Qi Gong (Chi Kung) - 
(Way to Iron Body ) :

72 Secret Arts of the Shaolin Temple

Note:- I will not be held responsible for any injuries or suffering if anyone tries any of these techniques. All of these techniques require special guidance from a qualified instructor. I doubt you will find many instructors that know any of these techniques as they are very old techniques and are only usually taught to special students with high potential , respect and patience. 

1. Four Steps Arts
2. Iron Head Arts
3. Arhat Arts
4. Iron Arms Arts
5. Double Key Arts
6. Pot Lifting Arts
7. Key Stone Arts
8. Iron Bag Arts
9. Thousand Catties Floodgate Arts
10. Whip Strength Technique
11. Separating Water Arts
12. Jade Belt Arts
13. Embrace Tree Arts
14. Eagle Wings Arts
15. Overlord Elbow Arts
16. Saddle Arts
17. Pellet Fist Arts
18. Gang Rou Arts
19. Sand Bag Arts
20. Sunlight Hands Arts
21. Yin Fist Arts
22. Iron Sands Palms Arts
23. Bambo Leaf Hands Arts
24. Pushing Mounts Palms Arts
25. Close Plate Palms Arts
26. Mantis Claw Arts
27. Guan Yin Palms Arts
28. Five Poison Hands Arts
29. Cinnabar Palms Arts
30. Single Finger Jin Gang Arts
31. Immortal Palms Arts
32. Touching Stone Arts
33. Pipa Arts
34. Pulling up Nails Arts
35. Lifting up Thousand Catties Arts
36. Rubbing and Inserting Arts
37. Removing Mountains Arts
38. Eagle Claw Power Arts
39. Key Fingers Arts
40. Single Finger Hand Stand Arts
41. Picking up Flower Arts
42. Centipede Leaping Arts
43. Lying Tiger Arts
44. Tortoise Back Arts
45. Door Crotch Arts
46. Iron Cow Arts
47. Gunny Bag Arts
48. Inhaling Yin Arts
49. Soft Bone Arts
50. Iron Broom Arts (Iron Legs Gong)
51. Cypress Stake Arts
52. Iron Knee Arts
53. Foot Shooting Arts
54. Self Hitting Arts
55. Somersault Turning Arts
56. Anti-Broadsword and Anti-Spear Arts
57. Stone Pillar Arts
58. Plum Blossom Stakes Arts
59. Meteor Stakes Arts
60. Leaping and Jumping Arts
61. Jumping and Leaping Arts
62. Flying Arts
63. Light Body Arts
64. Single Rope Penetrating Arts
65. Penetration Arts
66. Belt Somersault Arts
67. Gecko Creeping Wall Arts
68. Arts of Leaping onto Roofs and Vaulting Over Walls
69. Frog Arts
70. Iron Shirt Arts
71. Golden Clock Arts
72. Swimming Skill Arts

1. Four Steps Arts

2. Iron Head Arts

Coil soft silk around your forehead about ten times. Now wrap one or two iron pieces around your forehead on the outside (you could use something like chain mail etc). Bump your head against a wall two times only each day. While training you MUST lift your Qi to fill your brain. At first do not over exert force otherwise you will damage you not so tough skull. Gradually over time bump the wall with your head a bit harder. Slowly increasing the force. After more than one year later use seven or eight pieces of silk instead of ten. Then after hundreds of days more practice, decrease the silks to four of five rounds. One more year later you can bump the wall without using silk. It is very painful for a trainee to bump their head straight against a wall but step by step your head should now be as hard a brick. One must first cultivate one’s character before practicing this skill.

3. Arhat Arts

There are a few ways of doing this exercise.

