五鬆 · Wu Song (5 Relaxation / Loosening / Releasing Methods)

hello back everyone as i announced already in the previous video now it's going to be time and go a little bit deeper into the different methods and that means you will need to learn just a few concepts a few ideas about the chinese way of thinking about the world and thinking also about the different areas of yourself that we need to take into consideration so but nevertheless without confusing you too much at the moment the methods that we would like to share with you right now are going to be the wu song meaning it's the

five loosening or the five relaxation methods after this small theoretical introduction you will have the chance to simply join in directly i will demonstrate the practices together with one of my students with one of my disciples it's approximately going to be a one hour session but before we are jumping into the practice there are a few things that i would like to share with you so for example the method is called wu song so the song sometimes translates as relaxation loosening or releasing or getting rid of something or also you can name it as being

in a state free of stress free of tension but already with the first exercise which is to clench the fists you might ask yourself what does clenching the fist and relaxation or loosening of the body or being stress-free within the body has to do with the clenching of the fists well at the first glance maybe not so much but here comes the point where i would really like to point out something which is going to be a quite common method that you will find throughout the whole range of practices that exist in the chinese martial

arts so and this approach is also when you look at the monastery everybody who is coming here into our temple who is dealing with the different types of methods what we ultimately want simply is to be free but the heart structure the way how things are organized within this monastery at the first glance that doesn't really look free because everything has a place everything has a structure everything has an order but the principle behind it is we want to have freedom but therefore we need to learn and deal with the restrictions and everything that is

limiting us in the same amount in the same way it means we want to have a loose a relaxed a stress-free state of different areas of our body and the approach in order to achieve this is also by using its opposite so meaning by using tension in this case now it's very very important that you use all the tension and the hardest tension and the highest intensity that you are also able to generate inside of yourself so there are two things right now again i need to point out number one is if you want relaxation

you need to learn what is tension this is the point number one and the second point is that you also slowly step by step try and identify for yourself the existence of exactly those two different states in general we talk about a loose state a released state or a relaxed state a stress-free straight a stress-free state on the other side we have the part which is full of tension which is all on fire and which is all about compressing and stagnating your strength or your energy now you need to identify in which of these two

states are all your different parts of the body the more fine the more detailed you can become in identifying how are your legs how are your arms in which of both of these states is your chest if you try and feel into your belly area how does your belly area feel is it loose is it tense is it something in between if you think it is loose is it possible that there is another state which is even more loose so the practice of the wu song not just only starts to increase your ability to identify

very clearly those two different states which are necessary as a qigong practitioner and as a martial art practitioner but also to learn after you identify these states to learn and deepen them or on the other side strengthen them the state of release the loosening state becomes more loose and the strong part the strengthening state becomes more strong this is just a small principle but a very very important one that you need to use the mind and stay also in this way of observing yourself while you are doing the practices in all five of these practices

it's regardless now how each of these five exercises looks right now i am talking about the underlying principle how you are supposed to practice these exercises so the second area now for example is take your hand yeah it's not only in the chinese martial arts or in the taoist view of things about the balance of yin and yang to go a step more deep also means that it is about the balance of all five elements that are being regarded and are being represented of different areas of our body that you also find not just in

our organs but also in your fingers and to give you a small idea what it means for the practice and also why it is important to slowly also learn about these concepts i will explain to you afterwards but number one you take the sump which is representative for example of the earth element and one way how you can imagine why does the earth why does the sun is standing for the earth because if everything is all right and the sun is standing upright then you are standing stable then you are grounded to the earth and

that's why that some is simply a sign of stability a sign of steadiness a sign of being grounded now the second one we take the index finger the finger which is pointing out in different directions and which at the same time we say in the chinese martial arts is also very close connected to the so-called third eye so wherever you are pointing wherever the index finger is pointing it is also an indication of where your focus of where your visor is is aiming at and as a representative our index finger is standing for the wood

