A lot has been said among Western neijia practitioners about plain push-ups being detrimental for joint flexibility, stiffening up muscles of the arms and building chest muscles which later won’t allow the chest to sink properly.
So, should we -- taiji people, bagua people, xinyi people -- do push-ups? If yes then would the neijia-push-ups be any different from traditional simple way we do them and would push-ups be different for the above three main neijia styles? What schedule would you recommend (number of repetitions per set, number of sets per class)? Thank you.

I think the key word there is 'Western' practitioners. Those same dolts would probably suggest not doing squats because thickening the leg muscles will choke the chi off causing blindness and ill luck.

Toughening every muscle you've got anyway you can
by using it- strive to keep flexible and it will benefit your IMA skill.

When I practiced Xing Yi Quan in Taiwan in the Shen Long school, we did reps of various kinds of push ups before every class (regular, close grip, fingertip, knuckle, scooping and one handed)for a total of about 100 reps. It was a 'traditional' IMA school. The difference was, we actually fought in San Da tournaments, so all the fighters had to be conditioned. So, the Chinese teachers (that actually know how to fight)obviously don't think doing push ups is detrimental to progress in the Internal.

the tang shou tao system has push ups as part of their beginner's curriculumn, but at a certain point you walk away from it as the returns diminish. it makes sense, just bring the same internal principles into the movement:

> relax as much as possible and let your frame hold the weight and not your muscles
> proper breathing
> proper alignment (pay attention to the head not looking "up", as is the tendency)
> long, even movments (not the short, constricted movements that a lot of guys trying to bang out massive reps do)

scott

I teach a secret internal "push up" technique.

Rather than pushing up it's more of a pull down... the student lies face down with their hands placed on the floor at about shoulder/chest
level. Then, using a dantien swirl, the student lightens their body causing it to lift off of the ground so that the arms are now extended (straightish) and the body is lifted with only the palms and toes touching the ground.(higher level practitioners have to concentrate to keep their palms touching the ground)

Step two is- reversing the dantien swirl so that the body returns to its normal (heavier) weight causing the arms to bend lowering the student back down to the ground.

They repeat this until the dantien swirling heaviness is so great that you are unable to lighten your body and straighten out your arms.

That's a secret though... so don't go telling
everyone.

hmm

what is that smell.. sheep.. cow.. oryx.. no it's bull...