heal: discovering qigong for self healing with arron collins-thomas
Standing by a running stream with our feet touching the stones that diverted the water past the heather cushioned paths of the Pennine Way, Arron Collins-Thomas introduced our walking crew to Qigong. Joining Ed Jackson on the final leg of his two hundred and sixty eight mile walk across The Pennines, we took a break from our trek to learn the basics of this ancient mind-body-spirit practice. Travelling previously to Nepal with Ed to climb Mera Peak, Arron and the group practiced Qigong every day on the mountain.
Not only is it really simple to do, you felt its benefits instantly. Your body feeling immediately more alive and energetically balanced and your mind feeling free and focused. Until today I’d never known much about Qigong and spent the miles after our session learning about why Arron works with the practice and how it can be used to balance the body and the mind.
Arron has been a leading personal trainer and lifestyle coach for the last fourteen years. Running his own chain of gyms in Bath, he is respected for his impressive knowledge of Chinese Medicine and Eastern wellness practices, gained over many years of both study and training. Educated with the lauded Long White Cloud Qigong centre, he began incorporating Qigong into his programmes after seeing the enormous level of improvement that it added.
What is QiGong?
Qigong is a fundamental pillar of Chinese medicine. It is classed as a form of internal exercise. Internal exercise is any combination of slow, considered movements with breath and mental engagement, another example would be yoga. Qigong is, quite simply, the ultimate self-healing technique. By learning to manipulate Qi around the body, you rejuvenate and energise, lower the heart rate and blood pressure and support the immune system.
If you’ve done a martial art or Tai Chi, the wide stance and relaxed, flowing movements of Qigong may be familiar. Qigong forms the basis of all martial arts, so before trainees learn how to fight, they will always study it.
It was invented as ‘dynamic meditation’, to allow Taoist masters to keep their muscles relaxed, supple and strong after hours of sitting meditation but without breaking their focus. Its roots can be traced back to the 8th century BCE, i.e. 10,000 years ago. By the third century BCE, this practice had crystallised into the beginnings of Qigong as it is today. Despite its ancient roots, it’s as relevant to modern life as it has been for millennia.
How has it helped your clients?
Most of us are super stressed out by modern living. That said, many of us find it really difficult to practice meditation. So this is basically meditation but much easier because you are combining it with movement. It’s incredibly calming and relaxing, yet it makes you strong at the same time. Since March I have seen around four hundred people online and I have had some incredible results with clients of all different back grounds and health conditions. I’ve had countless people telling me how much it has transformed their health issues, their sleep and their mental state in a really short period of time.
How do you blend QiGong in to your daily training regime?
The beauty of Qigong is you can do it anywhere, with no equipment or any specific clothing so it’s extremely accessible. The other great thing is that you don’t need to do a full thirty to forty minute practice to get benefit. You can just grab two or three minutes here and there and do a number of moves that make you feel good. Doing a few minutes a couple of times a day can be a great way to help you deal with stress and improve your health. I still love going to the gym and working out to I often do Qigong at the beginning of my workout to connect my body, mind and breath. I would then finish my workout with a little Qigong to centre me and help me transition from workout into the rest of my day. I just fits in seamlessly with what I already do.
What are some of its key benefits?
Qigong has been shown in research studies to offer the following benefits:
Reduces anxiety
Reduces cortisol and stress hormones
Reduces systemic inflammation
Improves immune function
Improves sleep quality
Reduction in blood pressure
Supports cardiovascular health
Promotes relaxation
Improves mood
Positive effects on bone health
Pain reduction for Arthritis, neck pain and Fibromyalgia
Improves cognitive function
With more people training at home than ever before, what are three of your go to exercises?
Qigong had been great for people who want to work from home and through lock down I was forced to do the same. As I prefer a more physical style of working out I do a Qigong practice thats know as the wild animal play. This is a more physical form than many styles of Qigong and works more on muscles. I have a few favourite animal moves that have kept me strong during lock down:
1) Tiger press ups - Advance press up move to hit the whole body
2) Crain rotations - These are great for improving balance and strengthening hips and core.
3) Leopard Jumps - A strong plyometric move to strengthen the legs and get the HR up.
2020 has been a transformative year for the fitness world, how do you think the landscape is going to change?
I think a lot more people have found fitness in lock down in all different shapes and forms. A pandemic that seems to worse effect people who are over weight or who have poor cardiovascular and respiratory health shocked a large number of people into action. With people taking up running and cycling and home gym equipment is still almost impossible to get hold of there are people getting fitter and healthier without needing the gym. That will certainly have an impact on the the big gym chains out there. There was also a shift in mindset for a lot of people where having more space and time to look after themselves in more of a mental and emotional way has allowed them to make changes to their lifestyle to continue to support those improvements. This is why I believe Qigong has taken off so much recently and is continuing to grow. People know they need support with mental and emotional wellbeing and have had more time to do it. It’s a really exciting time to be involved in the fitness industry as we see more people entering the space as well as more accessible online options for all.
connect with arron and find out more…
visit his website: https://www.toniqlife.com
follow him on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arronpersonaltrainer
