Pearls of Wisdom

Newsmax.com     Monday, October 27 2008

Tai chi is effective in the treatment of pain and physical impairment in people with severe knee osteoarthritis, according to research presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

Osteoarthritis, or OA as it is commonly called, is the most common joint disease affecting middle-age and older people. It is characterized by progressive damage to the joint cartilage—the slippery material at the end of long bones—and causes changes in the structures around the joint. These changes can include fluid accumulation, bony overgrowth, and loosening and weakness of muscles and tendons, all of which may limit movement and cause pain and swelling.

Osteoarthritis in the knee and hip areas can generate chronic pain or discomfort during standing or walking. According to the Centers for Disease Control, knee OA affects 240 people out of every 100,000 people per year.

Tai chi is an ancient Chinese exercise that uses an integrated mind-body approach to enhance muscle function, balance, and flexibility and has been known to reduce pain, depression and anxiety in those who practice the exercise.

Researchers set out to determine if tai chi could successfully treat the physical and mental effects of severe knee OA. A total of 40 patients were randomly chosen to participate in the study. On average they were 65 years old and moderately overweight, and had knee OA for approximately 10 years; 75 percent of the patients were female and 70 percent were Caucasian.

Participants were introduced to either tai chi (10 modified forms from the classical Yang style) or to conventional stretching and wellness education. Each group received the intervention twice-weekly for 60 minutes over the course of 12 weeks. Patients were evaluated with a self assessment questionnaire (WOMAC) that evaluates pain, stiffness and physical function in hips and knees at the beginning and end of the study.

Additionally, researchers studied WOMAC function, patient and physician global assessments, timed chair stand, balance tests, knee proprioception, depression, self-efficacy, and health-related quality of life. These assessments were also done at weeks 24 and 48 to determine how lasting each intervention was for the participants.

Attendance for the 12-week interventions was 85 percent in the tai chi group and 89 percent in the stretching and wellness group. Participants who took part in tai chi exhibited significantly greater improvements in pain, physical function, depression, self-effectiveness and health status. Patients who continued participating in tai chi after the 12-week intervention also reported long-lasting benefits in WOMAC pain and function.

These results lead investigators to believe that tai chi is effective in the treatment of the pain and physical impairments in people with severe knee OA. Chenchen Wang MD, MSc; Tufts Medical Center, Division of Rheumatology, and lead investigator in the study explains, “Tai chi mind-body exercise appears to provide an important approach for self-care and self-management for knee OA; however, these results should be confirmed by future large studies.”

Patients should consult their rheumatologists before beginning this, or any, exercise program.

To learn more about the many health benefits of Tai Chi, Visit White Dragon Martial Arts

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu July 2000

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Just knowing how to do qigong meditations and exercises isn’t enough to make your qigong practice worthwhile and beneficial. You must also know and employ certain physical and mental practices before you can control your qi (chi) energy’s direction and flow throughout your body. No matter what qigong style you practice, you must first understand a few basic principles of correct qigong practice.

Here are five rules that apply to most qigong styles.

1. Don’t expect too much too soon. This is one of the easiest mistakes for beginners to make. When people start studying qigong they are always eager and enthusiastic. However, not everyone learns at the same rate. Sometimes students don’t learn as fast as they would like and become impatient, comparing themselves to others and trying to force things to happen that need more time.

Sometimes people set up schedules for themselves, such as, “Today I want to make my dan tien (pressure point located three fingers’ distance below the navel) warm, tomorrow I want to get my qi flowing through the tailbone cavity,” or by such and such a day I want to complete the small circulation. This is the wrong way to go about it.

Qigong is not like an ordinary exercise or task you set for yourself. You cannot make a progress schedule for qigong. Qigong benefits depend on your initial health, mental state, ability to relax and other factors. Therefore, everything happens in qigong when it is time for it to happen. If you attempt to force it, it will never happen.

