Join us for Qigong Online in 2023

Join us throughout the year for Qigong Online...

Following the live event, please note you may request a link to the recording by emailing coaarp@aarp.org. Recordings will be available for two weeks following the live event only.

STANDING CLASSES

The exercises, stretches, and routines you’ll learn this year are thousands of years old. The practice is dynamic, breath-centered and uses gentle stretching and flowing movements to embody elements of nature, leaving you feeling revitalized and tranquil. While designed as a sequence of qigong classes to do over the course of the year, each session stands on its own. No prerequisites are needed.

March 14, 2023 at 10 AM MNT – Qigong to Balance Yin and Yang
This series of exercises helps you learn how to balance the energies of Yin and Yang within yourself. You’ll discover how to develop more body awareness and to use that awareness to effortlessly navigate change. In this invigorating core workout, you will do exercises to strengthen the core and cultivate flexibility. You start off on the floor before transitioning to standing practices. Many of these exercises combine stretching and movement to deliver a full-body workout. You will finish the routine with a soothing flow that centers your energy. Register Online

April 11, 2023 at 10 AM MNT – Qigong to Calm Your Mind
This routine has you use your body to anchor or “ground” yourself into the present moment. You’ll cycle through standing, sitting, and laying down. These exercises focus on stretching movements and postures to create a peaceful, relaxed state of mind. They also emphasize stretching, including some wonderful twisting exercises. This routine starts with standing exercises before moving the floor, and then finishes with a soothing flow exercise. Register Online

May – Qigong to Increase Your Energy: Session 1
You have an abundance of Qi within and around you that you can cultivate. Through this practice, you will learn how to improve your experience of life and increase your energy by cultivating this Qi. The routine strengthens and stretches your ligaments. It is both energizing and relaxing.

The standing segment activates the body’s energy channels, releases tension, and circulates Qi.

June – Qigong to Increase Your Energy: Session 2
This practice starts off on the ground with exercises that focus on breathing, core strengthening, and stretching. These are excellent practices for postural alignment, digestion, relieving pain, and strengthening your core. After the floor routine, you will do standing work with exercises that focus on activating, rotating, and stretching the muscles.

July – Qigong to Center Your Energy
This routine integrates both standing and sitting practices. You start off by letting go of old energy. Then you will enjoy some Swimming Dragon exercises, which include a variety of spiraling movements that focus on cultivating strength, flexibility and resilience. After the first standing portion of your practice, you will move to the floor for some additional spiraling and stretching exercises and finish with a nourishing flow.

August – Qigong to Cultivate Mindfulness Session 1
In this practice, you will work with and improve your attention (both internally and externally). You’ll discover how to focus only on life-affirming stories rather than stories that sap energy and leave you depressed. To get the energy moving, you will start with activating exercises that awaken the Qi and help you to let go of old energy. Then, you will do some Swimming Dragon movements before transitioning to floor exercises. Many of the exercises in this routine work with gentle stretching and rotating movements.

September – Qigong to Cultivate Mindfulness Session 2
You will move through a variety of standing exercises that focus on both strength and flexibility. The Arrow is one of primary exercises in this routine and is great for cultivating the Metal Element, connected to the lungs. An activating yet calming breathing exercise further supports the lungs. You will conclude the routine with a nourishing flow practice.

October – Qigong to Live in a Flow State 1
Living a life where things feel effortless, in other words living in a “flow state” comes from living in the present moment. This is a wonderful standing practice that guides you to focus on the “here and now.” You will integrate breathing, activating, purging, stretching, and rotating movements. In addition to several other nourishing exercises, this routine introduces the Soaring Eagle, which focuses on cultivating strength and power by working with the lung meridian.

November – Qigong to Live in a Flow State Session 2
In the first part of this routine, you will learn how to massage powerful acupressure points for clearing old energy, also known as “dredging the channels.” Several of the acupressure points focus on the spleen, kidney, and gall bladder meridians. After dredging the channels, you will move through some gentle stretching and rotating exercises.

December – Qigong to Cultivate Positive Energy
You will learn how to transform negative energy into positive, using nothing but your attention. In this routine, you will start on the floor with some breathing and core exercises that focus on strengthening the abdomen and lower back. Then, you will stand and work with meridian stretching exercises before transitioning to a nourishing flow sequence. You will finish the routine with a relaxing meditation in which you use the power of the mind to guide Qi throughout all parts of the body.

SEATED/STANDING CLASSES

Following the live event, please note you may request a link to the recording by emailing coaarp@aarp.org. Recordings will be available for two weeks following the live event only.

In this series of qigong classes, you will learn “The Five Elements Flow.” These movements work with the basic five yin organs (heart, spleen, kidneys, lungs, and liver) in the body and corresponding meridians. They are designed to circulate Qi (energy), as well as remove stagnant energy from these organs. These Five Element Flowing exercises become a physical formula for greater health and longevity. While designed as a sequence of qigong classes to do over the course of the year, each session stands on its own. No prerequisites are needed.