element now the third finger yeah it's i'm not quite sure how i'm supposed to show you now third finger without insulting you but let's make it like this so yeah the third finger is if you watch at all five of them it is the longest finger it is that one finger which is standing tallest amongst all other five meaning it is the one in the first line it is the one which is in the attacking line it is the one which is moving forward the first it is the most active one the most active one

being represented in the chinese way of seeing the elements by fire the ring finger as an element sometimes related with the element metal or sometimes also other people say it is gold so you can either remember it is the golden one because this is where you put the ring when you are getting married or it is the finger which is representing the metal element so one actually very nice way to remember so what is the ring finger for why is it related to metal and what is its emphasis it is in a way when you

are putting the golden ring the golden coat over your ring it serves as a as a term of of protection you are protecting yourself you are having a shield around you you are having something that gives you external strength that for example you can just use as an image to remember that the ring finger is the metal element and finally what we have is the weakest one the smallest one the finest one the most gentle one out of all of these five elements it is our smallest finger representing the water element but now nevertheless just

take for an example the process of you closing the fists now when you watch at your palms when you watch at your hands and slowly slowly start to build the strongest structure of your hand which is a fist then you will see that the slightest movement the first movement at all is being guided by the small finger for example first the small finger gets in afterwards the sump is closing all of this structure and just as i mentioned in the beginning of this talk these are just some indications for you also to realize to change

the understanding of the mind just because something is represented as a weak element just because something is looking the smallest just because something doesn't look strong doesn't mean we can leave it away doesn't mean that we can just ignore its existence because in this example we do need the weakest parts of our palms the weakest parts of our hands as it is building the foundation for the strongest structure our arm our hand can take so now what next yes the second practice of the wu song which is which is related to the chest area please

keep in mind that after holding the breath when you are exhaling you are exhaling with an a sound so listen for example it's like this you are inhaling you hold the breath and on the exhalation ah so you have to you have the a from the alphabet it's a this is the sound which is important to remember when you are practicing the second relaxation methods now in comparison to the third exercise there we are using a different tone and the third exercise which is the the foo song it is the relaxation the loosening exercise for

your belly area and after inhaling into the belly area holding the breath compressing the body now on the exhalation yeah pay attention to the sound in the way that i'm exhaling which is it is i would describe it as a very hollow as a very hollow it is a stream of air which is coming from the belly area leaving outwards leaving out the mouth but when it is traveling through this through the throat it is the smoothest way of exhaling air out of any type of sounds that you can speak out just let me give

you if you make ah you can already feel there is the vibration already of the throat or it doesn't matter what sound you are taking many of them simply have different vibrations but for the third exercise of the wusson remember you want the smoothest way for the air to leave the belly area and that is done by using the sound yes yep so i think at least from my side all relevant theoretical concepts theoretical approachings and and everything that for right now to begin your practice you need to know i think it is shared with

this video that you just saw in case something would ever be missing then either you're going to hear it from me or you're going to hear it from grandmaster jiang yushan in that case one last thing why these methods are being released right now and are also why they can become a quite relevant part in today's community of practitioners is because you can use all of these methods in all different types of positions as well you will see later that my student is going to stand in the so-called serenbe it is the natural stance placed

on both feet but if you have problems with standing it's absolutely no issue if you are also making the exercises while being seated now let's just take the first exercise you could just stay with a straight spine tuck the chin in stand straight and now here shoulders arms relax and start to clench the fists now there are small things that you can try out if they are easier for you which means you are supposed to clench the fists clenching the fists feeling inside the element of each of these fingers and now important balance them out

so you do not want to feel a different dominance of the sump of the index finger of the middle finger ring finger or small finger you do not want that any of these representatives of the elements is dominating any of the other elements what you want is the feeling that it's all one it's all full it's all harmoniously filled and that makes it necessary because the smallest finger and the ring finger for many many people anyway already is the weakest part that means you must learn and use your mind intent the mind intent in order

