[Martial Arts] Structural Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg for 40 Minutes

Author: Jeffi Chao Hui Wu

Time: 2025-7-11 Friday, 10:45 AM

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[Martial Arts] Structural Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg for 40 Minutes
Today’s Golden Rooster Stand has broken my own previously unimagined limit—standing on my left foot for over 40 minutes, completely relaxed, without gritting my teeth, without forcing it, without any mental urging, everything as natural as standing, easy and stable, until the end when I found it hard to believe myself.
It was a sunny morning by the sea, around 11:50 AM, and I habitually began my practice. In recent years, I often practice standing post and boxing in the early morning or late morning, but today I wanted to try a more stable and deeper structural test. The weather was not cold, with a temperature of 17 degrees, but there was still some wind, especially by the sea where the air was humid and the breeze gentle; if one was not careful, it could feel a bit cool. Although I was wearing a lightweight down jacket, I only had sports pants and slippers on my lower body, with the real pressure on the soles of my feet.
I chose to stand on the grass, on a piece of uneven natural ground, wearing soft-soled slippers. Logically, this environment was not suitable for the Golden Rooster Stand, as the ground could not fully support balance, and the shoe soles could not provide extra grip. But today I wanted to give it a try; if I could achieve full-body stability and relaxation even on this soft, slightly unstable grass, that would be true "structural standing."
At first, I didn’t intend to hold it for too long; I simply shifted my weight to my left foot, with the entire sole naturally touching the ground, neither leaning forward nor backward, not twisting or clenching, while the other leg naturally bent and lifted, resembling a bird resting. I did not consciously hold my breath, nor did I gather energy in my lower abdomen, and I wasn’t thinking about “how long I would hold.” I just breathed naturally, kept my center of gravity vertical, and let my gaze fall forward, with an inner sense of calm.
The most amazing sensation appeared about 10 minutes later. Usually, at this point, the thigh muscles, ankles, and core would start to feel sore or tremble, but I felt none of that. I didn’t even feel like I was doing a “single-leg support” martial arts move; rather, I felt as if my whole body was “gently supported by the ground.” The only sensations were the slight warmth in my soles and the gradual emergence of a light sweat, indicating that my body was indeed mobilizing energy, but in an extremely gentle way.
At this moment, I glanced at my watch—11:51, heart rate at 75, completely in a state of daily calm. I continued to stand; the wind gently blew by, my clothes fluttered, and my cheeks felt the warmth of the sun. I had only one thought in my mind: “This is not standing; this is allowing the body to return to its structural origin.”
As time passed, my heart rate slowly increased. Around the 30-minute mark, I checked my watch again, and it showed 108—indicating that my body was continuously metabolizing and mobilizing while standing still, yet I still felt no burden, not even a sense of “existence” in my legs. My thighs and calves seemed to have completely exited the “support structure,” as if a column of air had grown from the earth beneath my feet, supporting me, and I was simply “being stood up,” not “struggling to hold on.”
Most importantly, this time my toes were completely relaxed, with no gripping action, and my soles were not intentionally pressed against the ground but naturally resting. In other words, the entire sole was “not a pressure point” but rather “naturally contacting the ground according to the body’s structure.” In the past, I often had a misconception in my practice, thinking that “stability” relied on muscle strength to maintain balance. Today, I finally understood—stability is actually “after the structure is correct, it can be stable without any effort.”
This is not a type of “standing practice” or “post practice,” but a completely natural state based on structural understanding. This state is something I have never experienced in the past few decades.
In the end, I naturally concluded the practice, without any tremors, loss of strength, or collapse; my feet gently touched the ground, as if I had just completed a breathing adjustment. At this point, I compared the data from two smartwatches; from 11:51 to 12:32, a full 40 minutes and 40 seconds, standing on the grass, wearing soft-soled slippers, without any mental effort to maintain, without muscle tension, relying solely on structure, center of gravity, and natural adjustment, I completed this Golden Rooster Stand.
This was a truly meaningful “structural standing.” It was not about forcing it, not about rigid practice, not about temporary stability after activating internal energy, but rather achieving over 40 minutes of left-foot independence in a relaxed manner, akin to natural sleep, while fully awake.
I began to rethink the definition of “Golden Rooster Stand.” If a person can stand for 40 minutes on grass, wearing slippers, without relying on their toes, without engaging muscles, and without mental effort, then perhaps the traditional notion of “standing post training” can be redefined. It turns out that standing post is not about pursuing “mental focus” or “exerting force,” but about returning to “structural stability + smooth energy flow + no resistance throughout the body.”
I finally understood that true Golden Rooster Stand is not about forcing the body to hold itself up, but rather allowing the body’s structure to bear the weight itself.
During today’s Golden Rooster Stand, I did not feel my muscles “exerting effort” at all, especially my thighs, calves, and glutes, which were almost completely relaxed. This was not endurance built through practice, but rather natural support achieved through structural adjustment. I could clearly feel that my weight was not pressing on my muscles, nor hanging on my fascia, but rather flowing down through my skeleton—more accurately, it was “gently received” by my soles.
At that moment, my body became a self-stabilizing structure:
The spine was not stiff, but rather like a flexible antenna;
The soles were not “support points,” but rather “landing interfaces”;
The entire sense of weight was precisely guided by gravity, requiring no active control from me;
All the muscles in my body did not need to exert effort, only the soles slightly responding to the ground, as if the earth was gently supporting me.
The most obvious change was that I was no longer “holding myself up,” but rather being “caught by the Earth.” And this feeling of “being naturally supported by structure” is what can truly last for dozens of minutes or even longer.
For many years, I thought the Golden Rooster Stand was about practicing leg strength, balance, and endurance. But now I realize that those are results, not the essence. The true essence is to let the body’s structure itself bear the weight, rather than relying on willpower to hold it up. When I learned to let my skeleton guide the gravity, my weight no longer pressed on my muscles but naturally landed along the structure. At that moment, standing for a long time was not tiring at all because there was no effort involved.
This realization may be the true meaning of “reverse cultivation”—shifting from the cultivation of force to the optimization of structure, from strong mental control to natural guidance.
Thus, today’s record is not just a numerical breakthrough for me, but also an awakening of bodily wisdom. I finally understand that it is not about how long you practiced or how many routines you learned, but whether you have truly entered the depths of your own structure to discover that state of “relaxation equals stability, stillness equals vitality.”
Structural Golden Rooster Stand has now entered a whole new phase. Moving forward, I may no longer pursue how long I can stand, but rather whether I can allow my body to return to this state of “relaxed stability and lively relaxation” at any time, in any environment, and in any condition.
This is, at this moment, my greatest gain.

Source: https://www.australianwinner.com/AuWinner/viewtopic.php?t=696807