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Meridian Muscle Groups
Body Map
Select an area on the body map that corresponds to areas of your body where you have concerns, areas where you are experiencing uncomfortable tightness, pain, tenseness, or lifelessness.
Muscle Map
The following is a diagram that you can use to find exercises that target specific muscle groups.
Note that some muscle groups in the upper body are associated with lower body exercises in addition to upper body exercises. This is due to how muscles work together contiguously in addition to the upper body's flexibility being dependent on the flexibility of the lower body, since it rests upon it. Additionally, problems can occur in the upper body when a person lacks hip girdle stability and optimal pelvic tilt.
Select an area on the muscle map that corresponds to areas of your body where you have concerns, areas where you are experiencing uncomfortable tightness, pain, tenseness, or lifelessness.
Energy Map
Select an area on the energy map that corresponds to areas of your body where you have concerns, areas where you are experiencing uncomfortable tightness, pain, tenseness, or lifelessness.
Experience Level
- Beginner Exercises
- Exercises that anyone can do, especially people who are just learning to stretch.
- Intermediate Exercises
- These exercises are for you to try only after you've learned and can easily perform the beginner exercises.
- Advanced Exercises
- Exercises for people who can comfortably do the intermediate exercises and have learned to resist maximally when stretching.
Energy Flow Series
An energy flow series is a sequence of exercises that targets all 16 major muscle groups. It begins with exercises that target the superficial muscles and continually progresses to the deeper layers.
Exercising in this order allows one to warm-up naturally and prepare the body for the challenging areas by resolving substitutions in the superficial muscles first. The superficial muscles need to be functional and stable in order to develop the deeper muscles which carry accumulated dense fascia and scar tissue.
This order of exercises begins by targeting the muscles associated with the hip girdle and progresses down to the hip/shoulder joints, knees/elbows, and finally the ankles & feet / wrists & hands. This is similarly useful because the health of the extremity joints are dependent on the functionality and stability of the proximal joints.
An energy flow series is all about balance. It begins with an exercise that targets the yang muscles along the outside of the thighs and is followed by an exercise that targets the balancing yin muscles along the inside of the thighs. Exercising in this order acknowledges and supports the complimentary and inverse muscle group relationships. The next set of exercises targets balancing muscle groups in the upper body, followed by the lower body, back and forth until all 16 major muscle groups have been developed. This sequence cultivates balance between the upper and lower body and follows traditional Chinese medicine principles of energy flow and balancing organs.
- Beginner Flow Series
- Exercises that anyone can do, especially people who are just learning to stretch.
- Intermediate Flow Series
- These exercises are for you to try only after you've learned and can easily perform the beginner resistance exercises.
- Advanced Flow Series
- Exercises for people who can comfortably do the intermediate exercises and have learned to resist maximally when stretching.
Yin Yang
The yin muscles traverse the anterior and medial aspects of the body while the yang muscles traverse the posterior and lateral aspects of the body. The yang muscle groups typically carry accumulated dense fascia and scar tissue while the yin muscle groups may become muscularly tense.