USING HERBS TO STRENGTHEN THE QI


Harking back to the "Python" thread earlier today and thinking of the qi/"suit" as being more or less a superficial group of involuntary-muscle/fascia/subconscious systems, we can see why the Chinese thought about and developed herbal remedies to strengthen and develop the qi.

From what I'm aware of, special herbs dips or satchets of herbs tied next to the skin are not uncommon conditioning methods to "strengthen the qi". In the video below, the famous Ho Xu Yin was shown in a film brewing an herbal concoction that he boys soaked in as part of their conditioning. How effective is such a thing? I have no idea, but apparently a number of martial-arts styles use such a supplement to training, so they must as least think there is some practical effectiveness to it.

https://vimeo.com/492954675

Here's a video from a documentary about Chuo Jiao, a very ancient fighting system in China. They specialize in extremely powerful low kicks, often a continuous chain of those kicks. In this video segment we can see the part of their conditioning where they soak parts of their bodies in herbal steam in order to make the qi strong and tough in those areas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbvxtFrtpxI

Incidentally, it's my personal opinion that the prevalence of cold baths and cold showers, sitting under waterfalls, etc., is related to the recognition of the superficial "suit" manifestation of the qi-systems. Herbal baths can have an effect on the qi-systems, but cold baths will make the involuntary-muscle/fascia systems react and contract, so there is a potential strengthening mechanism there.

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