2. Don’t dwell on attachments and sensations. When you practice, do not place your attention on the various phenomena or sensations that may occur. You should always be aware of what is happening, but keep your mind centered on what it is supposed to be for the exercise you are doing. If you let your mind dwell on something you feel is interesting or new, your qi follows your mind and interferes with your body’s natural tendency to rebalance itself.

Do not expect anything to happen, and don’t let your mind wander around looking for the various phenomena. Furthermore, don’t start evaluating or judging the phenomena, such as asking, “Is my dan tien warmer today than it was yesterday?”

Don’t ask yourself, “Just where is my qi now?” When your mind dwells on your qi, your yi (intention) is with your mind. This stagnant yi will not guide the qi toward its destination. My qigong teacher, professor Peng Si Yu, always emphasized, “Be aware of what is happening, but do not pay attention to it.” If you feel something during one meditation session and expect it to happen the next time, not only will it probably not happen, but also you will have blocked beneficial qi flow with your conscious attempt to make something happen.

3. Avoid conscious thoughts that distract you from your purpose. The mind is strong, with every idea still strongly connected to its origin. If you cannot cut the ideas off at their source, your mind is not calm and empty and you cannot regulate your qi.

You may also find that even though you have stopped the flow of random thoughts going through your mind, new ideas are generated during practice. For example, when you discover your dan tien is warm, your mind immediately recalls where this is mentioned in a book, or how the master described it, and you start to compare your experience with this. Or you may start wondering what the next step is. These thoughts lead you away from peace and calm, and your mind ends up in what ancient qigong practitioners referred to as the domain of the devil. Then your mind is confused, scattered and very often scared. You will tire quickly and may not want to continue with your qigong practice.

4. Shen (spirit) should not follow the external scenery. This is also a problem of regulating the mind. When your conscious mind and emotions are not controlled, any external distraction leads your thoughts away from your body (qigong practice) and toward the distraction. You must train yourself that noises, smells, conversations and other distractions do not disturb your concentration. It is alright to be aware of what is happening, but your mind must remain calm, peaceful and steady on your qi cultivation.

5. Physical considerations are also important. Don’t be too warm or too cold during your practice sessions. The temperature of the room in which you are training should not too hot or too cold. You should practice in a comfortable environment that does not disturb your mind and cultivation.

Don’t wear tight clothes or tight belt. Always wear loose clothes during practice because this helps you feel comfortable and allows your qi to flow naturally. Keep your belt loose. The abdomen is the most important area of qigong practice. You must be careful not to limit the movement and comfort of this area. Don’t practice when hungry of full. When you are hungry it is hard to concentrate, and when you are full your practice affects your digestion.

These are only five of a long list of rules passed down by generations of qigong masters. They are based on much study and experience and should be carefully observed if you want positive results from your qigong practice.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To learn more about Tai Chi or Qigong visit: whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu May 2001

by Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

So often nowadays, we see Yang taiji quan stylists launching into forms that are partly slow, precise taiji movements and partly fast, powerful fighting movements. Many people want to add jing (power) to their forms without first understanding the practical applications and intentions of the Yang family when it originally designed the forms.

What we now call the Yang long form (108 movements) was originally referred to as the large frame form, named after the large, circular movements that characterize it. The Yang family masters taught the long form first to students because they noticed that most people, including other martial artists were tense and stiff with their movements. The applications of most taiji movements are pressure-point strikes and require loose, relaxed power that starts relaxed, becomes tense at impact, and then relaxes again. The tense power they observed with many other martial arts was almost a push power that hit the opponent and knocked him away. Pressure-point strikes require power that extends into the opponent and jars him internally, rather than damaging him on the outside and pushing him away.

By teaching the slow, soft, circular, large-frame taiji form first, Yang masters were able to both teach relaxed movements and instill permanent habits within their taiji students. These were habits, such as correct body posture and footwork - all things that are difficult to learn when you move too fast.

When students mastered the correct balance and movement principles and had learned to be relaxed, they were taught the use of various kinds of jing, the most popular being fa jing (explosive energy).  Obviously, no one fights at the speed the long form is practiced. Fighting is fast and sudden, making the use of fa jing essential.

