Tiangongs ("heavenly stems") are similar to performing a type of power yoga; they strengthen and condition the body. These stretching sets especially works the inner and outer thighs, buttocks, hips, legs and waist, to simultaneously develop power with agility, and to extend the "intuition" to all parts of the body; they help prepare the body to apply bagua's unique throwing skills and hitting techniques.
Primarily performed in very low stances with legs wide apart, moving at slow to medium speeds and stopping at each position holding it until the body's tissue clearly releases, only then does one further extend before switching to another position. But, tiangans can also be practiced at higher to medium stances and at faster speeds, in a more fluid manner where one posture smoothly blends into the next, as is done in Taijiquan's continuous series of unbroken movements to emphasize flow.
The photos below are a sample of a series of postures done in the Tiangan set called, "Tiao," "To Lift Up."
baguazhang links:
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