Qigong for Beginners: Forms, Breathing and Daily Practice

Qigong is a Chinese practice that coordinates slow repeated movement, abdominal breathing and steady attention, and beginners can learn a usable version in one session. This guide covers what separates qigong from tai chi, the main families of qigong exercises, a standing form taught step by step, the breathing method, and what daily practice is said to do.

What is qigong, and what does a qigong practice actually involve?

Qigong trains three things at the same time: the body's posture, the breath, and the attention. Chinese teaching calls these the three regulations, san tiao. Tiao shen adjusts the body, tiao xi adjusts the breath, and tiao xin adjusts the heart-mind. A qigong exercise is judged on whether the three stay together, not on how far the limbs travel. The word joins qi, meaning breath or vital energy, with gong, meaning skill earned through repetition. In practice a beginner sees something plain: someone standing with knees slightly bent, raising and lowering the arms slowly, breathing through the nose, repeating the same motion six or eight times before moving on. The umbrella term is modern. Qigong was popularized in 1950s China by Liu Guizhen, who set up a clinic in Tangshan teaching breathing and posture methods to patients, and the word became a neutral label for practices that had circulated under Daoist, Buddhist and medical names. The movements are far older. A silk painting known as the Daoyin tu, recovered in 1973 from a Han dynasty tomb at Mawangdui near Changsha, shows dozens of figures in stretching and breathing postures with captions naming ailments.

What a qigong session looks like from the outside is undramatic, and that is part of the design. There is no equipment, no mat and no floor work. A practitioner needs about two arm spans of clear space, flat shoes or bare feet, and clothing loose at the waist. Movements repeat in counts of six, eight or nine, each repetition slow enough that one full inhale or exhale covers the arc. The body stays in an easy middle range: elbows never lock, knees never travel past the toes, and no shape is pushed to the point of stretch. Qigong repeats an undemanding shape until the tension patterns underneath it loosen. The Chinese word for that loosening is song, sometimes translated as relaxed but closer to unbound or let-down, as in a rope going slack while still hanging. A whole set takes ten to twenty minutes, which is why qigong survives in daily routines that longer practices do not.

What does the word qigong mean?

Qigong combines qi, the term Chinese medicine uses for breath and vital energy, with gong, meaning work, effort or skill developed over time. The same gong appears in kung fu (gongfu), where it also means accumulated skill rather than fighting itself. So qigong names the cultivated skill of working with qi through posture, breath and attention, not a single technique.

Is qigong a religion?

Qigong is not a religion and carries no creed. Daoist and Buddhist monasteries preserved and shaped many qigong sets, and some lineages keep religious framing, but the exercises themselves involve no worship or doctrine. Medical qigong is taught in Chinese hospitals as a health practice, and the standardized Health Qigong sets are entirely secular.

Do you need to believe in qi to practice qigong?

Belief in qi is not a prerequisite for practicing qigong. The instructions are physical: bend the knees, drop the shoulders, breathe into the lower abdomen, move at this speed. Practitioners who treat qi as a useful description of felt sensation rather than a substance still learn the forms correctly, because every cue in qigong can be followed as a body instruction.

How is qigong different from tai chi?

Qigong vs tai chi comes down to three concrete differences: choreography, martial content, and how long it takes to learn. Tai chi, properly taijiquan, is a martial art organized as one long sequence performed without pause. The Yang style long form contains well over a hundred named postures and takes roughly twenty minutes to run once through; the simplified Beijing 24-form, created in 1956 to make the art teachable to the general public, is the short version and still takes months of weekly classes to memorize. Qigong has no such sequence. Each qigong exercise stands alone, is performed in one spot, and repeats several times before the next begins, so a student who learns two movements has two complete practices rather than two fragments. Tai chi also carries combat content: partner drills called push hands (tui shou), applications hidden inside each posture, and weapon forms with the straight sword and sabre. Qigong contains none of that, with the exception of hard martial qigong used to condition the body for striking. Where the two overlap is body method. Both use song, both sink attention to the lower dantian below the navel, both shift weight slowly between the feet, and many tai chi teachers open class with qigong exercises before the form.

