I had a carpentry teacher in theater school who explained, while we were building a set of stairs, that the nails were just there to hold the wood in place until the glue dried. We were all surprised, of course, because how could the white syrupy glue we used to collate flimsy paper as kids be stronger at keeping heaps of wood together better than nails of steel? And yet, there we were, a week later, jumping on stairs held together by a few nails and a liter of glue.

In much the same way, workouts with weights or exercises focusing on strength train the muscles to keep the bones in alignment until the “glue” of fascia tissue takes hold. Fascia tissue is “amoebic.” Like an amoeba the thousands of strands weave themselves into a mesh specifically demanded by the imposed loads. That’s why an old person with seemingly no muscle, and years of repetition, can out perform a young powerfully muscular champ.

When we workout in Chien Lung, we do Tiger workouts to challenge the muscles, but we also do Panther and Python exercises to find the skeletal alignment and allow the fascia to wrap and insulate the body for that movement. Sometimes we do the same movements, but it is the tempo and focus of the exercise which change.