Chinese health balls, also commonly called baoding balls, Chinese exercise balls and Chinese stress balls, have been around for about 600 years. Thought to have healing qualities, the balls are rotated around on the hand. As they rotate they are said to touch key pressure points in the hand. By rolling over these pressure points, you release Qi (energy) to the rest of the body. Originally made of iron, chinese health balls are now made of many materials and are often painted in bright colors with various figures and shapes.
Step 1
Start by getting comfortable with the weight and feel of the balls in the palm of your hand. It will take time to master the art of the Chinese health ball, but putting the balls in your hand and slowly rotating them around in a circular motion is a good place to begin. As a beginner, you'll need to use your fingers and your thumb. Rotate the balls by lifting the bottom part of your fingers (closest to the palm of your hand) and use your thumb to assist the balls across your lower palm. As you get better, practice rotating the balls both clockwise and counterclockwise.
Step 2
Begin using less of your fingers and thumb as you go along. This will build up the strength of your palm. As you get better, you'll want to stretch out your hand and fingers more and more. The objective is to make the balls move without it appearing as if your hand is moving. Gravity will help with this. By tilting the palm down slightly, the balls will flow better in their circular motion.
Step 3
Try to keep the balls from touching. As you get more and more comfortable with the ball rotation, a good way to judge progress is to see how often you can rotate the balls without them contacting each other in the middle. If you are really good at using Chinese health balls, you'll be able to rotate more than two balls. The benefits can be felt not just in the hand, but the forearm, bicep and shoulder muscles get a workout as well.
Step 4
Use the balls to treat ailments. It's not a very common belief in the western world, but many Eastern doctors believe that there are healing aspects to the use of Chinese health balls. It stems from the thought that all ailments have root causes and touching the pressure points in the hand helps to alleviate symptoms by generating Qi from the body.
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