The practical consequence for a beginner is memory load. Learning the 24-form means holding a sequence in mind while also trying to relax, which is why new tai chi students often look tense for the first year. Qigong removes the sequence problem: once one movement is known, every repetition improves the same thing. That is why teachers frequently send absolute beginners to qigong first and add tai chi later, and why rehabilitation programs lean on qigong sets. Quality is also judged differently. A tai chi form is assessed on martial structure, whether the posture would hold under pressure from a partner and whether the arms keep the expanding quality called peng. A qigong movement is assessed on smoothness, on whether the breath matches the arc, and on whether the shoulders stayed down. Chen style tai chi, with its spiraling silk-reeling exercises repeated in place, sits closest to qigong of the tai chi families.

Is qigong easier than tai chi for beginners?

Qigong is easier to start than tai chi because there is no long sequence to memorize. A beginner can perform a qigong movement acceptably on day one and spend the following weeks refining it, while a tai chi student spends those same weeks trying to remember what comes next. Qigong also demands less single-leg balance, since most movements keep weight spread across both feet.

Can you practice qigong and tai chi together?

Qigong and tai chi combine well and are routinely taught together. A common class runs ten minutes of qigong loosening and breathing, then tai chi form work, then standing practice to close. The qigong builds the sinking, loose shoulders and coordinated breath that the tai chi form then asks for in sequence.

Is tai chi a type of qigong?

Tai chi is not a type of qigong, though it is built on qigong principles. Tai chi is a martial art with combat applications, weapons and partner training, developed in the Chen village and spread through the Yang, Wu, Wu (Hao) and Sun families. Tai chi is sometimes called moving qigong, which captures the shared body method but not the martial content.

What are the main families of qigong exercises?

Qigong exercises are traditionally sorted into five streams: medical, Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian and martial. Medical qigong aims at specific complaints and produced most modern health sets. Daoist qigong emphasizes internal alchemy, the lower dantian and long standing work. Buddhist qigong, especially the Shaolin material, leans toward tendon strength and stillness. Confucian qigong emphasizes uprightness and composure. Martial qigong includes hard conditioning such as iron shirt, which trains the body to absorb impact. The named sets a beginner will actually meet are fewer. Ba Duan Jin, the Eight Pieces of Brocade, is the most widely taught, traditionally associated with the Song dynasty general Yue Fei and existing in both standing and seated versions. Yi Jin Jing, the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic, is the Shaolin set built on tension and release. Wu Qin Xi, the Five Animal Frolics, is attributed to the physician Hua Tuo and imitates tiger, deer, bear, ape and bird. Liu Zi Jue, the Six Healing Sounds, pairs exhalations with the syllables xu, he, hu, si, chui and xi. Zhan zhuang, standing post practice, is the static family. In 2003 China's sport administration published standardized Health Qigong versions of Ba Duan Jin, Yi Jin Jing, Wu Qin Xi and Liu Zi Jue.

Two more distinctions help a beginner read class descriptions. The first is dynamic against static: dong gong means moving qigong, jing gong means still qigong such as zhan zhuang, and most curricula mix them, with movement first and standing at the end. The second is soft against hard. Soft internal qigong is what health classes teach; hard qigong, ying gong, is the demonstration material with bricks and spears, irrelevant to a health practice. Two further lineages come up often. Dayan or Wild Goose qigong, associated with the Kunlun tradition, is a long flowing set imitating a goose. Guolin qigong is a walking method developed by the Chinese painter Guo Lin, built on a stepping pattern combined with short repeated inhalations, widely practiced in Chinese parks among people recovering from illness. Spontaneous qigong, zifa gong, in which practitioners allow unplanned movement to arise, is the one family beginners are generally told to leave alone without an experienced teacher present.

What is Ba Duan Jin qigong?

Ba Duan Jin, the Eight Pieces of Brocade, is an eight-movement qigong set and the usual entry point for beginners. Each movement has a descriptive name such as Two Hands Hold Up the Heavens or Drawing the Bow to Shoot the Hawk, and each is repeated six to eight times. The full set runs about twelve minutes standing, and a seated version exists for those who cannot stand for long.

What is the difference between medical qigong and martial qigong?

Medical qigong uses gentle movement and breath to address health complaints, and it is the stream taught in hospital and community classes. Martial qigong conditions the body for combat, including hard methods such as iron shirt that train tolerance to impact. The two share breathing principles but diverge completely in intensity, risk and purpose, and beginners looking for a health practice want the medical stream.

Which qigong set should a beginner learn first?

