Listen to your own body and keep all the movements in your own comfort zone. This is gentle, low impact, simple versions of Tai Chi and QiGong moves so that it’s easy to follow along. If the sun is shining – get out into the garden or local green space, observing social distancing guidance, and repeat it again – taking in some deep breaths of fresh air.
Over the coming days/months I’m hoping to sometimes ‘live-stream’ but I will have to practise first ??? All the YouTube content is FREE to watch and FREE TO SUBSCRIBE – PLEASE SUPPORT ME ? Views, likes, comments and Subscribers all help support my small You Tube Channel. Share amongst family and friends and anyone who you think will find these exercises beneficial.
Take care, stay safe, keep well and keep in touch. best wishes Daphne
Shibashi QiGong 18 Form is a sequence of 18 individual QiGong movements that have been designed as a gentle QiGong exercise routine that promotes full body health. It aims to work and cultivate our Qi, whilst moving and working the major parts of the body. It is also performed in a flowing, rhythmic manner which enables us to develop a mind body connection, that can be very relaxing and mindful.
Shibashi QiGong 18 Form is one of the most popular QiGong sequences practised throughout the world. As with all QiGong, if practised on a regular basis it offers a plethora of benefits to the mind and body. With its origin in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) it nurtures and nourishes from the interior to the exterior of our physical body, with its connection to breathing and mindfulness it brings peace and balance to our mind and mental health.
The list of benefits from regular QiGong practice are as follows :-
PHYSICAL – develops optimum function of the body through maintaining balance of yin-yang, effective Qi and Blood Flow and Zang Fu Organs. Its exercises develop better posture, body alignment and awareness, builds strength, tone and flexibility, keeps us active without heavy impact on the joints and bones. Increased lung and chest capacity through deep breathing techniques.
MENTAL – like a moving meditation, develops being present in the moment and mindful of movement, takes us away from everyday stresses, nurtures our mental health, calms an anxious mind, reduces chatter, provides relaxation and builds positive self-esteem. It also creates focus, intention and confidence for the practitioner.
SOCIAL – provides an opportunity to meet new people in a class, builds a community of like-minded people, develops caring, friendly and supportive relationships between people. This can uplift a low mood and reduce the possibility of social isolation, which can lead to depression or mental illness by providing a non-competitive exercise class to take part in.
Please press on the video link above to listen to my Introduction to the Shibashi QiGong 18 Set and press this link here to view the whole of my Shibashi QiGong 18 Playlist : – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8yseQESUF5_rfKdJhJ3sRwCy74ETk0KU
Each of the videos in the playlist will concentrate on an individual Shibashi QiGong 18 movement and provide repetitions and progressions to formulate into its own individual short QiGong flow. I also have a SEATED VERSION of each Shibashi QiGong 18 movement. My Freshfield Fitness Tai Chi PT YouTube channel has lots of other FREE Tai Chi and QiGong videos that you can follow at home. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE – thanks.
Hello everyone. Today’s video is going to talk through that basic Tai Chi move that is called ‘Stroking the Horse’s Mane’ or ‘Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane’. I’m going to talk you through the bare bones of the movement. In Tai Chi there’s always more layers that you can add once you start thinking about your posture, breathing, the coordination and timing, the movement of energy, martial art application, your mind-body connection, but leaving a lot of those layers aside for more in depth practice, we
shall just concentrate on getting the basic movement and that will help you with your everyday Tai Chi. OK let’s get started.
This movement starts with our hands holding our chi ball. Don’t worry about which hand you have in front if you are looking at me on a screen, if you do it mirror image that kind of might help you along but whatever suits you best. So feet hip-width apart. Let’s get a nice posture and we’re holding our ball. Now imagine that you have a horse standing in front of you and I want this top hand to stroke down that horse’s mane so we’re making a horse, sort of a horse’s mane, like the back of that and neck and back of that horse. We’re stroking down that mane. Our hand is gonna end this movement on our imaginary tabletop, just next to us. As we are starting to stroke the horse’s mane, this other hand is going to come up and hold a mirror. If you imagine this palm is a mirror and you’re going to look into the mirror, there’s a hand mirror that’s what you’re holding in front of you.
So let’s combine those two hand movements, we’ve got the stroking the horse’s mane and we’ve got the holding mirror. So let’s do that again. First side, stroking the horse’s mane and holding the mirror. Let’s do one more. Great once we’ve got to this position here, if we are going to combine this arm movement with our Tai Chi walk, we want this top hand to drop to the top of the ball and the bottom hand scoops under to make the bottom of the ball and then we are ready to start on the other side because our other hand is now on top of the ball. So let’s just do that final movement again. It’s almost like this top hand is closing the box so it makes the top of the ball and this bottom hand is curling under, it’s like scooping under to make the bottom of the ball. It happens at the same time, so we kind of coordinate these arms to move at the same time. So we go from holding the mirror to holding the ball. Then we can do our stroking the horse’s mane hand movement on the other side. So this top hand is going to stroke that horse’s mane down to our imaginary tabletop and the other hand is going to come up to hold a mirror, like our palm is the mirror we are looking into. Let’s do that bit again so holding the ball we’re going to stroke that horse on the second side and hold the mirror. And again. Stroke the horse and hold the mirror. Once we get to here exactly the same you want this top hand to become the top of the ball and the bottom hand scoops under to become the bottom of the ball. So from here the top hand becomes the top, bottom the bottom, top hand is closing that box and the bottom hand is scooping underneath. So we’ve done it on one side in the other.
