Oct 01 Seated Neigong

“Let’s start with neigong, sit down on the seating,” we all sat down on the benches at the end of the hall…

“Sit on the edge of the seat, with your feet firmly planted on the floor.  Breathe in and feel the head ‘float’ upwards as if pulled by a rope at the crown from above.  Feel every vertebrae of the spine gently suspend and the psoas muscles from mid spine, through the hips and down to the inside of the legs open as you breathe in 

Place the tongue on the top palette behind the front teeth and gently pull the PC muscle in and upwards….”

The class sat upright some resembling soldiers waiting to parachute out of an airplane and some like a group of meditating Buddhist monks.

“This is the first stage of neigong or ‘inner work’ gently opening and suspending the core of the body, tying its pulse to the breath….”

We could feel the noise surrounding the kwoon gradually fade into the background as our bodies settled into a comfortable postural alignment and our consciousness expand as the brain switched from left to right side activation.

“Feel as if you are drawing energy up the spine and over the top of your head as you breathe in, feel it collect and then with outgoing breath, use your concentration to pass it from the roof of your mouth, through the tongue and down into the chest by softening it.  Feel the muscles around the lungs, heart and diaphragm soften and ‘let go’ as you ‘sigh’ the breath out….

On the next incoming breath, expand the dantien, so you feel your lower abdomen, sides and lower back gently release and expand drawing the energy downwards to that point.

Then on the out breath, pass the energy through the hui yin at the groin up into the kidneys, then on the next in breath start the process again….”

It took several circuits of the ‘microcosmic orbit’ for the body to settle and follow the rhythm and eventually the whole process could be done in one breath.

“This needs to be practiced until you can do the suspending and softening of the body core in an instant to enable free and easy movement.  This keeps the spine and core in good healthy condition so that you can then start to utilise them as a base to empower all movement and technique.

In this exercise we learn to ‘suspend’ and ‘soften’, as we move into the qigong we also need to ‘open’, ‘stretch’, ‘compress’ and ‘release’ to be able to emit power through the body.  The exercises take us through every type and range of movement the body can make and this then prepares us for the tai chi forms, weapons and push hands.

Let’s now move the head up and down, breathe in drawing the energy from the feet, up the back and over the head, as you breathe out soften down inside the chest cavity, through the dantien and down to the feet, as you soften allow the head to drop forward, and pull the PC muscle using that and the weight of the head to very gently bow the spine forward.

As you breathe in, use the opening of the core and particularly the psoas muscles to open the body and allow the head to float upwards.  As you breathe out soften down again but this time allow the head to drop backwards and gently bow the spine in the other direction.”

It felt like the breath, the softening and expansion was moving the head….. we then used the same method to move the head from side to side and around in a circle.

“Now let’s use that same softening and expansion to raise, lower and rotate the shoulder and waist girdles for power as well as manipulating the spine core and head.  Soften, lift the shoulders, then the ribs to open the waist, take the head back, bow the spine then feel as if someone has placed their hand in the middle of your chest to soften and reverse the whole process with the head forward, ribs and waist down and the spine bowed forwards.”

We looked like a bunch of seated cats the way we were flexing the spine and core, even though we were seated I could still feel the arches of my feet getting hot with energy and felt like ‘suckers’ on the floor spreading and relaxing with the softening and then pulsing upward as the head floated upwards and the core opened.

“Soften, place one hand around your body to the kidney on the other side and the other across your body and over your shoulder and twist the body from the waist turning your head and eyes in the same direction, then lift the waist and shoulders to open the core as well.  To come out of the twist, soften and gradually reverse the opening, then turn to the other side.

Now open the lateral lines by taking one hand over your head and the other curled under your stomach, soften and lean over to the side, keep softening to open the fascia and then soften and pulse from the feet to bring the body upright again.”

We gradually moved through all the movement lines of the body as determined by the Yang family and passed down from generation to generation utilising the same process, ironically these same movement lines are now cutting edge bodywork in Tom Myers ‘Anatomy Trains’ books, charts and DVD’s – very helpful to Tai Chi students…

Sifu continued – “The neigong is at the ‘core’ of everything we do.  You have to work with this exercise everyday of your life to keep and improve the ability to manipulate it, you then need to take these skills into the qigong to improve the ability to move the body in all the different movement lines it can make, these skills are then taken into the taiji form where we apply them to the martial techniques, including push hands, weaponry and technique application.

It’s important to learn in this order as otherwise without the power of the neigong and qigong exercises, all technique performed has no internal connection and there is no significant power.

OK guys – now let’s do some taiji!

Steve Rowe

Steve Rowe is a highly successful Martial Arts instructor - an International Neigong, Qigong and Tai Chi Teacher and an 8th Dan Karate with many other senior dan grades in other martial disciplines.

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