Last week’s lesson was a Nei Gong one, on Leg Rotations. (Another Hunyuan exercise, seems pleasant enough.) And I started the Wuji and Body Sweden 2025 video.

Wednesday: 30m each of just breathing, then Song breathing, then Dantian Gong. Just breathing was interesting – I wasn’t second guessing my body like I was a few years back, I was breathing decently fully in my chest, but it wasn’t going as low as I would like; there’s certainly more work to do there. And then I attended Rick’s Zoom class, we did a seated version of the gourd exercise.

Thursday: I reviewed the Double Dao; did 20m each of the Sinking the Qi Taiji exercise, Taiji Standing 1, and 4 energies; I went through the 37 form 5 times; and took a walk. That was my first time doing Taiji Standing 1 since rewatching that video, so I was a little worried it would be too strenuous, but doing it 20 minutes was fine; certainly harder than most of the isolated Taiji exercises but manageable. And during the form itself, I felt like I was doing a better job than normal of avoiding sending weight to my right knee, hopefully I can build on that. As to Nei Gong practice, I was thinking about this more; I’m still feeling like I should make more time for breathing improvements and probably spend time on Song Breathing, that’s probably more important right now than trying to spend a full hour on Calm Abiding? So I’ll switch around those priorities accordingly, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays. What I ended up doing that afternoon was an hour of standing practice that was a mixture of Wu Ji, Ji Ben 3, Ji Ben 4, and the Lotus Dao Yin, followed by 30 minutes of seated just breathing; I intended to do Calm Abiding after that but I was too sleepy. My back was feeling surprisingly active during the evening, not sure why. And I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 that evening, as well as the Song Breathing video from year 1 (it’s actually called Release), and I finished the Wuji and Body Sweden 2025 video.

Friday: Dogs interrupted sleep in the previous night and I was busy in the afternoon with an acupuncture appointment so I just did 20m Wu Ji and 40m Kidney Hui Chun.

Saturday: Stiff lower back this morning, I’m not used to being that achy; the acupuncture appointment was the main thing that was different, maybe my muscles didn’t like the spine manipulation that he did? I did 30m of Advanced Dantian Gong, 20m of Leg Rotations, and had my standard Saturday Chen Tai Chi class.

Sunday: I did 20m Leg Rotations, reviewed my Tai Chi Pole weapons, and went through both Lao Jia empty hand forms and the Hunyuan 48. And I did 30m of just breathing and 25m of Spleen Hui Chun.

Monday: I went to see a sleep doctor the main interesting thing there was that she mentioned my palate was narrow, so maybe I should go back to the lesson related to that in year 3 of the Nei Gong course and start doing that? And I did an hour of Wu Ji, and 50m of seated work (mostly Dantian Gong).

Tuesday: I reviewed the Taiji lesson that goes to the end of the first road. A good milestone, next week I should probably video myself and ask for feedback? I had an appointment this morning so I didn’t do quite as much Tai Chi practice this morning, but what I did was interesting: I did 20 minutes of Taiji Standing 1, and my body reacting quite noticeably to that. And then I went through the 37 form three times, and that felt good, too, I think there was more stuff than normal moving around; not sure if it’s related to Taiji Standing 1 but hopefully it is and hopefully I can build on that? (Unfortunately, I forgot to follow up on the feeling from last Thursday about how I was sending weight down my leg.) And I went through the Chen Xin Jia first form; not as active inside, which makes me wonder what’s going on there. Is that just that the Chen mechanics really are fundamentally different from the Yang ones, or that my body isn’t trained to do the vertical circle when I’m doing Chen but, if I worked on it, I could bring it out there too? I know Damo says he doesn’t like mixing different schools but I think I should do an experiment there… (I experimented a bit during the second half of the form, actually, it feels to me plausible that I can bring things out.) And also I should be open to the possibility that I should move Jin through my body more during Chen style but that it should be more Dantian centered. During the afternoon, I goofed off too much so I didn’t do as much Nei Gong as I would have liked, but it was still not too bad: 50 minutes of Spinal Dao Yin, 25 minutes of just breathing, and 15 minutes (I think, maybe 20?) of Song Breathing.

I’m going to skip doing a lesson tonight: there’s a Foundations workshop this weekend so I won’t have as much practice time as normal, and I feel like an extra week of practicing the most recent Taiji and Nei Gong exercises won’t be a bad idea.

This week was a Taiji lesson on Sinking the Qi; kind of interesting, at first it felt to me like a bit of an overlap with other lessons (e.g. the earlier one about sinking into the ground, maybe it was Releasing the Feet for Taiji?) but it built on that in an interesting way, and also I was happy to have a nudge to return to that. Though I do kind of have too many isolated exercises to work on right now… And I watched about half of the Medical Qigong lecture from Sweden 2025.

