The word qi (氣) puts people off before they ever reach the hall. It sounds like something you have to believe in, and like something you will have to defend to your colleagues. It is not.
This piece is for anyone interested in the practice but put off by the language around it.
What qi actually means
In its original Chinese sense, qi is not a mysterious energy. It means breath, vapour, air - the same word is used for air and for weather. Gong (功) means work, skill, something earned through persistence and time.
So Qi Gong is literally breath work. No more mystical than that.
Everything else - warmth in the palms, tingling, weight in the legs, the sense that your hands are larger than they are - are bodily phenomena that every student meets sooner or later. They come from changed circulation, sustained static load and unusually high attention to the body. You do not have to interpret them in any particular way. Noticing them is enough - in fact, noticing is the whole exercise.
What is really happening in the body
- The breath lengthens and deepens. The diaphragm starts doing its job as the main breathing muscle instead of the accessory muscles in the neck and shoulders. That is why people report a less tense neck after a few weeks.
- The joints open. Slow, repeating movements through a full range feed them. Joint cartilage has no blood supply of its own; it is nourished by movement.
- The nervous system switches over. From alertness to recovery. Which is why people often sleep better after Qi Gong - frequently on the very first evening.
- Attention narrows. Because the movement demands precision and because it is slow, thoughts have nowhere to scatter. This is not relaxation in the sense of switching off; it is relaxation in the sense of gathering.
- Posture improves. Not because you correct it, but because whatever was pulling it out of line lets go.
Flowing water never grows stale; a door hinge never gathers rust.
What a first class looks like
You stand. That is often the hardest part - a few minutes of stillness with slightly bent knees, feet hip-width apart, shoulders hanging. It sounds simple and it is not. The first time it will feel far too long.
Then come the sequences. Simple, slow, repeated many times. Arms rise and fall, weight shifts, the torso turns. No music. No counting down. The teacher walks among the students correcting posture - elbow a little lower, let the shoulders go, knee not past the toes.
The end is seated or standing, and quiet. A few minutes in which nothing in particular is done. This is most often where the thing that brings people back actually happens.
Why the first week feels like nothing is happening
Because nothing dramatic is happening. Qi Gong has no moment where fitness or adrenaline hits you. After your first hour you will probably think it was pleasant, but that a walk would have done the same.
That feeling is normal and usually passes in the third or fourth week. Not because something happens in class, but because one afternoon at work you notice you have taken a deep breath and dropped your shoulders on your own. The effect of Qi Gong does not show up in the hall; it shows up while you are not in it.
Who Qi Gong is for
It is the most accessible practice we run and the only one we recommend to practically everyone.
It suits back and neck pain, recovery from injury or surgery (in agreement with your physiotherapist), desk work, high stress, a long break from movement, and any age. The low joint load means you can keep practising even when harder training is not an option.
It is not a cure for chronic pain, anxiety or insomnia, and we do not claim it is. It is a regular, low-intensity physical practice with a strong emphasis on breath and attention - which is enough for many people to shift things, but it is not a substitute for treatment.
What you need
Comfortable clothes, bare feet or thin shoes, a water bottle. Nothing else. Experience, flexibility and fitness are not prerequisites - Qi Gong does not require any starting flexibility, it requires attention. Flexibility arrives as a by-product.
How to start
The beginners’ group trains on Mondays and Wednesdays at 17:30. An hour of Qi Gong, and if you like, you stay for the Kung Fu hour that follows at 18:30. Many people begin with the first hour only and add the second after a few months.
You can join at any point in the year. If you have an injury or a medical restriction, tell us before your first class - we adapt the practice, but only if we know what we are adapting.