to nourish the strength to nourish your or to place your focus more in the direction more in the intent of the water element and the metal element meaning more in the direction of the small finger order that this complete fist becomes one harmonious unit so it is about balancing and what you want to balance out is to have a strong strong strong clenched fist but the rest of the body shoulder biceps triceps forearms if you want and you are seated you can also rest them here just on the legs so you can better concentrate on

the fifth only and this goes for the first exercise it goes for the second exercise where the main focus is the chest area in the third practice your main focus is the belly area then the fourth exercise it is the buttocks and the fifth exercise it is your size that you are focusing your your strength and your willpower on so that was it for today's serie lesson and i'm wishing you all have a nice training and see you soon again so hello everyone um as you see i brought some friend today which is actually not

this one but it's one of my disciples and this is going to be a special video because um as for the wish of zhang shifu i would like to share with you today one method that i also learned from him and these methods are called wu song wu song means it's the five loosening exercises or sometimes you can also translate them as the five relaxation exercises without too much talking right now let's directly go in to the exercises and how to start with it there are going to be five areas on ourselves that we are

going to take care of the first exercise is related to the hands the second exercise is going to be the chest the third exercise is for the belly area the fourth exercise is for the buttocks and the fifth exercise is going to be for your legs so number one is i'm going to demonstrate it on my student but anyway for you you can directly join this session as uh we're going to make it in real time so you can just join the instructions and i'm guiding you through these exercises all right feet together feet together

okay bring hands in front of the chest catch your attention in take a deep breath inhale exhale one more time inhale and exhale and bow okay inhale lift the elbows left foot step out and exhale arms sink okay you can come more in the middle so my student is going to stand doing all these exercises but nevertheless you can practice all of them while you are also seated or sometimes also when you are lying just depending on the condition that you are in yes and before i forget it was also the wish that this particular

video we are starting to publish it already right now especially for that one person within the group you will know who is meant with that it's cosmo from the group so take these exercises and try what you can still do to yourself with it so number one open your palms open your palms okay ah watch your hands small finger ring finger middle finger index and sump one time turn around thump index finger middle finger ring finger and small finger yeah make clear for yourself you have 10 of them feel your fingers and then slowly start

and clench the fist close the fist now watch the thumb is here touching the inside of the other fingers it's not here on top it's not in between it's on the side of the other fingers now the exercise is very easy because start clenching the fists and we are going from here hold the tension clench it as hard as you can for two minutes and three two one and go yeah concentrate clench the fists all ten fingers five on the right five on the left keep the fist closed with your mind concentrate on your fist

concentrate on all five fingers observe your arm now observe your fist and feel if there is any weakness if any of your fingers is starting to become weak as soon as you realize it's about to become weak you squeeze new try and concentrate two minutes long stay with the fists closed close the fist and keep clenching them concentrate with the mind observe at the same time all your fingers and fill all the fist up at all times yeah continue we still have one more minute to go stay focused stay concentrated and clench the fists at

the same time also shoulders arms biceps triceps forearm all of this try to stay relaxed only the fists are tense keep going 20 more seconds keep going and 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 one slowly release the tension and open some very very slowly index finger middle finger ring finger small finger open one time the palms stretch them okay now just a very very short break so take two deep breaths inhale exhale and one more time inhale and exhale and now starting the second round open the palms small finger ring finger middle

finger index finger sump again on the side and three two one and go start squeezing again and we go another two minutes now stay focused stay concentrated only the fist forearm biceps triceps shoulder the rest of the body try to stay relaxed so don't tense up anything else it's just the fist keep holding even if it's starting to become very exhausting stay focused concentrate and keep stay with the willpower don't let any weakness enter into the bones enter into your fist observe yourself go inside each finger and feel if there is space for improvement then

improve squeeze more yeah 50 more seconds to go keep going squeeze concentrate keep going squeeze harder as hard as you can 30 seconds keep going concentrate concentrate on the fist 10 9 8 seven six five four three two one and slowly release the tension open the thumb open the index finger middle finger ring finger and small finger one time open and now again two times take a deep breath inhale and exhale one more time inhale and exhale and last round for this first exercise close small finger ring finger middle finger index finger at the end

