Chi
Kung Culture Society of TAIPEI
From a traditional viewpoint, exercise requires many physical and mental conditions for a better performance. Your performance will suffer if these conditions are not fullfilled, especially the requirements of warming up before you exercise and cooling down or recovering after you have exercised. If you fail to fulfil these requirements, you will create more tension in your body, waste energy, and feel more exhausted. On a more serious note, improperly exercising will cause silent or obvious problems such as pulled muscles, tight shoulders, (migraine) headaches, twisted backs, bone fractures, hypertension, arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and so on. ¡@Another disadvantage for people doing general exercise is related to the age of the person. Young people can enjoy exercising a lot, but as those of us over the age of 30 discover our body beginning its decline, we realize what a luxury exercising really is. We need more help to permit us to enjoy exercising to the same limits as we did when younger.
How does chikung help us? Chikung involves internal exercise as well as external movement [chikung uses our abdomen as the center of our whole body to control our energy flow so as to store more energy.] Through its specific way of stretching limbs and controlling breathing, chikung helps us balance our circulatory system and metabolism. In this way, all toxic elements in our body are purified and expelled. At the same time, our internal organs are strengthened, resulting in a "soft" body. Our mind will experience emptiness and our spirit will be highly enlightened.
In this way, chikung helps us get rid of tension.
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