The most common question after the first few Qi Gong classes is: what can I do at home?
The answer is: quite a lot - provided you understand what home practice is and is not. At home you drill a pattern. You cannot get a posture correction from a video or an article, because neither can see what your body is actually doing. So this complements training in a group; it does not replace it.
Before you start
- Space: two square metres, ideally by a window. A firm floor, not carpet.
- Time: ten minutes, same time every day. The same time matters more than the length.
- Clothes: anything that does not squeeze your belly. Bare feet.
- Pace: slower than feels sensible. If it feels quick, it is too quick.
- Breath: through the nose, into the belly. Do not hold it and do not force it longer.
1. Standing (2 minutes)
Feet hip-width apart, parallel. Knees softly bent - just enough that they do not lock. Pelvis neutral, the back of the neck lengthening upward, chin slightly tucked. Arms hanging at your sides.
Stand and breathe. This is the hardest exercise on the list and the most important. In week one it will feel boring; by week three you will notice how much tension you were holding without knowing.
2. Raising and lowering the arms (1 minute)
From standing: on the inhale, raise both arms in front of you to shoulder height, palms down. On the exhale, lower them as though pressing water down. The knees straighten slightly on the rise and bend on the descent.
Eight to twelve repetitions. Let the breath lead the movement, not the other way round.
3. Opening the chest (1-2 minutes)
Arms in front, elbows softly bent, palms facing each other. On the inhale open the arms out to the sides as though opening a door; the chest opens, the shoulder blades draw together. On the exhale, close.
For anyone who sits at a computer, this is the highest-return minute of the day.
4. Turning the torso (1-2 minutes)
The feet stay put. The torso turns left and right, arms following loosely and lightly slapping the body. The gaze follows the shoulder. The hips do not swivel - the rotation is in the spine.
Start with a small range and let it grow. It loosens the lower back and wakes up digestion.
5. Circling the hips (1 minute)
Palms on the lower back, knees softly bent. The hips circle slowly, eight times each way. The upper body stays as still as possible.
One of the most underrated exercises there is for a spine - and the only one on this list you can also do while waiting for the kettle.
Flowing water never grows stale; a door hinge never gathers rust.
6. Closing (2 minutes)
Return to standing. Place your hands on the belly, one palm over the other, two fingers below the navel. Breathe into your hands. Eight to ten breaths.
Do not skip this one. The closing is what turns the sequence from limbering up into Qi Gong.
The most common mistakes
- Going too fast. By far the most common. If you fit forty repetitions of all six into ten minutes, you did calisthenics.
- Locked knees. Softly bent, always. A locked knee cuts the connection to the ground.
- Raised shoulders. Check them every few repetitions; they creep up on their own.
- Holding the breath. When a movement gets complicated, people stop breathing. If that happens, slow the movement down.
- Skipping the standing. The first exercise feels like a waste of time. It is not.
When to come to the hall
Once the sequence is in your body, you will start to sense that something is slightly off without knowing what. That is the right moment for a class: fifteen seconds of correction saves a week of guessing.
We run Qi Gong in Ljubljana at Ziherlova 44 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 17:30. You can join at any point in the year.
