FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What is the yin qi gong of the Original Yin School?
When we are resting or sleeping, our body starts to repair itself. The key idea of the Original Yin School is to assist the body in this process. The goal is return it to its original state of health, when it was lighter, healthier and suppler. The “half awake, half asleep” exercises of the Original Yin School remind the body of this prior state.

2. How does the body deviate from states of health?
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) describes the body’s health condtions in great detail, but a major division is yang deficiency and yin deficiency. This refers to a lacking in the strength of masculine or feminine energy, respectively.

A lack of energy (qi) characterizes yang deficiency. As a result, the body tires more easily and accumulates water wastes. Heart yang deficiency is associated with poor circulation and numbness in the extremities; spleen yang deficiency with poor appetite and lack of energy; lung yang deficiency with water retention and tiredness; kidney yang deficiency with low libido, loss of memory, and constipation; and gall bladder yang deficiency with a poor digestion, jaundice, and lower back or stomach pain.

A lack of calm characterizes yin deficiency. The body tends to overwork and becomes rigid and dehydrated. Yin heart deficiency is associated with a restless mind, yin spleen deficiency with poor muscle tone, yin liver deficiency with tight body parts, lung yin deficiency with dry skin, and bone yin deficiency with useless engagement in details and inability to let go.

3. How are the Original Yin School’s exercises related to the five element theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine?
The exercises address the five elements to reduce yin and yang deficiency. The lung exercise helps the skin to sweat, which is part of the body’s process of elimination. The heart exercise helps to strengthen the pulse. The spleen exercise helps to increase muscle mass. The liver exercise helps to strengthen the ligaments. And the kidney exercise helps to strengthen the bones.

4. Why does it take longer to recover from illness as we age?
TCM considers the liver and kidneys to be root systems to support health, and these systems weaken as we grow older. Typical symptoms of kidney weakness are weak knees, lower hormonal activity including loss of libido and infertility, worse memory, and hearing loss. Typical symptoms for liver weakness are worsening eyesight, tight ligaments, tingling in the legs, and a restless mind.

5. What sort of exercises might I use?
Resistance training using springs can improve muscle tone and help the body move toward its original state for some conditions. “Half awake, half asleep” exercises can address water and waste retention.

6. What kind of results might I expect?
Individual results vary, but most patients find the results to be quite evident. Patients who have had difficulty improving their muscle tone owing to a yin deficiency are often able to increase their muscle mass. In addition, patients who have had difficulty with water retention are often able to improve muscle tone and lose weight.
Patients who have both conditions typically lose water weight before increasing muscle mass.
Although patients often arrive with a particular health problem like low back pain, eczema, or allergies, they find that they are able to lose excess water and fat in the course of treating these other conditions. One patient lost 20 pounds while improving muscle tone.

7. Am I fit enough to do the five element exercises?
Patients who typically seek the assistance of a qi gong master are either healthy and are simply pursuing their interests in fitness and meditative practice or they are very sick—they have tried everything else and yet failed to find a solution. For those who are not fit, less strenuous exercises are ideal, and yin-yang qi gong body work can be used to strengthen their body until they are well enough to practice the five element exercises.

8. How different are yin exercises and yang exercises?
Quite different, because the goal in treating yin deficiency is to return the body to its most relaxed state so it can heal, while the goal in treating yang deficiency is to energize the body.

9. How may I learn these exercises so I may practice them myself at home?
Qi gong classes and workshops are given from time to time.

10. What will happen if I start these exercises?
Just as you might feel sore after exercise, when you first start the yin or yang exercises, some symptoms of illness may arise, including the temporary return of past conditions. This is part of the healing process. When your body gains energy, it will try to heal itself, and the way it chooses to do it is not entirely under the control of you or your healer.

11. How may I minimize my symptoms during the recovery process?
Rest and proper nutrition are essential to a speedy recovery. Yin-yang bodywork can replace qi gong exercises, if your symptoms are flaring up.

12. How long do I need to come for the exercises?
It takes time for your body to change, to supplant bad habits with good ones. Patients typically have about 10 sessions, meeting once or twice a week for two to three months. Chronic conditions may take longer. To compare with body building or cardiovascular exercise, it may take three to six months for results to become very clear. Clients may find benefit in ongoing training to maintain health while developing stronger, more flexible bodies.

13. My son is only 15. Can he do the exercises?
Because the exercises enable us to gain our pre-heaven qi, they help us to grow, and growing children can benefit greatly from the exercises.

14. Is my 85-year-old mother too old for the exercises?
Elderly people need exercise as much as young people. However, they are often too weak to be capable of strenuous exercise, so more gentle exercises may be recommended.

15. When I try to work out or stand up straight, I experience back and shoulder pain. Can I still do the exercises?
The Yang exercise is similar to a sleeping bodybuilding exercise. The Yin exercise is similar to floating in water. Together they will help you gain muscle mass and improve your posture. Pain means that you have stagnation inside your body. Yin-yang bodywork will be used to releasing the pain.

16. Can you diagnose my body?
During the “half awake, half sleep” treatment, your body will show the main symptoms. You can see them for yourself.