They say you can’t learn qigong from a book. Well, I’m going to try and learn it from a book and your guys’ advice, so I guess that’s technically not “learning from a book,” but anyway.
Starting tomorrow, I’m going to start doing the standing post as described in “the Way of Qigong: the art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing” by Kenneth S. Cohen. I’ll start with 5 minutes in the morning before class.
Now the cool part, since books always leave unanswered questions, that’s where you guys come in. Since you all rule here on this forum, you can help me out with any questions I have, right? Right? Good
Ok, first question:
It says always wait at least 2 hours after eating before doing any qigong. How long after doing qigong must I wait before I can eat??? I need to eat breakfast sometime
Are there any special rules about waiting after sex, and stuff? A lot of qigong methods I have read about say “do not practice for 24 hours after sex (ejaculation)”. What happens if you do? This isn’t iron body or anything, so if I have sex one night can I not practice the next day?
Those are my questions for now. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
I’d wait at least half an hour after qigong before eating anything. It’s tough because alot of people do qigong right when getting up, and they have to squeeze breakfast in somewhere.
Don’t worry too much about the sex stuff. A 24 hour wait between ejaculating and qigong is ideal, but you want to be doing qigong every day, so… well… you do the math, and realize you’ll be breaking the rule on occasion.
The real answer, although it’s not immediately helpfull, is that you have to learn to listen to your body - it pretty much tells you what it needs. In fact, this is perhaps the greatest goal/benefit of proper qigong practice. With this in mind, the “rule of thumb” is not to practice when it feels wrong. Don’t confuse this with being difficult though, proper qigong practice is very difficult (in the strenuous sense, although not strenuous like lifting heavy weights - it’s got it’s own thing going on). But when you start listening to your body, it will tell you “Man, I don’t wanna be doing this right now, gimme a while to get my juices flowing again.”
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=“-1”>quote:</font><HR> 1. It says always wait at least 2 hours after eating before doing any qigong. How long after doing qigong must I wait before I can eat??? I need to eat breakfast sometime
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I think I heard that you aren’t supposed to be full, but your also not supposed to be totally hungry either. So I guess you could have a small snack before starting. Thats usually what I do on Saturday mornings before class.
As for the sex thing. I’d avoid having sex right before chi gung or tai ji practice. I’ve found that not only does it screw up your energy, but it makes the legs weak and the back stiff. Some of my worst workouts have been after doing the horizontal mambo. I’d give yourself at least a couple hours in between, and be sure to stretch out the hips and lower back real well.
Peace
Fu-Pow
“Choy Lay Fut Kung Fu does not encourage its students to abuse or harm others with no reason. Nevertheless, in times when Kung Fu must be performed, Choy Lay Fut requires the student to change from a gentleman into a fierce and cold fighter.”
what i usually say is how long is it ok for you, for example sometimes i may wait 1 hour + after practise i eat and feel cruddy because all the energy and blood is spread out evenly throughout the body,then you put a lot of food in your gut all the blood and energy rushes there and blah you feel sicko, whereas other people dont feel the energy so there is no point to tell them dont eat.
Abotu the sex stuff sometimes it is ok to -ractise right after because it will help the body replace the lost energy , other times though you burn the wick at both ends because you have just lost a lot of energy and you take more from your storage centre and you will feel tottaly tired.
just do as you feel best/
I wongsifu shall strike fear into the hearts of trolls and mma guys who **** me off on these forums oh and in real life.
You really don’t have to worry about all those troubles if you are just going to practise 5 mins a day … you’ll never gather enough chi to start with even if you practise for a hundred years.
Sweating is common. Not only are you working muscles (ones that aren’t used to that kind of exercise at first, and ones that aren’t used to any exercise once you can get those to relax!), but you’re also generating alot of heat. Actually, expect to sweat ALOT.
You might not want to add a minute a week; that’s quite an aggressive schedule. If you push yourself too hard, you’ll simply have no chance of holding correct posture, nor of relaxing and clearing your mind through the basic physical strain. The way I progressed was simply to add 30 seconds to each posture every time I could do it without ruining my posture and mindset. Advancing from 5 minutes to 40 with this method may very well take a couple years! So don’t rush it.
In my opinion when you can stand for longer periods, practice after sex can have a bad effect on you. It may not be instant, but it might kick in when you are older. Chinese beliefs are very strict about this. Low stances are out of the question. The exact time of recovery is individual, but you can check out Ma Chuanxu’s interview on Jarek’s martial arts page. He says some things on the subject that you might take into consideration.
That was years ago. I’m doing quite well now, thank you.
Unlike many others on this board, I’m incapable of instantaneously learning several postures to perfection, nor was I suddenly blessed upon adulthood with the perfect internal structure so I could hold them all for several minutes immediately. So I had to probe each posture and learn it’s lessons well before moving on. For those uninterested in such lessons - I wish YOU good luck.
I can see why you set up a 45 min target when you start out but that is not an absolute limit. Same way you don’t start training for the Marathon by running the full distance the first time. Many experienced people in China, especially those practising Yiquan, routinely hold the posture hours on end.
From my experience the issue is not to wait 24 hours after sex, but 24 after TOO MUCH sex. The legs are a storehouse for qi, and qi leaves the body during ejaculation (thus the Taoist exercises to prevent it). I can often tell from someone’s balance in class if they have been sexually active within a day or so. Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg especially. (If you have doubts, videotape yourself doing the form after sex and again 24 hours after). But in response to the original question, find a good teacher. I know of people who have caused themselves damage by improper Qigong, learned anywhere save from a qualified teacher. Of course, standing stake for less than 1/2 an hour is probably not very effective or dangerous.
