The nine main joints of the body (from taichi) warming up/loosening for parkour

Hi,

as i'm reading stuff about Taijiquan right now, and discovered some worthy information about the bodies main joints. As I thought this knowledge is helpful for anyone practicing parkour, i thought i put a compilation of what i've learned so far on the forum, so we can revise, comment, enhance and learn from it alltogether. (I noticed that shintai warming up was very close to this, maybe they have similar resources.)


"Movement is derived from the joints that connect the bones together and their related muscle groups. The human body is comprised of 206 connections between the bones. Those connections that are mobile are termed joints. Most movement of the human body is activated by both the joints and the muscles/tendons connected to the bone. This movement is mutually coordinated under the control of the nervous system. By allowing the nine major joints to be relaxed, loosened, and exercised there will be improvement in coordinating the upper and lower body as well as an overall stimulation to the entire body."


The nine joints that are mentioned are three in the arms, three in the main torso, and three in the legs. These are:
arms: wrists, elbows, shoulders
legs: hip, knees, ankles
torso: sacrum, spine, neck (Atlanto-axial joint,Atlanto-occipital joint)

(Most of us also use joints like the jaw in movements, too, just look at the face of someone vaulting)


"The nine joints help the waist turn. There are the ankles, knees, hips, elbows, shoulders, and wrists. These six joints should be seen as moving with the waist as the commander. Start by moving your waist freely and then watch to see if your shoulders are moving with your waist. Then watch your elbows and see if they are moving with your hips proportionately. Then watch your knees move with your hips. Eventually, you will be watching your wrists and ankles moving together with the hips. Remember, any small turn in the waist creates a proportional turn in the nine joints. The joints farther away from the center turn more than those close to the center. The nine joints should be seen as spherical, with an ability to move in any direction and still remain connected to each other. This nine joints practice is very helpful in reinforcing the idea of moving like a gyroscope where power is generated from the center of the body and expressed out to the limbs. The next way to practice moving as a unit is using the three bows which really help with understanding the weight shift. The three bows are: from the foot to the hip, from the sacrum to the neck, and from the shoulder to the fingertips. Like the bow of a bow and arrow, these bows, when bent, create potential energy."


And it is also said, that running on the balls of the feet rather then the heels is healthier, because the latter tends to jar the ankles, knees, hip and spine, thus encouraging joint degeneration.


the point is, to not only warm up the muscles, and stretching the muscles and tendons, but to also warm up the joints, because boy, they gotta lot of work to do during training smile.gif or as one source states: "Joint rotations are performed first to facilitate joint movement by lubricating the entire joint with synovial fluid." From what i read it's the best to do these in the beginning of the warmup, followed by some muscle-concentrated and more dynamic activity like running, etc., which again is followed by stretching. remember not to go 100% from then on, but slowly gaining ground until you reach your top perfomance.

so, now that we have a context, i want to try to describe the joint warming exercises.

all exercises should be performed without any rush, make it slow movements.


No. 1 - Wrists

Fold your hands with interlaced fingers, in front of your chest. Circle with your wrists, so that your folded hands perform an horizontal 8 in front of you. After 5-10 times, try to reverse the 8, you won't be used to the reverse movement, but with a bit of practice it will go as well.

Some other of way doing it is this exercise:

Raise your arms in front of you to shoulder height, palms facing down. Make a loose fist with your right hand and let the left hand support the right elbow. Circle your right fist in a circular movement as big as possible 5-10 times, then reverse the directions.


No. 2 - Elbow

Raise your right arm in front of you to shoulder height, palm facing up. Let the left hand support the right elbow. Bend your right elbow, and while doing this start turning the palm downwards, so the right arm will pass the space between your chest and the left arm, where you can stretch your right elbow again, this time palms down. The left hand keeps supporting the right elbow all the time! Do this back and forth 5-10 times, then switch to the left elbow.


No. 3 - Shoulders

This one will gonna be more complicated, because what we call "shoulder" consists of several different joints in the shoulder area. I didn't have the time to study this complex machinery in detail yet, so I'm just gonna put up some exercises that I hope to lubricate all the involved joints.

First of all, stand relaxed, arms loosely at your sides. Raise both of your shoulders as high as possible while breathing in, then circle the shoulders backward and downward while breathing out. Repeat 5-10 times.

Bend your elbows and touch your shoulders with your fingers. Let the elbows perform large circles, 5-10 times, then the same backwards.

A third exercise would be with the arms extended sidewards, to rotate in very small circles. 5-10, then backwards.

The last one would be the windmill, put the fingers of your left hand on the area below the right clavicle (to check if you raise your shoulder instead of circling). Circle with your straight right arm as wide as possible. Don't forget not to go fast. After 5-10 times change the direction. Same procedure for the left.

So, let's move on to the torso.


As I've read head rotations are no longer practiced, due to the dangers if one doesn't know how to do it right. I myself tried them a few times, and the sounds it made supports the advice, to better not do it. This is a general rule for everything: if you're not comfortable with it, don't do it!

No 4. - Neck

Stand relaxed, and let gravity slowly pull your head down towards your chest while breathing out. Don't force it. After some seconds resting in that position, lift it up again, breathing in. Do that 10 times.

Then lower your left ear towards the left shoulder and then the right ear to the right shoulder. Again 10 Times back and forth. Be very gentle in these exercises and don't bend your head backwards!


No 5. - Spine

For the upper spine, make lose fists and bring them up in front of your chest. Raise your elbows, so that your fists oppose each other. Turn your upper body to the right while breathing out. Turn back while breathing in. Turn a second time to the right, this time a bit further. Turn back. Now all of this to the left, and repeat the whole exercise 10 times.

For the lower spine, let your arms hang losely at your side. Start turning your waist to the left and to the right, while letting the arms swing freely along. Extend your turns a bit over the time, and then reduce slowly until you stop, after 1-2 minutes. Don't move the legs wink.gif

No 6. - Sacrum

Bring your hands down on your sides, around the kidney area, they're needed for support. Push you're waist a bit to the front, and then start circling, without moving the head. The circles will be more like small ovals and I don't know if it's possible to not move the legs in this one.



No 7. - Hip

Raise the right knee in front of your left leg, so that you get 90° degree angles. Let the lower leg hang losely. Move the knee to the right, and halfcircle in a lower position back to the left. Notice how your lower leg will turn accordingly inside and outside. Circle for 5-10 times, then repeat with the left leg.

No 8. - Knees

Stand with your feet close together, put your hands on your knees. Fixate your eyes on a point on the floor. Circle both of your knees in rather small circles 5-10 times in one direction, than the other. Remember to keep your back straight.

No 9. - Ankles

Stand easy with your body weight on one leg. Raise the heel of the other leg, so that only the toes touch the floor. Raise a few more centimeters, and start drawing circles with your toes in the air. Don't go to fast, repeat 5-10 times, switch circle direction, same for the other ankle.


All joint warm-up exercises should be performed in a row, where the exercised joint is located close to the one before. So mostly it's either fingertips to toes, or the other way round. Don't have breaks between the exercises, because your body is still warm from warming up, and you don't want to cool down. I don't know how much time it takes to perform all in a row, just make some experiences and adjust the number of repetitions to your personal preferences. The body has a lot more joints, but I think for parkour these are the important ones.