It is a common misunderstanding that the small circle form or Yang fast form always follows the large frame form. While certain members of the Yang family used one or both of these forms to teach fa jing, others had a different way to instruct students. Yang, Cheng Fu (grandson of Yang, Lu Chan, the founder of Yang taiji) often taught his students fa jing on a movement-by-movement basis. For example, they might work on just one technique, such as brush knee, until they had mastered it, rather than work on it within a form.

Other Yang masters made their reputations by teaching the small circle form, which contains fast and slow movements, the fast containing fa jing, and the slow movements, the same as the large frame form. These were often masters who had little patience with the slow-moving large frame form and wanted to get into the fighting aspect sooner with their students.

I agree with teachers such as Yang, Cheng Fu, who maintained that students cannot learn to use fa jing properly without first learning and understanding the benefits of the large frame taiji form. If you start using fa jing too soon, before you are relaxed and know how to emit fa jing, your power will still be tense and inefficient.

Doc Fai Wong writes a bi-monthly column for Inside Kung-Fu.

To learn more about Tai Chi visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com

Training for Life

Inside Kung Fu Sept 2000

By Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong

Why do we study and practice Qigong?  The standard answers are that qigong strengthens our immune system, helps develop internal energy (qi) for martial arts and generally improves our health and stamina.

In 1981 I started studying with professor Peng Si Yu, who came to the United States from Shanghai, China. A full professor oat the University of Shanghai’s medical school, Yu was also renown throughout china as a great qigong teacher. He came to the United States as a participant in a research project at Stanford University, where students wanted to study his remarkable ability to project his qi (chi) energy over a distance, affecting other people without touching them. As I became a close student of professor Yu and his wife, Min Ou-Yang, I discovered that he was diabetic and had controlled his illness throughout his 80-plus years with proper diet and qigong practice alone. Unfortunately, in 1983 professor Yu died from complications from a blood clot within his brain, not diagnosed by our Western doctors, who thought that, with the heart and circulatory system of a 25-year-old, he had only an inner ear infection.

I continued my studies with his wife, who after 60 years of marriage to professor Yu, was almost the level of her famous husband.  Peng Si Yu’s qigong style was yiquan, sometimes known as daquan, qigong It was originally a form of xingyu (hsing-I), developed by his own teacher, Wang, Xian Zhai. Wang who was one of the most famous qigong master in China’s recent history, lived for a time with his top student in Shanghai – professor Yu.

Professor Yu combined the extensive information about yiquan, learned from Wang, with his own medical background and broadened yiquan into a healing qigong, as awell as a potent martial arts complement, He is directly responsible for teaching many of the doctors at the Shanghai Qigong Hospital.

There are two facets of yiquan qigong, One is the standing medication (zhang zhuan) and the other is the many qigong exercises that characterize yiquan. Standing meditation is the backbone of yiquan practice. It teaches you to relax your mind and muscles, allowing qi energy to flow uninhibited throughout your body. It also develops deep, even breathing patterns, letting more oxygen reach all parts of the body.

Peng Si Yu compared qi energy to being very close to the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. That’s why breathing patterns play an important role. However, that extra oxygen can go nowhere if your muscles are tense and prohibit smooth, even blood flow. Simply put, standing mediation develops more qi energy and promotes better health by removing qi blockages and poor circulation caused by stressed and tensed muscles.

Qigong exercises have a different purpose. They are designed to teach students how to move all of this qi anywhere they want in their bodies. For instance, knowing how to collect and move your qi into your hands and out through your fingertips may be very useful for healing someone else’s illness or injury. Knowing how to move it into the lumbar region of your own back can help heal low back illness, such as arthritis or disk problems. You can also facilitate quicker healing of connective tissue injuries, such as strained or sprained muscles, with qigong healing practices.

Combine the two with a balanced regimen of standing meditation and qigong exercises, and you have the recipe for a healthy life.

Grandmaster Doc Fai Wong is a columnist for Inside Kung Fu.

To discover the many benefits of Tai Chi and Qigong visit:  whitedragonmartialarts.com