Crane Hard Qigong question

[Yue]

In the Shaolin White Crane book, it says you shouldn't practice crane hard qigong if you have high blood pressure and I think heart problems (This question is purely hypothetical, I don't have either of those). What if someone wanted to practice white crane, but had one of those issues? Would they just have to settle for having inferior hard jin techniques compared to someone who had done the qigong, or is there some way around that?

[Dvivid]

Hard Qigong is not recommended for people who have stress-related problems, heart problems, high blood pressure, or arthritis.

Hard Qigong uses muscular tension to build the strength of the tendons and bones. Muscular tension and internal pressure will aggravate those conditions.

In those cases, soft qigong should be practiced first.

In fact, soft qigong should be practiced first for everyone. It is very important to learn and understand the inner feeling and theoretical principles of soft qigong before you ever practice hard qigong, or you will likely hurt yourself, and/or experience san gong (energy dispersion) later in life.

The skills of soft qigong should be integrated into your reflexes through repetition for at least 6 months, and probably longer, before you start any hard qigong practice.

[Yue]

I know soft qigong should always be done for at least six months first, but when you say soft qigong should be practiced first "in those cases", does that mean that if you do the soft qigong and then the hard qigong you won't have to worry about whatever problem you have being aggrivated by the hard qigong, or am I just over-analyzing what you said?

Also, what kind of stress-related problems could be aggrivated by hard qigong? Just curious because I may have one of them.

[Dvivid]

Hi

It depends on the practitioner. 6 months of soft qigong is long enough for someone, not enough for someone else.

When you're ready, you're ready.

Some people can never learn to relax, let go of ALL muscular and mental tension, and be very soft, so they should never practice hard qigong.

Fibromyalgia is the kind of disease that benefits greatly from soft qigong, but would be aggravated by hard.

How you choose to react to stress is a choice. If you choose to internalize stress, and get upset, you are harming yourself on a physical level. Your blood chemistry changes and damages your nervous system and lowers your immune response.

[Yue]

I see. Thanks From the way you describe hard qigong in your previous post, it sounds like some of the basic dynamic tension exercises could be considered hard qigong. If I'm right about that (though I'm almost certain I'm not ) would that mean those should be followed with soft qigong and relaxation to soften back up?

[joeblast]

and massage, yes

[Dvivid]

Yes. Even if you're an external martial artist, training Shaolin, or other hard-style arts, or practices like dynamic tension...

Remember, "external trains from external to internal. Internal trains from internal to external"...

You need both...

[Yue]

Thanks Dvivid and Joeblast, I just have one last question. Would 8 pieces of brocade be a suitable qigong for softening up after hard qigong, or would I need to get the dvd about the crane-specific soft qigong? 8 pieces of brocade seems like something that's pretty relaxing just from the way I feel when I practice it, so I figured I'd ask that.

[Asmo]

For a long time I just practiced kungfu without any balancing. I started to notice though I was getting quite 'yang', which resulted in more aggression from me where I should be calm, etc. I started to do 8 brocades which have been tremendously helpful.

AFAIK 8 brocade is one of the few qigongs you can practice safely on your own as well.

[Dvivid]

Yes, the 8 Brocades are a great place to start, and yes, its adequate for softening - IF you remember to relax and soften!

You can safely practice MOST qigong styles...there are many threads discussing the exaggerated 'dangers' of qigong.

My short summation is: it is highly unlikely that most of us have accumulated enough Qi to cause yourself any harm.

Circulating the Qi of a normal healthy person a few hours a week is not dangerous in the least.

That being said, as you continue to practice and cultivate Qi over many months and years, you should also study theory, so that when you do begin to have "abundant Qi", you understand how to guide it safely.

[lilman]

well said dvivid. Im glad to hear someone else here emphasise the "exagerated" part. a lot of people do overemphasise the dangers, like qigong psychosis, but they dont exist if you practice properly and use good judgement with your practice, and pay attention to your own body.