Mixing Energy work

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Mixing Energy work

Postby DEADLI. » Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:57 am

Hi Peeps,
Is it okay to practice several different energy work systems, like different types of Qigong, or Qigong and yoga etc... ?
Or could this have negative effects?



Ciao
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Postby Dvivid » Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:12 am

Its important to understand the theory of Qigong if you want to get deeper results, and if you intend to cross train IMHO.

For instance, at my yoga class, there are a lot of yoga people who use a HA breath year-round, though they are not instructed to, and then wonder why they always get a Summer-cold.

I highly recommend understanding the theory very well if you intend to practice more than basic qigong:

http://www.ymaa.com/publishing/bundles

Qigong bundle starts Monday, Feb 1
"Avoid Prejudice, Be Objective in Your Judgement, Be Scientific, Be Logical and Make Sense, Do Not Ignore Prior Experience." - Dr. Yang

http://www.ymaa.com/publishing
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Postby DEADLI. » Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:41 am

D,
The reason i asked this question is that i just spoke to a Falun gong teacher, and he told me that i would screw up my energy system if i train different systems, even just different types of qigong.
My own medical qigong practice is just for health maintanance, nothing flash. I don't wan't to be able to fly down the street, shooting fireballs from my palms :lol:
So at my low level, in your opinion, is it okay for me to do both Kundalini yoga and basic Qigong?
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Postby joeblast » Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:14 pm

Its important to get a grasp on what the stuff's doing. Usually mixing disparate systems isnt good (i.e. fire vs water) but they can be okay if the practitioner has good understanding of the energies (i.e. experience) and is diligent about not practicing the two concurrently - you dont want to get confused in practice and accidentally mix methods if you do practice different systems.

different people will have different things work for them and will also be more or less sensitive to energetic cross training than others. normally when training something you'll want to concentrate your energies and focus them all in a direction so that maximal gains can be achieved in that direction. but, if you learned kundalini yoga long ago and then these days practice something different, I have met plenty of people who are able to do that with little ill side effects. (as to how beneficial it is or how well their overall practice is though, well I'm no accurate barometer :lol: )

by that rationale, some systems will require more focused effort than others and I would listen to a master of the particular art when considering this. some practices will establish energetic resonances that must be set and cultivated and ostensibly 'not messed with,' kinda like the longmenpai stuff that I almost started learning, then I found out that it was quite incompatible with the yi gong stuff that I had already been knee-deep in, so I had to make a choice on what I thought would work best for me. I kept the xingshenzhuang beginner standing form since it does a great job on the spine, hips, knees, but just as a qigong and I tossed their opening and closing bits to the form so what I do of it cant really be considered the "complete" form ( :roll: and technically thus notxsz, just a qigong by what the teacher said,) and I kept what I practiced before as my main stuff. If the practice intends on establishing energetics and then working them until a critical mass is reached and an energetic transformation takes place, then those sorts of practices are the ones that its usually not advised to mix with others.
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Postby DEADLI. » Sun Jan 31, 2010 3:17 am

Okay let me give you a quick overview of what i'm currently doing so as you can accurately evaluate.
As my morning set i use the YMAA stretching and warming up set first, excelent for loosing the joints and the spine. Then i do a short Kundalini yoga spinal warm-up set (i do this twice through consecutively). These two sets (YMAA and Kundalini spine set) seem quite similar in there sphere of action, so i can't see how why they couldn't be cross trained. Then if i have time i finish off with three pranayam from Baba Ramdev's 7 pranayam series. As according to TCM the lungs are the engine that drives the qi, these breathing exercises are second to none for opening up the wind (energy) channels of the body.

Additionally i practice other YMAA qigong sets, and also the level one Springforest qigong set (this one is not compatable with the kundalini yoga, you cannot do them sequentialy). Is it okay to use the Springfforest qigong say in the eveneing, and the kundalini yoga in the morning, or do i have to get rid of one of them? I don't seem to get any ill effects if i practice them far appart in the day.
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Postby joeblast » Sun Jan 31, 2010 10:39 am

I'm no expert but I dont see an issue with the am/pm separation there - my teacher has given the same advice in terms of mixing what I do with some other practices like that.