Ba Duan Jin is the standard first qigong set for beginners because the movements are short, the choreography is fixed and published, and each of the eight stands alone as a usable exercise. Liu Zi Jue is a reasonable second choice for someone who wants breath work over movement, since it is built around six exhaled sounds.

How do you do a beginner standing qigong form step by step?

The beginner standing form in qigong is wuji stance followed by the arm position called holding the ball, and it is built in ten steps. First, stand with the feet parallel and about shoulder width apart, second toes pointing straight ahead. Second, let the weight settle slightly forward of the heels, toward the yongquan hollow in the middle of the ball of each foot. Third, unlock the knees so they are softly bent, tracking over the second toe and never traveling past the toes. Fourth, let the tailbone drop so the lower back lengthens rather than arching, which teachers describe as loosening the kua, the hip crease. Fifth, imagine the crown point, baihui, lifted by a thread from above, the classical instruction xu ling ding jin. Sixth, tuck the chin very slightly so the neck lengthens. Seventh, rest the tongue tip lightly on the palate behind the upper teeth. Eighth, sink the shoulders and let the elbows hang heavy. Ninth, raise the arms to a rounded circle at navel height, palms facing the lower abdomen, fingers slightly spread, with enough space under each armpit for an egg. Tenth, soften the eyes toward the horizon or close them most of the way, and breathe through the nose.

What happens during that stance is predictable enough to plan for. In the first minute the body feels fine. Around minute two the thighs start to work and the shoulders quietly creep back up, which is the main thing to keep checking. Around minute three a small sway usually appears as the balance system stops relying on locked joints, and the instruction is to let it happen rather than correct it. Warmth or a full, heavy feeling in the palms commonly arrives between three and eight minutes, read in this tradition as qi gathering. Start at three minutes and add roughly a minute a week toward fifteen or twenty. To finish, lower the arms down the centerline, rest both palms over the navel for several breaths, and stand normally before walking off. Anyone with knee trouble should raise the stance until the bend is barely visible, or run the same arm position seated.

How long should a beginner hold a qigong standing posture?

Three to five minutes is the right starting length for a beginner in qigong standing practice, added to by about a minute a week, with fifteen to twenty minutes as the long-term target. Standing for thirty minutes in the first month tends to produce sore knees and a reluctance to practice, which costs more than the extra time gains.

Why do my legs shake in qigong standing practice?

Legs shake in qigong standing practice because the thigh and hip muscles are holding a low-level contraction they are not used to, and because the balance system is making constant small corrections once the knees are unlocked. Mild shaking is normal and usually fades over a few weeks. Shaking that becomes violent or painful means the stance is too low, so raise it.

Can I do qigong standing practice sitting down?

Qigong standing practice adapts to a chair. Sit on the front third of the seat with both feet flat and hip width apart, spine lengthened without leaning back, and take the same rounded arm position at navel height. The leg conditioning is lost, but the spine alignment, shoulder sinking, breath and attention work carry over intact.

What is qi gong breathing, and how do you do it?

Qi gong breathing is slow, quiet abdominal breathing through the nose, with the tongue tip resting on the palate and the movement felt in the lower belly rather than the chest. The standard beginner method is natural abdominal breathing, shun fu shi: the abdomen expands gently on the inhale and releases on the exhale, while the shoulders and upper chest stay still. The advanced Daoist variant, reverse abdominal breathing or ni fu shi, inverts that, drawing the lower abdomen slightly in on the inhale and letting it fill on the exhale, and it is normally introduced only after months of the natural version. Classical instruction describes four grades of breath, and only the last is considered correct practice: feng, wind, which is audible; chuan, panting, which is choppy and uneven; qi, air, which is smooth but still coarse; and xi, rest, which is fine, silent and barely felt at the nostrils. The qualities teachers ask for are that the breath be fine, even, slow, deep and quiet. Two coordination rules cover most qigong exercises: inhale as the movement opens or rises, exhale as it closes or sinks. The breath is never held, never counted forcefully, and never pushed longer than it wants to go.

