Hi Andrew. Even if your health is bad, 4 hours a day of qigong is not necessary for a beginner or even an intermediate student. If you can do 2 high-quality, 20-minute sessions of the 5-Phase Routine per day, then you’ll get amazing results. But the quality needs to be high, and you need to be consistent.

You can learn this routine in the bonuses that come with my book: https://academy.flowingzen.com/flowing-zen-book

Skip One Finger Zen for now. Focus on the basics that I teach in the book bonuses.

I’m an absolute novice of chi gong and have been going through chi gong tutorials on YouTube as well as bought a book on it from another author. I’ve just discovered your website and was wondering how one safely goes up to 2 or 3 or 4 hours of chi gong a day? My health is in a poor state but I should be able to stand for about 2-3 hours a day. However, I do not wish for negative effects from increasing too fast. I’ve read of people going crazy / losing control or having physical problems from starting chi gong and then killing themselves. I started today and did Robert Peng’s 18 Minutes Daily Routine on YouTube, which was very soft and gentle and made me yawn a lot and feel sleepy. Then I watched your video on One Finger Zen and was able to feel energy in my hands and fingers while doing that which I didn’t expect, so I held the hand position for an hour before stopping as I don’t want to fire too much chi through my body and cause an overload.

Can you please advise me as to how to progress well? I am trying to recover from chronic fatigue which ranges from mild to severe in terms of physical disability, but am recovering at some pace with diet, but want to increase this a good deal.

Thank you,

Andy

For timing I prefer guided compared to some “meditation” app, because with a spoken language it’s easier to track where I’m in the session and what is coming next. With just chimes I always have to think about where I’m exactly at, what should I do next and it really fuels my monkey mind if I’ve lost track or not.

All four examples sounds really interesting, but I assume that would be a lot of work to do. But it would be really great to have at least one with warrior stances and one without.

I cannot thank you enough for your articles. I came back as i might have something to offer too. I’ve had a difficult winter, i lost my practise entirely. Even the thought of beginning from 2 minutes per day was hard. So i thought of the logic..and told to myself that all i had to do is to take one conscious breath per day, that was my goal. From that i got to the 2 minutes sessions within a few days and from there i got to 10-15 minute sessions within weeks, without really aiming for it, it just happened, as i wanted to do more. Now i stick to that, sometimes, if i don’t feel like it, i go back to my 2 minutes practise, some days if i really want to, i expand up to as much as i like. Whenever i have a day that i did a lot of qigong, i make sure that next day i will..deprive myself, so to keep my momentum and not overwhelm me. I admit i can get easily overwhelmed.
Still practising, it’s been a month and a half now i haven’t missed a day(i begun counting from the 2 minutes!). I tell myself not to overthink about it and just go on and do it. My goal for the moment is to keep going, i think i am not yet ready to add a second practise in my day, as i know practise at the sunset but i have difficulties with mornings. But maybe i will add the breath, one conscious breath every morning 😉
Thank you for the inspiration!

I have been doing Qigong since about mid September last year. I am 72 and my wife and I are looking for a form of exercise that will suit us into our dotage – not that we feel we are anywhere near that yet! This is a sort of lockdown project (we live in the UK) following a knee strain on the crosstrainer last March and a recognition that we need to keep fit.

Our journey so far has been via BodyWisdom videos with Chris Pei on YouTube followed by a subscription to Lee Holden classes. I am very happy with the Qigong that Lee does but cannot keep up with his classes. Another factor is that he tends to intersperse his classes with Tao Yin and Tai Chi moves. We decided early that Qigong was easier for us and find that these additions disrupt our concentration when we are doing a class which goes a long way to negating the benefits. We are very happy with Qigong, enjoy it, feel much calmer because of it and also sleep better. Thus we intend to continue but aren’t sure of the best way forward. Perhaps a bit more structure and a lesser mix of complicated and simpler stuff. Enter Flowing Zen!!

After searching online, I found your website and have been interested ever since. This started ages ago on the 28 March ie around 10 days ago. Since then I have registered for 3 of your free programs and started devouring your blog. I am half way through it at the moment but thought it worth commenting. Basically, I am impressed. I haven’t really done that much of your stuff yet but just reading your philosophy towards Qigong has helped immensely because it has changed my mindset with regard to the practice. Although I wasn’t worried about being exactly correct in the form, I wasn’t as focussed on the internal stuff which is basically a bit alien to me. I am a practical sort of guy and tend to focus on what I can see and get hold of! Just thinking about it helped me gain a bit more feeling of the Qi (still at the tingly finger stage). Add in phases 1, 3, 4 & 5, and it has made a substantial difference leading to significant finger throbbing; ie much more intense. This is with the familiar Lee Holden stuff and an inability so far to “Smile with The Heart”!

Neither of us is particularly good at internal visualisations or meditation but I found that Phase 1 (albeit not fully effective) has helped me do a much more focussed 10 minute “Standing Like a Tree” session, whereas before I only had limited success as my mind wandered. So overall I am pleased with your approach. I still need to consider the way forward but, as I understand it, your 101 course is closed until next year.

In addition, a couple of questions. I have had lower back problems for quite a while which have eased as I grew older and my back stiffened. I had tried many different back exercises but they tended to be too strenuous or, if they made my back stronger, it was at the expense of difficulty getting comfortable in bed. Qigong has made my back more flexible but, paradoxically, although I have been having more back problems again I am perfectly comfortable in bed and sleeping very well. A combination of persisting with the Qigong, Qi massage and acupressure has taken me to the point where my back is less problematic. Is this consistent with what you would expect? I am persisting because of the “healthy” reputation of Qigong. I have also been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy in the sensory nerves of my feet leading to tingly toes. Apparently it is less likely to be progressive than if it was the motor nerves but I wonder if Qigong is likely to help. It isn’t a major problem but I do wonder.