What is Iron Shirt Qigong?
You may have seen Kung Fu practitioners demonstrating their great strength and resilience by having different materials broken against their bodies. Breaking sticks and bats, bending spears, or smashing bricks with hammers. This is an outward demonstration of Iron Shirt skill, and its useful application to combat within the martial arts is clear. What may not be so immediately obvious is how beneficial the practices that develop this strength and resilience can be for our overall health and wellbeing.
Because of the rough physical nature of these impressive feats of skill, sometimes people get the impression that Iron Shirt Qigong is somehow harmful to our bodies. That it requires being rough with your body to ‘toughen’ it so that it can withstand such forces. However this is not the way to develop true skill. The methods of good Iron Shirt Qigong gently nurture our energy so that it can support our body in becoming vibrantly strong and balanced.
Those physical performances are impressive, but what really matters is our internal health and strength that supports such resilience. The same methods that take a strong body and make it even stronger, when applied correctly will take a weak or broken body and bring it back to health and wholeness.
The Process of Iron Shirt Qigong
One of the great keys of Iron Shirt Qigong is that great resilience comes from all of the tissues of the body working together effectively. When subject to great force, the body is only as strong as it’s weakest link, so all of the Iron Shirt Qigong practices work to create balance within the body, uncovering areas of weakness and tension, and challenging them to make them strong. The process of Iron Shirt Qigong begins by releasing excess tensions through the body so that our energy can flow freely. It then continues with practices to fill and charge our body with energy, pack that energy into our body so it becomes more concentrated and solid to support us from within, smelt the energy with dynamic tension exercises to cause it to flow evenly into every part of our body with movement, and then finally forge and temper the energy to bring it to the surface of our body – making it strong, but smooth, flexible, and resilient.
Iron Shirt Qigong Benefits your Body
The process of Iron Shirt Qigong works to build, or rebuild, the strength of our body and energy from the inside out. It works in subtle ways to open the joints and strengthen the ligaments and tendons. It regulates and strengthens the activity of the nervous system. It tones the circulatory system to better support healthy internal pressure and flow through the body. And it creates flexible dynamic strength through the whole body as all of the tissues work together to find optimal alignment and to efficiently support load and withstand force.
The Iron Shirt Qigong practices do challenge all of the tissues of the body in order to develop this strength and resilience. It comes as a result of work and effort. But because the resistance and level of force used in each Iron Shirt Qigong practice is generated by yourself, this process is beautifully scaleable. The practices can be done as gently as needed to help someone start to rebuild their strength after illness, injury, or years of neglect, and equally can be made as strenuous as needed to challenge even the fittest and strongest athlete. You are in complete control of the level of resistance you give to yourself, and the exertion you need to put into each of the practices.
Iron Shirt Qigong Benefits your Mind
The process of developing this resilience also has great benefits for your mind. If you can imagine the great physical confidence that comes from being able to withstand strong blows and have things broken across your body without injury – that same confidence flows out into other areas of your life as you begin to feel the strength and stability of your body. You know you can trust in yourself and your abilities, you know you can overcome challenges and adversity, and this creates a sense of safety, security, and comfort – even when faced with difficult situations. Our mind becomes strong, stable, and resilient at the same time as our body does. Of course this develops gradually, just like the strength of our body does. You don’t go instantly from being weak and broken down to being strong and capable of withstanding blows – the strength and resilience of both your mind and body develops little by little as you practice, and Iron Shirt Qigong gives you the tools to do this.
Iron Shirt Qigong Benefits your Energy
Some aspects of Iron Shirt Qigong can be classed as very yang – active, dynamic, hot, and bringing the energy to the surface. But other aspects of the practices are extremely yin – slow, relaxed, internal, building the energy at the centre. This dynamic harmony flowing from yin to yang activates the energy strongly, making it healthy and vital. The challenge of the Iron Shirt Qigong practices acts as a stimulus that can open up new experience and understanding of your energy as you unlock new levels of healthy, vital, energy flow and distribute it evenly through your body. This strength of energy will then flow into your other qigong practices and also support you in your daily life and activities.
Learning Iron Shirt Qigong
If you would like to learn the practices of Iron Shirt Qigong and discover their benefits for yourself, we go deep into these practices, exploring each part and building them step by step in the Inner Fire Qigong 200 hour instructor certification program. Within the program you will learn tools for releasing and balancing tension throughout your body, and be guided in learning practices to fill and charge, pack, smelt, forge, and temper your energy – making it strong, healthy, and vibrant.
The training is very comprehensive, and is taught alongside other dynamic practices of the Warrior’s Path. Specifically: Inner Fire Breathwork to activate your internal energy and light the spark of your inner flame. Wild Animal Play Qigong which draws inspiration from the movements of animals in their natural environment and strongly circulates our energy building qualities of strength, flexibility, balance, agility, and co-ordination, and balances and harmonizes our energy. And Breathing Theory and Practice which you can use to deepen every aspect of your qigong practice and also apply to all the activities of your daily life.
Whether you are interested in the Iron Shirt Qigong practices for your own benefit, or to teach others, it is a great way to go deep into them and get a really solid foundation of understanding. We also have instructors all over the world teaching these practices in classes and workshops. You might be able to find one of these instructors in your area by looking at the listings on our Instructor’s Page.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the practice and benefits of Iron Shirt Qigong. To go further you really need to experience the practices for yourself so that you can feel the way your energy is nurtured, developed, and activated by the practice. So get in touch with one of our instructors, or we would love to have you join us on our next Inner Fire Qigong program!
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I have taken all of John’s courses over the last 8 years. This course has taken my practice to a new level. Integrating the Inner Fire, Wild Animal Play and Iron Shirt qigong into my daily practice has been extremely beneficial. The course is structured in such a way that it allows for the full immersion of the practices. I recommend everyone who has an interest attend.