Flexibility & Qigong

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

Compared to Yoga I realize that Qigong is not especially know for creating flexibility in the legs and hips but I was wondering if anyone who does Bruc’es core qigong sets has any advice or ideas in creating more flexibility.

Specifically, Im looking to loosen my hips in order to sit crosslegged on the floor.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Anonymous]

I’d highly recommend the first and second swings in Energy Gates. They were very helpful in getting my own hips to open up.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply Janak,

I’ve done Energy Gates Qigong for 4 years but I have not noticed much at all in terms of my hip flexibility.
I can’t say enough good things about Energy Gates and it is definetly my favorite Qigong set.
Perhaps I’m missing something? Or maybe I just need to adopt a stretching practice to address my desire to sit comfortably cross-legged.

Cheers

Kevin

[Anonymous]

I had practiced energy gates for a number of years. I would mainly focus on the standing and dissolving. I would sometime do 20 or 30 repetitions of the first swing before I’d start my dissolving. (1 repetition = 1 swing to the left 1 swing to the right)

I never really noticed much difference in my hips. Then this past year Bruce recommended that I spend a lot of time focusing on the first and second swings to help rebuild my depleted kidneys.

So I decided to really give it a go. I eventually got to the point where I would do 4000 repetitions of the first swing during a single day of practice. It was only when I started to do lots and lots and lots of the first swing that I started to really notice and appreciate it’s ability to open up the hips.

I had a lot of injuries to my hips from doing years of karate. So they had been stiff for a long time. I wasn’t expecting the swings to do anything for my hips so I was really suprised to notice that it was happening.

When you start to do that many repetitions, you start to get bored. Since I was getting bored, I started to try and keep myself interested. So I’d pay attention to my hips and notice if I was tensing any muscle that didn’t need to be tensed. Whenever I would find one, I’d pay attention to it. With each repetition, I’d notice if I’d tense that muscle or if I could do the repetition without tensing the muscle. Sometimes I’d pay attention to the same part of my hips for 1000’s of reps, until I could finally get it to relax.

I’d also play around with the swings. Sometimes I’d do them slower, other times faster. Sometimes I would twist many degrees. Other times I’d only twist 10 degrees in each direction. It would become less of a swing and more of a “wobble”.

Suprisingly, I found the most productive way to practice for softening up the hips was to do the wobble version. Just twisting a small amount in each direction allowed me to find and tackle small bits of tension in my hips. This seemed to lead to the fastest progress in terms of opening my hips. A very unexpected result!

Hope this helps,
Janak

[Anonymous]

Great post-comments Janak, I appreciated the details… along with the subtlties mentioned there, I found the emphasis on “Stretching” (as ‘we’ understand and imply it in modern- PhyEd..etc), is pull in whatever direction _until_ there is tension, and then hold it .. or even tug a bit more, adding to that tension…

The feeling is that if you start the same “vector” of movement, but Waay before it “stretches” [ie before it feels tight] it seems there is no engagement…

The great phrase of the Wobble I think hints at this same idea (I might be off there)- but instead of pulling taut, or even instead of a smaller motion yet still trying to feel the tightness, sense how all the other parts of body (even mind…?) freeze a bit…

Just as the phrase- the leg that’s got the qi, aint got the weight, and the legs that’s got the weight, aint got the qi… (& where the flow of qi is unblocked and full, there is no pain, where the flow of qi is blocked &/or deficient or excess-stuck- there is pain, and lack of function) ..
thus relates not so much to puling in position, but just as “standing” (get in static-position: all echannels and alignments, linked up), and then start to move (CloudHands or 1st swing) retain (and reset) the int’l connection in the static-standing… then move a bit more, retain/reset etc..

-same in Contorting (bending into a posture- i.e. stretch.. ex seated pose), stay in position you feel full and easy, and then stay full&easy as you move a bit ‘towards posture’.. etc. (and know-accept you will be going past 70%, or 80% to beyond 100% anyway- as even move towards, will be interpreted by mind as “push into the position- make it stretch”)
======
As you release parts, other parts and tighten up again.. (think of how string in a ball- knotted up.. if untie you need find slack, and how you pull the string to a spot, to release. before each release, it actually tightens up.. if that makes sense)..

When working Bagua, I’ve had times my system did this.. espec working double-palm, pulled something that connected sole of my R-foot all the way up leg through torso to my shoulder blades and neck, like a rubber-band that shortened and twisted up.. even once recovered, I still don’t sit in “half-lotus” (which was my go-to sit) as still that same twist.. but I feel how constriction up the front/inside of my spine is related to my legs twisting.. not the leg or even the hip..
-what needs to release my (usually) not be where is Feels-Tight nor where it doesn’t freely-move… oft else where…

I hope that adds something

[Anonymous]

I get flexible when I do slow movements. By doing slow movements my body has enough time to relax. THe swings in the EGQ are fast and energetic, you can’t do them slowly and it is very difficult to relax in them – this could the reason why you didn’t get good results with the swings.

What helped me – slow torso rotations around the centerline. I don’t remember a specific movement from Bruce’s curriculum like this, but such movements are quite common as warm-ups as taught by many EA instructors. When I started doing those slow rotations, first in the center, then on weighted legs, then with one leg forward – I noticed good results right away, I was really surprised by that.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Janak!

I never considered doing such a high number of swing reps. I guess I felt like “too much” wasn’t “good”- my misunderstanding!

Now I see how one could do this set with a training mindset for many hours each day.

