Iron Shirt Chi Kung

Kung Fu was practiced in China long before the advent of firearms. During the Bolin Period, approximately 1000 BC, training in the various spiritual/martial arts was quite intense. It is said that at the time one-tenth of the population of China was involved in some sort of Kung Fu training. Training began in very early youth. The student first worked to develop internal power, or inner strength through organ exercises, an endeavor that could take as long as ten years. (Location 132)

With the invention of gunpowder and the subsequent development of firearms, men no longer felt the need to spend a decade or more of their lives learning skills that suddenly seemed impractical and unnecessary. With firearms as weapons a man could now defend himself, or at the least cause great damage, while standing at a great distance from his enemy. Contact fighting became a thing of the past, and much knowledge that was useful to humanity was lost with it. Today, however, as people begin to recognize the depersonalizing and unhealthy effects of technology, there has been a revival of interest in the simpler ways of life. Thus Kung Fu, a means of perfecting the inner self, is once again in the limelight. (Location 150)

Taoists believe that as fetuses growing in the womb we use Iron Shirt Packing Breathing. Before birth the infant does not use the lungs and nose to breathe. Instead, chi enters the navel through the umbilical cord, then travels down to the perineum, up the sacrum and through the spinal cord to the head and forehead, and then travels down the front of the body from the tongue*1 to the throat, heart, abdomen, and navel centers, where the chi pressure can be used (fig. 1.5). (Location 171)

Note: Obvious if you stop to think of it, obviously they’re not breathing air, but still this is super interesting, and the underlying mechanics are insane: https://wwwchopedu/conditions-diseases/blood-circulation-fetus-and-newborn

As we age we also begin to lose the habit of abdominal breathing. The lungs are left to do all the breathing through the chest, which is an inefficient way to breathe. Chest breathing requires using greater energy to expand the rib cage and is only sufficient for filling the upper one-third of the lungs. This method of breathing actually expends more energy than it creates. Scientists have affirmed that, with chest breathing, we use only one-third of our lung capacity for breathing; then, yielding to gravitational pressure, our organs collapse. With abdominal breathing we can expand the amount of pressure exerted on the internal organs and strengthen the organs by voluntarily compressing and releasing them. (Location 188)

In the practice of Iron Shirt we focus on the connective tissue (the fascia), organs, tendons, bones, and bone marrow more than we emphasize developing the musculature. (Location 210)

Food (nutrition) that is taken into the body but is not required by the body is turned into fat and stored in the outer layers of fascia. This fat will greatly reduce the conduction of chi throughout the body. The Iron Shirt Packing Process helps to condense and squeeze the fat, transforming it into energy to be stored in the fascial covers of the organs for use whenever it is needed. When chi pressure occupies the fascial layers, fat cannot be stored there. The body thus becomes trained to convert fat into chi energy for storage in the fascial layers. (Location 248)

The abdominal area accounts for two-thirds of the blood supply that flows through the liver, kidneys, stomach, and spleen. (Location 267)

Increase chi storage between the fascial sheets; open the fasciae to serve as chi storage areas of the body, replacing fat previously stored there; and understand the function of the fascial layers as cushions around the body that protect the vital organs (Location 330)

The eight exercises are: Embracing the Tree Holding the Golden Urn, Yang Position Holding the Golden Urn, Yin Position The Golden Turtle Immersing in Water The Water Buffalo Emerging from Water The Golden Phoenix Washes Its Feathers Iron Bridge Iron Bar (Location 350)

The pneumatic effect joins what would otherwise be felt as separate aspects of the body into one continuous unit, creating a unified and integrated alignment of the skeletal structure such that enormous physical force can be easily transferred through the structure to and from the ground with a minimum of muscular exertion. This produces a tremendous increase in mechanical strength that increases exponentially as this work progresses. (Location 364)

Most people who have not had Taoist, yogic, or other similar deep-breathing training find it awkward and disorienting at first to coordinate the movements of the thoracic diaphragm and the abdomen in abdominal breathing. The physical movements of the chest and sternum, combined with intentionally pressing the thoracic diaphragm more forcefully downward while simultaneously expanding the abdominal musculature outward as you inhale more air into the fully expanding lower lobes of the lungs, actually require a fair amount of muscle and tendon coordination and exertion. Of course, these various exertions result in a most beneficial massage for all of the affected organs, glands, and lymph nodes in the chest and abdominal areas. But even for experienced practitioners who enjoy the peace, pleasure, and enhanced vitality of this more profound mode of breathing, it takes a few breath cycles to shift gears from the “normal” upper-lungs form of breathing. (Location 426)

The importance of these anatomical structures will become apparent as you progress in your work in Taoist Yoga, especially in the three levels of Iron Shirt Chi Kung and in Seminal and Ovarian Kung Fu (Sexual Energy Cultivation practices). These pelvic and urogenital diaphragms are of tremendous help in increasing chi pressure in the organs and the abdomen. Knowing how to utilize and control these diaphragms will improve your capabilities in all levels of the Universal Tao practices. (Location 522)

So far we have learned Iron Shirt Packing Process Breathing, the practice that is used for packing chi into the organs and the fascia surrounding the organs, and we have learned Horse Stance, which helps to develop optimal structural alignment, important for unimpeded chi flow. Now we will go into more detail about circulating chi at certain power points in the body. (Location 1066)