Your Favorite Chi Kung Excersises

I'm making this thread to see what everyones favorite Chi Kung Excersises are and why so.

It's a good chance to learn from eachother IMO.

Ill start:

Push Mountain shove the Sea (We called it Taichikung, it precedes the actual Tai Chi from )
Helps me relieve stress and strengthens my root
Helps loosen up my shoulder and back muscles

Lean Forward Search the Sea:
Helps my balance and calms my mind cause I always picture a beautiful ocean infront of me :love:

Crane Spreads his Wings:
Again helps my balance and reduces stress in my shoulders, but feels different.

Serving Tea:
Lossens up my waist and hips
Gives me a good feel of how my body can work as a unit

Zen Walking:
Feels overall good (I always breath shallow cause im concetrating on my posture to much, need to work on that)
Feels like its massaging the soles of my feet
Seems to help me transfer power


There you go, looking forward to seeing your favorites and learning from yall.

Adios

edit: To make this thread a little more interesting you can add any type of yoga, breathing excersise or meditation you like aswell

 

"zen walking" (tho not sure whether it's the same version as yours) tops my list with "3 circles stance" coming a close second.
Both relax me and build energy/internal strength while developing and supporting my tjq form...

I also particularly like "waving hands like clouds" for similar reasons.
These days I find all the qigong exercises I do take me further into my structure and support my tjq practice.
:Angel:

 

It has to be "waving hands like clouds" not like the one above up here lol. (wish there was an arrow pointing up lol)

I was taught to do it a lot different and I get a bit stressed when he tries to correct me but I do give in just enough to make him happy lol.

There are quite a few chi kung exercises I really like but the class I've been going to doesn't do them so I do them alone where no one can see me lol.

I would like to learn a few more so if anyone would describe what to do while they are writing their fav ones then I'd be a happy lassie lol. thanks xx

lisa xx

 

Nice thread!

My Top 5-

Lifting the Sky - Good all rounder, really

Plucking Stars - good for the stomach and abdominal region.

Push Mountains - Good to keep the back loose and ache free, also good for helping direct Qi to the palms

Carrying the Moon - Keeps the spine supple, and apparently increases/maintains youthfulness (I'll get back to you on that )

Deep Knee Bending - Excellent for developing Qi flow to the hands and feet.

Well, thats my 5
I'm interested to see what other excercises other people are using

 

there are so many great qi gong exercises out there, but i've really come to cherish my personal Daoist 8 Animal Qi Gong---Ba Gua circle walking qi gong.

i took the logic of yin fu style, the postures of park bok nam and john bracy, and my own research into the i ching and bagua principles to develop 8 different animal postures that, for me, manifest each gua in its purest simplest form for Nei Kung while walking, and created a single-change sequence for each animal that uses only 2 or 3 actions (still trying to keep the focus on the pure manifestation of its gua) for Qi Gong.

i put special attention when creating the form to balance and work all parts of the body and meridians. each animal emphasizes certain body parts, organs, energies, and meridians....and also leads to martial applications.

i can do the form in a softer, more yin relaxed way to train the qi more.
or i can do the form in a more rigourous, yang martial way to train the muscles and tendons.

i can focus on 1 animal if i feel the need, or want to work out a mystery or concept.

i can focus more on the qi gong, on the changes, and change animals each time after doing both sides.
i can focus more on the nei kung, on the postures, and do each side of an animal 8 times before changing.

a big part of the reason i love to train this set is that its my own personal set demonstrating my current understanding of bagua zhang....and its my own personal daoist laboratory where i keep learning and creating. my form changes as i learn things and make modifications or use different applications.

 

Do Chi Kung exercises have martial applications as well? I recognise a few names.

Waving Hands like Clouds comes up a number of times in our long form and is a defence against multiple punches.

Crane Spreads his Wings. We have a move called White Crane Spreads his Wings, which is a hip throw.

I don't do Chi Kung so I can't add anything here!

 

Is it? Are you sure it cant be that as well as however many other techniques you can make out of it?

Is it? Are you sure it cant be that as well as however many other techniques you can make out of it?

The way I/we look at it is ... Now what was the analogy???

Yeah, I like that. Nice one TB!!

 

Ya TeJitsuDo it's bout time us Internal people get this forum going again

TB, whats the 3 circle stance, I cant find it in my books or the net.

I'd advice asking your sifu before doing any of these, its hard explaining things just by words over the internet.

I'll do my best, I know how it is wanting to do something but not knowing how

Push Mountain shove the sea is to to complicated to describe in words alone, sorry.

