A reader askes,

“In layman’s terms, what is bone marrow washing and muscle tendon change? How important is this to internal martial arts training? Can one have great internal training without this process?”

Enriching, rejuvenating and reviving the bone marrow would be a better descriptor than “washing” the marrow.

You can tell when someone over the age of 30 has bone marrow washing. The bones are flexible like a child under the age of 10 and can actually be flexed without breaking or cracking etc and it is not painful to bend them.

The bones are also heavy and feel like steel.

I have been consistently doing the practice of Bone Marrow Nei Gung for well over 20 years now and am currently 50 years young.

I very regularly demo the bending of my my bones and let folks push / pull and twist them so that they can see the effects for themselves.

I am personally of the belief that one cannot have great internal training without this process.

This is why I teach it to beginning students in my Tai Chi program and can tell who is practicing it at home within 6 months due to them having the physical ability (or not).

Also, I occasionally lightly tap someone with my arm (any part) or let them try to smash my arm with theirs and my arm has the heavy hard quality that is appropriate to this training.

Even though there are different methods of Bone Marrow Washing, they are all predicated on the same thing.

• Get the mind / yi into the bone marrow.
• The chi follows the mind.
• The blood follows the chi.

You can learn bone marrow washing now by joining Clear Tai Chi Online.