The reliable way to learn qi gong breathing is to separate it from the movement first. Lie on the back with knees bent, one palm on the navel and one on the sternum, and take twenty slow breaths trying to move only the lower hand. Do that for a week before asking for the same thing while standing, and another week before adding arm movements on top. Breathing rate falls on its own: someone starting around twelve to fourteen breaths a minute usually settles toward six to eight after a month or two of daily work, without ever counting. Forcing the rate down to three or four breaths a minute is where beginners get into trouble, and the signs are immediate, a tight band across the chest or a strong urge to gulp air at the end of the exhale. The response is to stop the technique, breathe normally, and walk a slow circle. In this tradition the tongue on the palate is called building the magpie bridge, said to join the front and back channels, the ren and du mai.

What is reverse abdominal breathing in qigong?

Reverse abdominal breathing in qigong, ni fu shi, draws the lower abdomen slightly inward on the inhale and lets it expand on the exhale, the opposite of the natural pattern. It is associated with Daoist practice and with martial power generation. Teachers generally withhold it from beginners because forcing the pattern produces chest tension, and it is normally introduced after the natural method is comfortable.

How slow should qi gong breathing be?

Qi gong breathing should be slow enough to be silent and comfortable, with no strain at the end of either phase. Practitioners often settle around six to eight breaths a minute after some months, but that number is a result rather than a target. If lengthening the breath produces tightness in the chest or dizziness, the breath is too long and should be shortened immediately.

Should you breathe through the nose or the mouth in qigong?

Qigong breathing is done through the nose on both the inhale and the exhale in almost every set. The main exception is Liu Zi Jue, the Six Healing Sounds, where each exhale is shaped through the mouth as a specific sound. Some teachers also allow a mouth exhale during initial loosening exercises to release tension, then return to nose breathing for the main work.

What does a daily qigong routine for beginners look like?

A workable daily qigong routine for beginners runs twenty minutes in four blocks. Block one, three minutes of loosening: shake the whole body lightly from the heels, then swing the waist side to side letting the arms slap the lower back and belly, then pat down the outside and inside of each arm and leg with a loose palm. Block two, six minutes of Two Hands Hold Up the Heavens, the first Ba Duan Jin movement: stand in wuji, interlace the fingers palms up at the lower abdomen, inhale while raising the linked hands up the centerline, rotate the palms to face the ceiling as they pass the face, press upward while lengthening the spine and looking at the backs of the hands, then exhale as the hands separate and float down in an arc to the sides. Repeat eight times. Block three, three minutes of Drawing the Bow to Shoot the Hawk: step out wide, cross the wrists at chest height, then extend one arm with the index finger raised while the other elbow draws back as if pulling a bowstring, four times each side. Block four, standing practice for five minutes, then the closing.

The closing, shou gong, is a fixed part of qigong practice rather than an optional cooldown. Bring both palms down the centerline as if pressing something settled, rest them over the lower abdomen one on top of the other, and take six quiet breaths there. Rub the palms together until they are warm, sweep them up over the face and back over the scalp several times in the movement called dry washing, then stand still for a moment before walking away. On timing, early morning is the traditional preference, outdoors and facing east if the setting allows, and practitioners avoid strong wind. Leave roughly an hour after a large meal. Consistency matters far more than length in qigong: ten minutes every morning builds the practice faster than an hour once a week, because the sequence has to become automatic before attention can move to the breath. Keep the same order every day for the first month.

How long should a beginner practice qigong each day?

Fifteen to twenty minutes a day is the standard recommendation for a beginner in qigong, and ten minutes done every day beats forty minutes done twice a week. A useful split is a few minutes of loosening, two movements from a set, five minutes of standing, and a closing. Longer sessions become worthwhile once the movements no longer require conscious sequencing.

What is the best time of day to practice qigong?

Early morning is the traditional time for qigong practice, before eating and ideally outdoors facing east. Evening practice works too and tends to help with winding down, though vigorous loosening late at night can leave some people alert. The practical rule that matters more than the hour is to leave about an hour after a large meal and to avoid practicing in cold wind.

Why does qigong end with a closing movement?

Qigong ends with a closing called shou gong because the tradition holds that practice gathers qi, which should be settled at the lower dantian rather than left dispersed. Practically, the closing restores normal breathing and alertness and prevents the scattered feeling people report when they stop abruptly and walk straight into their day.

What does regular qigong practice do?

