Five Elements Qigong: White Tiger Qigong (YMAA Qigong DVD) Tevia Feng Five Animals Qigong DVD

This is a very good Qigong instruction. Very informative going into the forms and details of Qi flow throughout the body

Easy to follow and very informative.

Recently I have been getting into Qigong practices with educational DVD'S. At first, I did not realize this practice involves what seems to be a synthesis of healthy body movements, with visualizations then fused with a meditation perspective. With this very interesting and educational DVD about the five elements I now have been learning a great way to use this ancient practice.I like the instructor and his assistant, which is important if you are going to be in session with them for extended periods of time, like what is offered here in these recorded sessions.I was not expecting to have trippy visuals that totally enhance the whole experience. For example, the main instructor will be talking as your meditative guide and instructor. Then there are a series of his assistants, with the main one being the lady on the front cover of the DVD. The instructor will be describing a visual scenario, like imaging yourself holding a vase or a vibrant glowing ball. An animation actually appears, where the person demonstrating the exercise, will be standing on a mat that is in front of a blue screen. The special effects looks like she is then suspended over a misty lake/forest landscape. The visualization object that I just mentioned, whether it is an invisible vase or an animated CGI glowing ball, then appears in her hand or not really in her hand, but suspended in air within her hand region so it complies thoroughly with the visualization. I am being totally honest when I say whoever did the final editing and adding of the computer animations did a really cool job. At first I thought it was a bit absurd, then within a few minutes grew to love the whole idea. What is also neat, is it will go so far as to make the person doing the exercise disappear for a few second or a minute so all you see is animations. I feel those effects really bring me into the meditative mindset. I love how this allows you to really focus on your whole body and utilizing every part of it.During my teenage years I practiced martial arts and see a dep connection in relation to the movements such as the Dragon stances and maneuvers. I also like the crane movements which remind me of that old school action flick with a similar name- Snake Crane - something.I really like the introduction part that is dedicated to breathing techniques. This section appears at the top of the DVD menu to suggest going over that first before delving in to the Five Elements maneuver's. To summarize, I am very happy with this whole course and recommend it to an anyone into mindful based alternative exercises.

Pros - the exercises/poses are amazing! They make your body and soul feel good! Another pro is that there is tons of extra information on this DVD about Chinese medicine and about the body.Cons - Something that made me incredibly upset was, on one part of the DVD there is a guy talking about general health guidelines (eat right, get enough sleep, move your body......stuff we've all heard a million times) and he talks about being careful of what you put in your mind and uses the example of not watching horror movies. Then as he is talking about this, they SHOW A PART OF A HORROR MOVIE WHERE A GUY HAS A KNIFE IN HIS MOUTH AND IS GETTING HIS FACE CUT OFF!!!!!!! I was HORRIFIED!!! Here I am in a zen, peaceful, learning about healthy mood, and out of nowhere they show that!!! Once you've seen that, that's not something you can easily get back out of your mind! I was incredibly offended! There was no reason why they needed to show that!!!! Another con - some parts of the exercises/poses are not well edited. It's almost like the DVD is glitchy, the exercises start and stop at weird parts and don't all flow well. And when they are teaching, you hold certain poses way too long as they are explaining, then the next part goes too fast.

I haven't had the time to devote to these exercises and honestly haven't finished the video yet, so I don't know enough to say whether they do any of the things that they claim to, but the movements are graceful and very similar to what I (years ago) studied in Kung Fu, which helped me a lot with balance and flexibility. The video demonstrates the movements and poses very clearly, and describes them verbally, and shows them from different angles. It's sometimes hard to keep your eye on the screen as you're doing them, but that's what a rewind function is for.Traditional Chinese medicine concepts are discussed throughout.My 12yo son was watching and asked "Wait, the kidney causes fear?"I said: "That's a traditional Chinese medical philosophy, Western medicine has a different view.""Well, dad, the music is making me believe it."It is, indeed, very peaceful and pleasant music.The exercises are demonstrated by a woman against a generated background of clouds and some art, and the narration and lessons are by a (non-Chinese) man who seems knowledgeable. All the movements I've seen so far are slow and gentle.

A bit better than some of the things I watch for this on Youtube. Helps get into meditation and still stay alert without getting sleepy. I like the breathing exercises the best. When I'm practiced a timed breathing method before without instruction, I've naturally gravitated to a sleep-inducing breath. Meditating is different to clear the thoughts and stay away to try and achieve a useful state of mind. Is difficult when a habit is made for breathing changes to sleep. Those who have insomnia should know part of the reason for that is that you are too agitated to breath in the right timing to allow sleep. To dream, to sleep, to relax to wake all have different timings, here you can learn how to emulate the one for meditative states. Recommended.

This is a good video for the beginner. It reviews basic qigong principals and I think it's a great supplement to other videos you can find online or work with other qigong practitioners if you can find a teacher or group in person.

Good video for basic qigong moves.

Given the almost 4 hours runtime of the DVD, I was expecting this animal Qigong program to include at least 4 or 5 different moves per animal, akin to the 5 animal sports qigong. Well, no, you get ONE movement per animal, and a small set of separate warm up exercise. Most of the runtime is the camera lingering on the mouvements for minutes, and just filming the performer doing standing meditation silently. There is also TCM and fascia commentary on the exercises, which is fine but seems a bit overplayed given the set of moves is limited and very simple. I can't see any reason to pick this up over the YMAA 5 animals sports qigong DVD.