This week’s lesson: a Nei Gong one on Absorbing to Breath. Weirdly basic (at least at a technique level) – it was basically taking the previous week’s video and saying to add in reverse breathing, with some technique advice for reverse breathing, but the technique advice was stuff we’d seen a year or so ago? I did get pretty absorbed in while following the instructions, though… And I also watched the Qi Building Deeper Aspects video; nothing super striking though.

Wednesday: 90m Wu Ji; first time in ages that it’s been that long, body was nicely connected, a little easier putting my mind in my Dantian than it used to be? (I was also noticing that when doing the lesson on Tuesday night.) Don’t get me wrong, though, it still pops out a ton. And things opened up a bit 75 minutes in, especially in my arms. And 40m Dantian Gong.

Thursday: 20m Taiji Hook Punch, and I went through the 37 form and the Chen long weapon forms. My TCM doctor said I was doing worse on Thursday than when he saw me on Wednesday, and he thought the long Wu Ji session might have been a factor. 25m Wu Ji / Ji Ben 1 combo. I started to rewatch the Subtle Body video but I was too sleepy so I decided to take a nap.

Friday: Nothing! Feeling a little off so I slept in and my wife and I were doing things together all afternoon / evening. I wonder if the Wu Ji stressed me too much and got me sick or if it purged something out in a useful way or if it was irrelevant to this and I’d just picked up the fringes of a cold from something else I did on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Saturday; 20m Zhan Zhuang, 10m Taiji Wu Ji, my regular Chen class.

Sunday: 20m Three Circles, the monthly advanced Chen class. And I rewatched the Subtle Body video.

Monday: The Sink to Open Zoom Informal Session. Really interesting; I feel like it helped my understanding of / ability to sink the flesh off the bones, and it was not only opening but also building connectivity in interesting ways. In one Wu Ji in particular I felt connectivity up my arms much more broadly than I normally do – normally it’s like connectivity across cables but that time it was more like connectivity along a sheath. Also one small thing: in the Water Hui Chun he had us angle our hands in a bit when they were above the diaphragm, and that helped with my connectivity, I should do that more.

Tuesday: 20m each WSSF 3 and Taiji Hook Punch. And I went through the Chen sword forms, the 37 form, and the Xinjia first form. And I went through the recording of Rick’s December 10 Zoom class; I liked how I got absorbed while going through that.

Not sure how much I’ll do the next couple of weeks – I’m visiting my brother’s family before Christmas, and then my kid will be here until New Year’s. So my practice will be sporadic; I’m definitely not watching a lesson this week (though that’s actually good timing because the Taiji Hook Punch video includes a different punch at the end which I haven’t been doing, so if I have time to do something like that I can do that second one), we’ll see if I watch a lesson next week but I suspect I’ll skip then too.

This week’s lesson was on Taiji Hook Punch. Which I enjoyed more than I expected do, doing it this week, stuff is moving through my body in an interesting way. And there was a Pushing Hands video on Suppression (An); I’ll try to try that out with a partner, though I’m sure it will fail just like all the other ones I’ve tried…

Wednesday: I went through Sinew Work Principles zoom class again; good, as always.

Thursday: 20m Taiji Hook Punch, Chen long weapon forms, and the Laojia 1st / 2nd forms. And for Nei Gong, 25m Dragon 1, 30m Full Moon, and 35m Spleen Hui Chun. And I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 in the evening.

Friday: 20m Wu Ji, and a 1h MCO attempt. I was feeling really strong interactions with the Qi and my torso when doing thickening in the prep stage (in particular while I dragging Qi up and down between the base of my body and my collar bone), and I had a really big blob of Qi when I got to where I kicked things off. I think I didn’t have it enter my tailbone properly, though, and it was too far forward? So it was hard getting things to go up; it did eventually make it up, but it took like 15 minutes in total, and the blob only barely touched my Baihui, dispersing along the way. So I think ultimately I only nominally completed the orbit, but good signs along the way.

Saturday: 30m Advanced Dantian Gong; my regular Chen Tai Chi class; and a brief run through all four Dragons.

Sunday: While I was driving this morning, I noticed that I was feeling more action in my shoulders and even in my Kua; stuff seems connecting and opening up more than it was? And the thing I was driving to was a Tai Chi marathon; I went through the Lao Jia first form 12 times, been ages since I’ve done something like that, I’m glad I did. In the afternoon, just 35m ineffective Subtle Body.