Shut your eyes while waking up. Massage them gently with your thumbs fourteen times. Keep your eyes closed and rub them from left to upper-right, to upper-front, then to downward-right. Then from right to upper-right to right and downward-right. Then from downward-right to downward-front , to downward-left and then to the left. Do this seven times. After massaging your eyes leave them closed for at least a few minutes and then open them wide suddenly. Silence while doing this exercise is essential. Use the back curvy bone of the thumb to press the small acupoint (Zhuan-Zhu Acupoint) in the tip of the eyebrow. Do this seventy two times. Then rub the cheekbones with your hands rotating the Eardrop Acupoint for thirty six times. Rub the forehead in the reverse direction, beginning in the middle of the eyebrows towards the back of the head for seventy two times (se your fingers to massage like you would when your washing your hair). By doing this you will find that your swallowing lots of saliva. Now paste a light green piece of paper onto a windlamp which is burnt with sesame oil, and the flame of which must be small. Put the lamp in a dark room. Stand away from the lamp about 6 metres away, cross your legs and sit on a bench using intense concentrating of your will. Withhold your Qi and watch your lamp intently for about fifteen minutes., then close your eyes making your eyeballs rotate around thirty six times (from left to right). Now rotate thirty six times in the opposite direction (from right to left) . Now open your eyes wide again and watch the lamp intently. Five to ten minutes later close your eyes again and pactice the the "Open-Close Eyes Arts" on the left and right, then vice versa. Each night, practice for about two hours. After three months you can deepen the colour of the windlamp paper a bit and the position of the lamp can go back further by about half to one metre away. Gradually over time you can deepen the colour of the paper from light green to dark green and the lamp can eventually go back to 33 metres away. The size of the flame at this distance will be the size of a small bean. You should now be practicing for about four hours in total. When you have practiced this for a while you will be able to see people / things in the dark up to 33 metre away. If you perfect your "jujube" ( the symbol of eyes), you can gain extra advantage in combat. Eating sheep liver will also increase your internal energy which will help your vision / eye sight.

4. Iron Arms Arts

5. Double Key Arts

6. Pot Lifting Arts

7. Key Stone Arts

8. Iron Bag Arts

9. Thousand Catties Floodgate Arts

10. Whip Strength Technique

11. Separating Water Arts

12. Jade Belt Arts

13. Embrace Tree Arts

14. Eagle Wings Arts

15. Overlord Elbow Arts

To start with lay on your back on the ground. Bend your forearms at your elbows with your fists closed. The punching surface of your fists must be facing upwards. Straighten your legs with your feet flat on the ground. Lift your body off the ground with your elbows. Now direct your energy to your elbows and continue to hold your body up with them. You must hold this position for 15 minutes then take a break. While you are suspending your body in the air you must breathe regularly to aid you in concentrating. Do this 10 times in the morning and 10 times at night. The second stage is to use just 1 elbow and 1 foot to suspend yourself. Try your right hand side then when you need to rest go back to both elbows and feet. Now try your left hand side. Do this 10 times on each side. Do this for 1 year on earth then use smooth stone against your elbows and feet. Do this for 2 more years then do the same on rough stone. Do this for 1 year then dig a trench 3 feet in width and 6 feet in length and put small and large cobbled stones mixed with mud and sand into the trench. You must also put water into the trench to and let it harden a bit to form a cobbled board. Now practice the above inside the trench on the cobbles. You will feel pain so you will need to treat your elbows with medicine. Keep practicing until you feel comfortable with the exercise. Now add crushed stone, mud and sand to the trench with some water to harden it up a little. Do the same until your elbows and heels are hard. To achieve this skill it requires at least 3 years of practice.

16. Saddle Arts

17. Pellet Fist Arts

18. Gang Rou Arts

19.Sand Bag Arts

20. Sunlight Hands Arts (Yin Hands)

Light an oil lamp or a candle and place it onto a table. Stand about 3 feet away from the candle in horse riding stance. Channel your Qi down to your dantian and concentrate on yourself. Thrust out your fists towards the lamp or candle for about half an hour. Practice this every morning and evening. Once you can put out the flame you have successfully passed the first stage. Now move yourself back 8 paces and repeat the same exercise. Once you can put out the flame from this distance you will be successful. It is said that once you have accomplished this that you can hit a person without even touching them.

21. Yin Fist Arts (Yin Hand)

Stand in front of a well or a big tall container of water. While in horse riding stance thrust your fists towards the surface of the water 100 times. Do this during early morning or after midnight. You will seem like you are achieving nothing for a long time. After 1 or 2 years your fists will cause the water to stir slightly. Lots more practice will cause the water to become agitated and noisy. More practice will make the water sound like waves. At least 6 to 8 more years practice will pay off as the water will sound like the rolling of waves and your punches will be devastating.