Cheers,

Kevin

[Anonymous]

I hesitated responding, as not sure if my comments are read as input- but just to add that as in above: “<> also that could be based upon the idea of more… I’d put that in the context of running (as in example, not that ‘running’ relates to this.. )
for someone that doesn’t ‘run’ running a mile (or less, let alone more) a day is alot.. 3,4,5 miles a day could be considered excessive- but if one has trained “up to” running marathons… thus it is relative..
So just like any exer- it is relative to what you’ve trained to, but if you use the 70%… you should still be at ease even as finish the set (the assumption could be that doing thousands of reps, let alone an hour or multiple hours straight, would be a strain).

Then in the quote above “Too much” is never “good” but that is in the meaning-implied/ presupposed of “Too” much… if it was phrased that <> or that “more than most normally do” …
-that might change and reveal hidden-assumption blocks.
======
I just wanted to add that, as another could read this as meaning just “power through it” “blindly/mindlessly do many-many reps”, just to “put in the miles”…. -which is implied in above, and yet that isn’t as I understand.. (let alone the “water method” basics). just two cents

[Anonymous]

I think this is a great point, and good share of augmenting components.. although I’d disagree that <> as if you do the first-swing and build up the foundation… really work the filling-aspect, from the most twisted (weight all on one-leg) as you reverse that twist, and start to shift weight… slowly-steady and feel that fill-lift and almost inflate (like a water-balloon being filled up as it rests upon the ground), etc.

Make sure that all parts stay connected, in order to move slowly.. (“one part moves, all parts move, one part (any part) stops.. all parts stop” -thus the usual way the swing is started- is turn the torso (A) which flings the arms, separately ( then shifting sideways stops (C) and then torso/cylinder rotation stops (D) and then arms continue and then finish their swing and hit the torso (E)… each of those letters, seaparted, such that at the end, the legs and torso have “stopped” while the arms are still moving, vs at the reverse of twist- the torso, and legs, are moving, but the arms are not… -which is not as the above quoted saying … <>

‘from posture to posture- the int’l Energy is un-broken’

just in case any working on this get something out of that- I find a great deal of complexity and interactions in this simple (and yet not ‘easy’) set of moves.. revealed just by ‘doing-them’ (vs some of the other sets where you have to -coordinate- actions to have those components active)

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for their input-very helpful and much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Hey Taokua,

You raise some great points and I wanted to elaborate them so that someone reading about my experiances doesn’t misinterpret them.

Even though I eventually got to the point where I was doing a large number of repetitions every day. I was also staying within my 70% the whole time.

I started out with a small number of repetitions and worked my way up from there. I was looking back at my practice notes. The first day I started practicing the first swing, I did 275 reps. I didn’t do them all at once. Instead, I would break up my practice into smaller “sets”. So I might do 50 or 100 reps, take a break and then come back and practice again later after I rested.

Two weeks later I could do 1000 reps in a day. Two weeks after that I could do 2000 reps in a day. Two weeks later I could do 4000 reps in a day.

The entire time I was practicing I was carefully trying to stay aware of my 70%. I was trying hard not to over do it in my effort to chase a higher number of reps.

Some days I would make a mistake and definately do too much. I would learn from the experience and back off and do less the next couple of days.

I also started to notice that my 70% could be very different on different days. Some days even doing 2000 reps seemed like doing too much. Other days, it felt like I still had plenty of energy even after I got to 4000 reps. I was suprised at how wide the daily variation was in my 70%. I used to think that it would be more consistent or constant then it turned out to be.

[Anonymous]

I think this is a great point, and good share of augmenting components..
although I’d disagree that <> as if you do the first-swing and build up the foundation…

really work the filling-aspect, from the most twisted (weight all on one-leg) as you reverse that twist, and start to shift weight…
slowly-steady and feel that fill-lift and almost inflate (like a water-balloon being filled up as it rests upon the ground), etc.

Make sure that all parts stay connected, in order to move slowly.. (“one part moves, all parts move, one part (any part) stops.. all parts stop” -thus the usual way the swing is started- is turn the torso (A) which flings the arms, separately ( then shifting sideways stops (C) and then torso/cylinder rotation stops (D) and then arms continue and then finish their swing and hit the torso (E)… each of those letters, seaparted, such that at the end, the legs and torso have “stopped” while the arms are still moving, vs at the reverse of twist- the torso, and legs, are moving, but the arms are not… -which is not as the above quoted saying … <>

‘from posture to posture- the int’l Energy is un-broken’

just in case any working on this get something out of that- I find a great deal of complexity and interactions in this simple (and yet not ‘easy’) set of moves.. revealed just by ‘doing-them’ (vs some of the other sets where you have to -coordinate- actions to have those components active)

[Anonymous]

4000 reps?! Roughly how long does that take you? Is that the sort of number that should be practiced? I’m amazed…

[Anonymous]

By the way, Kevin, you may want to check out the ‘Tao Yoga’ programme…

[Anonymous]

Hi Guy,

It takes me roughly 3 hours to complete that many swings. I don’t think that many repetitions is a recommended amount of practice. I think it was more a reflection of the severity of some of the health problems that I face and my intense frustration with having to deal with them on a daily basis.

For whatever reasons, it seems like my system resembles concrete in a way. Small amounts of practice or a varied practice regime doesn’t seem to create much change. It’s only when I pick one thing and practice the ever living crap out of it that I start to notice a change in my day to day life.

So that’s the approach I’ve taken the last couple of years. I’ll pick one main practice and really go at it. From August to October of this year, that practice was the first and second swings.

Janak

[Author]

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