These four kinds of health qigong have similar effects, strengthening the body and improving the body's immunity, and are suitable for people of all ages to practice. Fitness qigong
When discussing the concept of fitness qigong, we can't ignore a basic premise, that is, in February 2003, the State Sports General Administration established fitness qigong as the 97th sports event. This premise means that it is necessary to explore this concept within the scope of sports, that is, health qigong needs to embody the basic spirit and purpose of sports and to determine its own unique sports form. If we look at health qigong from the perspective of qigong outside the scope of sports and regard it as a category of qigong, then this premise means that health qigong is a kind of sports qigong combined with sports.
"Fitness Qigong" is a compound word composed of "fitness" and "Qigong". According to the premise that fitness qigong is a sports event, discussing the concept of "fitness qigong" can be divided into three steps, that is, first discussing the meanings of "fitness" and "qigong" and their relationship with sports, and then discussing the meaning of this compound word.
The meaning of "fitness" is relatively clear, and this word consists of two words: "health" and "body". The relationship between "health" and "body" is the relationship between "causative usage" in ancient Chinese. The former dominates the latter, and together, the two words mean "to keep healthy". In daily life, this word is often associated with various sports, such as "aerobics" and "fitness ball", which is inevitable. Because "keeping healthy" is a goal, and to achieve this goal, we must implement some specific behaviors, and the behaviors related to this goal are first of all various physical activities. Sports can be said to be a general term for all kinds of physical activities. Therefore, it is not only inevitable but also natural that fitness and sports are linked together. Fitness embodies the basic spirit and main purpose of sports, and colorful sports can fully implement the purpose of fitness.
It is not comprehensive to describe sports as a general term for all kinds of physical activities, because modern sports also include some intellectual activities, such as chess. But the main body of sports is indeed physical activities, and the basic category of these physical activities is health qigong.
Including physical education courses, competitive sports, daily physical exercise, sports and entertainment activities in school education. It should be noted that there are differences and connections between various physical activities, and the classification is not absolute. Although the basic purpose of these physical activities is fitness, physical education courses focus more on the development and training of physical functions, while competitive sports aim at achieving results and breaking records, not necessarily for fitness; In contrast, daily physical exercise and sports entertainment activities are closer to the purpose of fitness. Physical exercise here mainly refers to daily sports activities such as broadcasting gymnastics and playing Tai Ji Chuan, while sports entertainment refers to sports-related entertainment activities such as roller skating and bowling, excluding entertainment activities such as watching movies and listening to music. It can be seen that in terms of fitness purpose, physical exercise is more clear and direct than sports entertainment, which can be said to be a representative form of sports for fitness purpose.
The meaning of "qigong" is not as clear and unified as "fitness", which is controversial. This article is limited in space and cannot be discussed. Here, I only quote the concept of Qigong in the university textbook Qigong of Traditional Chinese Medicine published by 1999. This textbook is the first and only qigong textbook commonly used in Chinese medicine colleges since the founding of the People's Republic of China, which is quite authoritative. So what is Qigong? The basic explanation of this textbook is that Qigong is a physical and mental exercise skill that integrates body-regulating, breath-regulating and heart-regulating. Regulating body, qi and heart is called "three tones" for short in Qigong. The characteristic of this explanation is that Qigong is defined as the operation skill of "three tones in one", and that the physical and mental activity of achieving three tones in one is Qigong, and the state or realm of three tones in one is the basic feature of Qigong practice.
From the operational point of view, various sports activities are also "three tones", such as running. Doing the starting posture is to adjust your body, holding your breath is to adjust your heart, and listening to the starting gunshots is to adjust your heart. There are "three tones", but this is not qigong, but exercise, because "three tones" are operated separately, not integrated. The characteristic of qigong practice is to achieve the unity of the three tones by operating the "three tones" separately. In the state of three tones in one, a unified realm is formed. It can be seen that the basic difference between qigong and exercise lies in whether it has reached the three-tone state of mind and body. Of course, any difference has a relative side. In the process of qigong practice, there is no essential difference between physical and mental state and exercise when the three tones are not unified, but when the exercise has reached the extreme proficiency, the state of three tones in one may naturally appear, and there is no difference between exercise and qigong practice at this time.