22. Iron Sands Palms Arts

23. Bambo Leaf Hands Arts

24. Pushing Mounts Palms Arts

25. Close Plate Palms Arts

26. Mantis Claw Arts

27. Guan Yin Palms Arts

28. Five Poison Hands Arts

29. Cinnabar Palms Arts

30. Single Finger Jin Gang Arts

31. Immortal Palms Arts

32. Touching Stone Arts

33. Pipa Arts

34. Pulling up Nails Arts

35. Lifting up Thousand Catties Arts

36. Rubbing and Inserting Arts

37. Removing Mountains Arts

38. Eagle Claw Power Arts

39. Key Fingers Arts

40. Single Finger Hand Stand Arts

41. Picking up Flower Arts

42. Centipede Leaping Arts

43. Lying Tiger Arts

44. Tortoise Back Arts

45. Door Crotch Arts

46. Iron Cow Arts

47. Gunny Bag Arts

48. Inhaling Yin Arts

49. Soft Bone Arts

50. Iron Broom Arts(Iron Legs Gong)

On a daily basis stand in horse riding stance. If you get tired take a rest then try again. When you can stand in horse riding stance for two hours you have achieved the first stage of this art. You must now start to run long distances, this will make your legs very strong and tough. It says in the old texts that your legs will be invincible. For the next stage bury wood stakes (at least 6 inches in diameter) in the ground and continually kick them with your feet and legs. At first your legs will hurt a lot and will become bruised, but within a few weeks your legs and muscles will become tough and you will not feel the pain. Once you can shake or even brake the stake, bury bigger stakes into the ground and resume practice. It says that after three years of training, your kicks can shake the branches of big trees or brake the trunk of a small tree.

51. Cypress Stake Arts

52. Iron Knee Arts

Sit cross legged and strike your knees 72 times with your fists. Now loosen your fists and press the plams of your hands onto your knees. Now massage then 36 times from outwards to inwards and then 36 times again from inwards to outwards. After massaging repeat the above again 8 times. Do all of this before you go to bed and when you get up in the morning. After 1 year your knee bones will be very hard. Now get 2 wooden hammers in the shape of a ball with soft ratten handles. Hit your knees simultaneously 72 times with your wooden hammers. Massage them as before but only 9 times. Do this for a year and your knees will be extremely tough. Now use 2 iron hammers about the same shape as the wooden ones. Repeat the same training as with the wooden hammers and after 1 year you will accomplish this art.

53. Foot Shooting Arts

While you take a walk try to kick stones or bricks with your toes. After a long time the muscles in your toes will become elastic and tough. You must now attempt to kick bigger stones or bricks with more force. When you can kick the objects far away, practice kicking them at a target. Practicing this technique will result in very good gripping stances.

54. Self Hitting Arts

First, make a hard wood "Pai-Brick", this must be one foot in length, 6 inches in width and one & half inches in thickness. Holding the center of the brick, beat each part of your body with the edge of the brick. At first you should beat lightly then start to beat more heavily. Start by beating your upper then lower arms at least a hundred times each section of your body. Now beat your thigh and shank in the same manner. When beating the left side you must hold the brick in your right hand. Now beat your abdomen and chest and lastly on your shoulder blades. At morning and evening execute the beatings one hundred times on each of the above mentioned body parts. After one year use a kiln baked bricj instead of the wooden brick. Half a year later use a metal brick. You will accomplish this art after half a years practice with the metal brick.

55. Somersault Turning Arts

56. Anti-Broadsword and Anti-Spear Arts

57. Stone Pillar Arts

58. Plum Blossom Stakes Arts

59. Meteor Stakes Arts

60. Leaping and Jumping Arts

61. Jumping and Leaping Arts

62. Flying Arts

63. Light Body Arts

64. Single Rope Penetrating Arts

65. Penetration Arts

66. Belt Somersault Arts

67. Gecko Creeping Wall Arts

68. Arts of Leaping onto Roofs and Vaulting Over Walls

69. Frog Arts

Practice this art step by step and without rushing. You must concentrate at all times. First use a block of stone or a weight of some kind **********UNFINISHED***********

70. Iron Shirt Arts

You first have to find a piece of long soft cloth and bind it around your chest and back, several times.