Wednesday: I went through the Spine Spa class again. Nothing much to report about that this time.

Thursday: I rewatched Taiji Standing 1 (Ward Off Left); honestly I’m not sure if I should do Taiji Standing 4 more times, but I figure I’ve been doing it for something like 4 weeks (only twice a week, admittedly) so changing postures seemed plausible. I rewatched Play Pipa; good back stretch on that one. (And I’m getting close to the end of the first road in my review, so I ordered a phone tripod, I think I’ll record myself to ask for feedback on the first road soon.) I went through the Chen sword forms, through the 37 form four times; the Xin Jia form; and I took a walk. In the afternoon I went through Rick’s July 16 Zoom; I was feeling a little off so I didn’t end up doing any sitting work after that. I did my regular Hunyuan 48 review in the evening and I finished watching the Medical Qigong lecture.

Friday: It’s continuing to be a little hard to get started; not sure why, maybe I’m a little more tired than normal but I’m not convinced? Though the inside of my body feels quietly more active than normal. 1h Wu Ji (with some unusually scattered listening inside); 65m seated stuff, leading to an MCO attempt, my mind was being noticeably more stable than normal during this seated work, and my Qi was actually getting about as thick as I’ve ever felt it during the thickening, and it felt kind of like my Qi/muscles were feeling kind of rippling as they were moving around during the rotating part of MCO prep. Pretty standard MCO attempt, made it halfway up my back (or, honestly, probably a little less, above my diaphragm I think but not by much). Not sure if it’s not enough juice, if there’s a clipping pass that I need to work on, or both?

Saturday: 35m of sleepy Advanced Dantian Gong; 20m of Zhan Zhuang; and long Silk Reeling was Kua Circling Out With a Kick. Which was a little annoying, and I didn’t end up feeling the Silk particularly; though I’m honestly not sure if that’s because it’s not actually a very silk-reely exercise or if it is but I need to be more stable? And of course the standard Saturday Chen Tai Chi class.

Sunday: 20m Wu Ji; I went through the Chen pole forms and all of the empty hand forms; I took a brisk walk; and I did 50m seated work aiming at Scholar Breathing. I got some hints of a contraction during that and then later hints of a vibration, so I still feel like I’m not too far off from that turning into something useful?

Monday: My Kua muscles were aching a bit, I think it’s the walk? Also, FWIW I’m starting to pay more attention to the feel (both mental and physical) of distractions like wanting to use my phone; hopefully by being attentive to that I’ll be able to find a way to reduce the tug, or at least resist it better? I did 65m Wu Ji and 30m of seated stuff.

Tuesday: I reviewed the Chen sword forms (and I did the Jian one 3 times), and I did the Xin Jia form two times. No Yang stuff or isolated work, though, I had a meeting that ate into my Tai Chi time. I did an hour of standing, a mixture of Wu Ji, Ji Ben 1, Ji Ben 2, and Wood Wu Xing, and an hour of okayish Calm Abiding, it wasn’t very strong but at least I wasn’t sleepy. And I went for a walk.

Good week. I’m spending more time stretching my back, calves, and hamstrings (mostly through isolated stretches during the day, but also Wu Ji is helping with my back) and also going on brisk walks more often, and I feel like it’s making a difference – my back in particular seems happier in ways that helps with Nei Gong. So hopefully if I keep at that it will make a difference. Still need to get my sleep in order, but I’ll see a sleep doctor soon and probably get a CPAP soon after, hopefully that will help. (And hopefully it will help with my energy levels, not just with my quantity of sleep.)

Anyways: a Nei Gong lesson this week, on Listening Inside. Pleasant enough, and I imagine that I’ll keep on doing it if for no other reason that it’s easy to spend five minutes on in the middle of a long Wu Ji session.

Wednesday: 50m Dantian Gong / Thickening; and I took Rick’s Zoom class (live, I’d been catching up on recorded ones but hadn’t done any live ones yet), mostly spent on the snowman / gourd exercise. Which was interesting, I’ve seen that before but I’d forgotten what he does to set up your body before doing the hand movements. Glad to be doing that, going forward I’ll try to participate in the Wednesday ones live, though I think I’ll watch the Saturday ones after the fact.

Thursday: I rewatched the Brush Knee and Press video; did Taiji Standing 4 (Push), some Taiyi Standing, and Wu Song Shen Fa 2; went through the 37 form 5 times (twice with video, 3 on my own); and went through the Xin Jia first form twice. And I took a walk after that. IN the afternoon, I did 25m Wu Ji / Coiling Snake, 35m of breathing practice, 5m listening inside, and 30m Calm Abiding. Not sure why I wasn’t feeling it on Calm Abiding; my back ached some but I’m not convinced that was the only reason why I didn’t last longer. In the evening, I did some Hunyuan 48 review and watched the second Texas 2025 talk.

