1. How to decide the amount of the exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin?

Generally speaking, the practicer should do at least five times of the exercise for one week, one or two times for each day with two minutes break. 40 minutes or so is reasonable for each time along with the tuning-up and trimming time. One or two times of the exercise for fifteen to thirty minutes in each day is ok when the time or the health is not permitted. In addition, you can choose some suitable routines from the set to do the exercise.

The sustainability for the exercise load is different for different practicers due to the sex, age, constitution etc. Generally speaking, the feeling of the body can be used to decide the exercise load of which is reasonable if the practicer is happy with normal pulse, blood pressure, appetite and sleeping and comfortable in the next day. The exercise load should be adjusted if the practicer is tired with abnormal pulse, appetite and bad sleep after the exercise.

2. How to do the breath in the exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin?

Reverse abdominal breath is generally used together with lifting-anus breath in the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin. It is done as the follows: To lift the anus and contract the abdomen, raise the diaphragm while inhaling; To relax the anus and abdomen and lower the diaphragm while exhaling. The breath should be combined with the guiding as inhaling while lifting, opening and storing and exhaling while lowering, closing and starting. Hold one’s breath slightly at the turn of the change of the routine.

Taking the difference of lung capacity and breathing frequency into consideration, the breath should be timely adjusted when it is not smooth as the amplitude of the actions is different for different practicers.

3. How to regulate the mind of the exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin?

Mind regulation is to regulate the thinking activity of which is also called regulating the heart. The mind regulation of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin is not to mind on one thing but to mind the process of the routine including the specification, main points, key parts and breath. Concretely speaking, the practicer should mind on the specification and main points of the routine in the beginning stage and on the style as well as the coordination of the routine with the breath in the advanced stage. The actions will attain the state of automation with natural breath and calm mind during the course of the proficiency and improvement of the skills. At that time the practicer can mind on the style, main points and the keys of each action to make the action, breath and mind integrated.

4. What can the exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin do for enhancing the health of the middle and aged people?

Regular exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin can decrease the percentage of the body and blood fat, keep blood pressure and heart rate normal, enhance the function of the heart and lung, reduce the tension of sympathetic nerve, increase the vagal tone and be helpful to reduce the danger of the onset of cardiocerebrovascular diseases in the long run. In the meantime, it can raise the kinetic trait, ameliorate the anxiety and mental state, and improve the life quality of the middle and aged people. In addition, it can strengthen the function of eliminating the free radicals, increase the level of sex hormone, slow the senility of intelligence and physiological age for the middle and aged people. Therefore, it is one effective way to keep health and prolong life for the middle and aged people.

5. What can the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin do for the figure of the middle and aged people?

Some researches show that there is drastic change in the body weight, weight index, circumference index, the skin thick of which is mainly the change of the body composition including the decrease of subcutaneous fatty tissue and increase of lean body weight after the exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin for six months. It is one kind of aerobic exercise with medium intensity. The regular exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin can improve the body composition and mold the healthy and exquisite figure for the middle and aged people in the long run.

6. Why can the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin improve the function of the respiratory system for the middle and aged people?

Conclusion can be taken from the whole routines of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin. Respiratory extent and depth should be continuously increased to improve the longitudinal motion extent of the diaphragmatic muscle to exercise the respiratory muscle in the routine one, holding the hands high with palms up to regulate the internal organs, routine two, posing as an archer shooting both left-and-handed, routine three, holding one arm aloft to regulate the functions of the spleen and stomach. Diaphragmatic muscle is the most important respiratory muscle and the effective exercise of it can increase the volume of the thoracic cavity to improve the lung capacity.

7. Can the exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin ameliorate the function of the cardiovascular system for the middle and aged people?

The dynamic remote monitoring results of the heart rate for some practicers show that the heart rate decreased including the maximal and average heart rate in the course of the exercise and timely heart rate after the exercise to some extent after the exercise for six months. That is to say, the exercise can take effect on the function of the heart for the middle and aged people. What’s more, the exercise load of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin is mild and moderate extent and is fit for the middle and aged people. So it is one effective way to improve the function of them.

8. Is the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin effective on improving the flexibility and agility of the middle and aged people?

Yes, it is. In the routine six, moving the hands down the back and legs and touching the feet to strengthen the kidneys, the practicer should bend the body forward to the utmost. The long-term exercise can improve the agility of the body trunk. In fact, it is helpful to the health keeping of other parts and joints except that. For example, routine four, which is looking backwards to prevent sickness and strain, can raise the agility of the neck. Routine one, which is holding the hands high with palms up to regulate the internal organs, and routine three, which is holding one arm aloft to regulate the spleen and stomach, can increase the agility of the shoulder joints and hand joints. Routine five, which is swinging the head and lowering the body to relieve the stress, can increase the agility of the hip and ankle joints.

9. Is the exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin effective on the balance and coordination of the middle and aged people?

Yes, it is. The practicer should control the body weight in adducting and abducting the feet and keep in the horse stance for a long time in the routine of posing as an archer shooting both left-and–right-handed, swinging the hand and lowering the body to relieve the stress. It can exercise the muscles of the legs and ankle joints and strengthen muscles balancing the body, which is helpful to stimulate the equilibrium nerve center and improve the balancing capacity of the practicer.

10. Why can the exercise of the Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin boost the life quality of the middle and aged people?

The Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin features as being gentle, slow, smooth and consistent, rhythmic combination of relaxation with strength, and of dynamism and inertia, combining body with mind to cultivate vital energy. The long-term exercise can balance the yin and yang, dredge the meridians, relax the adhesion, lubricate the joints, promote the blood flow, strengthen the tendons and bones, enhance the body constitution. All these effect can be tested by the modern life science.

The Health Qi Gong Ba Duan Jin is typical aerobic exercise with medium intensity. It can consume the subcutaneous spare fat and change the body composite and increase the strength of muscles for the practicers to do the exercise for one hour in each day. It can exercise the strength of the limbs and the arms and fingers in some routines standing in a horse stance or grasping and holding with the fingers.

In addition, it is requested that the practicer should combine the mind with body to cultivate the vital energy in the whole sets, which can obviously boost the extent of mind concentration of the practicer and effectively coordinate the nerve system with the actions, the reactive ability with the performance skills. It can keep the perfect mental state and elegant disposition in the middle and aged people. The practicer should be calm, optimistic, single-minded and big-hearted in the course of the exercise to self regulate and enhance the mind health. Therefore it can boost the life quality of the middle and aged people.