An ancient Chinese form of martial arts that was originally practiced in monasteries, chi gong can be categorized into two parts -- internal and external exercises. Internal chi gong focuses on overall health optimization. External chi gong is more showmanship, for example, breaking bricks with your bare hands. In order to do these fancy feats, you must first develop a strong inner chi gong practice. Chi gong practitioners also practice meditation to work with their breath while doing the exercises.
The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only. For any health condition or symptoms, please contact your physician or other health care professional.
Getting Started
As with most physical activities, you will need to warm up in order to increase your flexibility. The warm up is additionally useful for getting your internal organs prepared for doing chi gong exercises. Warming stances include body swinging, tilting your body, bending your body, neck exercises, arm exercises, and leg swinging exercises according to Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.
Beginning Stances
Chi gong can be used to address physical pain according to Chi Kung Unlimited.
It recommends mastering a yogic breathing to circulate the chi or body energy before beginning the physical exercises. Chi Kung describes and illustrates several beginning exercises or stances including the horse stance, bow stance and empty stance.
Chi Gong Exercises
There are numerous videos illustrating proper technique and full chi gong sequences. One of particular interest, found on World News, highlights varied people doing chi gong in China where this martial art form originated. While this might not allow you to learn the stances as a beginner, it can be helpful for the practitioner who has some experience as she can see how the stances are done and try to replicate them.
Learning Chi Gong
While there are many websites and You Tube videos dedicated to chi gong, which is also sometimes written as "qi gong" or "qi kung," Health Phone aptly points out that reading is useful for understanding the history and guiding principles; however, it is not a substitute for learning with a teacher who has mastered the art form.
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