In the tradition, regular qigong practice is said to dredge the channels, the jing luo, so that qi moves without obstruction, to disperse stagnation known as qi zhi, to accumulate original qi at the lower dantian, and to settle the mind by keeping attention inside the body. Those are the claims made in the language of Chinese medicine. What practitioners actually report in the first weeks is more modest and more consistent: warm, heavy or tingling palms during standing, a looser neck and shoulder girdle, sleep that comes faster, better balance on uneven ground, and a breath that slows automatically under stress once the pattern has been drilled. Clinical research on qigong exists and clusters around a few areas, chiefly balance and fall risk in older adults, blood pressure, fatigue and quality of life during and after cancer treatment, fibromyalgia symptoms, and depression scores. Reviews of that literature are cautious for structural reasons: trials tend to be small, participants obviously know whether they are doing qigong, control groups are hard to design, and any benefit may come from gentle exercise and group contact rather than anything specific to qigong. What is not in dispute is that qigong is low impact and accessible to people who cannot do much else.

The timeline beginners describe follows a rough pattern. Weeks one and two are mostly about noticing posture, and the main discovery is how much unnecessary tension the shoulders carry. Around weeks three and four the palms usually start to feel warm and full during standing, and the movements begin running without conscious counting. By six to eight weeks the breath has slowed on its own and the twenty-minute session no longer feels long. At around three months a full Ba Duan Jin set runs from memory, fifteen minutes of standing stops being effortful, and practice starts to be missed on days it is skipped. What qigong does not do is replace medical treatment, and no responsible teacher tells a student to stop taking prescribed medication. Qigong sits alongside care as a daily practice that costs nothing and needs no equipment.

How long before you feel the effects of qigong?

Most people practicing qigong daily notice something within two to four weeks, usually warmth or heaviness in the palms during standing, looser shoulders, and easier sleep. Changes in balance and stamina take longer, roughly two to three months. Practicing once or twice a week stretches those timelines considerably, since the body learns the sequence too slowly for attention to move on to breath.

What does qi feel like in qigong practice?

Practitioners in qigong most often describe qi as warmth, heaviness, fullness or a fine tingling in the palms, sometimes as the arms being buoyed up or a slow current moving along a limb. Feeling nothing in the early weeks is common and is not a sign of practicing wrong; the sensations tend to appear as tension drops.

Is qigong good exercise?

Qigong is light by intensity, closer to slow walking than to a workout, but the standing practice loads the thighs and hips meaningfully and the movements train balance, ankle stability and spinal mobility. It builds little cardiovascular fitness or strength, so people who want those pair qigong with walking or resistance training.

What mistakes do qigong beginners make, and how do you avoid them?

Eight mistakes account for most beginner trouble in qigong. Forcing the breath is the worst of them: deliberately stretching the inhale or holding it produces chest tightness and dizziness, and the fix is to let the movement set the pace. Standing too long too soon leaves sore knees and kills the habit. Letting the knees collapse inward or slide past the toes strains the joint, so the knee should track over the second toe. Locking the elbows or floating the shoulders undoes the whole posture, and both need checking every minute. Chasing sensations turns practice into a hunt for tingling instead of a body practice. Practicing in cold wind, or immediately after a heavy meal, is discouraged in every lineage. Skipping the closing leaves people feeling scattered afterward. Hopping between sets every few weeks means nothing gets learned. Traditional writing also names zou huo ru mo, sometimes translated as fire deviation, attributed to forced breath retention and obsessive practice and described as agitation, insomnia and strange sensations. Modern teachers treat it plainly: if practice starts producing anxiety rather than calm, stop the breath work, do only gentle loosening, and get supervision.

Choosing a teacher is worth some care. Reasonable questions are which lineage or set they teach, whether they hold Health Qigong certification or trained in a named tradition, whether they correct posture individually, and whether they teach the breath separately before layering it onto movement. The warning signs are equally clear: charging for qi to be transmitted into a student, claiming to cure named diseases, discouraging medical treatment, or discouraging contact outside the group. Some conditions need modification rather than avoidance. Uncontrolled high blood pressure argues against breath holding and against reverse abdominal breathing. Pregnancy calls for a wider, higher stance and no strong abdominal compression. Glaucoma and retinal problems rule out movements that put the head below the heart. Recent knee or hip surgery means the seated version until cleared. Anyone with epilepsy or a history of psychosis is generally advised to avoid spontaneous qigong entirely and to stay with structured sets.

Can qigong be harmful?

Qigong is low risk, and the harms that do occur come from identifiable sources: forced or held breathing causing dizziness and chest tightness, low stances aggravating knees, standing sessions attempted too long too early, and unstructured spontaneous qigong destabilizing people with certain psychiatric histories. With a comfortable breath and a high stance, qigong is gentler on joints than most exercise.

