Are you looking for a way to stay fit and healthy? Yi Chuan may help you get there. Very little known, Yi Chuan is a martial art and an art of health that was invented by the Chinese master Wang Xiang Zhai, in the early 20th century. Yi Chuan can be translated as "boxing the spirit, intention and ideas." If you hear of da cheng chuan, is simply another way of naming this martial art, meaning, "the boxing great achievement."

Yi Chuan, is a concrete, physical and mental method that helps one find one’s center and equilibrium point, which allows us to better bring out actions in our lives. The aim is to rebalance the whole body’s components so they work smoothly.

Who Should Practice Yi Chuan?

It can be practiced by all those who want to improve their health, or those who wish to practice the art of combat. This martial art is especially popular with people doing tai chi or other sports who want to improve their technique.

Unlike Tai Chi, this art does not include sequences of movements. This approach helps develop a series of lessons that we found in old tai chi chuan.

Yi Chuan may be suitable for adults of all ages, because the postures can be adapted to physical limitations. They practiced standing, sitting or lying down.

What is this Practice?

This martial art involves seven steps. If you enroll, you will explore first postural work. It is an internal energy work, which allows you to find the best posture. This step allows to fully link all the different body parts so they operate as efficiently as possible and form a whole. You must learn to stand still in various postures. There are thirty in all.

You can then try to force by slow movements that involve pulling or pushing.

Then you learn to move by moving together all the parts of your body to perform slow movements. If one has worked in immobility, movements are more fluid, more flexible, stronger, more balanced and stable.

It is then time to work on the explosion of force. The goal is to verify if you are able to explode with the force of rapid movements.

The next step is to test sound. You will work your breathing with six different sounds while integrating the moving parts of your body.

You start working with a partner as you explore pushing hands. One wonders if one is able to track the movement of the partner and if one can get a lead on another. It allows us to verify if one’s body alignment is correct and put in practice what was learned before.

The last step is only open to those who want to practice fighting and is trying to win a free fight. This part of Yi Chuan is occasionally practiced with weapons such as a long stick or a sword.

For What Purpose Do We Practice Yi Chuan?

Yi Chuan is compared to meditation and provides similar benefits. Staying still can leave us attentive to everything that takes place inside and outside the body. It is therefore easier to perceive stress and tension, and to to identify and direct the correct movements to eliminate them.

This art promotes a gradual dissolution of stress and its consequences. If you practice it frequently, you will learn to react better to the stresses of life.

The essence of Yi Chuan is to control the mind in different postures. As soon as one enters a posture, it goes to internal work, imbibing the meditative aspect, to control the body using the mind. It provides a better-breathing body, where body tensions and energy are released. This leaves the body more relaxed and able to respond smoothly and quickly in dangerous situations.

How Often Should I Practice?

Ideally, the goal is to make it a daily practice. Participants attend two or three half-courses past one week and continue to practice at home.

The Benefits of this Martial Art

Yi Chuan can give you several benefits. Here are a few useful ones:

• Better control of your body, your reflexes and your mind
• Strength training
• Better posture
• Relaxation of your body
• Increase your immunity
• Better Breathing
• Better balance
• Weight Loss
• Better management of stress and reduction of tension in your body
• Better self-regulation of various bodily and mental functions
• Reorganization of the neuromuscular system
• Balance of action between the two hemispheres of the brain
• Stimulation of the endocrine system

Evidence from a reader

"I practice Yi Chuan for 20 to 40 minutes, four or five times a week; but whether for five minutes or an hour, it’s all good. I think the important thing is to integrate it into your lifestyle. Yi Chuan helps harmonize body and mind and strengthen the two. I have felt very rapid and positive changes it has made on my health, and on the energy that has resulted. I have a greater awareness of my body and its needs. Its effects on anxiety are remarkable: it is a true antidepressant. For me, Yi Chuan is almost a panacea because, as soon as I committed myself to practice, I realized that I was returning to take over my life and my health, without necessarily having to always put a lot of effort. After that, there was no turning back."