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November 14, 2005

Can You Mix Pavel's Stretching Techniques with Your Qigong Practice?

A gentleman recently posted this question on our forum:

"I have been implementing Pavel's Relax into Stretch and Super Joints into my morning/afternoon repertoire and just recently have gotten into qigong. Can I mix a qigong workout with a Relax into Stretch workout or Super Joints (I believe you are in the know with both of these techniques)? I haven't been using your style of qigong as of yet but I probably will be soon, as for now I am combining some of the exercises in this book titled, chi kung: way of power, and a book titled: qi gong for health and vitality and it has been going fairly well with this combo.

I wanted to know whether it even makes sense to mix in these with RIS and SJ because I know certain qigong promotes flexibility (don't believe the ones I'm using are). Also is it possible that RIS and SJ will hinder the health results that qigong manifests given the holding of breath and such things? Any advice will help.”

My answer:

You can absolutely mix Super Joints and Qigong. In fact my Qigong Recharge program is exactly that: a mix of the two.
RIS is quite different from qigong in its approach, however its final intention is to enhance your ability to relax your muscles. So you could see RIS and qigong as complementary practices.

While there are some iron shirt techniques where you hold your breath, overall the great value of qigong is that it trains you to be very regular, deep and natural in your breathing. In other words qigong can help counterbalance practices where you are required to hold your breath on a regular basis.

Many, many IMA and qigong practitioners have purchased RIS and have been very happy with their results.

Have a look at the upcoming workshop I am doing with Pavel and Steve Maxwell, called Unlock! This will exactly be a combination of Super Joints, RIS and qigong.

See all of John Du Cane’s qigong resources.

Posted by james at November 14, 2005 6:28 AM