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April 25, 2005
"And How Is Your Liver Today?" -- Qigong Practice Can Strengthen Your Internal Organs
You don't hear people saying "I'm off to the gym today to give my liver a workout." At best, they may focus on their heart or lungs. But with qigong, we pay tremendous attention to "organ workouts."
We tend to forget about our kidneys or liver or spleen until we are faced with a sudden and unpleasant health challenge. We like to think that our organs are on automatic pilot and will continue to function optimally without our intervention.
Some people confuse being strong muscularly, with being healthy. While muscular strength is wonderful for accomplishing physical tasks — or simply to look good in the mirror and others’ eyes — true, longterm strength is built from the inside out, with powerful qi and a resilient internal system. “Strong health” begins with impeccably strong internal organs.
Qigong’s emphasis on the cultivation of energy naturally strengthens the meridian system which feeds and regulates our organs. While these energy-cultivation methods are often very subtle, there is one set of movements where the tie-in to the actual organs is quite obvious on a physical level.
This set of qigong movements, which you also see show up in internal martial arts like Tai Chi, involve a deliberate, targeted squeezing and “massaging” of a particular organ. Think of the act of wringing out a wet towel.
The clearest example I can give you comes from the first method in the Bear Frolic, which you will see demonstrated on my Power Qigong DVD or see described and illustrated in my Five Animal Frolics Qigong workbook.
Here is a description of Bear Turns:
Adopt a wide low leg stance, with your feet angled out at 45 degrees.
Distribute your weight equally across the whole of the foot. Place your arms, elbows bent, above your shoulders, as if holding a log. Keep the chest open by holding the arms out to the sides throughout the movement. Twist your upper torso slowly to the left without moving the hips, so you feel a squeeze in the kidney/adrenal region. Inhale as you return your torso to the front. Repeat the movement to the right side.
Check out more of John Du Cane’s Qigong resources here
Posted by james at April 25, 2005 6:43 AM
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