Neigong: Internal Strength Training

What the word is doing

The distinction between external and internal work is older than the internal-arts grouping and is not the same distinction. External work means training the visible apparatus: muscle, tendon, bone, conditioning, technique. Internal work means training what is not visible: breath, attention, the coordination of effort, and — in the tradition's own terms — qi.

In practice, when a martial arts teacher says neigong they usually mean a specific set of exercises, taught separately from forms, involving standing or slow movement, deliberate breathing and directed attention. That is the working definition this page uses. It is worth knowing that the same word in a Taoist religious context can mean something quite different, closer to internal alchemy, and that the overlap between the two is a matter of shared vocabulary more than shared practice.

What it actually consists of

Most martial neigong curricula contain four kinds of exercise. Standing postures held for extended periods, which is the foundation and often the largest part. Breathing methods practised deliberately, either seated or standing. Slow moving exercises, of which the spiralling silk-reeling work associated with Chen taijiquan is the best known example. And attention practices, in which the student directs awareness to particular regions of the body in a particular order.

These are not exotic. Stripped of terminology, they are isometric holding, breath control, slow controlled movement through range, and focused attention. That plain description does not make them less valuable, and it makes it much easier to think clearly about what they do.

The dantian

Almost all of this work is organised around the dantian, usually the lower one, described as a region in the lower abdomen below the navel. It is worth being careful here, because two different claims are commonly run together.

The first is that there is a region of the lower abdomen whose engagement is central to producing whole-body power, that the practitioner can learn to feel and control it, and that movement initiated there is more connected than movement initiated at the limbs. This is a reasonable description of something practitioners genuinely learn, and it corresponds to real physical facts about the position of the body's centre of mass, the role of intra-abdominal pressure in stabilising the spine, and the mechanical advantage of initiating movement close to the centre.

The second is that the dantian is an energy centre in which a substance called qi is stored and from which it can be circulated. This is the tradition's own framework. It is not established in the terms in which it is stated, and a practitioner is under no obligation to accept it in order to benefit from the training. The instruction and the explanation are separable here as elsewhere.

Breathing

Two methods are commonly taught. In natural abdominal breathing the abdomen expands on the inhalation and settles on the exhalation, which is simply unrestricted diaphragmatic breathing and is how most people breathe when relaxed. In reverse abdominal breathing the pattern is inverted: the abdomen draws in slightly on the inhalation and expands on the exhalation. This is associated with issuing force, and the rationale offered is that the pressure generated assists the delivery of power.

Some cautions are worth stating plainly. Breath practices should not be forced, held to the point of strain, or continued when they produce dizziness or distress. Reverse breathing in particular is usually taught after natural breathing is established, and rushing it is a common cause of chest tension and headaches. Anyone with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions, or who is pregnant, should get medical advice before taking up sustained breath training, and any teacher who dismisses that question is telling you something useful about their judgement.

What the training demonstrably does

Several effects are well founded. Coordinating breath with effort improves force production and is standard across athletic disciplines. Reducing unnecessary tension improves the transmission of force through the body, which is straightforward mechanics. Sustained attention to bodily sensation improves proprioception, and this is exactly the skill these arts most depend on. Slow controlled movement through full range develops control at end positions that fast movement does not.

These are not small results. Taken together they account for most of what a skilled practitioner can do that an unskilled one cannot, without requiring any additional mechanism.

What is claimed beyond that

The further claims are that qi is a substance which accumulates through practice, circulates along defined channels, can be directed by attention, and in some accounts can be emitted to affect another person at a distance. The first three are the tradition's descriptive framework and function reasonably well as instructions for organising attention, whatever their status as physiology. The last — external emission affecting someone at a distance — is a testable claim that has not survived testing, and it is worth treating differently from the rest.

A useful practical distinction: claims about what you should do are worth taking seriously and trying, because they cost little and often work. Claims about what is happening inside you are a model, and models can be useful without being literally true. Claims about effects on other people at a distance are assertions about the world that can be checked, and should be.

Sensation is not achievement

Standing and breathing practices reliably produce sensations: warmth, tingling, heaviness, occasional involuntary movement. These are ordinary consequences of holding a position, breathing deliberately and paying close attention to a body that is usually ignored. They are not measures of progress, and treating them as such is one of the commonest ways for practice to go wrong.

The problem with chasing sensation is that it is easy to produce and tells you nothing. A practitioner who can generate impressive sensations may have poor structure, and a practitioner with excellent structure may feel very little. The reliable indicators are the plain ones: can you stand longer without deteriorating, does your movement transmit force better, has your balance improved.

Practising safely

Most people who take up this training experience nothing worse than aching legs. A minority, usually those practising intensively, for very long periods, without supervision, or during a period of stress, report anxiety, disturbed sleep, difficulty concentrating, or a sense of detachment from their surroundings. The tradition has a name for this and treats it as a recognised hazard of overdoing the work.

The sensible response is not alarm but moderation. Keep sessions to a reasonable length and build up gradually. Do not force the breath. Finish a session with ordinary movement and something grounding rather than going straight to rest. If you notice persistent anxiety, sleep disturbance, intrusive sensations or feeling unreal, stop the practice and give yourself time; these usually settle. If they do not settle, or if they are distressing, please speak to a doctor or a mental health professional — this is a sensible thing to do and not a failure of practice. Anyone with a history of psychosis, dissociation or severe anxiety should approach intensive meditative and breath practices cautiously and with professional advice.

Judging a teacher in this area

This is the part of the curriculum where it is hardest for a beginner to tell whether anything is being taught, because the content is invisible and the vocabulary is impressive. A few indicators help. A good teacher gives instructions that can be checked, describes what should change rather than only what should be felt, is willing to say when something is a traditional model rather than a fact, does not require belief, and takes safety questions seriously. A teacher whose neigong instruction cannot be distinguished from a description of sensations is probably not transmitting a method.

Key points

• Neigong is an umbrella term; in a martial context it usually means standing, breath work, slow moving exercises and attention practices taught separately from forms.
• Claims about the dantian as a region whose engagement organises whole-body power are reasonable; claims about it as a store of a circulating substance are the tradition's model, not an established fact.
• Breath practices should never be forced, and reverse breathing is taught after natural breathing is established.
• Breath-effort coordination, reduced tension, improved proprioception and controlled range are well-founded effects and account for most of what skill consists of.
• Sensations such as warmth and tingling are ordinary consequences of the practice and are not measures of progress.
• If practice produces persistent anxiety, sleep disturbance or a sense of unreality, stop and seek medical or psychological advice.