Lean forward search the sea:
- Start in your regular stance, feet paralell, tailbone tucked, chest hollowed, head as suspended from above etc.
- shift weight inyto foot not beeing lifted
- lift one foot with the knees bent till about wait height
- as you lift that foot both palms go up facing down till shoulder height
- now lower your palms and at the same time move your arms past your body till they are paralell with your body and legs
- you should be leaning forward at the waist with you entire body paralell to the ground
- once your arms are paralell with ur body form chickenwrists and hold for a little bit
- now reverse the motion, rinse and repeat on the other foot

Crane Spread his wings:
- standard stance
- shift weight into the foot not beeing lifted
- lift one foot while berforming an x block with palms facing you simoultaniously
- your leg will be bent at the knee
- your thigh will be paraleel to the ground
- both hands will will seperate and go outward with palms facing away from you
- turn your torso to the side where the foo was lifted
- let ur lower leg hang and perform a kick staright to the side
- let ur foot drop back to where it was hanging before (dont use any muscular force, just let it drop)
- set your foot down slowly and face it forward again
- rinse and repeat on the other side

I dont know if my zen walking is really zen walking or tai chi walking after reading what TB said

- start in a forward bow
- shift ur weight back into a rear bow
- turn your forward foot outwards at a 45 degree angle
- shift your weight onto your forward foot and bring your empty foot beside your full one
- now step forward into a forwar stance again (do it smooth dont just stomp)
- your upper body should be facing forward as soon as your forward foot has 70-100% of its weight on it
- rinse and repeat

Serving tea is to hard to explain just in words but you can check it out here:

http://www.hsing-i.com/pics/WPKST1.mpg

Hope these instructions make any sense.


Keepem coming folks

 

Wow, despite the similar name, "Push Mountain shove the sea" is very different to "Pushing Mountains" as I practice it!

Pushing Mountains:-
1: Standing with feet close together, inhale to DanTian, visualising fresh, positive energy being brought into the body.

2: Exhale gently, visualising negative energy being expelled from the body.
As your arms reach an approximate 90 degree angle to your body, inhale drawing energy back and down into Dan Tian, while loosly bending the elbows, bringing the hands to about level with the breast bone, palms facing forward.

3: Exhale gently, allowing Qi to push your palms forward (pushing the mountain, as it were), visualising Qi flowing into the palms.

4: Inhale, drawing the arms back, with the wrists softened, visualising the Qi being withdrawn back from the palms to the Dan Tian.

Repeat steps 3&4 as much as you feel comfortable with.

5: To close, once your energy is drawn back, visualise your energy returning to Dan Tian, gently pressing your hands down to your sides, again visualising negative energy leaving the body.

6: Perform a closing gesture to complete the routine.

 

Err TeJitsuDo I was describing Lean forward search the sea

But your push the mountain seems similar to ours exept that our hands come from beside the waist upward and out to about shoulder height, then in and forward or to the side, we got 2 variants of it in the form, the whole shbang got 34 movemets.

My sifu told me not to visualize chi circulating yet since im still new, but I do concetrate on my dantien and make sure my breath reaches as deep into my lower abdomen as possible.

Good stuff though, I'll try it out.

Thanks for the info.

 

Ooops, my bad!

*goes and sits in the corner*

Might give it a try actually!!!

 

He'll probably give you a much better description, but basically its a standing pole stance, with the legs shoulder width apart, knees bent as if holding a ball in them, arms out in front, elbows bent as if balancing a ball in the gap btween elbows, and the thumbs and forfingers making another circle to hold the third ball.

Cue TB to give a much more precise run down

 

No that's basically okay Tejitsudo - there's a little more to it overall, but it's basically 'standing pole' or 'central equilibrium' emphasising the bows of legs, arms and spine. Also the palms are angled 45 degrees down and away about mid-chest height. My version is basically a combination from Wong Kiew Kit's "Art of Chi Kung" and Erle Montaigue's description then mixed with the inner teachings of my original teacher...

Brido - my 1st teacher said Taijiquan IS moving qigong and so did Tian Yin Jia. So you do do qigong already! lol Isolated qigong exercises are just to enhance and support tjq practices imo - doing them just speeds up qi/jin development is all...

:Angel:

 

Thanks fellas, question on the legs; are they supposed to look like your bowlegged? Are the feet at about 45 degree angles? Is it ok to have the feet a lil more than shoulder width apart?

 

My favourites in no particular order, (explainations of them given on demand, as I haven't time to do so right now!)


Cloudy hands.

Rainbow dance.

Cow looks over her shoulder to look at the moon.

Look at the sky - Scoop the sea.

Celestial ladder (tiger climbs the stairs)

Rowing the boat.

Holding the tree (set of 5)


Most of the above come from the 18 Element set.

 

This lot I've got to see, do you sing as well as row the boat .
I can't wait to see this lol, will we have a demo on wed lol.
(I'm so dead for this lol)
Lisa xx

 

No

No

Yes

 

Yeah yeah, I know that, I was just meaning that although the main use is to cultivate qi, are they ever shown as martial applications, or is the naming no more than a coincedence?

Trust me, you don't want to get me started on "there is no technique"

End of the day, all there are is the 13 postures, which consist of the eight powers and the five elements. The techniques are just really good ideas on how to use them.

 

The way I would say it is, QiGong usually doesnt have martial application. But Taiji is built on QiGong.

Sooooo..... In theory, you could call Taiji the martial application of QiGong...

Maybe... If you wanted to... I guess...

 

Ah, so Qi Gong is nothing but a quick fix, a way to attain something faster?

Kids these days with the shortcuts, never willing to wait on anything...