Just curious whether anyone practices this set on a regular basis and has any thoughts about its effectiveness a) as a general health practice and b) as a valuable adjunct to xingyi training. Thanks,
Jim F.

I also would like some feedback on this from people doing this as these exercises will be added to our regimine in two weeks.

I will post back here soon with my experiences on them.

All of the students in Wang Ji Wu's school practiced the Sixteen Exercises religiously. They may not all live past 100 years like Wang did, but they are in great shape for their ages. The set is especially useful for practitioners of Xing Yi Quan, many of the exercises relate directly to the Elements and Animals.

Wang Ji Wu's 16 exercises has replaced the 8 Pieces of Brocade in our regimine. Of course we do other strecthes and Chi Gong exercise also. But they are that good.

Exercise 6: Empty the Foot and Lift a Single Hand surprisingly really moves the chi. Its bugged out!

I'm really satisfied that I bought this book. I guess any book with a really old man in the cover doing those exercises is really worth it. I'm pretty sure these exercise will be part of my life into my old age, and im in my mid 20's training hard.

HiddenPalm

Hidden Palm,

Could you please advise the book name, ISBN.

Thanks,

Bob

'Xing Yi Nei Gong: Xing Yi Health Maintenance and Internal Strength Development' Dan Miller and Tim Cartmell, ISBN: 1-883175-04-6

Hey Tim,

I rememeber in one of the posts you talking about some physical excercises that are very difficult to do and you know very few people can do them all, let alone well. I looked in various places but couldn't find the post.

Are those exercises the 16 mentioned above or are they another set of exercises?

Thanks,

Bob

Bob,
The exercises you are referring to are the basic exercises from the Zhao Bao Tai Ji Quan.

Hey Tim,

Got the book. Great work!

It says that external practice and internal cultivation are of equal importance, as if they are two different things. Are the 16 exercises internal cultivation only, and, the physical practice of Xing Yi(Pi Chuan or a physical form for example) the external practice?

Could a non-martial artist practice only these 16 excercises for achievement of health and balance?

It also mentions a balance of stillness and movement. By stillness does this mean san ti and/or meditation?

What type of meditation did Wang Ji Wu perform?

I read in another post that you do not lift weights. What are the physical conditioning excercises that you do in addition to these 16 excercises?

Will your powertraining video be based more on weapons use or will it be different body weight/isometric excercises?

Thanks,

Bob

Bob,
The Sixteen Exercises are designed to be a combination of internal and external training. I think the Exercises are a fairly complete system, but I'd also do some type of aerobic training if you are not practicing the Xing Yi Quan forms.
There is a big emphasis on practicing standing in San Ti as well as the Exercises.
I don't know what type of meditation Wang Ji Wu practiced (I would guess the emphasis was on San Ti).
Personally, I practice alot of intensive body weight exercises, alot of ground exercises and short, intense intervals of CV exercises. In addition, there is bag work and lots of sparring.
My power training will have both free hand and training with simple apparatus.

Tim,

Thank you!

Bob

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone can comment on a discrepency I noted. In the book, 16 Longevity Exercises, number 8 is performed with the arm above the head and the leg is lifted on the same side as well. Basically, left arm raised above head, left leg is bent.

On the video the left arm is up and the right leg is bent & then it switches from side to side.

Any ideas on the difference or importance of that difference?

Thank You

Dear Tim:

Do you have a video on the Wu's 16 exercise? I contacted plumflower and they said the video is not available through them.

I just like to see how you do the exercises to make sure I'm doing them correctly.

Thank you for the info.

Billy

Billy,
Send me an e mail at shenwu@verizon.net

Dear Tim,
I've just bought your book "Xing Yi Nei Gong".
I will add the 16 exercises to my training program. You mention also aerobic training: do you think that forms exectution is a sufficient aerobic exercise? Or should be better to include in the training program specific aerobic practices?
Thanks and best regards,
Mauro.

Mauro,
To achieve an aerobic training effect exercise must be of sufficient intensity and duration. If your forms practice causes your heart rate to reach your target level, and you maintain that level for a sufficient amount of time, then forms will produce an aerobic training effect. If not, you'll need to practice supplementary exercise.

Is anyone here familiar with CK Chu's Nei Gung excercises and if so, do you see any similarities in concepts to Tim's Nei Gung? CK Chu's excercises basically start off with embracing the tree standing and then followed by static stretching postures, stances & arm swings. I have found these excercises to be so simple, yet to me, it's probably the most beneficial chigung set I've ever learned.

What would be the optimum number of reps to work up to? I do between 10 & 20 reps per exercise normally.

Does these exercises use diaphragmatic (normal) or embryonic (reverse) breathing?

Normal breathing.

Here's a good definition of Chi Gung

http://www.break.com/index/truly_amazing_blind_kid.html