Give yourself a forceful massage all over your body. Hurl your arms forwards and backwards, opening your chest right up, then closing your chest. At night sleep on a hard wooden board, this will make your muscles and bones tough. When your muscles and bones feel tough you should set up an iron bar (like a chin up bar) in your garden.Dig a pit around a foot deep in front of the bar and fill it with sand. In the morning and night, practice hanging from the bar and tossing yourself into the sandpit. When you land in the sand pit practice landing on your shoulder / back / chest / abdomen and arms. Do this for three years then remove the soft cloth from around your chest. Now you must beat your body with a wooden hammer, When you are used to the wooden hammer use an iron hammer to beat your body. Concentrate and use your Qi to withstand the beating of the iron hammer. After another three year your upper body will be as pliable as cotton and you will have been successful in the Iron Shirt Art.

71. Golden Clock Arts

The masters say that this skill is one of the most important arts in Gong Fu.

You must first make a hammer out of cloth and beat your whole body with it. At the beginning, it may be painful but time will make it feel less painful. Once you feel ready to move on beat your body with a wooden hammer instead. After lots of training you will not feel pain from the wooden hammer, this is when you should move onto the iron hammer. When you can finally feel no pain from the iron hammer you must start to learn the other following arts:- Somersault Arts / Iron Shirt Arts and Iron Cow Arts. After two or three years of training you should develop muscles in your back and chest as hard as stone. It is said that after this final stage is attained that no form of kick or punch will harm these areas of your body.

72. Swimming Skill Arts

In the swimming skill , there are eight different types of stroke. They are as follows:-

1. Treading water - Using your feet. Also projecting your upper body out of the water. Also as a separate exercise you should lift up your Qi and using your feet and hands tread water. Resisting – Resist crashing waves with your shoulders slanting forwards.
2. Stamping – Unknown.
3. Floating – Unknown.
4. Diving – Unknown.
5. Sinking – Unknown.
6. Sitting – Practice sitting on the bottom for as long as possible.
7. Plunging – Unknown.

Standing Meditation for Tai Chi
by Cynthia McMullen, LMT

Meditation is often one of the hardest parts of Tai Chi for beginning students to want to learn. It can be a difficult thing to just step out of our fast paced lives and all of a sudden go into a still and quiet place. We’re not used to it, so the lack of being involved in external stimulus can seem boring - at first. However this boredom doesn’t last for long.

Meditation is also one of the most important aspects of doing Tai Chi. Tai Chi has an attitude of uncovering the "stillness within motion", and it is only through meditation that we can realize this. It grounds us, teaches us to center ourselves both emotionally and physically, shows us how to Be in the moment, and builds up tremendous leg strength from the inside out. It is through doing meditation that our Tai Chi movements will be filled with relaxation and that flowing, beautiful grace that it is known for.

What should one try to make happen in meditation? Absolutely nothing. The idea is to fully experience - in a very grounded way - whatever it is that happens. Sometimes this will be nothing more than a serene sense of peace and clarity. Other times experiences could include visual, auditory, or tactile sensations. And energy flow within ourselves can be a wonderful thing to allow and observe. There are also physical changes in health and emotional attitudes that will start to change and open. Each person will have their own, unique range of experiences so it is best not to expect anything specific, but remember to allow and observe what it is that does happen.

The beginning student should learn not to fear any sensations, thoughts, or feelings experienced in meditation. The idea is to be able to ground and center yourself, and from this position just allow and observe the experience. By doing this there is no limit to what we can learn about ourselves, why we think or act certain ways, the depth to which our bodymindspirit is connected, and our relationship to life.

Standing meditation is the most basic posture in Qi Gong, and Tai Chi is a form of Qi Gong. Simple standing is usually done first to ground and center ourselves, and begin to open and fill our energy centers. Standing is then followed by some warm-up Qi Gong exercises. These exercises build up our qi and harmonize the meridians. Finally we do moving Tai Chi to flow the abundance of qi throughout our bodies like the wind and water. The Taoist definition of health is "the smooth, harmonious, abundant, and appropriate flow of qi".