I tried the SFQ active exercises a couple years ago - good stuff! Let me suggest a good compliment to that - if you can find charles luk's taoist yoga, pick that up, it will provide some good parallels.
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Postby DEADLI. » Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:43 am

Dvivid wrote:For instance, at my yoga class, there are a lot of yoga people who use a HA breath year-round, though they are not instructed to, and then wonder why they always get a Summer-cold.



So D,
do you practice yoga along with Qigong? Do you only practice one at a time, you won't do some yoga and then do BaDuanJin?

In your opinion is yoga compatible with the YMAA qigong syllabus?
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Postby joeblast » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:47 am

that's a broad collection you're encompassing - many forms of yoga, some fiery some passive, and the ymaa syllabus covers soft and hard too...
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Postby DEADLI. » Fri Feb 05, 2010 2:37 pm

joeblast wrote:that's a broad collection you're encompassing - many forms of yoga, some fiery some passive, and the ymaa syllabus covers soft and hard too...


JB,
I only practice kundalini, no other yoga, but i don't use breath of fire when doing the movements, just deep breathing (like qigong). Also use Pranayam. Only use YMAA soft qigong, BDJ, White crane soft Qigong etc...
I read on another thread that you've got back issues. You might take a look at the Kundalini spinal warm-up set. Loosen the torso and spine up better than any qigong i've come across

http://anmolmehta.com/blog/2008/02/28/b ... ise-video/

Anmol does movements two and three a little too fast for me, i do them at a slow pace. Do the set twice, or even three times through consecutively,

I might give the SFQ a miss for a while, it's effects are too different to the above two, what do you think?
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Postby joeblast » Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:16 pm

Thanks for the suggestion, man! Those are much too hard for/on my back though. There are some similarities in things that I do but this approach is much too yang for my back. I had many minor injuries throughout my teens and wound up sustaining an impact that ruptured my L5S1...I didnt wind up having any choice on the matter, I *had* to have surgery on it. It slowly got better and was good for many years, but in the last few years my workout schedule faltered (drummin & screwin only keep up your workout level so much :lol: ) and that's among the first areas to get undermined. Then this past summer I did a thousand prostrations plugging phones in at work and wound up overstressing the posterior of my back, and then me still trying to hit the golf ball 300+ yards did the rest of it and spread the injury around quite efficiently - I think it was a combination of grinding the vertebra, overstressing the lamellae where the real issues were - so any inflammation regarding those structures is very close to the spinal foramen, which translates to nerve pain.

I cant do things like that waist spiral - I do very small ones but I cant get my L5 too much out of position because the musculature simply will not support it, plus with there being only about ~60% of an L5S1 disc there is a tendency for some grinding to happen if I do motions like that. Also with how he does those bends, its too much - they stretch the anterior and posterior logtitudinal ligaments a little too much and that will also cause a minor sublux of L5 if I do 'em right :lol: When its bad I need to watch out for things like having the upper thoracic and cervicals bent too much because of the ligaments that connect all the way down.

I appreciate the thought, though :D


With regards to SFQ, it seems fairly different but not necessarily in an incompatible manner. I dont know how deeply you practice k yoga, but if you only do the simple k yogas then SFQ may very well be a great addition to what you're doing - it seems to be more...energetically oriented than the other practices. I just wouldnt necessarily do any but the lightest of k yogas before or after sfq. If you do the yogas and qigongs in the morning or afternoon, sfq at night should work allright.
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Postby DEADLI. » Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:49 pm

I only use these simple exercises to maintain health, and hepl my meditation. I'm not looking to gain any special abilities, speaking of which, check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26pJkYhHGek

should really be in the Taiji or Gongfu forum
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Postby yeniseri » Sat Feb 06, 2010 9:59 am

DEADLI. wrote:D,
The reason i asked this question is that i just spoke to a Falun gong teacher, and he told me that i would screw up my energy system if i train different systems, even just different types of qigong.
My own medical qigong practice is just for health maintanance... is it okay for me to do both Kundalini yoga and basic Qigong?


It would be better to stick with your health maintenance qigong routine.
Kundalini yoga would be adding fire and this may/has the potential to cause problems. The extent of this is unknown.
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