Skip to sections in this article:

• Learning Qigong, Tai Chi + Bagua
• Spherical Nature of Learning Internal Energy Arts
• The Exercise Therapy-High Performance Continuum
• How Much Practice Is Appropriate for a Beginner?
• Watch a Tai Chi for Beginners Video

Although it may sound counterintuitive, beginners learn almost exactly the same material as experienced practitioners because internal arts training is more about what is being emphasised and at what depth than the particular exercise (e.g., a qigong set, tai chi style or bagua palm change). So, most courses start out with everyone together in one group—whether you are learning or reviewing the theory and fundamental practices that underlie the more complex material to come.

The primary difference is that whereas beginners learn body mechanics that develop chi, experienced practitioners learn energetic techniques that develop the body. It’s two different angles on the same game.

Learning Qigong, Tai Chi + Bagua as a Beginner

Choreography

When I teach any movement, set or strand of internal content (known as “neigong”), the information is tailored to those present.

Beginners learn the choreography of any given movement set with an emphasis on the:

• Correct body alignments
• Structure of the form
• Movement method
• Quality of motion

Experienced practitioners will also revisit this basic work since, quite often, many require corrections, gaps to be filled in or feedback to integrate various pieces. More importantly, the principle of “separate and combine” —the underlying principle for learning anything of depth—reinforces neigong training, whereby the practitioner continually seeks to breakdown and rebuild exercise components in various weaves and patterns.

Developing Internal Power for Health + Healing

As a practitioner progresses in the system, I add depth to their movements by introducing layers of internal content. Some of the basic internal mechanics and more popular topics I cover since they positively affect overall health and vitality so profoundly include:

• Where and how to stretch to release the muscles and fascia.
• Where and how to twist the soft tissues and in which direction.
• When and how to open/expand versus close/gather.
• When and how to release the nerves for deep relaxation and meditative movement.

In some classes, I focus more on the cardiovascular system or nervous system, whereas in others it’s more about energetic development.

As the group practises component exercises to get deeper into the internals, I watch for when beginners are “full” and have enough to work on. You cannot continue pouring water into a glass filled to the brim. Students either practise on their own or in groups, as it makes sense in the moment. For larger classes, a Certified Energy Arts Instructor in that subject will typically assist by giving you additional feedback.

At this point, I work with the more advanced practitioners to give them an upgrade because up until now, most of the material has been a review. Even so, again, it’s generally more about how deep they are practising and the particular piece of material on which they focus rather than how many pieces or external movements are present. This is because the benefits—improved vascular activity, a more relaxed and softer body, detoxification or increased immune response and more—all become activated based on the depth of your practice. Some techniques can be learned in the moment whereas others might take weeks, months, years or even decades to fully embody and perform accurately.

For example, there are many techniques to improve vascular activity, but if you do one really well you will get a better result than if you do many techniques poorly. In the beginning, you will learn methods at whatever depth you can handle. In time and with practise, you can begin to take any given technique to its next and ultimate level.

When people start an internal art, such as qigong, tai chi or bagua, they often experience a lot of benefit. This is because they actively open up the vascular beds that flood the body with nutrients and dispose of waste material. But there is a big difference between beginning the work and taking it to its full potential.

After the vascular beds are active and can be directly opened up at will, you can increase blood (along with oxygen/nutrient) flow, which can have a profound and positive effects on your overall health with a little consistent effort.

However, everyone has stuck places in their body that are clamped shut, which, to open, takes time, patience and dedication. Often times, when the practitioner finally clears these old stuck and restricted spaces that sap our energy, they find that their overall health and vitality rise dramatically, as well as a deeper sense of internal space and freedom.

The Spherical Nature of Learning Internal Energy Arts

Internal arts training is about developing and integrating components of internal power for health and healing. Again, these components are known as neigong. Neigong training has no beginning and no end. Since it’s not a linear process, there isn’t a single or best starting point, although all practices have foundational and advanced aspects that cover an array of movement sets, forms and modalities.