Friday: 1h Wu Ji, my lower back got noticeably warm, which is unusual. Glad to see it, because in one of the videos I watched over the last few weeks, that was called out as being more or less necessary for something, I think maybe Microcosmic Orbit work? 1h10m of listening inside / Dantian Gong / thickening / MCO attempt; when I first tried kicking off the MCO, Qi went too far to the front of my spine, I didn’t send it into the sacrum at the right place I think. In the second time it went in the right place, went maybe halfway up my spine? Farther than the previous week, at any rate, and it had a different texture. Took a walk.

Saturday: 30m Full Moon practice (plus some listening inside) and 30m Zhan Zhuang. And I continued my long Silk Reeling with Hip Rotations; unsurprisingly, that didn’t do anything special, honestly I was just glad that it didn’t strain my back because doing it for longer than the standard (minimal) amount has had that effect in the past. And of course my regular Chen Tai Chi class.

Sunday: 30m Zhan Zhuang, 10m Side Channel Rolling, the once a month Sunday Tai Chi class, and a sleepy 30m Kidney Hui Chun.

Monday: 90m Wu Ji (with a little bit of listening inside); 50m seated stuff, more heavily weighted towards Dantian Gong than normal.

Tuesday: 25m Wu Ji, 10m Coiling Snake, 1h Calm Abiding. Chen pole weapon forms, Hunyuan 48.

Last week’s lesson was on Kua Development, from the Taiji course. I’ll wait for a while to do the exercise because of the ankle problems I’m having, but the principle is useful. (Maybe more useful than the specific exercise, honestly, I’ve been doing other Kua exercises for a while.)

On Wednesday I did 1 hour of Spinal Dao Yin and 1 hour of Dantian Gong / Qi thickening.

On Thursday I’d had bad sleep overnight and termite inspection during the middle of the day, so the only Tai Chi I did in the morning was going through the Xin Jia form a couple of times. And I didn’t do much Nei Gong in the afternoon either, just 40 minutes of Water Hui Chun and 10 minutes of Wu Ji. And I did my regular Hunyuan 48 review in the evening, and I also watched the first Texas 2025 talk.

On Friday I did an hour of Wu Ji and an hour of Dantian Gong / Qi thickening / trying to kick off the Microcosmic Orbit. Things were more juddery than normal when thickening, so it felt like stuff was thickening noticeably. But the MCO attempt was less successful than in the previous week: it didn’t go very far up my back, I mostly needed more juice, but it also felt like some resistance in the middle of my back wasn’t helping. And I went on a brisk walk for a while.

Also sometime around then (maybe starting Thursday evening), I noted that I’d had abnormally bad sleep for a little over a week, and that coincided with an experiment I was doing with some pillows. My standard had been one thick pillow and one thin pillow; then I’d experimented with adding in a third (thick) pillow into the mix, which seemed fine from a sleep point of view and helped things drain more. But for the last week I’d been experimenting with two thick and no thin pillows, and that lined up with the bad sleep; I think what’s going on there is that puts a bend in my neck at a location where my airway can constrict a bit. So I’ve gone back to the three pillow configuration, and it’s working better (the bend is further down my throat in a place less vulnerable to constriction); I’ll probably switch back to the thick plus thin two pillow configuration soon so I can compare that again.

On Saturday I did 30 minutes of Advanced Dantian Gong, and I got back to the long versions of the Silk Reeling exercises, this time doing a Four Energies drill. (Which worked decently well in the long form – in particular, that specific drill has a reverse direction part where the extra time helps with the silk. And of course I had my regular Chen Tai Chi class.

On Sunday I did 25 minutes of Long Loops, 40 minutes of Spleen Hui Chun, and 10 minutes of Wood Wu Xing; and for Tai Chi practice I went through the Chen pole weapons and through the first and second Lao Jia forms.

On Monday I did 75 minutes of Wu Ji; it went well, I got a good Song on my lower back that turned into a good stretch, my lower spine actually started to get a hint of a taffy feeling. I remember getting a similar feeling (with a different exercise) when I was working on my shoulders, hopefully it’s a sign that my spine is starting to get unbound in a meaningful way? And I did an hour of Dantian Gong / thickening.

Today I rewatched the 37 Form – Lifting Hands into White Crane video; I went through the Yang 37 form four times (twice with video, twice without); I went through my Chen sword weapon forms and the Hunyuan 48, and I did 20 minutes each of Taji Standing 4 Push and Wu Song Shen Fa 3. And I decided to restart acupuncture, so I had my first appointment today. My doctor tried out something different and he was pleased with the difference in my Kidney before/after readings, but we’ll see if that holds up and makes a difference. And I did an hour of Calm Abiding after that; fine, nothing special, but also I wasn’t sleepy so that made it better than any attempt at that over the previous week.