Do you need a teacher to learn qigong?

A teacher is not strictly required for the standardized qigong health sets, which are published with fixed choreography and widely filmed, but a few in-person sessions catch faults that video cannot. The errors a teacher spots most often are the knee drifting inside the foot, the shoulders lifting during the inhale, and the breath being held at the top of a raise.

Should you practice qigong every day or take rest days?

Qigong is designed for daily practice and traditionally has no rest days, because the intensity is low and the benefit comes from repetition. What varies is length: a short session of loosening and closing on a tired day keeps the habit intact. Soreness in the thighs after standing practice is normal early on and eases as the legs adapt over a few weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is qigong in simple terms?

Qigong is a Chinese practice of slow, repeated movements done standing, combined with quiet abdominal breathing and relaxed attention on the body. The name pairs qi, meaning breath or vital energy, with gong, meaning skill built by steady work. A typical qigong exercise is a single motion such as raising both arms overhead and lowering them, repeated six to nine times in time with the breath. No equipment is used, the movements stay in an easy mid-range rather than stretching to a limit, and a whole set runs ten to twenty minutes. Older Chinese names for the same territory are daoyin, guiding and pulling, and tu na, expelling and drawing in.

What is the main difference between qigong and tai chi?

The main difference in qigong vs tai chi is structure and purpose: tai chi is a martial art built on one long memorized choreography, while qigong is a collection of short exercises repeated in place with no fighting application. The Yang style long form runs well over a hundred named postures and takes months of classes to perform unaided. A qigong set such as Ba Duan Jin has eight movements, each repeated on the spot, and a beginner can learn the first correctly in one session. Tai chi also trains push hands and weapons such as the straight sword; qigong trains neither.

How many qigong exercises should a beginner learn?

Two or three qigong exercises practiced daily are enough for a beginner's first month, rather than a full set learned roughly. A workable starting kit is the wuji standing posture, the first Ba Duan Jin movement (Two Hands Hold Up the Heavens), and a closing sequence that gathers the hands to the lower abdomen. Those fill fifteen minutes and cover posture, breath coordination and finishing. Adding the remaining seven Ba Duan Jin movements at roughly one a week gives a complete set inside two months, by which point attention can move to breath and smoothness instead of sequence.

Can you learn qigong at home from videos?

Qigong can be learned at home from video for the standardized health sets, since Ba Duan Jin, Yi Jin Jing, Wu Qin Xi and Liu Zi Jue were published with fixed choreography and are widely filmed from several angles. What a video cannot do is see the knee drifting inside the foot or the breath being held at the top of a raise, so practitioners who learn from screens usually book a workshop in the first few months. Filming yourself from the side and the front is the next best check.

What should you wear for qigong practice?

Qigong is practiced in loose clothing that does not bind the waist, knees or shoulders, with flat flexible shoes or bare feet. Thick cushioned running shoes work against the practice because they blur contact between the sole and the ground, and the standing work depends on feeling weight settle toward the yongquan point in the ball of the foot. Belts and tight waistbands interfere with abdominal breathing. Drawstring trousers, a loose top, and thin-soled shoes or socks on a non-slip floor are the usual setup, plus an extra layer outdoors since the body cools during slow practice.

Is qigong the same as Chinese yoga?

Qigong is often called Chinese yoga in marketing copy, but the two are built differently. Qigong is done almost entirely standing and moving, repeats each movement several times rather than holding a shape, and stays inside a comfortable range instead of working toward end-range flexibility. There is no floor sequence, no inversions, and no emphasis on opening the hips. The comparison holds only in the loose sense that both coordinate breath with body. The closer relative of qigong is tai chi, which grew from the same body principles and shares the loosening called song.

Can older adults or people with limited mobility practice qigong?

Qigong adapts well to limited mobility, which is why it turns up in senior centers and hospital wellness programs. The stance can be raised so the knees barely bend, the feet brought closer together, and a hand rested on a chair back throughout. Every arm movement in Ba Duan Jin can be done seated, and the seated version of the set is traditional rather than a modern concession. People with balance problems often start seated for a few weeks, then stand with a chair in front of them. Anyone with recent joint surgery or a fall history should clear the plan with a clinician.