How To Do Horse Stance (马步, mabu)

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Today we learn all of the basic principles of a good mabu. These details are essential for any system that we will work forward with in wushu, taiji, or qigong. Check your stance and practice often! The general posture of mabu is grounding and balancing to the body, so even following these alignments in a standing position is great. See you tomorrow for more practice!
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Wudang Way
Episode #8
Filming by Doline Charmillot and John Abercrombie. A simple thank you here feels inadequate for all of their patience, advice, and support throughout this whole process. Nonetheless, thank you both from the bottom to the top of my heart.
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[@manchien7509]

Thank you for sharing this Mabu posture in details! It helps much to understand where to place the focus to lift off pressure to practise safely!

[@WudangWay]

You are very welcome! Glad that you pulled some good notes from it.

[@dianatsui3509]

Thank you so much Jake for all your wonderful videos. Your instructions are simple, easy to understand, and very helpful. When you said the chest is "empty". Can you please explain what do you mean and how to do it? Thanks again and greetings to everyone from Canada.

[@WudangWay]

Oh yes. This is something that I will come back to a lot in future videos. Especially once we get to the internal structure. "Empty chest" involves moving the shoulder slightly forward. If you are standing straight place your hands over your front pant pockets, moving your shoulders from flat to in front of the body. This makes the chest slightly caved inward or "empty." This should also round the back and keep the scapula from "winging" outwards. I hope that is clear but we will go over this a lot more.

[@cliffdariff74]

So the wider, less stress on knees.... in tbe end this e exercise builds leg muscles

[@羅允駿]

Your doctrines are classical. I wasn't sure if there were three or five foot widenings. Six widenings of the feet provide tremendous strength.

[@prayerblack]

Thank You. When You Said, "Weight On The Heels" I Felt Hope For Surpassing 15 Minutes. Would You Ever Demonstrate A Half Hour - Full Hour Horse Stance Recording ?

[@WudangWay]

If you are already working up to and over 15 minutes, honestly, that is enough. At that point, it is more beneficial to have movement rather than just a static hold.

[@mymartialartacademy2343]

Awesome Sir! Oss! Respect from Pakistan!!

[@jennawhitecloud5680]

hi Jake, Ok I am not able to get down to flat thigh without leaning forward. So what is the priority? is it back straight then going lower when you build the strength, or is it go low then slowly work on straightening up the back?

[@WudangWay]

Keep the back straight posture at your lowest depth is fine for now. As the legs get stronger and more flexible, the back posture will improve. Accurate posture is more important than depth in the beginning.

[@davidrichards3851]

Thanks.. how long should I stand in the posture? 2 mins is currently my limit when deep! 🙏🏼

[@slav7319]

As long as you want. 2 min is good.

[@vicentehernandez6165]

Maestro nos gustaría que nos en señe artes marciales dónde está su escuela por fabor🇨🇺🤲🇵🇷

[@WudangWay]

I have online classes for people who become patrons or would like private classes as well. www.patreon.com/waysofwudang

[@Niggro07]

My coach sent me here, excellent presentation. Thanks for sharing.

[@WudangWay]

Welcome to the Way! ;)

[@nirushu5788]

sadly this is just the show imitation and not the traditional one, but still really good!

[@WudangWay]

In what way?

[@nirushu5788]

@@WudangWay In traditional mabu, the legs aren't that far apart from each other, they are actually quite close to each other when doing yhe stance

[@WudangWay]

@@nirushu5788 You are correct. I actually talk about this in one of these videos I believe. However, this wider frame is the standard in Wudang. Shaolin tends to be more compact and narrow and I have even seen people refer to a shoulder width stance as mabu as well.

[@nirushu5788]

@@WudangWay Oh I see, sorry if that came out of the blue, I practise shaolin myself thats why I was curious about the stance since I still have problems getting deep enough in the shoulder wide stance!

[@WudangWay]

@@nirushu5788 No worries. Always good to get more context. :)

[@cherynaguib1167]

Perfect

[@dunncole9814]

Incredible!

[@adrianovictorsantos]

Thanks for this is explanation!

[@danimathews3]

This stance is difficult to hold for a beginner! Is simply holding mabu for as long as possible a good way to improve or are more drills a better option?

[@WudangWay]

I recommend a combination of both as static holding trains the muscle in a different way that more dynamic movements and coordination. Alternate between strength (just holding) and doing movements (punching drills, stance walking, etc)

[@danimathews3]

@@WudangWay Awesome, thanks for the reply - that makes sense.

[@MrCarstennielsen]

Not looking or seem rigt, sorry. Maybe ypu ned more study and leds teaching?

[@basteagui]

this guy has really long legs, lol