The neigong exercises I teach can be practised in five modalities:

• Sitting
• Standing
• Lying down
• While moving, or
• As partner exercises.

In any given class or retreat, we will explore one or more modalities to help you learn techniques in the fastest time possible and integrate them into your daily life because this is where you can multiply potential health benefits. It’s great to relax in your practice, but it’s even better if you can maintain that relaxation while performing your daily activities, and especially when stressful events take place that can shift your baseline.

Neigong-based Courses for Beginners

Regardless of which practice you choose—a qigong set, tai chi or bagua—there are about half a dozen internal threads that are present in all internal practices that you will absolutely want to learn.

These essential threads include:

• Breathing techniques
• Biomechanical body alignments
• Bending and stretching, and twisting the body’s soft tissues
• Sinking chi and dissolving blockages
• Opening and closing (also known as “pulsing”)
• Manipulating the wei chi and etheric field

In which order you learn these techniques and through which modality, is not set in stone. You may be drawn to one thread or another (e.g., breathing, pulsing or dissolving techniques), or take a class in whichever one or ones are being offered at a time and location that is convenient for you.

In all classes, whatever the title or subject matter, I cover one or more aspects of this foundational work to help students into the realm of internal practice. So you typically learn a bit of choreography along with internal content that can be further developed within that exercise set.

Once you’re in the door and you gain a certain level of understanding of this Eastern approach to exercise and health, I can guide you towards the practices and emphasis that will help you achieve your specific goals—whether it’s a particular health issue, an interest in one aspect of the work or another, or high performance in your business, sport or life in general.

The range of possible directions is infinite since internal arts practices can help you develop every aspect of your being. Learning in a spherical way means you can choose which aspects to focus on now to build up your foundation and, later, you can change course by absorbing different aspects of the work according to your needs and growing understanding of how the material influences your life for the better.

Internal Arts Practices along the
Exercise Therapy + High Performance continuum

Whatever your reason for training, internal arts practices are positioned along a continuum. It’s not so much about what you practice, but how you practise it. If you are ill or injured, you would choose practices that best lend themselves to the healing properties you require. You would also ensure that all exercise was gentle while incorporating motions that are simple and repetitive to deepen internal aspects and associated benefits. If, conversely, you are extremely healthy and generally feel good in body-mind-chi, then you might focus on more intense, complex or progressively intricate and precise neigong techniques that have been used to transform human beings into their ultimate potential for at least four millennia. The practices might be the same, but the way you approach them would be entirely different.

If being very weak and sickly is at one end of the spectrum, then being the pinnacle of health in body-mind-chi must be at the opposite end. Of course, most of us lie somewhere in between these polarities, and throughout our lives may slide along the continuum on one or more levels either towards being healthier or less so. The aim in the internal arts is to make you as resilient, vital and malleable as possible, so that you can withstand change and move closer to being exceptionally healthy in the totality of your being.

The practices I teach to systematically and progressively give you the tools for achieving these incredible results are:

Longevity Breathing: Where Exercise becomes Therapeutic

Breathing is the first neigong component for generating health and wellbeing because, well, we must breathe while doing anything else. Don’t take my word for it…

The breathing techniques I teach are initially about setting a metronome for relaxation and improving the quality of the breathing process. Learning how to breathe well cannot only upgrade your internal arts practice, but also your overall health and vitality. Learn more…

“Qigong” Is Energetic Exercise for Beginners

Qigong is pronounced like “chee” “gung.”

Like acupuncture, qigong sets consist of movement sequences designed to stimulate energy flow in localised areas and, equally, throughout the body. However, more advanced qigong systems can penetrate the body much deeper, allowing you to access and develop your core energy. Qigong is low-impact cardiovascular exercise that is practised most widely to boost the proper functioning of the vascular, immune, respiratory, lymph and nervous systems.

