First, ~G I know this is a qigong thread, but it has wider thought around general physical awareness and how that is improved through physical work and refined with qigong.
Many look at qigong through the filter of "wtf is up with that". As kung fu practitioners, a great many of us are exposed to qigong frequently as a practice and as an addition to the kung fu being learned.
By learning a physical discipline, you begin to develop such things as body balance, structural awareness and a general sense of where you are in space and time with a very holistic outlook. from fingertips to top of head to tip of toes you are aware of where each piece of you is...or are you?
This is where qigong helps and aids in refinement of the body awareness. this is an aspect of qigong practice in tandem with physical discipline really kicks in in my opinion.
Qigong has you focusing your attention fully on parts of your body and over time, you develop a higher sense of body awareness through the practice of it.
Your grip, position, way of moving and structural formation will be corrected through the refinement process that is qigong and that in turn will crossover to your kung fu or fighting practice.
Qigong will improve and strengthen breath intake and output. Blood oxygenation can actually rise through this practice, in many ways similar to yoga and it's pranaveda work.
You actually begin to feel a lot of little processes that are always going on, but that somehow you had been oblivious to before or only now and then a fleeting awareness of it.
This practice will quicken your eye and your hand that follows as well. Reflexes improve and it is an organic and natural process that comes with practice.
Qigong, like yoga is in many ways icing on the cake of kung fu. It is these refinement practices that begin to reveal the movement and posture of kung fu as it should be.
It is a tandem process as well. It is not independent of the other hard work, but rather supplemental to it.
Learning qigong alone would have some benefits in body awareness, but would not be as practical as when it is used in tandem with more rigorous exercise pursuit.
Better breathing patterns, better posture, better body awareness. For me, these are the direct benefits of qigong combined with kung fu practice.
I never was one for the mystical cryptic talk of chi as this or that. For me it is simply breath, blood and energy working together to propel you as a being. breath work simply refines those processes.
feedback?
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Originally Posted by David Jamieson
