horse stance

[cjburns77]

I think it is a great training stance.. It helps to strenghten my leg muscles and helps to stretch my inner thigh muscles to.. I try to get quick from this stance...

[searcher]

If you really want to see the advantages of the horse stance then sparr with a Hung Gar person.

[SevenStar]

Well there are certain moves that require the horse ride stance... such as the slide-up side kick. It also builds the muscles.. however, at my weight (230LBs) it is incredibly painful to be in for a while without moving. But it helps. The Slide up side kick is the only move i know tha requires the horse ride stance, but many iL Soo Siks require the horseride stance... mainly 1&2 (that i know so far)

 

stance training is an endurance exercies - it does not build much strength, unless you have weak legs. prolonged stance training has the same effect on the legs that doing 30 or more pushups has on the pecs and tris - it builds muscular endurance. The fact that you weigh 230 and can't hold horse long doesn't mean you don't have strong legs - it means they have weak endurance. I weigh about 225. When I was doing stance training regularly, I could hold a thighs parallel horse for 5 minutes. I had the endurance then. Now, I train thai boxing and don't really do stance training anymore. I can squat 400 lbs, but I can't hold my horse for 5 mins... I have less endurance than I had before.

 

As far as other techniques that require horse, have you learned any throws yet? If not, when you learn the shoulder and hip throw, for example, you will revisit the horse stance somewhat.

[taiji fajin]

Here's what I've seen so far.

 

JaseP - you say for not more than a half second or so. That's good, I have no problem with using a stance like horse stance in transition, or holding for a short period, but does holding it for a long time in training help you for that?

 

1kickKO - you can have a 50/50 weight stance without being as low, and it will also let you use your hips better.

 

KSN Doug, I love how legendary the valley of pain is, it getes mentioned at our school too . We were taught to try at 90 from white belt on. While I don't doubt that this got us more use to it sooner (looking at my black belt tests, our school easily had the lowest stances) I worry about its prolonged affects on the knees.

 

KSWDanMan, that is some of the reasoning I've heard for it, too. While I agree that it does help with building strong (or as someone else has pointed out, high endurance) legs, can't you build leg muscles in another way? This still doesn't deal with the issue of injury, either.

 

Knifehand007, side kick with your front leg, from horse stance? I always thought of horse stance being equal, with no leg "in front."

 

cjburns, what about knee injury, though? You could try to build quickness and strength without hurting your knees.

 

searcher, that got me interested in Hung Gar , but it didn't really explain anything about the art or horse stance to me.

 

As you have all probably noticed, I'm still wondering what arguments can be made against injuring your knees. Yes, the stance can help you with some things, but what does it help with with that you both can't get from anywhere else and also is worth possible damage to the knees?

[searcher]

The argument against injuring the knees is this. All of the muscles of the legs around the knee area tie into each other. By using the horse stance for training the muscles of the thigh you will strengthen the tendons around the knee area and build overall knee stability. That is where you will begin to reduce the risk of knee injury.

 

As for the Hung Gar style, they train the horse stance very hard. they are known to hold the stance for 1 to 3 hours in the advanced stages of training. A story that I read in Black Belt Mag. told of a master that sat at his work bench for 10 hours every day fixing watches. Upon further examination you will notice that he has no bench to sit on, but he is in a low horse stance. The story goes on to tell of him sparring with a Thai Kickboxer. When the MT guy kicked him in the leg he was the one that walked away limping.

 

To field the muscular endurance portion. You can build harder muscles by holding the stance for long periods of time. Strength can also be increased with this type of muscular training, just not at the same rate as with regular weight lifting.

 

Strengthening and muscle hardening can go hand in hand.

[SevenStar]

the knees can be injured anytime something involving them is done incorrectly, from squats to horse stance. you have to watch your positioning - do not let your knees extend past your toes. This is bad alignment and places unneeded strain on the knees.

 

Also - and this varies from style to style - is the position of the feet. Some styles advocate that the toes point forward - this causes unneeded strain on the knee. Other styles advocate that the toes oint slightly outward - this is much better on the knees.

[battousai16]

as sevenstar alluded too, it's a transitional stance. say, if you get a joint lock, i've often found my foot sliding out into a horse stance. or the throws he mentioned, though your legs are a lot closer together. but yeah, c lock, arm bar, chicken wing, old reliable... i find myself in horse stance all of the time, in addition to it just being a good endurance exercise.

[1kickKO]

If you're about to get thrown, for example a shoulder throw, you can slide into a horse stance and drop your weight and most likely you won't get thrown.

[krzychicano]

I want my horse stance to be strong enough to support a person on each leg!

[1kickKO]

Oh, might I mention you can also get out of a bear hug with one.