Nei Gong Notes, September 9, 2025
Last week’s lesson was Torso Movement, from the Taji course. And it was paired with Push Hands – Roll Back, that looks like one that’s worth trying some Saturday, though I wasn’t able to try it out this week.
Wednesday: I did 1h Wu Ji, 1h seated stuff (mostly Dantian Gong). Both really good, my abdomen felt really full and tissues were doing interesting things. And I started using the CPAP – for now it’s interfering with my sleep more than it’s helping.
Thursday: For Tai Chi, I reviewed 37 form Punch Under Elbow; 37 form x3; 10m Torso Movement; I recorded a video of me doing the First Road; I went through the Chen sword weapons; and did the Xin Jia form. I asked in the IAA Discord for feedback on the video, and I got some useful pointers, but also just watching it gave me some ideas; I should probably record more of my forms (especially ones that I think are getting solid), I bet I’d see a bunch of stuff on video. (Maybe I should ask some of my fellow Chen students if they want to review videos?) For Nei Gong I did 30m Awakening Dragon, 30m paying attention to the breath, 30m Song Breathing. And in the evening I did my regular Hunyuan 48 review.
Friday: 35m Spine Shoulder Dao Yin. And then I did a 75m Microcosmic Orbit attempt; I wasn’t super optimistic during the prep, my Qi wasn’t feeling as intense as it had on Wednesday, and when I kicked off the attempt proper, it didn’t seem like I had any more Qi going up than in prior attempts. But it kept on going up (and was going up in a narrower column than before); I think maybe the spine work I’ve been doing (e.g. the Awakening Dragon at the workshop, but also a lot more Spine Waves during the day) has had an effect? It took 10-15 minutes to make its way up (and 10-15 minutes again to make its way down after that), but it really did seem to be the full Orbit. (Which I succeeded in for the first time in ages, and it’s only the second time I’ve done it in a non-workshop context.) Pretty unexpected, because I’d been stuck at the same place for a while, and that place wasn’t particularly close to the top of my head, but I’ll take it!
Saturday: minimal Nei Gong, just a bit of Awakening Dragon practice; and I did my regular Saturday Chen class. But my body felt really good inside; not sure if it’s lingering effects from the workshop or that I’ve been working on my spine or side effects of the MCO work or if it’s the CPAP (though I actually didn’t use the CPAP on Friday night) or if it’s just random or what, but I feel like I’m noticeably more full of Qi than I every have been in the past. (And it’s a broader sort of fullness – sometimes in the past after a good session I’ve felt noticeably tingling along my Ming Line, but this is different.) And Tai Chi was, as a result, quite a bit more interesting than normal. And, looking ahead, that fullness is still present in my body as I’m writing this; not as strongly as on Saturday, but not nothing. So hopefully something has changed; and hopefully I can keep it up through a combination of spine work and Microcosmic Orbit work? We’ll see.
Sunday: I went through the Chen pole weapons; the Lao Jia first and second form; the Hunyuan 48 form. And I did 20m Wu Ji, 30m Anchoring the Breath, 30m Calm Abiding.
Monday: I had a stiff back after I woke up; didn’t mess me up too much, though, but maybe kept the Wu Ji short? Though I think that was really mostly a mental thing… At any rate, I did 65m Wu Ji (which would be fine if my target had been 60 minutes but not great with a 90 minute target!), and 60m DTG and other seated stuff, both of which were quite intense.
Tuesday: 20m each of Taiji Standing 1 and Torso Movement, the 37 form 3 times, the Xin Jia form, and all the Chen sword forms. I watched Rick’s September 6 Zoom class recording, but it was weirdly truncated; hopefully that’ll get fixed. And then I did 30 minutes of observing the breath and 30 minutes of Calm Abiding. Also, my TCM doctor continued to claim that my sleep apnea is related to / caused by an enlarged disc at my C3 / C4 vertebrae, and that doing neck rotations will help; I’ve been doing the quantity of neck rotations that he’s recommended for the last through years and it hasn’t helped, but honestly I’m not sure I’ve got the quality right? So I’ll slow them down and try to Song more, and I’ll do three sets a day instead of one, we’ll see if that helps.
Anyways, a really good week overall, I’m happy very happy with that, it feels great to be able to concretely see what the (or a) next step in my practice might feel like.