We’re going to alternate each one now moving from one side to the other. So starting again holding our ball. We stroke the horse, we hold the mirror. Top hand becomes the top of the ball, bottom the bottom. Stroke the horse, hold the mirror. Top hand becomes the top of the ball, bottom the bottom. Stroke the horse. Hold the mirror. Top, top, bottom, bottom. Stroke the horse, hold the mirror. Top, top, bottom, bottom. Final time on each side.
So practice that bit until you get really good at it and then what we’re going to do is add a little bit of direction. Yes so a lot of our movement comes from this mid-line and the Dan Tien area. You really want to feel the whole of the body working through into these arm movements. So if I just get you to just soften your knees a little bit, just sink your weight into the ground so you’ve got slightly bent legs. We’re going to hold our ball. Then going to twist our waist to the corner a little bit. So we’re open out here, it’s
not across your body, so open out. So as we stroke the horse and hold the mirror I want you to feel that this power of this move is going to come from your Dan Tien area. What we want to do from a martial art point of view is this would be a striking arm and so this would be powered from, not just the arm moving, but the twist of the waist and once we add this to our footwork of the Tai Chi walk we will also have a transfer of weight. So each little part adds up to the move. If we turn our waist here we’re going to
stroke the horse down to the tabletop and this waist is going to turn to the centre, so we’re going from corner to Centre. Then as we hold the ball we’re going to twist the waist to the corner. We’re ready to go to the other side, so stroke the horse, hold the mirror to the centre, coming back to the corner. Stroking the horse, hold the mirror, up to the centre, coming back to the corner.
Stroke the horse, hold the mirror. One more time.
That’s the bare bones of the arms and we’ve added that emphasis of the twisting of the waist so that you can sort of incorporate into the whole movement. I’m now gonna add my feet. So our foot work for this is the Tai Chi walk. If you need a recap on that
then please check out this video here. I have recorded myself explaining the Tai Chi walk, breaking it down to a few simple movements, so that you can get a good idea of that footwork. So I’m just gonna presume that you know your footwork for the Tai Chi walk and we’ll add the stroking the horse’s arms right now. So our starting position with the arms is holding the ball. Yes so
whichever hand you have on top of the ball I want you to put your weight on that same foot. I’d like you to turn your waist to the corner, or turn your whole hips, that whole mid-line should be turning to the corner. Just tap your foot in here. The Tai Chi walk we’re going to put our heel down, toe down and transfer into that bow stance. As we do that move that’s when we want to stroke the horse and hold the mirror. And I want you to twist the waist as we transfer the weight into that bow stance. So you should go from corner here as we hold the ball, to our centre here. Our hands are going to stay here as we rock back as part of that Tai Chi walk, we’re going to turn ourselves to the corner and then as we stand up again, with that transfer of weight, that’s when our arms are moving to hold the ball. And so again whichever hand is on the top of the ball that’s the leg that then has the weight on it.
Let’s do that on the opposite side. My heel is going to go out, toe down ready for my transfer of weight into the bow stance and as I do so I’m going to stroke the horse and hold the mirror. My body is turning from corner to centre and my weight is going from back to front leg ending in my bow stance. I’m going to rock back my weight, hands are staying where they are and then I’m standing up and I’m gonna hold my ball/ Let’s do that again. Heel, toe. Stroke the horse, hold the mirror, rocking back, turn and standing up. And again. Heel, toe, stroke the horse and hold the mirror, rocking back, turn, standing up.
Let’s practice that again, walking towards each other and then I’ll turn around and do it walking back so that you can should be able to follow me and see it from the back as well and that just might help with some of the movement. Our starting position
whichever hand you’ve got on top of the ball is the same leg that we have our weight in. We’re going to heel, toe, stroke the horse, hold the mirror into our bow stance, rocking back, turning and standing up, holding the ball. Heel, toe, stroke that horse and hold the mirror, we’re rocking back, we’re turning and standing up here. So facing the corner, moving that, twisting that waist and
transferring the weight, as the arms are moving and again to the corner and stroking the horse, twisting the waist, transferring the weight to the centre as the arm is moving, we’re rocking back turn into the corner and standing up. Let me turn around so you can see it from the back.
Stroking the horse’s mane or Parting the wild horse’s mane is one of those Tai Chi movements that crops up in quite a few of our Yang style forms. You can progress the movement by really thinking about your posture, your breathing, really getting that transfer of weight, and the grounding of the feet into the floor, that direction of the energy flow and thinking about the martial arts application as well. Lots of different layers to this movement to consider as you get more and more confident with the movement, but I hope that this video has given you the bare bones of that basic move and that will help you enjoy your Tai Chi practice. Take care. Please check out any of the other videos and let me know how you’re going on. I really would like to hear from you. I’ll see you again soon
Hi I’ve had a request to do some more Seated QiGong sessions. So what I thought I’d do is incorporate all of the specific Meridian Qigong exercises. Put them together in a flow but perform it SEATED. This playlist here that will give you a detailed description of each of the QiGong exercises that I’ll be covering. Make sure you’ve got a sturdy chair that’s not going to tip over and you’ve got lots of space around you so you’re not going to knock anything off. Also position yourself on the chair a little bit further forward than you would normally so that you can sit tall, you’re thinking about that elongation, that lifting up from the crown, and that
stretching out up the spine, so we want to hold good posture, core engaged but most importantly we’ve planted our feet flat on the floor. So take them hip width apart if you can, so it’s a good solid foundation there for your feet during the exercises. I’ll take you through the QiGong Lung exercises.