Following are step-by-step instructions for Standing Meditation. Ideally this should be practiced 1 to 3 times daily. Start out by doing 5 minutes at a time, building up to 20 minutes, and not doing more than 45 minutes at one time. At any time that you notice your mind wandering, take it back to simply following your breath. You will soon find why it is that advanced students and The Masters do so much standing meditation.

 

1. Stand comfortably with your feet shoulder width apart.

2. Make sure your toes are pointed straight ahead.

3. There is a gentle, relaxed bend to the knees and they tend to push lightly outwards as opposed to collapsing inwards.

4. The pelvis is tucked slightly forward so the lower spine is straight.

5. The shoulders are loose and relaxed, not raised up, hands hang loosely at the sides.

6. The head is held up as if suspended by a string.

7. Breathing is done through the nose and is slow, soft, and deep.

8. Eyes are either closed, or are slightly parted but not focused on anything.

1. Follow your breath with your mind, feeling where it goes inside of you.

2. Slowly scan your body from head to feet looking for any tension or discomfort. If any is found, use the mind to gently guide the breath there and as you exhale, imagine the tension flowing down and releasing into the Earth, dispersing.

1. Become aware of your feet and their connection to the Earth. Imagine that you are inhaling strong, clean energy from the Earth into the Bubbling Well points of your feet, and exhaling used, turbid energy back into the Earth. Do this for 8 to 36 breaths.

2. Next let the energy from the Earth travel up the legs and into the lower dan tien located beneath the navel. This is our center of inner strength and power. Imagine that you are inhaling pure, healing energy into your dan tien, letting it fill your entire lower abdomen. Exhale, purging any unclean energy from this center. Do this for 8 to 36 breaths.

3. Change the focus of your mind to the heart center located in the middle of the chest. This is our center of love and compassion. Imagine that you are inhaling purified energy into the heart center. Exhale, cleansing the heart and surrounding yourself with the feeling of compassion. Do this for 8 to 36 breaths.

4. Change the focus of your mind to the 3rd eye center located between the eyebrows in the middle of the forehead. This is our center of higher consciousness. Imagine that you are inhaling clear and focused energy into the 3rd eye center. Exhale, cleansing the mind and connecting with the consciousness of the Universe. Do this for 8 to 36 breaths.

5. Now bring the focus of your mind back to the lower dan tien, below the navel. Imagine a warm flow of energy filling this center. As you both inhale and exhale, imagine a channel of energy extending upwards from the dan tien to the heart center, and continuing up to the 3rd eye center. This connects our body, spirit, and mind. Maintain this connection for 8 to 36 breaths.

6. Change the focus of your mind to the palms of your hands. Imagine breathing into the Lao Gong point at the center of your palms and also exhaling from this point. Feel your hands filling and becoming surrounded in warm qi. Do this for 8 to 36 breaths.

7. Finally, simply stand and follow your breath. Allow yourself to feel the energy flowing in and around your body. Do this until you feel finished.

• Seated

• Embracing the one: arms are circled with shoulders relaxed

• Horse stance: feet are beyond shoulder width apart

• Embracing the one in horse stance

Yu Yan's Diagram of the 12 Fire Phases:

The above 12 Hexagrams are the Taoist Alchemical road map into the esoteric meditation system of the macro orbital process. It traces the movement of the inner Qi, energy, or fire, up the central channel and gradually down again through the Receptive channel in the front of the body. 
Notice how the yang line, _____, rises up through the yin lines - - . Knowing the 12 fire phases makes it possible for the Taoist master to guide the novice. Sometimes, in their haste beginners build up the fire too quickly, which can result in excessive manifestations of Qi in the form of hallucinations and spontaneous movement. Such phenomenon are mere manifestations of Qi transition from one stage of its movement into the next, but if the novice gets stuck in the phenomenon, the buildup of Qi can become very dangerous and may even exhaust the organic system of the body. A proper remedy must be sought out to heal the novice, allowing the Qi to flow properly. 

The diagram comes from the Yiwai biezhuan (The separate transmission of the Book of Changes), written by Yu Yan in 1284. This work contains several cosmological diagrams, followed by passages drawn from the Book of Changes and commented on through quotations from the Zhouyi cantong qi. 

