Stretching

 Stretching is an everyday exercise that allows the body to flow.  It teaches our muscles to relax and move without hindrance.  Kung Fu practitioners need to be flexible for speed, power, and mobility.  It takes time, but a very worthwhile time spent.  There are about 650 muscles voluntary muscles (the muscles we consciously move), 206 bones, some 4,000 tendons that connect muscle to bone, and around 900 ligaments that connect bone to bone in the body.  Stretching opens, pulls, contracts all of these.  Because there are so many, there are many stretches. To stretch a muscle, it needs to be stretched in different directions in different ways.  Everyone has a unique body, but everyone can be flexible, some it takes more work than others. 

In Kung Fu, it trains the body to flow smoothly with qi.  It also prevents injuries because the muscles are loose and supple.  In this stage, muscles are like soft silk.  But from this softness the hardness of iron can come out.  Flexibility creates a strength of motion using the entire body for a movement, not an isolated strength of one muscle or one muscle group.