Improve your health, increase your energy, and speed your recovery from illness with the Eight Pieces of Brocade (Ba Duan Jin), one of the most popular sets of ancient Chinese healing exercises. These gentle stretching and strengthening movements activate the Qi (vital energy) in your body, helping to stimulate your immune system, strengthen your internal organs, and get you moving! This effective daily fitness plan takes as little as twenty minutes to practice, requires little space, and can be done indoors or out. With both a sitting and standing set, anyone can do these exercises. If you've never tried a fitness program before, or want an alternative to aerobics and jogging, Eight Simple Qigong Exercises for Health is for you.
A great introduction in theory, sources and roots by a master in the subject. It's nice to see a critic "westerner" point of view and concern about modern research in an author so recognized in the matter.
By the way, the Eight Brocade excercises explanation in clear, and the guideness about mind focus through the each Piece is helpful.
Like always, in any art or serious deep discipline, learning only by reading is a poor practice, it's better to find a good master that teaches you from the direct practice. But if you are a chikung practitioner already, I think that this book could be a very good source to learn some new ways of increase and maintain your health.
Simple and well written. A very good book in the subject.
"Eight Simple Qigong Exercises for Health....", among other things include the history and theory of Qigong, sitting exercises and the Eight Standing Pieces of Brocade. In terms of the actual practice, the explanations and illustrations are not nearly clear enough to begin a practice. Also, there is no guidance in terms of the co-ordination of the breath with the movements and there is little discussion about the nature and the flow of Qi. Perhaps the video version used in conjunction with the book would be more helpful. I would suggest instead Dr. Stanley Wilsons' book "Qigong for Beginners-Eight Easy Movements fro Vibrant Health".
Want to know the history of Qigong? Here it is. Want to know the posture, stance, movements of each exercise? He Pre they are. Want to know what organs are stimulated or treated in each exercise? Read and learn. Want the sitting position for each? Dr. Jwing-Ming Yang supplies. Want a glossary of translated terms? Granted.