Diagrams like this have a long history in China. They are used to show the correspondence between different ways of marking space and time, e.g., the directions, the twelve primary hexagrams (each associated with one month), the days of the moon cycle, the lunar mansions, and so on. In addition, each discipline is based on the laws of cosmology and uses these diagrams in different ways, e.g., for astronomical calculation or divination. In Chinese alchemy, the correspondences shown by these devices are used to establish the "fire phases" (huohou), i.e., the cycles of firing in external alchemy (waidan) and the cycles of the circulation of the primary components of the person in internal alchemy (neidan). 

qian, i.e., Pure Yang [a hexagram] 
kun, i.e., Pure Yin [a hexagram] 
kan, i.e., Yang within Yin [both a trigram and a hexagram] 
li, i.e., Yin within Yang [both a trigram and a hexagram] 
Qian and kun represent the male and female principles that generate the cosmos, respectively. Kan and li contain those principles hidden within themselves once the cosmos is generated. These four trigrams and hexagrams are at the center of time and space and do not enter the cycles of time; therefore they are not shown in this or similar diagrams. 
The twelve "sovereign hexagrams" in the fifth ring represent the rise and ascent of Yin and Yang. This movement, sometimes referred to as "ebb and flow" (xiaoxi), is apparent if the hexagrams are shown in the following way:

Qi Breathing :

Daoist Breathing: This breathing involves you to pull in your stomach when you inhale and let in go out when you exhale. This will get Qi to flow out of the Tan Tien. 
Belly Breathing: This exercise will allow you to bring Qi into your Tan Tien. When you inhale your stomach should expand out using the lower part of your lungs. When you exhale let the stomach return to its normal position. 
Condensing Breathing: This exercise turns Qi into Jing (if you don’t know what Jing is see the “What is Qi” part of my web site) Visualize that you are only a skeleton. Center you attention to your arm bones. When you inhale visualize your Qi moving inward into the bone toward the marrow, like your bones are shrinking each time you inhale. When you exhale hold this visualization. Repeat this as much as you want. After a while you should feel a slight heat, tingling, cold, or vibrations in your arms, this is Jing. 

Qi Exercises to Generate more Qi 
Qi: What is it? Qi, now where did that word come from?! Qi (pronounced “Chee”) is also known as chi, and to the Japanese it is called Ki. Chi is your life force, your energy. It is vital for without Qi you would be dead for there would be no life in you. Most people gather Qi without even knowing it; they gather it from the foods they eat and by sleeping. Others have discovered how to gather more Qi through meditation, martial arts like Tai Chi (Taiji), Qi Gong (Chi Kung), and through deep rhythmic breathing from the stomach. There are several other ways but I won’t list them all here. If one has a vast amount of Qi he will live longer than others who have not gathered extra Qi will. Daoists believed through meditation and Qi training one could become immortal. There are several legends of very old Tai Chi masters being able to fly because of this amazing energy. But aside from Qi there are a few other energies I will list them. Yi: Yi is intention. You will. You use Yi everyday to talk to eat as well as to use Qi. If one has a weak Yi there Jing will be weak for they cannot use Yi to direct the power. If one has a strong Yi and the ability to use Fa-Jing they could practically hit a person without touching them physically. Jing: Power. A punch is an ancient form of Jing while a Fa Jing (kinda like a “ki blast” from anime) is a lot more complex. Think of the body as an engine, Qi is the gasoline and Jing is the horsepower of the gasoline exploding into a more useful power. Shen: Shen is your spirit. You soul and mental force. Shen is god-like When one becomes advanced they use Shen instead of Qi and be able to create Jing and Yi from it alone. It is said that if one has a strong Shen as well as lots of Qi with enough Yi there soul will live forever and become a spirit. If one practices Qi movements and meditates (Tai Chi is also a big help) they can use all of the things above. The power is yours use it well and don’t abuse it or it will come back to haunt you. Qi also benefits you if you are a martial artist for yo will have more energy and your Qi may be able to warn you when your sparring partner is gonna through that next punch-kick combo. 

