Do These 3 Qigong Exercises Every Day For Better Health

In China in the morning you'll often see groups of people doing qigong or tai chi exercises in a group sometimes with music to start their day off. And qigong is something that's very interesting because it's an interesting combination of physical exercise, breath work, breathing exercises and visualization. Now I thought in this video that I would share three simple qigong exercises that are unique to or common really to many different qigong lineages that you can do daily for better health. Hey guys I'm Dr. Alex Hein, author of the health book Master of the Day and doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. So before we jump into these three exercises I put together two very important links right below the video. The first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine you can contact my private practice right below this video. And the second is for a free guide which is four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. So those are right below the video there. Now exercise number one is called yin yang palms. So there are many different names for this and it presents itself in many different qigong lineages. Now the first exercise basically just involves inhaling while you bring your hands up and exhaling while you bring your hands down. You're just doing a kind of rhythmic inhale two three four exhale two three four inhale two three four and exhale two three four. So that's the gist of the basic exercise. Now you can also modify it to do alternating hands. So this one looks like this. Whereas you inhale one hand comes up two three four then the other hand comes up two three four and so one hand comes up on the inhale and the other one's going down and the other hand comes up on the inhale two three four. So you can either do both hands up and down to the same cadence or alternating. The second kind of qigong is called shaking qigong. Now shaking qigong is literally just that. You're shaking like you're doing a rebounder without the rebounder machine. So what this is is basically a cardiovascular exercise that's also a great lymphatic pump. This is the original rebounder, 2,000 year old rebounder. Think about it like that. Obviously good circulation and good lymphatic circulation are very important for good health to prevent disease. So this exercise is a very simple way at home to generate circulation. Now when we talk about the shaking qigong basically all it is is that you are standing and you are shaking like a crazy person and effectively what it is is that this is a big lymphatic and cardiovascular pump. It's a cardiovascular exercise. So as you jump up and down you're trying to focus on the looseness and the sensation generated in obviously of course your muscles but also loosening the joints in the neck, the back, the shoulders, the elbows, the wrists, your hips. Focusing on the sensation of loosening and creating more space in your body. So that's really what the shaking exercise you're focusing on is not just jumping up and down like a jumping jack but also trying to loosen these areas of your body. Now shaking qigong I would recommend at least 10 minutes but if you're able at least 20 minutes and you could shake I mean some people shake for an hour or more actually and it becomes a cardiovascular exercise. So shaking is the original rebounder 2,000 years ago. Exercise number three is called tapping. So tapping is often done over specific organ systems or certain channels in Chinese medicine. For example let's talk about this first tapping exercise which is done over the lung to improve lung function. Now one thing you might often see is that you tap over the chest and if you have something in the lungs you'll begin coughing. Hitting the chest is for the heart so you can tap or use a closed fist on the chest. You can hit left along the rib side which is the spleen location or on the right the more liver and gallbladder location. Sometimes people hit in the center of their intestines or the stomach you know if there's bloating or if there are abdominal cramping symptoms due to a woman's menses. You can also tap like this alternating using more of the fingers or tap more in the midline if the person is very bloated or has a lot of abdominal fullness. You can use your fists as well or just use the fingers and frankly you can really tap anywhere in the body so anywhere you need to increase circulation you can tap to do that manually. The lower back is often for either back pain or for kidney function in Chinese medicine and again you can use a closed fist or open palms but otherwise that is the general gist of tapping which is basically just slapping. I'll never forget one of the first winters I spent in Beijing when I was living there. I saw all these people doing unusual kinds of qigong in the park and one man was walking around the park in circles just doing this over over over and over and since then I've seen all kinds of tapping and slapping and all kinds of rotating and hitting yourself and this is very common and seems to be relatively unique to qigong because in Chinese medicine all of these forms of qigong are about tom which is opening, circulation, unblocking. We know even from the major killers, the major causes of death in America today a lot of it is circulatory based so no surprise there why exercise and a good diet are so important qigong being one of the many ways to exercise. The purpose of all of these is this whole tom or opening or movement or unblocking aspect. So this tapping or slapping qigong is not only done over physical anatomical organs but is done in any organ really or any location you want to increase circulation. So those are three qigong exercises you could do every day for better health. You could do them each for five minutes you could do one for 20 minutes. I mean people in China do shaking sometimes up to an hour or multiple hours if you're really extreme or they're very seriously ill. You can do these. I would recommend no less than 20 minutes. You can do each for five or six minutes and those will actually really increase your cardiovascular capacity you'll have some of the similar benefits as exercise and you'll feel a lot more calm. So these are three basic forms you see common to many different types of qigong whether they're Daoist or Buddhist and they're things you can use daily for your health. All right guys that's what I have for you today those three kinds of qigong. Before you go two other related videos for you right there and I will see you soon.