I spoke with my teacher a few months ago about this kind of qigong, we had both watched a program on tv that mentioned it briefly.The rope or cord is tied around the pen!s and n4ds at the base.It is used as a very powerful method of sinking qi and can be dangerous because of the amount of qi it generates can mess up a person unless they can control it.On the show i saw(it was a documentary on taiwan by the way), the sifu at this place tied 230lb's of weights and then lifted them in a horse stace..the presenter then tried a 9lb weight and was almost crying with the pain.so as to what it achieves ;it is a very powerful method of sinking qi.is also meant to be GREAT for your s3x life