As you read this, stand up and lock your knees back.
 
Now bend them just enough to unlock them.
 
Lock them again.
 
Barely unlock them again.
 
Slowly repeat these steps and feel what happens with each lock and unlock.
 
If you are like most people, you will notice that when you lock your knees, other parts of your body lock as well, including your ankles, hips, lower back, and even upper back.
 
Now walk around the room for one minute while keeping your knees locked. Notice how stiff your body feels and how tiring this is to do. This activity quickly saps your chi, i.e. your life energy.
 
There is a reason that we use the word "locked" for joints in such positions. When you fully straighten a joint, you lock it both physically and energetically. The soft tissues around it become hard and rigid. This blocks the flow of energy in and around the joint. We lock things up when we don't want them to move. When you lock a joint, you stop the movement of energy through it.
 
When you lock one joint in the body and reduce your energy flow there, then the overall flow in your body also is reduced. The more joints that you lock, the more you reduce the overall energy that flows through and is available to you.
 
Now stand the way that you would normally stand if you were having a conversation with someone. Do you lock either or both knees? Either ankle? Either hip? What about an elbow?
 
Now sit the way that you normally would sit at a desk or a table. Do you lock any of the vertebrae of your spine? Do you lock your elbows or wrists?
 
Note that you'll also block your energy flow if you collapse a joint, which is the the opposite of locking it. Stand and then sit as before, and notice whether you collapse any of your joints, whether it be one of your hips when you stand or several of your vertebrae when you sit. Let some or more of your joints collapse and see how things feel in your body.
 
If you collapse enough joints, you'll literally collapse your energy and become what some people call a "couch potato."
 
Ideally you always want each of your joints open and springy, neither locked nor collapsed. This allows maximum energy flow through each joint and throughout your whole body.
 
Think of the last time that you saw a lively two-year old dancing, whether at your home or at a wedding or some other event. Remember how they just let every one of their joints bounce and spring in time with the music?
 
Stand up and try to dance like a two-year old does. You don't have to move a lot; just stand and try to spring the insides of all of your joints. In almost every one of your joints is a fluid which is called synovial fluid. Try to use the synovial fluid inside each of your joints as a hydraulic cushion on which you bounce. Try to feel as if you have a small waterbed inside each of your joints.
 
If your joints are all in great shape like most two-year olds', then the size of your spring can be very obvious like theirs. But if your joints have lost some of their bounce, then only bounce each of your joints the amount that your least bouncy joint moves comfortably. That way all of your joints will be comfortable as you move.
 
Young children are the liveliest people on the planet, no? The most stiff and rigid people are dead. Wouldn't you prefer to move like a young child?
 
Unlock your joints and unblock your chi.
 
Enjoy.