What is Zhanzhuang Exercise?

Zhanzhuang, also known as standing Qigong or standing meditation, is an ancient Chinse exercise with its Chinese name as 站桩, translating as standing trunk.

It is hard to imagine how can this exercise achieve what it claims to achieve, as what you do during the exercise is nothing more than standing statically- literally doing nothing. You remain in the same posture, and the session can range from ten minutes to an hour. Many practitioners go beyond that.

What do you think? Can it really be an exercise?

To the surprise of many, not only is Zhanzhaung an exercise, it brings you a whole host of benefits.

Zhanzhuang stance benefits

· Improving vitality

· Boosting immunity

· Improve bone density

· Healing illnesses

· Achieving clarity of mind

· Helping in one’s spiritual pursuit

Originated from ancient China, the practice has been around for thousands of years. Huangdi Neijing (The Yellow Emperor’s Scripture of Internal Medicine), the authority of traditional Chinese medicine written more than 2,000 years ago, presents a vivid description of how it is conducted.

The exercise is so profound that, for centuries, the various forms of martial arts, from Tai Chi, Xingyi and Bagua to Shaolin, resort to it as a foundation training for the nurturing of focus and internal strength.

Many people regard Zhanzhuang as an antidote to counter the challenges. The practice is getting popular. More and more people are taking it up, especially with the onslaught of afflictions, from stress and anxiety to depression. Still, the question lingers. How can one achieve so many things by just standing, seemingly doing nothing?

We have to go deeper than what we see to answer the question.

In contrast to popular exercises such as jogging and swimming that focus on building muscular strength and stamina, Zhanzhuang is an internal exercise that builds inner strength. Much of the activities occur in your body, and you can’t see them externally.

At the same time, when the popular exercises work on our body, Zhanzhuang gets our body to work on us. Instead of exerting energy, we refrain from interfering so that the body can do its work.

We position our body to become an excellent conduit for the life energy, also known as qi or life force, to flow freely. Although we’re as if doing nothing during the exercise, we stay away from interfering with the body so that it can do its work.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, the root cause of illnesses is an unhealthy flow of life energy. Its stagnation can result in the development of lumps, leading to conditions such as cancer. With the calmness of mind and proper body alignment, zhanzhuang stimulates a healthy flow of life energy in our body. One of the benefits the flow brings is to help clear stagnation of the qi energy and repair qi deficiency. At the same time, it balances the allocation of life energy at various parts of the body, including the internal organs.

Starting Zhanzhuang

Zhanzhuang is easy. You can do it any time and at any place so long as your energy allows and the air is fresh and circulates well, indoor or outdoor. Although there are many variations of Zhanzhuang, for general health we can choose the simplest which is Hunyuan Zhuang. Here is how to do.

Resume the posture. Ensure the alignment. Vertically connect your crown with your perineum and shoulder with your feet. Calm your mind, relax your body with knees slightly bent, breathe naturally, and go! Remain in a state that is “relaxed but not slack, contracted but not rigid”, practise regularly for a period of time and you will experience many of the benefits that the exercise brings to you.

(source: https://tekson.org)