Essential Neigong Exercises

Posted by Paul Cavel on 11 April 2011

The system of internal power for generating health, healing and an overriding feeling of well-being that has existed in China for at least 4,000 years is driven by 16 neigong components. Each one represents cosmic potential for developing your body, mind and chi—capable of producing seemingly mysterious and enigmatic results.

Wherever it may take you, the neigong system is rooted in extremely concrete, tangible and specific training techniques that start with the physical body. Two introductory methods that can take the average human being beyond what they’ll will experience in most modern exercise programmes involves working with the soft tissues and the pulse (opening and closing).

Over the years, I’ve found that most students are generally not clear about the distinct layers that come into play when working with the soft tissues and the pulse, which can downgrade the potential benefits they can achieve from the same practice time. So in the next few blogs, I’ll help you make some sense of the learning progression and the benefits associated with each layer.

Beginning Soft Tissue Work

There are six distinct layers to consider when working with your soft tissues where each is a progression from and expands upon the depth offered in the previous:

• Bending and stretching from the outside in and the inside out;
• Lengthening along the yin and yang surfaces of the body;
• Turning or rotating the arms, legs and torso;
• Twisting the soft tissues;
• Spiraling the soft tissues;
• Wrapping the soft tissue of the torso.

The Hierarchy for Developing Your Soft Tissues

As with the entirety of neigong, a training hierarchy dictates the process of learning to control your soft tissues. Within it there are three groups of components or three areas of development for movement of the soft tissue.

The three groups with their specific orders of learning are:

1. Bending and Stretching (Basic); Lengthening (Advanced)
2. Turning/Rotating (Basic); Twisting (Intermediate); Spiraling (Advanced)
3. Wrapping (Basic to Advanced)

In the beginning, you must start with bending-stretching and rotating because these methods:

• Form the foundation for the more advanced work.
• Give you some control over your soft tissues, which allows you to advance to the next stage.
• Initiate (along with the form movements of qigong, tai chi and bagua) the wrapping of the soft tissue of the torso—albeit a passive action.

All of the above goes a long way towards putting your mind into your body and making your body conscious. Both are absolutely critical in eventually embodying these neigong components. That is gaining conscious control over the soft tissue with the mind’s intent.

Simple, Repetitive Qigong Exercises

First and foremost, you must practise simple repetitive qigong exercises rather than complex tai chi or bagua forms to have any chance of embodying neigong. That is, unless you are a genius in mind-body-chi, which is very, very rare. Circle walking is also good because it adheres to the simple and repetitive movement requirement.

Once you’ve developed your internals to the point where it’s literally (not figuratively) in your flesh through these methods, then and only then can you apply it to more complex forms.

Bending & Stretching

The initiation of the soft tissue work starts with bending and stretching through the five bows of the body: arms, legs and torso. You must adhere to the golden mean and neither bend or stretch more than 70% of your capacity. If you do, you will restrict or even completely shut down chi flow—this is true for both bending and stretching your limbs too much.

For example, the ideal would be bending the arms to 70% and leaving a 30% reserve, or stretching to 70% and leaving a 30% bend in the arms. This comfortable range of motion also keeps the body connected, whereas either bending or stretching too far will break the connection between the limbs and the body (spine and torso).

Within the proper parameters (unique to each individual), bending and stretching can help you to start delving inside your body, draw out the stuck tissues and connect your limbs to your spine. In time and with practice, you can loosen some of the residual tension that lives inside your body and release the pain and suffering that often accompanies it. Bending and stretching provides an exit pathway to release and let go of that which binds and restricts your body.

However, you must maintain a balance between your arm and legs. Often times, the range of physical bending of the arms is far greater than that of the legs, yet both remain connected and in continuous motion. That is all four limbs start to bend simultaneously, change over to the stretch simultaneously and finish simultaneously.

Circling Hands Qigong and tai chi’s beginning form (first move) are excellent for embodying the principle of bend and stretch. It wakes up the soft tissue and prepares you for the more advanced work of lengthening, which requires far more control gained by a greater degree of contact between the mind and body.

Turning & Twisting

Turning and twisting are closely related, so much so that they are essentially two levels of the same game. In turning, you initiate a rotation of a limb through activation of the outer muscles, whilst in twisting you initiate the rotation through activation of deeper layers of the muscles.

You must practice turning for a reasonable period of time because it is light on the body and is a method for releasing the nerves, which prepares the body for twisting. If you twist too early—before the nerves are released—then you can trap the tension in your body.

It is quite normal for experienced internal arts practitioners to begin their practice using bend and stretch with turning and, as the body warms up, connects and releases the nerves, then move on to lengthening and twisting.

Twisting engages the vascular system more fully and deeper than bending and stretching and turning, but relies upon the bend-stretch and turning preliminaries. So the more you prepare the body with bend-stretch and turning, the more potential benefit you will gain when you upgrade to twisting.

Copious practice of twisting will give you excellent control over your soft tissues, loosening everything off the bones and creating a soft, supple, relaxed and strong body. Twisting alone can help you fine tune your form(s), and engage and amplify the circulation of fluids whilst deeply massaging your internal organs. Finally, as the soft tissues are twisted deeper and deeper (over months and years), you will find that you release and eliminate ever-deeper layers of blockages and toxins, perhaps lodged in your body for years or even decades.

Developing real skill in twisting contributes to a healthy body. So get your practice up to this intermediate level and be content to stay there for a long time—until you are well prepared for the advanced material.

In my next blog, I’ll cover the beginning layers of pulsing.

Happy twisting,
Paul

Read Part 2: Pulsing the Joints
Read Part 3: Pulsing the Cavities

© 2011 Paul Cavel—All rights reserved. Links are appreciated, but copying or distributing any portion of this article without written consent is prohibited.

Any physical and/or energetic exercise can carry risks. Do not attempt these exercises if you have any physical, emotional or mental conditions that may make you susceptible to injury.