Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

What Does "Cultivating Chi" Mean?

cultivating chi internal strength qi powers Dec 21, 2007

I get emails from people -- some of them starting out in the internal arts -- and they've been told that they do certain exercises such as standing or chi kung to "cultivate chi." More than once, people have told me that when they do tai chi they don't "feel the chi," and they ask me what they're doing wrong.

My opinions on these matters tend to differ from the standard schpiel that you get in internal arts classes.

I tell them to stop worrying about feeling chi and worry about strengthening the legs, developing peng and silk-reeling and whole-body movement and the skills that will make their internal arts high quality.

Cultivating chi is a very interesting concept. In my opinion, cultivating chi means that you are growing stronger and more healthy, and learning to develop the body mechanics for good internal arts.

From a movement perspective, cultivating chi might mean practicing a tai chi form until you understand and can execute the movements with the relaxed strength that corr...

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

What Does "Cultivating Chi" Mean?

Author - Instructor

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