Qi Exercise
Phoenix Spreads Its Wings and Dives
1. Stand with hands at side, one leg a half step in front of the other, visualize yourself as a phoenix.
2. Slowly raise up your arms until they are horizontal at your shoulder level, like a phoenix spreading its wings
. 
3. Turn your hands outward, like a phoenix's wingtips.
4. Bend forward, with your arms behind you, like a phoenix swooping down.
5. Return to starting position and repeat as much as you want.

Effects: This exercise cultivates health and has the following effects on the practitioner. 1. Increased endurance and vigor 2. Built-up Resistance to Disease and cold weather 3. Strength 4. Clearer Skin 5. Spiritual progress and the cultivation of Wisdom 

Where Should I Practice Qi Exercises
“Where should I practice Qi exercises?” You may ask. Well practice outside where the air is fresher and healthier (unless you live in LA….). I prefer to practice when I get home from school and usually go on until nightfall. I also find dusk one of my favorite times of the day. One should always wear comfortable clothing when practicing Qi exercises as well as practicing weapons forms (katas). I personally like to come home lift some weights, practice Qi Kung, and then work with my katana and yari, as well as my homemade Yumi (Japanese bow) with my handpicked Ya (arrows). One should practice whenever possible and try their best to do whatever it is they are doing. Also make sure you drink water before, after, and during any hard physical exercise…duh. 

Healing with Qi
Qi Healing Techniques 

Here are some techniques I have found that really help me when I get hurt. 

Technique 1: Hot/Cold Healing 
I do this when I have sore muscles, cramps, and …just plain old pain. 
1:Imagine the place where the pain is located as a cold mass of cells, tissue, blood vessels, etc. Just imagine that everything there is cold. 
2.Now imagine the Qi in you as a warm force. Move it to the place where it hurts with your Yi. 
3.Have the heat warm the cold painful area, making it feel better and sending the pain away. Do this until you get the results you desire. 
4.Remember to move the Qi back to the Tan Tien after you are done. 

Technique 2: Internal Heater 
I use this technique in the winter when I get cold. It is rather useful. I find that it works best when it is quiet and peaceful around me. 
1. Imagine your Qi moving throughout your body. 
2. Now imagine the Qi as a warm force 
3. Now feel wave after wave of warmth wash over you 
4. Once you have reached the desired effects send the Qi back to the Tan Tien. 

Technique 3: Exhaling Pain 
I perform this technique sometimes after a rigorous sparring match that I have received an injury in. For example I may have gotten a kick to my shin, after I get home if the pain is still there I do the following. 
1. Imagine the pain as a black fog moving inside of you. 
2. Now when you inhale visualize the air as a white fog going inside of you swirling around. 
3. When you exhale imagine the black fog (pain) escaping your body through the pores in your skin. 
4. When finished settle the Qi back into the Tan Tien via Yi. 

Zhan Zhuang  [Celestial Animals Zhan Zhuang ]
The Relaxed Dragon :
1. Stand with hands at your side, knees slightly bent, straight back. 
2. Begin to visualize yourself as a dragon, with long whiskers and two big horns. 
3. Stand like this for about 30 minutes. You might feel some heat in your hands after a while, this is quite normal, the Qi is trying to move to the dantian. 

The Happy Dragon :
1. Stand facing east. Think of the dragon. 
2. Put one hand round the belly, thumb in the belly button. Put the other hand over that. 
3. Breathe to the belly, feeling it expand, filling with qi. Breathe slowly in until full- don't overdo it. 
4. When full, lean foward 10-15 degrees, exhale, repeat nine times. 

The Phoenix 
1. Stand with hands at side, visualize yourself as a phoenix. 
2. Slowly raise up your arms until they are horizontal at your shoulder level, like a phoenix spreading it's wings. 
3. Turn your hands outward, like a phoenix's wingtips. 
4. Stand like this for about fifteen minutes, feel the qi coming in through your palms. 

Phoenix Takes Flight 
1. Stand with back straight, one leg a half step in front of the other. 
2. Slowly raise your arms in front of you, palms downward. 
3. Bend foward, with your arms behind you, like a phoenix swooping down. 
4. Return to starting position. Repeat nine times. 

Well what are you waiting for, give these a shot!