Have you ever wondered if there’s a way to reduce your risk of injuries or increase your longevity? Well, in ancient China, Shaolin monks were asking the same exact questions.
In the twenty-first century, most exercise routines focus on building muscular or cardiovascular fitness. While those are important aspects of well-being, they’re not enough to keep you strong and healthy. In fact, if you only focus on exercises such as weightlifting or running, you’ll likely end up injured at some point.
Iron Shirt is a style of Qi Gong that builds inner power and balances all aspects of your body. It can help you avoid injuries, experience more energy, and live a longer and more fulfilling life.
In this blog, you’ll learn about the origin of Iron Shirt Qi Gong, as well as how it can help you avoid injuries and increase your longevity.
Iron Shirt Qi Gong was developed in ancient China in the Shaolin Temple. Originally, it was used to help warriors build internal power and prepare for battle.
By using specific techniques, soldiers were able to cultivate great internal strength that helped them stay protected on the battlefield as if they were wearing an “iron shirt.” This made the practice extremely popular among warriors throughout China.
Soon after it was developed, people realized that Iron Shirt practices didn’t just help soldiers. Iron Shirt can benefit anyone, even those not planning to going into battle. The same techniques that help protect you from enemies can also protect you from injuries and even aging.
One of the powerful things about Iron Shirt is that it doesn’t just focus on strengthening your muscles. Instead, it helps you strengthen your smaller connective tissues: ligaments and tendons.
Traditional strength-building exercises often neglect the importance of your ligaments and tendons. After all, you’re not likely going to impress anyone by flexing your glenohumeral ligaments. Additionally, your ligaments and tendons are generally much more vulnerable to injuries than your muscles, so shouldn’t you be focusing more on keeping them strong and healthy?
Iron Shirt Qi Gong practices provide much-needed attention and nourishment to your ligaments and tendons. This includes engaging in healthy movements, postures, and meditations that cultivate energy and flow throughout your entire body. Iron Shirt practices are also fun and relaxing, so you’ll want to do them.
In addition to helping you strengthen the physical tissues in your ligaments and tendons, Iron Shirt Qi Gong practices also help you experience greater overall health and vitality. Not surprisingly, those are essential elements for longevity.
Iron Shirt helps you experience more vitality by tonifying your energy system. In Qi Gong, ‘tonifying’ is the process of strengthening your life-force energy (i.e., Qi). Although most Qi Gong practices include an aspect of tonifying, Iron Shirt is one of the best ways to experience this process.
When you practice Iron Shirt, you learn how to infuse each of your organs with nourishing energy. This process is called packing because you’re filling your organs with vital life-force energy.
As you cultivate more and more energy, you feel a sense of power growing within you. It’s the same feeling that warriors experienced in ancient China! However, instead of using that energy for battle, it can be used to keep your body strong and vital instead.
Because Iron shirt practices boost your internal energy system, they also help you feel more alive and inspired. This means that Iron Shirt doesn’t just help you add years to your life, but also life to your years.
If you’re interested in learning Iron Shirt Qi Gong practices to protect yourself from injuries and help increase longevity, be sure to check out The Iron Shirt Online Course.
In our Iron Shirt Qi Gong Online Course, you’ll learn powerful practices designed to strengthen your ligaments and tendons and fortify your entire energy system.
This on-demand course is taught online by master Qi Gong teacher Lee Holden. When you sign up, you'll get lifetime access to all of the lessons, allowing you to rewatch the material as much as you'd like.
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