Monday: I went through the Du Stretch video, did 20m Wu Ji, and 30m Dantian Gong.

Tuesday: I reviewed the Turn Body, Chop, and Push video. And while going through stuff after that, some thought crystallized about leg stability in Tai Chi (and in Nei Gong, for that matter): I think I need to focus first on making sure that I’ve got a connection through my whole leg down to my Yong Quan before worrying about the details of sinking into my Kua or sinking down to my feet: if I try to do those latter ones without having the connection in the whole leg, I’ll still be unstable. I went through the Chen sword weapon forms. I spent 20m each Hook Punch and Four Energies; that latter reminds me that I also want to work on always be sinking to get a stretch on my back that leads to Peng, so I have to make sure that my Kua works to simultaneously support that and support the leg feeling I mentioned above. And I went through the 37 form three times and the Xin Jia first form and the Hunyuan 48. After that, I sat quietly in a church for 20 minutes. In the afternoon, I went through the recording of Rick’s December 6 Zoom class.

Last week’s lesson was Nei Gong, on The Subtle Body; maybe I’ll finally figure out what Yin Qi and Yang Qi feel like… And I watched Reverse Yi to Find Qi from the Bali 2025 talks; was good but I think it would have had more impact on me if I hadn’t been watching the Sweden 2025 talks recetnly.

Wednesday: 20m Wu Ji; 1h Dantian Gong and thickening.

Thursday: 1h Subtle Body; I’m not really feeling the Yin Qi but maybe I’ve got a bit of an idea about Yang Qi? 35m Dragon 2. I went through the Hunyuan 48 and the Lao Jia second form. At the request of my TCM doctor, I started using a Fitbit to track my sleep; my upshot after a little less than a week of doing it is that I’m getting about an hour a night of deep sleep, and my doctor would like that to be at least an hour and a half. And I was surprised to see that deep sleep actually happens at the start of the night, I’d assumed based on the name that it was later on, but talking with Claude, that’s normal.

Friday: Just 40m of Dantian Gong; I spent the afternoon with a friend, so not much today.

Saturday: 30m Advanced Dantian Gong, 10m Taiji Wuji, and I finished my series of long Silk Reeling with a long Dantian Rotation. (Didn’t feel as much during that one as I expected.) Definitely glad I did that; I certainly won’t do the whole series again, but there are at least half a dozen that are quite useful. Though for the next month or two I want to focus on Song, so I’ll do the who Silk Reeling sequence instead, just with only three or repetitions of each one instead of six and trying to Song it strongly. And then hopefully that Song will carry over into my form. As to the rest of the Chen class, we finished the Hunyuan Pao Chui; I haven’t been focusing on that form at all (and in particular I haven’t been doing it at home) but at least I’ve been paying enough attention that the basic moves are familiar to me, so if I want to learn it next time that should be doable. But I’m also glad that we’re starting the Hunyuan 48 in January, I could definitely use an in-person review on that, I’m trying to solidify it through videos but it’s tough. And I went through the four Dragons.

Sunday: 90m push hands; some interesting / practical discussion of doing tiny Peng/Lu/Ji/An combos within one small bit of the pattern, instead of only looking for the energies in broad strokes. And also an interesting discussion of Ji as deforming the ball from Peng so there’s a pointy part sticking out. (Kind of a three-dimensional version of Damo’s notion of Ji as both hands pushing at a single point.) And 30m attention to breath; I think that, as long as I’m getting TCM treatments on Sunday (which hopefully won’t be for ages) I probably won’t do much Nei Gong on Sundays. And some Shui Gong 2 at night

Monday: 80m Wu Ji; I’d have to go through the archives, but I feel like it’s been months since I’ve done more than 75m, so that’s certainly good. And 30m Dantian Gong, and Shui Gong 1 at night.

Tuesday: 20m each of Horizontal Punch and WSSF1. And I went through the 37 form, the Chen weapon forms, and the Chen Xinjia form, and took a walk after that. In the afternoon, I did 35m of Dragon 2, went through the Du Stretch video, and an hour of Subtle Body. (Maybe I started feeling hints of Yin Qi? I’m really not sure.)