close the thumb on both hands and three two one and start squeezing uh two more minutes keep going relax the forearm biceps triceps relax shoulders don't tense up only the fist keep squeezing and one and a half more minutes concentrate with the mind go into your fist go into the bones go into each single finger and feel if there is any space to squeeze more this is the third round it's a little bit more exhausting but keep going just 60 more seconds to go 50. concentrate focus stay inside the fist keep squeezing your breath keep

it calm and steadily breathe deep and 10 seconds 9 8 7 six five four three two one and slowly release the tension from the fists and open thump index finger middle finger ring finger small finger one time stretch your palm open and then just rest them left and right from your legs relax don't touch the body let the fingers hang and take two more breaths and one more time okay so very good this was the first loosening exercise in regards to our palms in regards to our fists and our hands now let's move on to

the second exercise which is aiming on your chest area now before we start with this just place both your hands on the chest inhale and make sure that you feel your air is enter so inhale into the chest area exhale second time inhale exhale and one more time inhale chest area and then exhale okay so for the next exercise i'm going to show you first what you are going to do we are focusing the mind on to our chat then you are inhaling through the nose slowly and concentrate on the expansion of your chest so

you inhale into the chest area until you feel that you cannot inhale anymore from that moment when the chest area is filled i'm gonna count you down from nine seconds where you are holding the breath and after the nine second when you are exhaling we're exhaling with a a sound so it's like this you inhale into the chest then you directly continue second time fill up the chest and then again nine seconds holding and we are repeating this exercise eight times so we are starting right now and fill up the chest inhale then hold the

breath and now one two three four five 6 7 8 9 and exhale with ah and so second breath inhale again into the chest hold the breath and again one two three four five six seven eight nine and exhale ah the third cycle in fourth time inhale chest area and one two three four five six seven eight nine and exhale okay number five inhale into the chest one two three four five six seven eight nine and exhale okay and six one more time inhale chest area slightly lift up the chin hold inside the chest and

one two three four five six seven eight nine and exhale and two more times same exercise inhale in slightly lift up the chin inhale yeah shoulders neck throat relax it hold the breath and one two three four five six seven eight nine and exhale and one final time inhale into the chest fill up the chest fill up the chest then hold the breath relax the shoulders relax the neck and nine seconds one two three four five six seven eight nine and exhale with the ah okay very good then just two times normal breathing regulate yourself

breathe deep inside your body belly first chest second fill up the body exhale one more time inhale and exhale good this was the second loosening exercise emphasizing our chest area next exercise is our belly region it's our belly area therefore as a small preparation just put both of your palms onto your belly in case you're practicing this exercise in the standing position the feet a little bit a little bit more together okay stop yeah you can place both fists in between the feet the spine is standing straight the head is slightly lifted up so arms

are resting on the belly area and now first of all make sure that you know or that you practice to understand what means belly breathing nevertheless no matter how you're breathing the air is going to end up in your lungs but dependent on how much tension you are carrying uh in your in your diaphragm area when the diaphragm is relaxed and loose it feels like the air would enter into your belly area and that's why during the inhalation if you're focusing on your belly area and you're staying relaxed so the complete upper torso is relaxed

it feels like the air is entering into the belly area and therefore this abdomen area at the same time is inflating while you are inhaling so just two three times take it slowly stay relaxed in the mind stay inside of your body inhale through the nose and feel focus that the air is entering into the belly area okay and inhale exhale yeah maybe you can see it here now my hands are on the belly when you inhale and out on the inhalation the belly expands on the exhalation the belly becomes flat again and two more

times inhale belly area exhale and one more time inhale into the belly area inhale and exhale so for the next exercise for the third loosening exercise with the emphasis on our belly area the breath is you're inhaling in to the belly then just similar like you did in the previous exercise inhale into the belly area stop the breath focus inside on the belly area and then use all the muscles that are surrounding your lower torso which means rib muscles abdomen muscles back muscles and squeeze squeeze the body so i show you how it looks you