The four qigong sets I teach, which can be learned in any order, are:

• Dragon + Tiger Medical Qigong—to help students feel their chi, and begin working with and storing energy reserves when you need it. This is a great medical qigong system for beginners.
• Energy Gates Qigong—to help students establish proper body alignments and the downward flow of energy necessary to take on more in-depth practices of dissolving blockages and releasing bound tension in the body-mind-chi.
• Heaven + Earth Qigong—to open the body, stretching all the body’s soft tissues (muscles, fascia, tendons and ligaments), and take the pulse deep into the body. A favourite amongst beginners.
• Gods Qigong—to open up the physical body and bring online the core energy, enabling students to take their qigong practice and the associated health benefits to their pinnacle. Although Gods can be learned by beginners, it is an advanced qigong system that is best learned after you have some experience with foundational neigong.

Learn more about these exercises as well as simpler neigong exercises I teach by clicking here.

Wu Style Tai Chi for Beginners

Tai chi is a sophisticated form of qigong. Whereas qigong sets typically develop a particular flavour of neigong, helping you to embody specific internal flows, Wu style tai chi contains the entirety of the neigong system. So if you want to use your tai chi practice as a means for meditation and spiritual development, the methodology is present to do so.

That said in most tai chi courses, we will focus on anywhere between one and half a dozen neigong threads with the aim of achieving a deeper level of health of vitality in body-mind-chi. The Wu style is particularly well-known in China for its health and healing applications. Learn more…

Bagua Circle Walking Meditation for Beginners

Bagua (pronounced like “ba” “gwa”) has been practised for at least 4,000 years as a form of low-to-high impact aerobic exercise for fitness, health and meditation. Using stepping methods, practitioners walk in a circle and change direction, known as Circle Walking. Upper body postures are also held while Circle Walking, the most essential of which is the Single Palm Change Posture. Together, Circle Walking and walking postures give shape to bagua’s primary techniques.

Right from the start, students can begin accessing components of internal power for fostering incredible health and vitality through Circle Walking—without the necessity of learning more complicated choreography associated with tai chi or qigong.

Initially, Bagua Circle Walking practice involves connecting the body through alignments and soft tissue stretches of the muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia until the body becomes one coherent whole. Then, these principles are integrated into short movement forms called “palm changes.” A palm change consists of arm movement sequences coordinated with stepping patterns. Learn more…

How Much Practice Is Appropriate for a Beginner?

I advise new students to mind their 70% of effort in mind-body-chi, and save 45-minute to hour-long practices for many months (or even years) down the line, once you have a solid foundation in neigong. Otherwise, you may injure yourself or build up too much internal resistance and stop practising.

Go with the flow and do whatever “clicks” for you yet try to build and sustain a regular practice. Try not to let the calculating mind prevent the inherent ebb and flow of your practice to be restricted or stifled. A naturally occurring phenomenon will drive your progression forward as the intuitive side of your mind-brain takes the helm and navigates the unchartered waters of your internal arts practice. Some days you might find that you naturally extend one aspect of your practice as you tune into a particular thread. It may or may not reduce the time you spend training overall.

All things considered, beginners are looking to initially practise 10-20 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week. Let this routine stabilise before increasing the length, frequency or intensity of your practice. Otherwise, the cunning mind of the intelligent person can find any excuse not to train as a rebound from the push. A gym sell 10 times the number of memberships that the facility can actual handle because too many people drop off after the initial thrust.

Don’t be one of those who give up. Start slow, increase your pace gently and play the long game to reap the real health benefits for which the internal arts have been well-known for millennia.

Get started now by searching my upcoming courses: click here.

Watch a Tai Chi Circling Hands Videos

A great practice for beginners to tai chi and qigong, Tai Chi Circling Hands  exercises the body on all three planes—horizontal, vertical and coronal—thereby preparing the body for more complex arts, like bagua and tai chi. Learn more...