Customer Reviews

Cultivating the Ch'i: The Secrets of Energy and Vitality (Chen Kung, Vol 1)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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An excellent book of Taiji Qigong theory. As an instruction manual, you will find that there are many places within the text to get swamped. An instructor to guide you through these pitfalls is an absolute MUST. All in all, it is one of the best Chi theory books I have read. I intend to collect all of Stuart Olson's books. He is a great writer and a very well studied man. Thanks Mr. Olson.

This book has a very good introduction Yang Family Taiji Qigong theory, which is separate from Taijiquan martial art theory and application. There are many good books that address the second set of topics, and far fewer that teach taiji qigong. The only persons that I have ever spoken to about this book who were disappointed were those who were expecting Taijiquan theory.

In this book you will find a qigong set that I can highly recommend as a pre-taijiquan warm up set or as a qigong practice by itself. I teach my students this set as an excellent warm up (usually repeated three times), though this can also be a very good 10 minute work break qigong, especially since it doesn't use up a lot of space.

I commend the author on the use of a unique form of multi-image stop motion photography (see the cover illustration) to teach these movements. It still not always exactly clear how to execute these movements, but if you compare these to the traditional Chinese illustrations that Stuart Olson also has in this book they are fantastic.

If you do T'ai Chi Ch'uan Just read it ! you will not disagree