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October 3, 2005
Can You Combine Internal Energy Practices At the Same Time As Your "External" Workouts?
Com. Joey asked me this and related questions recently (my answers are scattered through his letter):
Joey: "Is there a good way to develop internal energy at the same time as you do your external workouts? I have found in the past that most any skills/drill practice worked better when combined with visualizations. Can you take this and make it a form of energy development without adding on too much extra practice?"
John: Absolutely! There is a lot of crossover between high-level strength training and internal practices like qigong. I wasn’t too surprised when powerlifting champion Bud Jeffries attended one of my qigong classes and was very excited by what he found he could carry over to his own discipline. There are iron shirt qigong like practices described in Pavel’s classic strength training book Power to the People!
In my qigong teaching I encourage students to use visualizations and sensing techniques to add power to their movement. One of the best examples is found in the Bear Frolic set, where one deliberately saturates the body’s cells with a sense of “deliberate power and force.” Most advanced strength training is really advanced mental training. The qigong visualization and attention practices develop skills which transfer automatically to so-called external workouts.
And particularly, as Pavel loves to teach, if you abandon the notion of “workout” (with its relatively mindless connotations) and start thinking of any external training as a “practice.”
Joey continues: “Here are some other methods I have played with in the past...most are simple breathing and visualizations I adapted from or was inspired by somewhere else. I would love your comments:
“1. I was reminded of this by your recent post on drawing energy to the fascia. I used to use something I called Body Breathing. Basically, I closed my eyes, and envisioned my entire body expanding and contracting like a rib cage with each breath, so that I was like a balloon getting bigger and smaller, so my body's edges "blurred" with the breath. Sort of hard to explain more, but it helped relax me a great deal. Ditto if I was tense somewhere, I would "breathe" with that part that was tense, and it would often help.”
John: Qigong’s internal practices, like the ones you mention here, contribute to external practices in many ways: allowing you to focus more tension when you need to generate greater tension, but just as importantly, teaching you the all-important skill of relaxing out of tension that is merely blocking your energy and movement (Come to the Unlock! workshop to learn a good range of these latter techniques.)
Joey continues: “2. I used to be able to project energy into my palm heels to make them warm after I took some Tai Chi classes at school…I can still do this, but not as easily…. I would like to learn some basic ways of doing this for healing and self-defense. Are there any simple ways to learn to project and sense energy from yourself and others, without getting weakened or disoriented? I have heard that this can be the case if you don't know what you are doing, or if someone else projects energy "into" you and you are unprepared.”
John: Yes, simply suck energy with your attention into your hands and forearms on the inhale and project the energy out of your fingertips on the exhale. Maintain a strong standing-qigong posture with your arms in front of your chest, palms facing down. (Full details in the Bliss Qigong DVD). There are many similar methods but if you persevere with this one method you can go far.
I don’t have experience or knowledge of being weakened or disoriented as the result of this kind of practice, so wouldn’t want to comment on that part of your query.
Joey continues: “3. I used to use alternate nostril breathing from Richard Hittleman's Yoga book, and found that it was a good way to calm down before studying. Are there any other methods that are superior to this?”
John: Well, this is a classic Yogic technique that certainly works. I would be hesitant to make claims that a particular qigong method would be superior. If it is working for you I suggest you stick with it. I do enough qigong that calms me down that I haven’t personally felt like adding this method to my own practice, although I have been exposed to it many times over the years.
See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.
Posted by james at October 3, 2005 6:34 AM