Tai Chi Neigong

The 24 yin yang Neigong consists of two sets of 12 exercises. 12 yin exercises and 12 yang exercises. The set is famed for producing the iron shirt/vest effect enabling a practitioner to withstand hard blows to the body. This was once a very rare set of exercises only taught to high level students. At the present time they are nowmore widely taught but often learnt wrongly or without the required detail to be effective.

There are several versions of the exercises across different martial art schools. The set I teach was taught to Neil Rosiak by Cheng Ting Hungs son and then taught to me. We beleive this to be the closest we have to the original 24 neikung set.

From a helath persepctive the body becomes resiliant, supple, rooted and the internal organs are strengthened. Breathing becomes deep and relaxed and the bio-energy known as Qi devolps and fills the sinews (tendons and muscles). The yin exercises are noted to promote mental stability.

The yin exercises build solidity and rooting to the body building a solid and rooted posture. the exercises also develop the movement control and structure for self defence techniques. The Yang exercises build focused explosive power known as fa jin.

Traditionaly before learning the set a ceremony would take place called Ba Shi. At this point the student pledges to follow the rules of the school and becomes an inside the door disciple known as a Tudi. This is often reserved for more serious students of the art. Today there is a more relaxed approach to teaching these system of exercises. The first four yin exercises are often taught to students early in trainining so internal strength starts to develop early.