The first one of which is called ‘wild goose flying’. Bringing our hands up to shoulder height here, inhaling as you go, lifting up and opening the chest and then relaxing as the hands are coming down. We can incorporate a heel raise so as the arms are coming up, we’re going to lift our heels off the floor so that the balls of our feet have got the weight in them. Plant them into the floor, really feel that floor underneath you. They’re rising up and bringing them down. Keeping the core engaged will help with your balance while we are sitting here to maintain that lovely posture.
Second exercise is ‘holding the Qi forwards’. Our hands come up forwards, we’re taking them out to the sides, a little squeeze of the shoulder blades here if you can, and an opening of the chest if the shoulders will allow. We’re bringing the hands up and then we’re gonna press down. And when you press down and you’re doing seated exercises really press your feet and your legs into the
floor. So you should be able to feel a little bit resistance there added to the exercise. Hands up, palms facing up, squeeze of the shoulder blades, lift it up and pressing down. Nice big inhale here. Exhale on the effort of that press.
Next exercise is ‘scooping the sea and looking at the sky’. We’re bringing our hands down, if you can incorporate a little bend forward. Just make sure you’re not gonna tip over. Again plant those feet well. We’re lifting up and opening out the chest looking at the sky. Let’s do that again. Doesn’t really matter which hand you have in front as you’re scooping. I tend to alternate mine. If you don’t want to incorporate the body bend then just round the shoulders, keep the arms a bit higher here don’t need to go too far and that helps you keep it within your comfort zone.
Next exercise is ‘sink and stretch to the sides’ Just going to bring the arms up. Cross hands here and then push out to the sides but again when you push, really push your feet into the floor aswell. Engage that core. Scoop it round. Nice inhale here and exhale as we push. I’m pushing my feet into the floor. And push out.
Exercise number five it’s called ‘squeezing the shoulders’. We’re bringing the hands up to chest height here and going to bend the elbows down, turning the hands so the palms are facing each other. Then the idea is that we squeeze the shoulder blades, open the chest and take the shoulders back. Just do this within your own comfort zone and visualize yourself taking this further and if it’s a bit restricted at the moment. So we’re opening the chest. Just lifting the chin a little bit to release that chest. Then we are relaxing and bringing the hands down to go again. Lifting up, dropping the elbows. Expand. All the while trying to keep hold of that posture. Lifting up, dropping the elbows, turning the hands.
Six exercise is ‘holding the book’ The hands are coming up, nice expansion here and then we are slicing through to hold the book. It’s quite a contraction here in the chest and then we’re releasing that to our stretch. We’re bringing it back in, releasing that stretch. Inhale here and exhale on this contraction.
Quick recap on ‘polishing the lungs’ our next exercise. Our hands are coming down and we are bending the body forward. Again make sure those feet are planted on the floor. Turning our hands around so that when they come up the palms are facing upwards. We’re then going to circle them around, behind it’s quite a big opening for the shoulders here, so definitely listen to your own body and then we’re pushing forwards. Let’s go again. Taking them down, scooping them forwards, Lifting high, taking them round the back and pushing forwards. Again you can keep this smaller – don’t bend forward as far and you don’t have to lift as far, you don’t have to come back as far and push forwards. They can be as small all the way through. Definitely lift as high as you can here and visualise yourself doing a much bigger exercise if that helps. Scooping down, scooping back up, lifting high, taking it round and then pushing it forwards. Relaxing and stretching high. Push forwards.
Next exercise is ‘flowing circles’ so I’d like you to take one foot a little bit further forward than the other so that we can transfer our weight from one to the other. Bring in the opposite hand across the body so it’s always pointing on top of the forward leg here. Transfer your weight into that front leg, turn the palm to face out and then follow the hand and we can transfer the weight into this back leg here. Nice flowing circles and you should feel your weight transfer from one side to the other on the chair. Making sure your chair is solid, it’s not going to tip over. Replace that foot and let’s go to the other side. Bring it slightly further forward. Both feet should still be flat on the floor. Bringing this opposite hand on top of this forwards leg and turn in the palm transferring
the weight back and then transferring the weight forwards. Following the hand. Flowing circles. It doesn’t have to be a big movement. You can still feel that transfer of weight that’s really important as part of this exercise we can incorporate a slightly different weight transfer while we’re sitting down.
Moving on to exercise number nine. This is called ‘opening the chest, opening the heart’. Our hands are coming up to shoulder height here, turning the palms and then we’re opening the chest. We’re going to bring those hands back and if you can visualize that you are really pushing them together. Adds a bit of something. Again you can push into the floor here, grounding those feet. And same again on this push down.We’re lifting up, inhaling here, gonna exhale as we expand here, inhale, we bring the hands together and exhale. Keep the posture tall, lifting from the crowd. Next exercise is ‘bear goes swimming’ so just like a breaststroke we’re going to just scoop through that water here with our hands and bring our hands back into our chest here, so that we can go
forwards again. OK I’m incorporating a forward bend here, rounding the shoulders, rounding the back, sucking that belly button
through to the spine, as I am swimming forwards. But again a little modification you can just do it a bit smaller, it doesn’t have to be as big. Keep it nice and within your own comfort zone. That’s been a little recap on all of the ten different QiGong Lung exercises. A lot more detailed descriptions in this playlist up here goes through each one has five videos covering two exercises in each but hopefully you’ve got a good flavour of the bare bones of those exercises.
