Qigong helping for fatigue

[thrope]

Hello,

 

Happy to join the forum. 

 

I did Tai Chi for a few years about 15 years ago and really enjoyed it. The class included what they called Daoist Yoga which I think was really dynamic qigong exercises and it was what I liked the best. In the intervening years, whenever I move to a new city I check out the various classes, but they always seem a bit disappointing compared to the ones I followed and I don't keep it up. 

 

I think for me the aspects of that class I really liked were the thorough warm up, qigong and other breathing exercises. 

 

Two years ago I had a mononucleosis reactivation, perhaps caused by exercises too much (I was training cardio / rowing quite a lot). I got over that after discovering high dose vitamin C, but didn't go back to hard exercise. 

 

A few months ago the fatigue symptoms seemed to come back, and I went back to standing qigong from the Kam Chuen Lam book (The Way of Energy) which I had periodically looked into in the intervening years. I found it really remarkable, I'm not sure if it was the warm up or the standing but it really helped me. 

 

So I have started a daily standing practise with a warm up (ankle, knee, hip circles, swinging and turning back, arm circles etc.) and 10 minutes of standing. 

 

I have some questions about other aspects though.

 

For Lifting the Sky from the Wong Kiew Kit books, it says to "push up". Is this a sort of metaphorical intent to push while keeping arms and shoulders relaxed, or should I really stretch, or should I even stretch with isometric force like I am trying to push a weight?

 

What are the views of people from a qigong perspective of having cold showers? (e.g. Wim Hof method, but mainly just having cold showers). 

 

I also have a couple of books I would like to work from with short forms: Swimming Dragon by Tk Shih and 14-series sinew-transforming exercises from Beijing Languages Press. I would be interested if there are any videos particularly of the second one?

 

 

 

[Fa Xin]

Hello, Thrope , and welcome.

 

Your membership is approved and we're happy you found your way to us. We look forward to accompanying you on some of the way that you still have to go.

 

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Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you,

 

Fa Xin and the TDB team

 

Welcome Thrope,

 

Welcome to the Bums! I prefer hot showers but that’s just me. Lots of Qigong info here. Enjoy. 

 

You are welcome to jump right in to the ongoing discussions, revive an older thread, start a new thread of your own, or start a discussion in the "Newcomer Corner" sub-forum to expand on your introduction or ask general questions to help you get started.

 

May you enjoy your time here.

 

Fa Xin

[escott]

Hi, I recently joined here as well, but I think I'm doing a practice that is similar to yours. I am also mainly working from The Way of Energy. I signed up on Flowing Zen and learned Lifting The Sky from Sifu Anthony. Doing some research on Lifting The Sky I found a video of Wong Kiew Kit leading a seminar. It looks to me like a very gentle push at the top, just enough to lengthen the spine.

 

Personally, I've come up with something of my own version that happened spontaneously with this knowledge. In my warmup I do arm circles as Lam Kam Chuen describes. But, I have a visualization to go along with it. When my hands are at the bottom they are in front of me palms facing in. There is a fountain of chi coming out of the Earth between my feet. On top of that fountain is a ball of chi that I pick up (kind of like at the bowling alley that machine always returns your ball). I lift that ball over my head. At the top I turn my palms outward, flick my wrists, and bring my arms down to the side for another rep. When I flick my wrists any unwanted/negative energy flys off of my fingertips and away from me. The ball of chi pops and I am showered by positive golden energy.