Qigong is an intrinsic part of our practice here at White Crane Academy. Said to have been practiced for 5000 years (or more), it is a pillar of Chinese medicine and culture.
Visit parks in China in the morning and you will see many groups of people practicing these flowing and graceful sequences and movements – stretching and strengthening their bodies, improving their health and longevity.
Any practitioner of Chinese medicine worth their salt will prescribe you qigong exercises in addition to your treatment, helping a healthy flow of energy throughout your body, keeping illness and injury at bay.
What is the difference between qigong and tai chi?
There are differences between qigong and tai chi, although generally speaking the incredible health benefits are the same.
On the surface, qigong is probably easier to learn, the movements are a little simpler and are repeated several times.
Tai chi takes a little more practice to remember the moves and usually one move flows into another one, rather than being repeated.
Fundamentally qigong is a health based practice, whereas tai chi is a martial art. However, most people nowadays don’t learn tai chi as a martial art (although you can do at WCA if that is of interest – we leave it up to the individual).
So basically the two are vey intertwined and in our tai chi classes you can learn both.
What type of qigong do you teach?
If you’re a beginner these names won’t mean much to you yet but at WCA we teach Eight Pieces of Brocade, 5 Animals Qigong, Yi Jing Jing (tendon strengthening/stretching), several of the Shibashi qigong forms …. and much more. Enough to keep you healthy, strong, flexible… and interested!
How can I learn qigong?
There are several ways to learn qigong with us.
In Class
Whilst we don’t have qigong specific classes, in all of the classes below we practice qigong, usually as a part of the warm up.
- Chen Tai Chi – Mondays at 11.30am
- White Crane Tai Chi – Wednesdays at 7.15pm
- White Crane Tai Chi – Thursdays at 11.00am
- White Crane Tai Chi – Saturdays at 10.00am
Online
Most weekday mornings at 10am Mark hosts a 30 minute Skype class. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, the class is specifically a follow-along qigong routine. Thursdays a gentle stretching class.
You can join in with these sessions by subscribing (for £25 per month) – click here for more details.
Every lesson is recorded and added to our video library so if you want to watch at a different time you can do. The £25 per month subscription includes the video library, with hundreds of classes, you can also subscribe for video access only.
Workshops
Keep an eye on the workshops page, as throughout the year we often have Saturday afternoon qigong workshops.
Private Lessons
For those who would like to have training sessions tailored specifically to their requirements – whether that’s because of timings, location, or a health condition that you need help looking after. Contact Mark on 07834 375776 or mark.stevenson@whitecraneacademy.com for more details.