We’re going to put them together in a QiGong flow. I’m going to do two repetitions of each exercise or one on each side. ‘Wild Goose Flying’ ‘Holding the Qi forwards’ ‘Scooping the Sea, Looking at the sky’ ‘Sink and Push to the Sides’ ‘Squeezing the Shoulders’ ‘Holding the Book’ ‘Polishing the Lungs’ Flowing Circles’ ‘Opening the chest, Opening the lungs’ ‘Bear goes swimming’
Good posture here. Calming the breath. I hope you really enjoyed that Seated Qigong session. Check out some of the other videos and let me know how you’re getting on. Thanks
Hi, so todays’ video is going to focus on Tai Chi for Balance and Strength. I’m going to share with you a short, simple routine
that you can follow along and then practise regularly at home. It’s going to work our major leg muscles and hopefully it will improve our strength so that we can improve our balance. So without further ado let’s get started straight away. I’m going to jump straight in with the routine today but if you want a full body warm up before we practise our Tai Chi then check out the video above. That goes through a lovely warm up that will get all your body moving and prepared ready for our Tai Chi practise.
Make sure you’ve got a clear floor area so you’re not going to trip over anything and always do all of the moves within your own comfort zone. Really important to keep exercises within your own limitations, listen to your own body. Make sure you don’t push too far. We’re hopefully moving forwards step by step, we don’t want to injure ourselves and take a step backwards.
Starting with your feet together. Think about your posture whilst you are here. Nice relaxed stance. Joints tension free. We’re going to breath in and breath out, sinking our weight into that right leg. I’ll do it mirror image. We’re peeling our left foot off the floor and we’re going to place it into our Parallel. I’m going to centre my weight here. Very important so weight is 50/50 on each leg. Breath my arms up, exactly like our Opening Stance and bend down, sinking down, just a little bit. Small little knee bend here. Inhaling as I’m coming up, bringing my hands down and stepping that left foot in. We’re going to repeat that on the other side. So breathing in, breathing out. So this time sinking into that left leg, peeling off that right leg, nice and slowly, taking your time. Really centre the weight here and inhaling and exhaling. So we’ve just brought our feet to the Parallel Stance, hip width apart. Bringing our arms down, closing the stance. So we’re going to repeat that. Inhale, exhale. Centring the weight. Transferring the weight so that we can step back in. And again. Sinking the weight, so we can peel that foot off and make our movement. Centre the weight. One more time.
Repeating the move but this time adding a little tap in to progress the movement and challenge the strength of the legs and to hold that knee bend for a little bit longer. So follow along. Inhaling and exhaling, sinking the weight into that right leg. This means you can release this left leg to make the movement. All our w eight in that right leg. Peel down and centre the weight here. Inhaling and exhaling as we bend our knees. Just into a comfortable position. We’re going to transfer our weight back to the right hand side. We’re tapping that left foot in and taking it out. Replacing it, centring our weight again. Lifting up, bringing the arms down and stepping in. That’s do that on the other side. Inhale, exhale. Sinking that weight into that left leg so we can peel that right leg off. Centring our weight here. Inhale and exhale. Just to a bend wherever you are comfortable. We’re transferring our weight to the left hand side and tapping in. We’re taking it back out. Lifting up, bringing it down and stepping. Let’s do that again. Really taking your time. Thinking about where your weight is, so we’re transferring it over to tap in, taking it back out and up. And again, other side. Let’s repeat that. And final time.
The final progression. We’re going to hold the knee bend for a little bit longer. We’re going to bring our hands in and push back out so it extends the amount of time that we’re holding that knee bend. Inhale, and exhale. Sinking that weight, peeling that foot. Centring the weight here. Grounding into the floor. Bring our hands in and push forwards, bringing them into our table top. Transfer our weight, tap in, tap out. Lift up and bring it in. Let’s do that on the other side. Centre the weight and really ground into the floor here. Bringing our hands in, we’re pushing them out. We’re bringing them into the table top. Transferring, tapping that toe in, taking it back and lift up. Bring it down and stepping in. Let’s repeat all that. Final time. Remember to keep breathing, keeping it calm. Holding this knee bend here. Pushing out. Transferring and tapping in. Final time.
If you practise that regularly you will definitely increase the strength in your legs. Make sure your knees are safe and comfortable position. Now if you want to challenge your leg strength even more, you can do exactly the same exercise but in Horse Stance. So with that we would be breathing in, breathing out . As we peel our foot off we would be taking it a little bit further than hip width apart so that we can sink down a lot deeper into our Horse Stance. Only do this when your leg strength is up to it and making sure again that you stay within your own comfort zone and limitations.
So I’ll do one repetition of each of the routine using Horse Stance just so that you can see. Breathing in and breathing out. Sinking the weight. Peeling that foot off, this time slightly wider than hip width. So a big long stride . Centre your weight again, very important. Inhale and then really sinking down. So you’re going to sink quite low and holding it here. Bringing the hands in, push and exhale and then bring the hands down. I’m going to transfer my weight. I’m tapping in, trying to keep it as if I’m keeping the same level. Bringing it in. Inhale and exhale. Peeling that foot off, slightly wider than hip width this time so I can inhale. Centre the weight and exhale, really pushing down into that Horse Stance. Sinking down. Inhale and exhale, holding that bend, bringing the hands down. Like I’m under a low ceiling, I’m trying to keep myself in the same position, so it’s really challenging those thighs. And stepping in.
