Hello,
Happy to join the forum.
I did Tai Chi for a few years about 15 years ago and really enjoyed it. The class included what they called Daoist Yoga which I think was really dynamic qigong exercises and it was what I liked the best. In the intervening years, whenever I move to a new city I check out the various classes, but they always seem a bit disappointing compared to the ones I followed and I don't keep it up.
I think for me the aspects of that class I really liked were the thorough warm up, qigong and other breathing exercises.
Two years ago I had a mononucleosis reactivation, perhaps caused by exercises too much (I was training cardio / rowing quite a lot). I got over that after discovering high dose vitamin C, but didn't go back to hard exercise.
A few months ago the fatigue symptoms seemed to come back, and I went back to standing qigong from the Kam Chuen Lam book (The Way of Energy) which I had periodically looked into in the intervening years. I found it really remarkable, I'm not sure if it was the warm up or the standing but it really helped me.
So I have started a daily standing practise with a warm up (ankle, knee, hip circles, swinging and turning back, arm circles etc.) and 10 minutes of standing.
I have some questions about other aspects though.
For Lifting the Sky from the Wong Kiew Kit books, it says to "push up". Is this a sort of metaphorical intent to push while keeping arms and shoulders relaxed, or should I really stretch, or should I even stretch with isometric force like I am trying to push a weight?
What are the views of people from a qigong perspective of having cold showers? (e.g. Wim Hof method, but mainly just having cold showers).
I also have a couple of books I would like to work from with short forms: Swimming Dragon by Tk Shih and 14-series sinew-transforming exercises from Beijing Languages Press. I would be interested if there are any videos particularly of the second one?
