Backward sitting

The third stage is backward sitting, the specific movement of backward sitting is gradually bending the knee of the right leg and gradually straightening the left leg, turning the waist and swaying the shoulders, driving both arms to swing back and forth. It can be seen from the teaching video that, the entire backward sitting process loosens the waist and hip, the waist and hip are loose but solid, and it takes the feet as the foundation to move upward and backward at an approximately horizontal direction, so that we are not lack of a sense of flexibility in the steadiness when doing Bear Swaying movement.

The backward sitting forms left leg stretching and right left bending movement, accumulates energy for the subsequent Bear Swaying movement. The features of backward sitting stage can be explained by viscosity. The body of the beginners tends to be tense and stiff and lack of viscosity while doing this movement. The movement trace of the body gravity center is just as an abstract mass point in physics, thus causing the changes of body gravity center to be abrupt and unstable. Therefore, in the initial stage of studying the backward sitting movement, the exercisers should pay attention to the moderate relaxation of waist and hips, which can avoid error movement caused by excessive tension of the body. Of course, the waist and hips should be relaxed appropriately, which can better stimulate Dai Channel and kidney and produce a rotating massage effect on the whole viscera.

Viewing from the overall changes of body gravity center in practicing Bear Swaying movement, the body gravity center of the high-level exercisers goes through a high-to-low stage and enters a relatively steady movement stage; while the body gravity center of the beginners shows “peak- trough” oscillation and has a relatively larger amplitude of changes in ascending and descending process. The biomechanical principles tell us that a person’s gravity center moves more smoothly, the body will be also more stable. If the body gravity center moves more slowly, the lower limbs will be more stable and the relative flexibility of the upper limbs and trunk movements will be assured. If the body gravity center has a larger fluctuation, it means that the body foundation is swaying obviously and may affect the free expression of the movements of the trunk and upper limbs.

The above also suggests that, the design of Bear Swaying movement is in line with the rules of human movement. If Bear Swaying exercises are done correctly as per the specifications, the strength of leg muscles of the exercisers are bound to be well practiced, especially the strength of the quadriceps femoris, biceps femoris, semitendinosus muscle and semimembranosus muscle. For the elderly, good muscle strength of the lower limbs is the key for improving bodily balanced ability and maintaining body stability and reducing the probabilities of stumble and fall. The strength of Bear Swaying exercise comes from waist muscles, the sequence of force-release is from waist to the lower limbs, which is also an important reason that Bear Swaying movement is suitable for the elderly to practice to some extent. That’s because this exercise not only can enhance the strength of muscle groups of the lower limbs and improve the bodily balanced ability, but also can well enhance the control ability of the lower extremities of the elderly and better prevent unnecessary injuries in daily life.

（By Bian Junyi）