February 28, 2023 at 10 AM MNT– The Wood Element: Qigong for a Balanced Nervous System and Longevity Session 1
The primary attributes of the Wood Element when balanced are strength, flexibility, and courage. When out of balance, you can suffer from inflammation and rigidity. In this routine you will learn how to do the “Swimming Dragon” style of qigong to allow you to rebalance the Wood Element. The exercises will help you regain the ability to make strategic plan, have a relaxed response to everyday stress, and ignite your confidence. This flow also addresses long-term effects of a Wood Element imbalance, such a headache, joint pain, and anger. Register Online

March 28, 2023 at 10 AM MNT– The Wood Element: Qigong for a Balanced Nervous System and Longevity Session 2
You will continue to work to balance the Wood Element. New movements include chair modifications of some of the Wood Element exercises. You will continue working with the coiling and spiraling movements that allow you to unlock the energy to realize your long-term vision. You will also focus on releasing anger, irritation, and annoyance, emotions that occur when wood is out of balance. Register Online

April 25, 2023 at 10 AM MTN – The Wood Element: Qigong for a Balanced Nervous System and Longevity Session 3
This final Wood Element qigong routine nourishes the joints and ligaments, associated with the Wood Element. You will move or massage every joint in your body to bring back supple movement. Additionally, you will use acupressure massage of specific points to release blockages to add not just years to your life, but life to your years. Register Online

May – The Fire Element: Qigong for a Healthy Heart Session 1
You will embrace the characteristics of the Fire Element in this qigong sequence. Fire is connected to the heart and is active and expansive. It is associated with the positive attributes of warmth and persistence, and the negative attributes of impulsiveness and restlessness. Anxiety is the most destructive emotion that occurs when the heart is out of balance. The movements in the practice will allow you to balance your heart energy to reveal joy.

June – The Fire Element: Qigong for a Health Heart Session 2
In this routine, you will tap into and release unexpressed emotions the block the flow of Qi through your heart. You will improve circulation for mental clarity, more energy, and less fatigue. Flowing movements, that include Cloudy Hands and Fair Lady Works the Shuttles, open the heart channels of energy, allowing you to clear phlegm damp conditions that lead to a sub-health state.

July – The Earth Element: Qigong for Healthy Digestion Session 1
The Earth Element brings harmony and a feeling of stability when in balance. Worry and constantly thinking about the future suggest that the Earth Element needs attention. Connected to the spleen, pancreas, and stomach, healthy digestion results when you balance the Earth Element. This qigong routine addresses the root causes of weight gain, poor digestion, and fatigue.

August – The Earth Element: Qigong for Health Digestion Session 2
This qigong practice focuses on the emotional aspects of the Earth Element. You will clear stagnation that leads to overthinking and worry. The movements allow you to replenish your energy stores and deepens your ability to build healthy relationships in which you give and receive. Exercises such as double- and single-handed Pebble in the Pond will boost your Earth Element energy.

September – The Metal Element: Qigong to Breathe Deeply Session 1
The Metal Element, when in balance, promotes persistence, strength, and determination. Inflexibility in attitude, grief, and sadness indicate imbalance. Through this sequence, you will re-establish the ability to act with logic and efficiency at a healthy level. You will also boost your immune system and energize your lungs to reduce, and even eliminate fatigue.

October – The Metal Element: Qigong to Breathe Deeply Session 2
The exercises in this practice allow you to continue to empower the lungs and increase your breathing capacity. You will experience the physical benefits of deep breathing, as well as silence and quietude that result. The elegance of the Metal Element movements further strengthen your immunity and bring a beautiful glow to the skin. The sequence also includes acupressure massage for the lungs.

November – The Water Element: Qigong to Care for the Lower Back Session 1
The Water Element energy moves downward, constantly following the path of least resistance. In balance, the Water Element nurtures abundance and restores your vital life essence, like recharging a battery. It I associated with the kidneys and urinary bladder. You will use soft, flowing movements to move like water to release tightness, tension, and pain in the low back. The exercises also help you increase your strength and energy.

December – The Water Element: Qigong to Care for the Lower Back Session 2
You will continue nourish your vital essence that feeds and renews your life force. Additionally, the movements in this practice allow you to release fear, the primary emotion that occurs when the kidney system, the Water Element system, is out of balance. You will also focus on nurturing and strengthening the bones, associated with the kidney system, through movements such as Kidney Circles and the Fountain.

History of Qigong

One of the most powerful tools you can use to balance your emotions and ensure optimal health is qigong.

Two Chinese characters comprise qigong: qi 气and gong gong 功. You can roughly translate qi to mean energy or life force. It’s more complicated than that, but that imagery works for this discussion. Gong means work or skill. Therefore, qigong means developing skill in working with energy.

Qigong originated from primitive people’s efforts to nurture their health. In fact, in 1957, when archaeologists excavated graves from over 5,000 years ago, they found a colored ceramic basin painted with a figure doing various qigong movements.

Qigong in ancient China was also called tuna (adjustment of breathing), daoyin (moving the body and breathing), zuochan (sitting in meditation), or neigong (internal exercise). These translations emphasize the importance of breathing and using the mind when doing qigong exercises.

Benefits of Qigong

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that if the body's meridians and collaterals are blocked, pain and disease will result. Modern research supports this ancient understanding.

A comprehensive review of 77 peer-reviewed studies from 1993-2007, found that qigong improves bone density, cardiopulmonary health, overall physical function, quality of life, feelings of self-efficacy, immune function, and psychological wellness. It reduced factors that lead to falls,

Another study found that qigong/tai chi had positive effects on the cancer-specific QOL, fatigue, immune function and cortisol level of cancer patients.

Additionally, a more recent analysis of 28 peer-reviewed studies found that qigong benefits numerous health conditions, such as: cancer; fibromyalgia; Parkinson’s disease; Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Burnout; stress; social isolation; chronic low back pain; cervical pain; buzz; osteoarthritis; fatigue; depression; and cardiovascular diseases.

Lastly, on our short list of studies identifying the benefits of qigong, is a five-year longitudinal study published in 2022. Researchers say the results revealed significant changes in blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, respiration rate, and perfusion index in response to Qi Gong practice and long-term changes it effects on the body.


Following the live event, please note you may request a link to the recording by emailing coaarp@aarp.org. Recordings will be available for two weeks following the live event only.