I've been trying to learn some basic chi kung from this book called "Chi Kung -Way of Power, by Master Lam Kam Chuen". One of the first exercises is Wu Chi, where you stand still with your neck slightly bent. In this book it says to hold it for 5 minutes to 20 minutes, however I find it hard to just hold it for around 3 minutes let alone 20 MINUTES! Does anyonle else here practice Wu Chi, and how long do you hold it for?
Lots of chen stylists practice pole standing, which sounds like the same thing. A friend of mine went to tai chi caledonia where there was a chen stylist (Jan Silberstorff) and he had them do it for 30 minutes I think. He sold a cd to help people last the time. problem with learning from a book is that you might be doing it wrong. A teacher would be able to correct you very quickly.
The reccomendation I was given was that you had to practise for at least 20 minutes to start getting real benefit. Longest I did it for was an hour, but I don't practice it these days.
Yes. Wu Ji Zhuang. You have to relax and no tension on your muscles or joints. You are actually meditating, too. You focus your feet firmly on the ground, stable like rooting into the ground, firm but no tension. Just feel. You focus your Qi from your internal organ to distal limbs and back. You relax your shoulder and elbow. There will be tension on the hip and knee. Still try to relax. Imagine you sit on a high stool. Actually, there is none. Think of nothing. No memory. No anticipation. Just focus on your breathing. Focus on sensing from your head to feet. Total relaxation of the body and mind. This is the beginner stance. All the other fighting stance starts from this stance. The idea is to learn to be comfortable, stable and "fixed" in this stance. Your mind is focused. Your body "learned" the stance into memory. You are total relaxed in this stance and ready to move or change to other stance in any instance. There are other stances to practice. This is called Zhuang (standing poles) Gong. Your feet are the poles. If you tense, you will not last long. If you learn to relax all the away, you may last longer. After standing practice, you have to tap back of your legs slightly to relax the tensed leg muscles.
