How do you lift the leg?

 

Eva Koepsell, Master Hwa's wife, said: “This is an article well worth reading by one of Master Stephen Hwa's most dedicated disciples in Tai Chi. Jim, who is also a Sifu, has been playing Classical Tai Chi since the 1990s. You can see, as he points out, from the underlying tradition and attention to physiological detail, how practicing the art of the Tai Chi walk is of enormous benefit in keeping "young"! Stephen is continuing his Tai Chi class on Saturday mornings in the West Wing at 10:30 a.m. Free and open to Wynmoor residents.”

Detailed Cuing" in the treatment of Dementia(sounds like Classical Tai Chi training) dealing with gait problems in patients with Dementia, see this link:

 How do you lift the leg?

How do you lift the legs video?

“HOW DO YOU LIFT THE LEGS” is also known as learning to move well when young so you can still walk with an intact hip when you are old.

L.A. Times: “Kathie Lee Gifford is recovering after a nasty fall left her with a fractured pelvis. The 70-year-old former “Today” show host revealed she broke her pelvis in two places and was hospitalized for over a week AFTER taking a tumble following hip replacement surgery. Gifford said she “tripped” the following day while answering her door.”

Hexagram 30, Li The Clinging, Fire I Ching

Nine in the third place means: In the light of the setting sun, Men either beat the pot and sing Or loudly bewail the approach of old age. Misfortune. "Here, the end of the day has come. The light of the setting sun calls to mind the fact that life is transitory and conditional. Caught in this external bondage, men are usually
robbed of their inner freedom as well. The sense of the transitoriness of life impels them to 
uninhibited revelry in order to enjoy life while it lasts, or else they yield to melancholy and spoil
the precious time by lamenting the approach of old age. Both attitudes are wrong. To the superior man, it makes no difference whether death comes early or late. He cultivates himself, 
awaits his allotted time, and in this way secures his fate."



Ikkyu, the Zen master, was very clever even as a boy. His teacher had a precious teacup, a rare antique. Ikkyu happened to break this cup and was greatly perplexed. Hearing the footsteps of his teacher, he held the pieces of the cup behind him. When the master appeared, Ikkyu asked: 


"Why do people have to die?"


"This is natural," explained the older man. "Everything has to die and has just so long to live."
Ikkyu, producing the shattered cup, added: "It was time for your cup to die."


Dementia, old age, lack of movement, the bain of old age?  Are you doomed to merely "clinging" to life as you reach old age or do you celebrate going into it by "living in the Springtime of your life"? There are numerous studies and articles about the health benefits of Tai Chi for any age, but there should be much more written about Classical Tai Chi.  As with Tai Chi in general, the health benefits of Classical Tai Chi can be examined from different perspectives and with different intensities.  Unlike Tai Chi in general, however, the health benefits of Classical Tai Chi will always be linked inextricably with the training of Internal Discipline, which is the exclusive domain of Classical Tai Chi.

It is an unfortunate occurrence of old age that the elderly begin to move more and more from the extremities of the body and less and less from the core of the body.  We hear the statement, "I feel stiff," quite frequently from elderly people, whereas one seldom hears that refrain from the young. 

This is an excerpt from the book Understanding Dementia, which is meant to be a practical manual for primary care physicians and other health care professionals. Chapter 6 deals with the neurological examination, which includes an examination of gait (i.e., how someone walks).