inhale into the belly area so slowly inhale hold the press and start compressing all the muscles everything around this abdomen area and again hold it for nine seconds okay so my student is already holding it but nevertheless we continue now nine one two three four five six seven eight nine now on the exhalation with the oh so with the sound not like previously with the ah this time with the oh yeah so watch also and pay attention to the sound that you are exhaling so now we are starting inhale into the belly area stop the

breath and squeeze all the muscles squeeze focus on the belly area and now now one two three four five six seven eight nine and second time inhale through the nose fill up the belly area inhale stop the press compress and one two three four five six seven eight nine and third cycle inhale slowly fill up the abdomen area inhale hold the breath and compress one two three four five six seven eight nine and exhale and continue inhale into the belly area once again inhale hold the breath compress again nine one two three four five six

seven eight nine and exhale and continue four more inhale belly area inhale stop the breath compress all the muscles around the torso so front side ribs back side close everything also from down from up close it and one two three four five six seven eight nine and exhale three more times inhale into the belly area inhale and two more times inhale belly area in stop compress all the muscles surrounding your belly and one 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and and one final time inhale into the belly area yeah body stay relaxed at

this moment inhale stop the breath and compress very good so these were eight repetitions eight cycles and now just regulate your body breathe two times just naturally deep inside your body inhale exhale and one more time inhale and exhale okay so this was already the third loosening exercise emphasizing the belly area and we move on there are two more to go the fourth exercise actually the the explanation what you're supposed to do is quite simple imagine you have a walnut that you are trying to crack with your buttocks so so that means yeah your butt

your your buttocks behind stand and tense up those two yeah one two tens up tense them yeah so turn around okay here this one and this one in between you have the walnut and now squeeze yeah start squeeze so if i touch here yes this is now hard it's hard so and important now for two minutes now this is just the first round we continue this three times but again we are holding this tension in the buttock area for two minutes this is the beginning so let's just start and three two one and go yeah

for two minutes right now you just keep holding the tension here in the buttock area imagine you are trying to crack a walnut which is placed in between there so keep pushing just like in the first loosening exercise of clenching the fists this time you are clenching your buttocks and at the same time it also means at if you are realizing any of your buttocks any weakness is starting to enter use the mind use the will power and keep squeezing keep holding sometimes if you hold very very strong you realize your body will start shaking

so keep squeezing hold it one more minute to go don't relax don't be passive your mind focus stay with your butt yeah keep cracking keep cracking that nut you go yeah your butt in in and squeeze squeeze keep going 20 seconds for the first round then two more rounds to go now keep going don't let loose harder keep squeezing harder five four three two one and relax a moment take two deep breaths in between relax the body take two deep breaths inhale exhale and one more time inhale and exhale and we go to the second

round and start three two one and squeeze squeeze the butt and now hold for two minutes now when it gets weak then directly use the mind use the willpower keep it in keep squeezing keep squeezing one more minute concentrate as soon as you feel any weakness is entering keep keep pushing harder 20 seconds and 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 three two one and release inhale exhale one more time inhale exhale and the third round three two one and squeeze again squeeze the buttock muscles left and right and go two minutes yeah on the

one side it's closed in this direction at the same time also in this direction keep it in keep it in pull all the muscles make them strong pull it inside of the body now hold the sexual organs keep them in pull it in don't let the body leak practice to hold this type of tension as soon as you realize there is some weakness trying to enter use the mind power and go in squeeze keep going one more minute to go go harder don't let the weakness enter 30 seconds more to go and 10 9 8

seven six five four three two one and relax and two times inhale exhale one more time inhale and exhale okay so this was exercise number four emphasizing on the buttock area for you to hold the tension hold the strength and don't let the body leak every time just like also in the first exercise with clenching the fists the fourth one you clench the buttocks hold up the strength of the muscles yeah hold the power in if you realize while you're observing your buttocks while you're observing the fingers and the fist as soon as you realize

