Five Animal Frolics

[Franklin]

Any one practice the Five Animal Frolics?

what sets do you practice?

 

 

I learned these sets maybe 8 years ago or more...

 

there seems to be a lot of variation of these sets that are available- and they seem to be getting more popular lately (i noticed more people are releasing instructional material)-the sets i learned all have multiple exercises for each animal and mimic some of the characteristics of the animals-

 

they are a good workout targeting all areas of the body, are good foundational material for something like tai chi practice- i sometimes use the crane or the bear exercises as a warmup to my tai chi classes

 

i wrote a book a while ago on the crane and the bear exercises because of the five sets these are the ones that give a more whole body exercise- the other three sets seem to be more specialized and some exercises might be difficult for most people- the monkey has lots of low squating, walking, and rolling

 

the book in e-book format is available (www.animalchikung.com) with 2 videos that demonstrate the sets.

some sort clips of the crane and bear exercises and the list of the exercises for each animal are below.

 

 

 

The Crane Frolics exercises strengthen the Heart and benefit the Lungs and Circulation.

 

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1. Windmill Crane

2. Breathing Crane

3. Soaring Crane

4. Squatting Crane

5. Breathing Crane

6. Stepping Crane

7. Beak in the Mud

8. Circle Crane

9. Basic Crane

10. Crane Washing Its Wing

 

 

The Bear Frolics Exercises strengthen the Kidneys and Bones and benefit all the internal organs.

 

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1. Flopping Bear

2. Fishing Bear

3. Turning and Tipping Brear

4. Squatting Bear

5. Hibernating Bear

6. Walking Bear

7. Pushing Bear

8. Marauding Bear

9. Looking Bear

 

 

The Deer Frolics exercises strengthen the Spleen and relax the muscles.

 

1. Pushing Deer

2. Resting Deer

3. Basic Deer

4. Tapping Deer

5. Leaping Deer

 

 

The Monkey Frolics exercises strengthen the Liver and keep the tendons and ligaments subtle.

 

1. Monkey Flops

2. Basic Monkey

3. Monkey Squats

4. Monkey Circles

5. Monkey Walks

6. Rolling Monkey

7. Advancing Monkey

8. Crazy Monkey

9. Retreating Monkey

 

 

The Tiger Frolics exercises strengthen the Lungs and develop strength.

 

1. Tiger Strike

2. Pouncing Tiger

3. Tiger Plays in Clouds

4. Basic Tiger

5. Tiger Opening the Fan

[Marquis de Libaux]

Allo! I do practice these exercises. I really enjoy this qigong.

I use the standardised chinese goverment routine.

And when i am done with the set i just go and play spontaneously with the 5 animals movements.

 

I checked the link you provided and the videos

 

i enjoyed them really much

 

keep on good practice

[hagar]

I Do the Deer every day.

 

Great vids!'

 

Seems like there is a lot of variation in these forms.

 

They connect to the elements and the seasons:

Bird; heart, summer, fire

Monkey; spleen, indian summer, earth

Tiger; Lungs; autum, metal

Bear; kidneys, winter, water

Deer, Liver, spring.

 

In addition;

Bird; transforms fear

Monkey; transcendent/spiritual

Tiger; transforms anger

Bear; transforms Joy

Deer; transforms grief

 

This is my own experience

 

Later edit:

Deer and Tiger; Jing

Monkey; Shen

Bird and Bear: qi

 

h

Edited January 9, 2010 by hagar

[Franklin]

Allo! I do practice these exercises. I really enjoy this qigong.

I use the standardised chinese goverment routine.

And when i am done with the set i just go and play spontaneously with the 5 animals movements.

 

I checked the link you provided and the videos

 

i enjoyed them really much

 

keep on good practice

 

 

thanks - i am glad you enjoyed the videos

 

i did not know there was a standardized set promoted by th PRC

i do know that recently there seems to be a lot more versions available to compare

 

 

Franklin

 

I Do the Deer every day.

 

Great vids!'

 

Seems like there is a lot of variation in these forms.

 

They connect to the elements and the seasons:

Bird; heart, summer, fire

Monkey; spleen, indian summer, earth

Tiger; Lungs; autum, metal

Bear; kidneys, winter, water

Deer, Liver, spring.

 

In addition;

Bird; transforms fear

Monkey; transcendent/spiritual

Tiger; transforms anger

Bear; transforms Joy

Deer; transforms grief

 

This is my own experience

 

Later edit:

Deer and Tiger; Jing

Monkey; Shen

Bird and Bear: qi

 

h

 

interesting

 

 

i agree there is a lot of variations out there...

 

in the set i learned the organ/season correlation is about the same-

only the deer and monkey correlations are switched

with the set i learned

deer- spleen

monkey- liver

 

the monkey has a lot of whip like motions

low squatting, walking, and rolling

really works the kua and the flexibility of that area

 

the deer is more graceful

and some of the movements still act on the liver as the spleen and liver are so interrelated

the deer exercises make you light-

think it is related to the spleens ability to send the clear upward and the turbid downward

if this is not working right then the body becomes sluggish and feels weighted down

the deer has some leaping movements in it...

 

 

franklin

[DalTheJigsaw123]

Great thread! Thanks!

[Marquis de Libaux]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr9Q7G3TiP4

 

This is the PRC Standardization of Hua Tuo's Five Animal frolics.

[Maddie]

I've been doing Dr. Yang's version from YMAA and even though I can do an hour of yoga even with quite challenging postures, I find myself exhausted after doing just one or two animal sets of this for some reason.