Hope you’ve enjoyed todays routine. It was all about Tai Chi for Balance and Strength. LEAVE ME A COMMENT BELOW to let me know what benefits you’ve had from practising Tai Chi on a regular basis and if it has helped to improve your leg strength and your balance. If you’ve enjoyed todays video then check out some of my others. Lots of short, easy to follow routines there. Also LIKE, GIVE ME A THUMBS UP. And SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL. Please help me out and subscribe to the channel. That way I know that you want more of these videos to follow along at home. Take care and I will see you very soon.
INTRO
Hi, Welcome back to this Seated Tai Chi and QiGong session. My name’s Daphne and I’m here today to share with you some Tai Chi, QiGong and Low Impact Exercises that you can perform sitting down. So, let’s get started. If you haven’t already done so, check out the first video in this Seated Sessions Playlist. Clicking on the link will take you there because that video goes through, in a bit more detail, how to sit on your chair and position your posture correctly to get the best out of these exercises. I’m not going to spend much time on this today. So what I will do is start straight away with our warm up, our loosening off, so we’re going perch forward, planting our feet on the floor, grounding those feet, pushing into the floor. Lifting up our posture, and elongating that spine, keeping the breathing nice and calm.
WARM UP
And we’re just going to turn our head to the right, and back to centre. Doing all of our exercises within your own comfort zone. Keeping all our joints relaxed. Let’s take our chin to our chest and with care to the ceiling. Ear to our shoulder. Focusing on each area of the body that we are moving. And seeing if there’s any tightness and trying to relax it out. We’re going to do three shoulder rolls, and three forwards. Just using the top part of our back we’re just going to roll down, nice and slowly, and rolling back up. And open the chest. And again. We’re going to do Knocking on the Door, so just twisting from your waist. Turning within your own comfort zone, arms swinging freely. And bringing it back to centre. We’re going to peel our heel off the floor, and the other side. Let’s do that again. This time taking the foot completely off the floor if you can. We’re inhaling, big breath in, reaching to the sky and exhaling, coming down. And again, reaching up. Final one.
EXERCISE 1
OK let’s move on to our main exercises. Keeping our feet at parallel and posture tall. We’re Squeezing our Hands in tight and we’re pushing out. We’re doing that again. Squeezing tight, nice inhale, exhaling as we’re pushing out. Stretching those fingers out and again. Final time.
EXERCISE 2
Next exercise is Pushing a Small Qi Ball. So the small Qi ball, about the size of tennis ball, we’re going to hold in our right hand, just in front of our shoulder here. We’re going to use our left hand as a barrier in front of it. We’re going to engage our core and engage our arm muscle to push that Qi ball forward and open that barrier. And then we’re going to take it round and follow it the side, in like a little circular motion. So pushing forward and taking it round, and again. Focusing on those palms, as they’re moving forwards and to the side. Repeating that on the other side. Holding that Qi ball in our left hand this time. Right hand comes across the body in that barrier. We’re pushing it forward, taking it to the side. And one more.
EXERCISE 3
Holding a slightly bigger Qi Ball, about the size of a football this time. We’re turning the waist so that we’re looking to the right hand side and we’re lifting our ball towards the sky and Gazing at the Moon. We’re bringing it back down to centre. So you need to make sure that you’re just turning and lifting as far as you can, within your own comfort zone. Looking at the sky, gazing at the moon, bringing it back down to our centre. And again. And if you can each time, maybe just extend that reach a little bit further, gazing slightly behind you.
EXERCISE 4
Next exercise is Pushing the Waters. We are adding some footwork to this move. So we’re going to lift our right foot, heel, toe, we are replacing that foot into our parallel stance. Then we’re going to push down, using the thigh muscle to really push all the way through the foot and into the floor. As we do so our hands are coming up and we are pushing the waters, as if we’re pushing against an invisible wall next to us. Pushing, so we can engage our arm muscles, our core and the leg pushing into the floor and then we’re bringing it back to centre. We’re doing that all on the left hand side. So peeling this left foot off, heel, toe down and transfer your weight into it as you push against that wall, bringing those waters back to the centre. Heel, toe right, push. Heel, toe left, push. And again. Following the hands, focusing on that energy. Really using that natural resistance like we’re pushing and pulling our hands all the way through that water.
EXERCISE 5
Final exercise is called Clasping the Hands and Pushing Forward. Couple of different options for you to try here. The first is to clasp the hands, bringing them up to chest height, turning them over and pushing them forward. Now as you can see there’s quite an extension here, quite a stretch in my wrist joint. If you find that a bit challenging, difficult or it’s just not within your range of motion you can do exactly the same exercise but keeping the hands apart, means when that you push forward you can decide how much you stretch that wrist joint out so it can be a lot gentler for you. And we’re going to bring our hands down. So we’re clasping our hands, inhaling as we are lifting the hands to the chest and turning them over and pushing forwards. Now this time you can increase that stretch so it goes into the shoulders and upper body just by dropping your head in between your arms. Then we’re going to release that stretch and lower the hands. Going again, clasping the hands, bringing them up, turning them over, pushing forwards. Extending that stretch, releasing the stretch and taking them down. Pushing forwards, nice exhale on that push. Let’s do one more.
FINISH
And bringing the arms round, gathering that energy, holding it here, breathing in and breathing out. And again, nice big breath in and out. And final inhale, feeling relaxed.