some weakness is about to enter which is going to happen no matter who's making it but you practice to make it strong again use the willpower and keep the strength in so let's move on to the final exercise the fifth loosening exercise now for this one let's just make a small preparation exercise so you understand what you are making now yes okay look okay first of all knees are just lightly bent and here just your sides they are relaxed yeah relax the sides relax the sides so when you're standing you can feel they can move

around quite quite loosely keep your hands on the sides and just bend the knees a little bit more so that the body starts to move down and you realize that the muscles are starting to engage which means your muscles start to tense up automatically this is the important part right now that the tensioning of your leg muscles right now it's coming automatically so move again a little bit up everything is loose and just because we are starting to lower our position you realize the muscles they are starting to tense up by themselves automatically so now

this time we don't want the muscles to activate automatically you want to activate your muscles you want to activate the size consciously which means right now go back in the position where both the sides are loose and now without going lower so stay in the position where you are tense up your leg muscles activate them activate yeah when you activate them even without lowering your posture you realize still the muscles are tense but this time they are not tense because you are lowering they are tense because you are choosing to do so you are consciously

engaging you are consciously activating the thigh muscles so again you are not passively observing anything you are actively engaging you are actively grabbing your size and tense them up tense the size this is number one first part of this exercise so tense up the side muscles here this is all strong front back yeah both left and right tense up for the complete duration of this exercise right now we are only going to make it yeah let's make it let's make it 10 minutes together and zhang shifu suggested at least you should go for 15. so

everything above that i think is fine for the purpose of this video right now so you start to get the feeling what type of exercise is it let's go for 10 minutes right now and keep the size engaged actively once again you have to use your willpower you have to be focused and concentrated and keep the size engaged so we go three two one and ah go yeah tens up the size yeah tense them up first so and now comes something additionally while you have them tensed up start yeah straighten the knees straighten the knees

so that means you move up just maybe like two three centimeters it is straighten the legs while you keep the size engaged straighten remain active with the size and the mind and slowly sink a little bit down slowly bend the knees then again start to straighten the knees and then very little bend the knees again keep the mind engaged keep the muscles tense keep the size strong and straighten up the body again you don't have to make big movement the height difference between straightening the legs and bending the legs is about five centimeters yeah not

much more than that so don't make big movement the important part once again is keep the mind focused keep the psi muscles activated consciously activated don't let loose of the mind keep going keep going we still have seven minutes to go keep going activate the side muscles keep them engaged hold them and just straight turn the legs and bend straight and bend straighten the legs and bend straighten the legs and bend continue keep the legs the size engaged straight and bend so don't drift away keep the mind activated keep it strong stay inside straight and

lightly bent straight and bent and four more minutes straighten the legs and bend stay focused keep the size engaged actively close the muscles and bent tense up the thigh muscles consciously move up straighten the knees keep the tension in the legs even if you bend the knees keep the tension in the legs one and a half minutes to go and straighten the knees straighten the legs keep the tension in and sink and last minute to go keep activate keep active stay active same here in the moment you realize the weakness enters into the legs use

the will power keep staying strong and 30 seconds more to go and 10 seconds oh and one final time straighten the legs and bend the knees and then release inhale exhale one more time inhale exhale and one final time in and out left foot return back to the center both arms front of the heart and bow okay so this was now the introduction into the five loosening exercises their name is in the future there will come some more explanations maybe some more detailed explanations in what you are actually doing there but for right now you

can use this video integrated to all of the previous qigong practices that i have shared already with you it's perfectly fine to use this one hour video right now and just integrate it to all the practices that you also did before because when you are starting to dive deeper into the qigong practices and then also to the martial art practices you can never be loose relaxed and released enough because this is the state where our energies can freely flow and therefore increase your abilities to learn and relax the body more these were the five exercises

and i'm wishing you a lot of fun exercising them and don't thank me for them thank you foo for sharing all of this with you so see you soon again and enjoy your training and don't let the weakness enter into your body hmm oh