Energy exercises

Energy exercises

A taiqi or qigong master is not likely to be lean and muscular, and may even have a pot belly. Well, the pot belly is not like exactly a healthy sign. But these people often live relatively long lives, without major illness.

They have stronger qi, or life energy. Oriental forms of exercise are quite the opposite of modern, western forms, like aerobics, jogging, gymnasium workouts and games likes like squash or tennis. These emphasize working the muscles and making the heart pump faster.

In contrast, Oriental exercise, like taiqi, qigong and joga, are often slow and gentle.The difference is that Western forms of exercise focus on his physical body, whereas Oriental exercises focus on the energy, the qi, prana or “lifeforce”.

They might be considered "energy exercises"

Taiqi as an energy exercise

I tried to learn taiqi when I was 9 years old. My father’s friend was teaching it at the back of our house, so I tried to learn.

Well, I never learnt much. But I remember very well what was taught about the first step.

It is very simple. Just slowly raise your arms to chest level, and lower them back again. Yet it is very difficult. We are supposed to do this very slowly and effortlessly, without using the slightest bit of strength. The arms are supposed to e feather light.

I don’t think many taiqi students can do this. I won’t be surprised if some teachers and masters cannot do it either.

But last year (1994) nearly 30 years after I was first introduced to this concept, I discovered the secret. Although I still don’t know much about taiqi, that discovery led me to understand the essence of it.

The essence is energy. In order to raise and lower the arms effortlessly, we cannot use muscular effort. Instead, we use the body’s flow of energy, or what the Chinese call qi.

How? Think about it. Use your mind.

Think about your arms being raised. If your qi is flowing well, then your arms will be raised – just by thinking about it.

I made this discovery when I was on a macrobiotics course in Becket, USA, last year. Clyde Motosue, a teacher of shiatsu, was leading us through a series of slow moving oriental energy exercises – raising and lowering the arms, moving them in circles, etc.

Then he casually suggested: “Think of the movements starting from your spine.”

I tried. And it was like magic. My arms began to move on their own. I did not have to use any physical effort at all. All I had to do was think about my arms rising forward, and they would rise sideways. And if I imagined them coming down, they would come down.

The movements became no longer a form of physical exercise. They became a visualization exercise, a form of meditation. They became energy exercises.

Try it. Your arms may or may not move magically, depending on how freely your energy flows. But most people should experience at least something.

Energy exercises - qigong

Foe me, it happened because I’ve already had some experience with qigong, another form of visualisation or energy exercise.

About 9 years ago, I learn it from my Chinese sinseh (physician) who learnt it from a master in China.

The exercises are rather unusual. But I will try describing them as best as I can:For preparation or “warm up”, stand with your feet apart about the width of your body, your knees slightly bent.

Stand straight but relaxed, making sure that your hip, neck and top of the head are aligned.

Hang your arms loosely by your side, not touching the body. Feel energy flowing through you. As this happens, your arms might move gently, in small circles.

The first series of exercise involve moving your spine in a wavy fashion, like an “S”. Start with very small movements at the base of the spine, moving your pelvis forward, up, back and down in small circles. Slowly make the movements bigger increase the movements upwards, up the vertebrae until the entire spine moves in an “S” shape.

Variations of this energy exercise involve swaying the body from left to right (like pendulum); rotating the body; and combining all the different movements.

It may be hard to imagine all this. But the point I wish to make is that, initially, the movements were jerky but with practice, they became smooth and graceful. Because we use the movement of qi, not of muscles.

In these qigong or exercises, the less physical movement there is, the better.

What’s the [point of doing all this? Is it “exercise” when you hardly move?

The point is that you will feel fresh and recharged after a session energy exercises like qigong. You won’t feel spent and exhausted as you would after a session of aerobics.

With years of practice, some qigong masters can perform quite fantastic feats. At a demonstration in Singapore recently, one exponent could support his body with just three fingers of each hand. Another could scale walls like a lizard!

More commonly, exponents of karate, teakwondo, and other martial arts are able to smash bricks with their bare hands, again not by using strength, but energy. These martial arts, too, are energy exercises.

Well, you and I may not want to perform such feats. For us, the more important benefits of taiqi, qigong and other forms of energy exercise is that our health will improve; chronic illnesses may go away.

In my qigong class, there was one man who was quite seriously ill. He was under severe stress and had a nerve problem which medical doctors could not treat. At that time, he was spending hundreds of dollars every month on Chinese tonic herbs.

When the qigong classes stopped, we did not meet him again until a few years later. When we did, w could not recognize him, for he was looking much younger, brighter, more cheerful... And more energetic.

He had been doing his energy exercises.

Click here to read about Aikido, another of the many forms of energy exercises.