INTRO
Hi, Welcome back to another Seated Tai Chi and QiGong Session. My name’s Daphne and I’m here today to share with you some Tai Chi, Qigong and Low Impact Exercises you can perform at home. So without further ado, let’s get started. If you haven’t already done so, check out Session 1 Video of this Seated Tai Chi and QiGong – the Seated Sessions Playlist. That will run through in a little bit more detail where to position yourself on the chair so that you can plant your feet onto the floor. And the posture that you want to try and maintain all the way through the exercises. So I’m not going to spend much time on that today but we will plant our feet, get into that posture, grounding our feet into the floor, lifting up and breathing nice and calmly.
WARM UP
And we’ll start with our head to the right and back to centre, and to the left, chin to your chest and with care to the ceiling. Keeping in control, we’re going to look forward and take our ear to our shoulder. Remembering to move our body just within our own comfortable range of motion. Bringing our hands to our sides, we’re going to do three shoulder rolls backwards. So listen to your own body, making sure we’re not pushing it too far. And the other way. Keeping our joints nice and relaxed, all the way through. We’re moving the top of our back only, rolling down nice and slowly. And we’re going to open the chest, lifting it up, looking at the ceiling. And again, rolling it down, opening that chest. Exhaling as we go down and inhaling as we come up. We’re knocking on the door, twisting, just within your own comfort zone, twisting from the waist, only as far as you can, swinging those arms. And bringing it back to centre. We’re just going to lift our heel, peel it off and place it down. And the other side. And again. This time progressing it to a lift, bringing it back. And lift. One more on each side. Big breath in, all the way up, stretching to the sky and bringing it down. Inhale, all the way up, and all the way down. And all the way up and exhaling down.
EXERCISE 1
OK, so our first exercise we are going to hold that Qi Ball, about the size of a football. I don’t mind which hand you have on top. And all we’re going to do is turning this Qi Ball. We’re turning it round. We’re focusing on our breath. So inhaling on the turn, exhaling as we push down. Inhale, opening that chest, and exhale, push into the floor with our feet. Let’s do it again.
EXERCISE 2
Next exercise is called Punching with a Twisted Punch. So we’re actually going to punch forwards but with our palm facing upwards. So making a fist we’re going to punch forward, then going to twist it round and bring it back. And we’re going to punch, twist and bring it back. Let’s do that again. So punch, and twist and bring it back. One more time. Punch, and twist and bring it back. So we’re going to add a step to the side. So just really putting our foot, replacing it in our parallel stance. We’re going to lift our right foot, and put heel, toe and as we do so we’re going to twist to that corner and we’re going to repeat the punch. So we’re going to punch, and twist and then we’re going to bring our foot back into position. So we’re going to do that the other side. So heel, toe, twisting at the waist and we’re going to punch and as we do so we’re going to push into that foot. Bring it back and place it back. So heel, toe and punch, and bring it back in. And heel, toe and punch, and bring it back in.
EXERCISE 3
Our next exercise is called Cross Hands. So we’re bringing our hands, crossing at the wrists, we’re extending them out forwards and we’re bringing them down to our sides. We’re going to do that again. So bringing them in, cross hands, extending out forwards and placing them back down again. And again. Bring them up, take them forwards. And you can push down into your thighs and into the feet as you bring your hands down. Open out and down.
EXERCISE 4
Back to our Qi Ball. We’re Holding up the Heaven and Earth. So we’re reaching out and we’re pressing one palm down and one palm high, and bringing them back to the ball. So taking this lower hand, pushing it out, up to the ceiling, opening that chest and bringing it back down. Bottom hand, lifting it high and bringing it in. Bottom hand, pushing high and bringing it in.
EXERCISE 5
Final exercise is called Wild Goose Flying. So we’re do the arms first, it’s a nice inhale as we spread our wings and bring them back down. And again, opening the chest as we reach out through the fingertips and bring them down. Remembering to keep our arms soft, our elbows aren’t locking out, we’re not over extending. And as we are lowering our hands we can push back in, using the thigh muscles to push down into the floor. Now we’re going to add a heel raise. So as we are lifting our arms up we’re going to lift our heels off the floor, keeping the balls of the feet on the floor and bringing them back down again. So lifting up, lifting those heels and bringing them back down. Big breath in and all the way down. Final time.
FINISH
Gathering the arms into the Dan Tien. Let’s hold it here. Three breaths in. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale.
INTRO
Hi, Welcome back to another Seated Tai Chi and QiGong Session. My name’s Daphne and I’m going to share with you today some Tai Chi, QiGong and Low Impact Exercises that you can perform sitting down. So, let’s get started.
If you’ve already followed Session 1 then you’ll know the correct position to sit at in your chair. If not, check it out. Session 1 goes through in a bit more detail but we’ll recap now very quickly our correct posture on the chair. So we’re sitting at the front of the chair, perched on it, bottom on the chair, thighs not on the chair. If you can, our feet hip width apart and we’re grounding our feet. We’re planting them in that parallel stance, so feeling that floor underneath us. We’re lifting up and elongating the spine so stretching it out from top to bottom. Keeping the abs engaged so pulling belly button through to spine, chest lifted and all our joints stay loose and relaxed and soft all the way through all the session.