In fact, the three tones, namely, regulating body, regulating qi and regulating heart, namely, regulating limbs, breathing and regulating psychological activities, are all operational activities that human beings can adjust independently. Besides, people can't do anything to themselves. Therefore, any independent behavior of people can not be separated from the "three tones" and can only be composed of the "three tones". Some qigong concepts only talk about the "three tones" and don't talk about the integration of the three tones, which is not bad, but such qigong concepts are difficult to distinguish between qigong and sports, and even it is difficult to distinguish between qigong and manual labor.
The difference between qigong and physical education lies not only in the integration of the three tones, but also in the different purposes. The basic purpose of exercise is to keep fit, but Qigong is different. According to Qigong, the basic purpose of Qigong is to explore human potential. A person's potential refers to the ability that he has not shown when he has not practiced Qigong, including fitness ability and other abilities, such as intelligence and rehabilitation ability. Therefore, fitness is part of the purpose of practicing Qigong, not the whole, or even the main part.
The meanings of "fitness" and "qigong" and their relationship with sports are expounded respectively. From the above explanation, it can be seen that the State General Administration of Sport lists health qigong as a sports event, which has certain academic basis. Because qigong and physical education are close to each other and overlap in the basic purpose and the exercise form to achieve the goal. On this premise, to explore the concept of health qigong is to figure out how to choose between qigong and sports and form a new sport belonging to sports.
In the compound term "fitness qigong", the words "fitness" and "qigong" are mutually limited. On the one hand, "fitness" modifies "qigong" and defines "qigong" as qigong with fitness purpose and significance. On the other hand, "Qigong" regulates "fitness", defines fitness as fitness in the form of Qigong, and stipulates the basic principles of mutual choice between exercise and Qigong. The specific content of the trade-off between the two can be analyzed as follows:
First of all, health qigong takes exercise as its basic purpose, that is, fitness; And give up qigong purposes other than fitness. So as far as qigong is concerned, the purpose is reduced and limited to fitness. Secondly, health qigong takes the form of qigong, that is, it gives up the physical and mental state of separation of three tones in exercise and moves towards the direction of integration of three tones. So as far as sports are concerned, their physical and mental state of sports has been changed. In this balance, health qigong has formed its own form of exercise, and as a new independent sports, it first determines a unique form of exercise, which is the basic basis for its difference from other sports.
This paper expounds the characteristics of fitness qigong exercise form from two angles. From the point of view of Qigong, because the purpose is reduced, the scope of operation activities of Qigong cultivation is also reduced accordingly. As mentioned earlier, the operation activities of qigong practice are three tones, namely, regulating body, regulating qi and regulating heart. Therefore, many qigong techniques can be divided into three categories: regulating body, regulating qi and regulating heart, such as martial arts qigong, Buddhist qigong and Taoist qigong. Because the purpose of fitness qigong is fitness, the closest thing to fitness in the three-tone activity is body-adjusting. Therefore, qigong skills based on body adjustment will be favored in health qigong. From the sports point of view, among all kinds of sports activities, including physical education courses, competitive sports, physical exercise and sports entertainment, physical exercise activities can best reflect the purpose of fitness, such as doing broadcast gymnastics and playing Tai Ji Chuan. Here, health qigong found the close overlap between qigong and sports, and became a combination of the two.
However, there is a difference between qigong and physical exercise in sports. Some qigong exercises mainly focus on body adjustment, aiming at fighting and attacking, with intense movements and antagonism, which are inconsistent with the purpose of fitness; However, broadcast gymnastics and Tai Ji Chuan, as sports, do not pay attention to the three-tone physical and mental state and lack the characteristics of qigong practice. Therefore, the exercise form of health qigong needs to be re-selected between physical exercise activities and qigong techniques that pay attention to physical adjustment. Starting from the purpose of fitness, health qigong abandons the more intense and antagonistic part of qigong and replaces it with a more gentle and soothing part. Starting from keeping the characteristics of qigong practice, health qigong abandons the "three tones" of physical exercise in sports to separate the physical and mental state, and tends to integrate the three tones. Accordingly, the exercise form of health qigong is a relatively mild physical activity, tending to a state of three tones of body and mind. The reason why we tend to have three tones in one, rather than three tones in one, is that it takes a long time to practice to achieve three tones in one, and health qigong, as a mass sports project, should not put forward too high requirements, but should point out the direction.
To sum up, the basic concepts of fitness qigong put forward in this paper are as follows:
Fitness Qigong is a kind of exercise that aims at fitness, mainly focuses on gentle physical activities, and at the same time, the physical and mental state tends to combine body, qi and heart.