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"A crucial (and often neglected) part of the neurologic exam is the observation of gait. Common gait disorders associated with dementia are hemiplegic gait, parkinsonian gait, ataxic gait, and apraxic gait. The characteristics of a hemiplegic gait are well-known (circumduction at the hip, dragging of the affected foot, and lack of movement at the knee). Parkinsonian and ataxic gaits are also familiar to most primary care practitioners. The former, in its most characteristic guise, is accompanied by a stooped posture, loss of arm swing, shuffling, small steps, and festination - an ataxic gait is characterized by imbalance and usually a broad couching stance in compensation. An apraxic gait is present when the previously learned motor activity (gait) can not be performed despite normal power and coordination of the legs. Typically, the patient can stand but has difficulty initiating gait, is very unsteady, takes small irregular steps, and their feet appear frozen to the floor. Detailed cuing (e.g. "life your right leg, now bend the knee, now put it forward.") often is helpful. This gait is consistent with both vascular disease and normal pressure hydrocephalus. "

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Taken from Understanding Dementia: A Primer of Diagnosis and Management
© Kenneth Rockwood & Chris MacKnight, 2001
Chapter 6, pp 108-109




That is interesting terminology: "Detailed Cuing" (e.g., "lift your right leg, now bend the knee, now put it forward.") This is exactly how Classical Tai Chi approaches its most basic training: walking by using internal discipline.


I find the Walking exercises, training, and practice of classical Tai Chi to be tailor-made for this dilemma. While one can intuit quite easily that it is important to maintain the ability to walk, what is more difficult is getting people to do it, particularly if they feel unsteady.  


Moreso than any Tai Chi that I have experienced over 35 years, Classical Tai Chi takes this and goes right to the crux of the problem.  The elderly do not move from the core, they stoop, shuffle their steps and exhibit very little flexibility.  Any training should take the "core" movement into account for the stagnation of the core is at the heart of the matter.  Any training should take a cognitive approach...talking, instructing exactly(How do you lift your leg..." lift the leg by using the abdominal and back muscle, by lifting the pelvis, etc."  It is part of the training to take "small steps" but with Classical Tai Chi the training makes the steps "regular".  The training encompasses schooling people in how to not have "feet frozen to the floor".  This is accomplished by teaching people to keep the body's center of gravity under control.  Not allowing the body to fall forward as is done in the everyday common walking motion.  Most importantly, one learns to pull the body forward or backward, not pushing with the legs.


In this way, dementia patients can work toward a visceral understanding of proper body posture, foot position, and body weight distribution while using highly cognitive and unique training for gait dynamics.  

This is Small Circle not Large

Rashid Oso asked an interesting question:  What about practicing Tai Chi at a very slow speed? Many Tai Chi practitioners nowadays (on YouTube) tend to move quite slowly, even in a very deliberate, drawn-out manner. Can one maintain the same feeling of relaxation and internal energy at that slow speed? For me, practicing Tai Chi at a normal speed is the most natural and comfortable. It's the pace that just feels right.

Rashid Oso et al. at Slower speeds: One can certainly attempt to slow the speed down to a "snail's pace" as an experiment; no one will scold you. However, 99% of "other" Tai Chi may appear to move slowly, but consider the mechanics of what they are doing and the size of their "frame" and "circles."  Also, to quote Master Stephen Hwa "...Jim Roach, they don't do INTERNAL..."! For instance, if someone is making a sizeable circling movement of their arm, doesn't that naturally extend the time because of the circle size? We do "small frame" and "small circle"; making a smaller circle takes less time than a large circle. As an experiment, you stand, feet parallel, and reach toward the wall, stretch till you first engage your core, then stop. Hold the stretch, count to 5, and then continue the stretch. In other words, you slowed your playing speed, but the internal force level did not change. You stopped the internal movement midway and found it remained energized. So, you also have this time to experiment while doing the form. You found that even playing slowly still gives you more time to sense and experiment with the details of the internal move. If you go slower and slower beyond a certain point, the circulation of the internal energy becomes a problem, not the initiation. There is a factor of diminishing returns, which you will sense, and you will find that it is becoming an intermittent circulation. That is a sign that you are playing it too slowly. People say, "Oh, play it at 20, 30, 40 minutes, etc." However, intermittent circulation will occur once you approach the 20-minute mark in these small circle-round forms. Remember, you are making small circles, and that has its own physics, which you try to defy at a "snail's pace."