WARM UP
So taking that posture, calming the breathing, we’re going to turn our head to the right and back to centre and to the left, and back to centre. Chin to your chest so looking to the floor, and with care to the ceiling. Looking forward, ear to our shoulder and the other side. We’re going to do three shoulder rolls, backwards. Just stay within your own comfort zone so always listen to your own body, and the other way. Just working the top of the back, we’re rolling down and opening the chest. Exhaling on the effort of the bend. Big breath in, inhaling as we’re coming up and again. Knocking on the door, twisting from the waist, again just keeping it inside your range of motion. Two more, and one more. Moving onto the legs, we’re lifting the heel, and lifting the heel, and again. And take the foot all the way up this time. Next,big inhale, stretching right through the fingers and exhaling on the way down. And again. One more time.
EXERCISE 1
So we’re going to hold a ball. About the size of a tennis ball and we’re going to pull it apart and push it back together. Now we’re going to visualise ourselves pulling and pushing our arms through water. It helps to use the natural resistance and engage our arm muscles. So we can waft our hands or if you want to get the most out of the exercise, really feel that movement and really work those arms. So we’re going to inhale on the way out and pushing together with an exhale. And inhale, and exhale, and again. We’re going to add some footwork by placing our right heel on the floor and pushing, as if we’re pushing against a wall behind us. And then we’re going to bring our hands into that Qi Ball position and we’re going to do the inhale and exhale. So do it with the other side, so left heel out and bring it in, and open and close. And again, heel and Qi Ball. Inhale and Exhale. One more time, heel and back. Nice inhale and exhale.
EXERCISE 2
Our next move is from Tai Chi and it’s called Stroking the Horses’ Mane. So we hold a Qi Ball and we are going to imagine a horse in front of us and we’re going to stroke that horses’ mane, stroke all the way down the back of that horse and at the same time we are going to hold the mirror up and look at our palm. And then the top hand becomes the top of the ball and the bottom hand scoops underneath. So let’s do that again the other way. So stroking the horses’ mane and holding the mirror. One hand on the top and one hand on the bottom. So we’re going to develop that with a twist of the waist. So stroke the horses’ mane and turn to face the mirror and bring it in. And the other way and bring it back. Focusing on the palms, they’re our energy points, and it helps develop mind body connection, making us feel present in the movement.
EXERCISE 3
We’re going to push our hands out, as if we’ve got two walls either side of us, we’re pushing against those walls and then we’re going to bring our arms and push our palms together, really engaging those arm muscles. And once we get them to about directly in front of our face we’re going to open them out and lift the chest. Bringing them back in and pushing them out. And again, bringing them in, inhaling on the way up, nice big breath and exhaling on the way out. Final time.
EXERCISE 4
We are going to do Golden Rooster next. So we’re going to bring our foot into an empty stance so we’re lifting our foot and placing it down and at the same time we’re going to place our left hand on a tabletop next to us and right hand in golden rooster.Then we’re placing the foot down, placing the hand down and bringing our left foot forward and our left hand forward. Taking it down and I’m doing it mirror image so hopefully you can follow along and taking it down. And again, lift the foot and tap and bringing it back. And tap and down. Really focusing, keeping that posture going and keeping the breathing nice and calm.
EXERCISE 5
Our final exercise is called Twisting and Bending like Bamboo so we’re going to clasp our hands, we’re lifting them up to chest height, we’re turning them over and pushing forwards. And then we’re going to lift them high above the head. If you can, but just keep within your own range of motion. You can always do this with your hands on your hips here. Absolutely fine. So we’re bringing it up. Keeping the shoulders relaxed, we’re going to lift and turn, just to the corner and bring it back and to the other side. Then we’re going to lift high and just side bend. Not too far because we don’t want to tip over. And the other way but stretching out and bending like bamboo. And we’re going to bring our hands all the way down and then we’re going to repeat that. Bringing it up, pushing it forwards, lifting high. Twisting to the corner. Just as far as you can, listening to your own body and the other side. Reaching high and bending. And the other way. And all the way down. Let’s do that again. so bringing it up, pushing it forward, lifting it high, twisting. And again. Lifting and bending. And inhale here and exhale on the bend. And inhale and one final time. Just adjust my shirt and again lifting up, and pushing forward and high, keeping the shoulders relaxed and twist and the other way. Lifting and bending and the other side and all the way down. Let’s just shoulder roll. It’s quite a workout for your range of motion with those bends and twists. And bringing it round.
FINISH
Let’s just breath, nice and calm, breathing in and breathing out. Checking out the body. Feeling any tension and letting it relax. Thinking nice and positive, and calming the mind.
INTRO
Hi. So pleased you could join me for this Seated Tai Chi and QiGong session. My name’s Daphne and today I am going to share with you some Tai Chi, QiGong and Low Impact Exercises that you can perform sitting down. They’re designed to work your major muscles, get your body moving and develop that mind body connection that helps us relax. So without further ado let’s get started.
SAFETY TIPS and POSTURE
So first of all make sure that your chair is sturdy and solid, and it’s positioned on a level ground so it’s not going to tip over. Make sure that you’ve got enough room so that you can stretch your arms all the way up and all the way to the sides. And that the floor space in front of the chair is clear of anything that might be in your way. We need to sit ourselves forward, if we can, in the chair, so we’re perching on the end. My bottom is on the chair but my thighs are not touching, they are in front of the chair. And this is so that I can plant my feet firmly on the floor in front of me. I’m placing my feet hip width apart and I’m going to ground my feet into the floor.
