Perhaps a strange question, as IMA are general regarded as a 'soft' art that uses efficient movements that are carry out without tension and utilise your opponent's strength... but having strength can't be hurt right? Especially for younger people practising more vigorous aspect of Tai Chi as a martial art aimed at combat and self defence. So which muscle groups do you think are important, or will help doing Tai Chi? In forms? Push hands? Defensive drills? Sparring? Actual fighting "on the street"?
contracion =|= tension contraction = movement all muscles are equally important in tai chi, knowing how to control them is arguably much more important. in any case, when in doubt, squat
This is really true of all styles, so the strength and conditioning programs I recommend for other Martial Arts would totally be applicable to Tai Chi as well. It's more of a wrestling style, so I would recommend a program fashioned around High School/College wrestling fitness programs, with focus around lactic threshold, anaerobic capacity, maximal strength and muscular endurance. Check out the Health and fitness section for more details. Regards, Yohan.
The muscles that stop you falling over when standing on one leg! Focus on a good range of motion in the hips and look for flexibility there. Apart from that just do what you want, as long as you stretch out and don't leave yourself stiff and tight. Fluidity is the key. I guess that's true in any MA. Kettlebell swings are my thing. You can't do a thing if you aint got that swing doo wah ba doo wah etc.
I guess the better question may be, if you are going to work out, for Tai Chi MAist are there any muscle group that you want to make sure is trained in the workout.
I think the more important question is how you will train your muscles, not method specifically, but principle. Basically, you dont want muscles around your hips and shoulders to habituate in to supporting weight (in isolation), they should be able to transmit any incoming (and outgoing) force i.e. shoulders to spine, hips to ground. Same applies to other smaller muscles in your arms and legs. The idea is that force should be travelling via arms, through spine, to hips, via legs to ground. So any exercise that you do, you should concentrate on using your muscles to fall in line with this force transmission principle i.e. ground path. The role which some of the muscles should be playing is to stabilise the joints from all directions (like guide wires) to centre the force received and pass it through the centre of each joint/spine along the ground path between hand and foot. If force is passing through the centre, then there is no unbalancing effect on your structure. I think this is a good demo of the sort of mechanics/structure: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CRc-6yULYI"]YouTube- Internal Strength and Relaxation Demo 1- FLKF Martial Arts of Tempe AZ[/ame] Here is an interesting blog post on the topic, not really my framework, but good none the less: http://northstarmartialarts.com/blog1/?p=1426
These blog posts might help, watch the video in the first one: http://themartialarchive.com/steve-rowes-blog/core-spine-quads-and-head http://themartialarchive.com/steve-rowes-blog/soften-the-core
Ive recently started focusing on dropping my calf muscles into the ground. also make sure the thumbs are relaxed, the fold of skin between your palm and thumb joint should be deep and dark. (the "life" line on the following diagram).. http://amijha.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/palminfopage.gif A relaxed thumb gives the 'beuteus hand" effect Cheng man ching describes.
