I got an interesting mail from a reader who said he liked my work in general, just reading it for personal interest, but that he does not, and never will, take up ZMQ37 Tai Chi practice as such. Reason: It's physically too easy. He said he needs to put some physical work into his Tai Chi practice. Keepin' it real or something.
OK.
Fine.
Let's go with that line of thinking: ZMQ37 is physically just too easy... LMAO! I want to make 3 main points:
(1) The way I was taught (and I myself teach) ZMQ37 is not easy for most people. Not at all. If you think it's easy, I'll give you a little self-test in this post so you try for yourself. I'll hold your beer while you try it.
(2) The first layer of physical challenge does not come from anything necessarily inherent in the ZMQ37 system per se. The main focus of the system is to get you understanding the difference between tension vs true relaxation, and helping you to drop the former and promote the latter. However, there is one lineal branch of ZMQ37 that is exceptionally physically demanding (while retaining the above primary purpose). That is the line rooted with Zheng Manqing's senior student, Benjamin Lo. Anybody who's trained seriously with him for a long period can testify to how physically excruciating it is. So training with anyone other than a senior person from Benjamin Lo line should NOT be taken as representative of anything I ever talk about. Almost like two different systems. You might look at any other branch and be justified in thinking "Nah, too easy. Not for me, I'm a tough guy!" But that kind of thinking has no place on the Ben Lo training floor. LMAO! However, the physically challenging aspect ZMQ is often thought to be just a matter of burning quads in the low-sit stances for long periods. That much IS TRUE but it is NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH. The physical challenge alone of ZMQ goes way beyond just that burning quad stereotype. There's way more depth to both what's required of the student and the corresponding internal charge you get in return.
(3) In the new INFUSION Vol. 2 book, I'm going to lay out the true 'Hot Zone' of physical ultimate challenge mode of ZMQ37 - but not limit the description to just that physical stuff. I'm going to go through every one of the 37 positions, in sequence, and for each one I'm going to list out the 'Hot Zone' way to practice it, but not only the physical. I'm going to also give for every pose, what your mind needs to do for that position, and how your internal energy will respond. So for every position:
Physical 'Hot Zone' Practice Mode instructions
Mental Targeting and Control
Energetic Response
Timing (how many, how long, etc.)
That (just one chapter) of INFUSION Vol. 2 will be kind of similar to my book SURGE Radical ZMQ Energetics, but will be a massive upgrade, getting way more explicit about the precise mental and physical correlates of the energy and its response. Once this Vol 2 is out, I'll probably nuke SURGE as its content will be mostly subsumed into INFUSION Vol 2, and hugely augmented. This is way beyond what has ever appeared before. And you'll see that, even in just the basic physical layer, it's nowhere near as 'easy' as you may think.
But you may be that rare individual who has no trouble with ZMQ, no matter how its taught or practiced! If so, great! Here's a simple at-home self-test, check yourself. Watch the video above on this post from timestamp 3:26 onwards. There's much more to this pose than I covered in this trivial video, but for now just try the PHYSICAL part of it. Hold that for 1 full minute, upper body totally relaxed, perfect balance for the whole minute, perfect posture (in ZMQ terms) as demonstrated, you can hold along with me there. In Ben's class, we'd routinely hold this for 3 minutes or more. Enjoy! And - you may have no trouble with it at all. In that case email me, the water gets a lot deeper from here LMAO.
By the way, I also routinely practice the full Chen Style 老架一路 set, with it's full-down twisted squats, head-level kicks, leaps and long stances - all that. It looks badass. But ZMQ37 done as I've outlined in this post is far more physically challenging.