I’m going to lift up out of my hip sockets so that my spine is elongated as if someone’s pulling from the top of my head and pulling me down to the ground and stretching out the spine. I’m going to keep my abs engaged, so my abdominal muscles here in the stomach area, keeping them engaged, which means I’m pulling my belly button all the way through to my spine so this core area is strong. And I’m trying to keep that going all the way through all the exercises today. My chest is lifted and in Tai Chi we talk about ‘song’ the joints. We’re not taking anything to a position of stress or tension, we’re trying to relieve that tightness and relieve that tension. So keeping our elbows, our shoulders, nice and relaxed and soft.
All the way through the exercises listen to your own body and do them within your own comfort zone. Remember to stay within your safe range of motion.
WARM UP
OK so sitting with the correct posture and good form, keeping the breathing nice and calm. I will do all the exercises mirror image so you can follow along nice and easily. So we’re going to turn our head to the right, and back to centre, and to the left. Chin to your chest, and with care to the ceiling. Looking forward and we’re going to do ear to our shoulder. Oh feeling the tension and trying to relax. Taking our hands to our sides, we’re going to do three shoulder rolls, taking them back nice and smooth, and three forwards. Again putting our hands on our thighs, we’re just going to roll the top of the back, just ever so slightly, just loosening it off and we’re going to open the chest as if we’re pointing it towards the sky. And do that again. Exhaling as we are going down, and a nice inhale, lifting the chin. Next is ‘Knocking on the Door’. So we’re twisting our waist, from side to side, arms swinging freely, just as far as you can, loosening off that spine, and bringing it back to centre. We’re going to peel our heel off the floor and place it back down. And the other side. One more time. This time we’re going to take this foot all the way up, taking it off the ground, peeling it off and placing it down. Peeling it off and placing it down. Final time. We’re just going to come in and hug and loosening off, and again. Final time. We’re going to do a nice big inhale, so all the way up, if we can, rising our hands all the way above our head. And bringing it down. And again, all the way up. Inhaling as we’re going and exhaling as we’re coming down. And again inhaling and exhaling.
EXERCISE 1
So keeping our feet hip width apart, we’re going to start with our first exercise which is called ‘Balancing the Qi’
So all we’re doing here is lifting our hands to chest height, we’re turning them over and then we’re pressing down, and as we’re doing so lowering our hands we’re pressing our feet into the floor. Lifting up with an inhale and pressing down. Nice big breath in and breath out. And in and out.
EXERCISE 2
Our next exercise is called ‘Holding up the Heaven’ so we’re taking our hands out, trying to keep our shoulders nice and relaxed, following our hands. Our palms are facing the ceiling and our fingertips are facing in towards each other. We’re going to press up to the ceiling. Then we’re going to release that stretch, moving our hands, turning them to face in towards our chest and then bringing them down ready to go again. Lifting up our hands with an inhale. Pressing all the way up and relax. And again. Reaching up and relaxing that stretch. Feeling it all the way through our body. One more time. And relax.
EXERCISE 3
We’re going to move our feet this time. So bringing them together to start and we’re going to do something called ‘Opening Stance’. Now I have modified this so that we are moving both legs, and both feet and placing them into our parallel stance. If we do just one side we would be a little bit off centre as we’re sitting on our chair. So we are going to move both feet and do our opening stance arms. So if we follow along. We’re going to peel that left foot off and place it into our parallel, so just hip width apart. And we’re going to take the right foot and place it into our parallel stance, hip width apart. We’re going to breathe our hands up to shoulder height and then as we’re exhaling we’re lowering our hands and again we’re going to press down into the thighs so that we can feel that running all the way down to our feet on the floor. We’re going to replace our right foot in and then left foot in. Let’s do that again. So peeling that left foot off, peeling the right foot off. Nice hip width apart, parallel stance. Breathing in, our arms up, setting our intention, breathing out. Bringing in the right foot, and then the left foot. Let’s do that again. Peeling that foot off, with intention, and again. Breathing in. And left foot in and the other foot in. Final time. Peeling that foot off and again. Breathing in and breathing out. And this time leaving our feet in our hip width parallel stance.
EXERCISE 4
Our next one we’re going to make some fists so we’re bringing our hands into our hips and we’re going to push forward, really engage this core, as if we are pushing something heavy out of the way. We’re going to turn our wrists and we’re going to make our fists and we’re going to pull them back in to our sides. We’re going to turn them round and push forwards. We’re not locking out our elbows, we’re keeping them soft but there’s strength in our softness. Engaging those arm muscles as if we’re pushing something heavy out of the way. Bringing it in and taking it out. Exhale as we go out, inhale as we pull in. We’re going to repeat the same exercise but we’re going to take it to the corner and just do it with one hand at a time. So taking my right hand first, I’m going to twist my waist to the left hand corner and I’m going to push across my body and bring it in. Let’s do that again, push and pull. And then turning to the other corner. Left hand this time, pushing it across the body and again.
EXERCISE 5
Our final movement, hands placed on the thighs, we’re going to bring it down, rolling down, vertebrae by vertebrae, just as far as you can and then rolling up again taking it nice and slowly, and pushing up to the ceiling. And we’re going to relax our hands, bringing them in to the thigh and pushing out. Rolling down, rolling up. And taking it up to the ceiling and all the way down. Bringing it in. Exhaling as we’re rolling down. Inhaling as we’re coming up. Pushing up to the ceiling and taking it down. Bringing it in and down. Nice and slowly, taking your time.
FINISH
We’re going to bring our hands to rest at the Dan Tien, one on top of the other. And we’re not going to move our hands now, we’re just going to close our eyes. WE’re going to breath in and breath out. Focusing on our body, relaxing, breathing, nice and calm, peaceful, final breath.
