Qigong and Neigong: Understanding Internal Training

Qigong and Neigong are two terms that often appear when people begin exploring traditional Chinese martial arts and internal practices. They are sometimes used interchangeably, and different traditions may use them in different ways, which can make their relationship difficult to understand.

Both are concerned with developing qualities that are not always obvious from simply looking at an exercise from the outside. Posture, relaxation, breathing, attention, intention and awareness can all become part of the training.

The movements may sometimes be simple. The practice behind them may be considerably deeper.

What Is Qigong?

Qigong (氣功) is a broad term encompassing many traditional Chinese practices involving movement, posture, breathing and focused attention.

Some Qigong practices use flowing movements. Others involve repeated exercises, standing postures, breathing practices or meditation. Different traditions may also place greater emphasis on health, martial development, meditation or other aspects of cultivation.

At Kung Fu Blue Mountains, we begin with something practical: learning to pay attention to what we are actually doing and experiencing.

Through practice, we can explore how the body is organised, where unnecessary tension is being held, how we breathe and how attention influences our experience.

If you're new to the subject, you can read more in our What Is Qigong? guide.

What Is Neigong?

Neigong (內功) can be translated as internal skill or internal work.

Rather than describing one particular exercise or system, the term generally refers to internal qualities and skills developed through training. Exactly what those qualities are, and how they are cultivated, varies considerably between martial arts and other traditional practices.

This distinction is useful.

An exercise is something we practise. Gong (功) refers to skill or ability developed through sustained practice.

A relatively simple exercise can therefore become a vehicle for developing increasingly refined qualities over time.

What Is the Difference Between Qigong and Neigong?

There isn't one universal distinction accepted by every Chinese martial arts tradition.

One useful way to understand the relationship is that Qigong describes a broad field of practices, while Neigong places the emphasis on the internal skills and qualities being cultivated through training.

That doesn't mean every Qigong exercise is automatically Neigong, nor that Neigong is simply a more advanced version of Qigong.

The terminology overlaps, and different traditions organise these ideas differently.

What matters most in practice is not necessarily which label we give an exercise, but what we are training through it.

From Movement to Internal Practice

When we first learn an exercise, much of our attention may be occupied by the external movement.

Where do the hands go?

Where should the feet be?

What happens next?

As the movement becomes familiar, that attention becomes available for something else.

We can begin noticing our alignment. We can recognise unnecessary tension. We can explore how different parts of the body connect and coordinate. We can observe our breathing and investigate how intention and attention influence the movement.

The external exercise may look almost identical.

What we are practising within it has changed.

This progression from simply performing a movement towards exploring increasingly subtle qualities is an important part of internal training.

Zhan Zhuang and Standing Practice

Zhan Zhuang (站樁) is commonly translated as standing like a post or standing like a stake and refers to a family of standing practices found in various Chinese traditions.

From the outside, standing practice can appear as though very little is happening. That simplicity is precisely what makes it useful.

Without a complicated sequence of movements to remember, we have an opportunity to pay closer attention to how we are standing.

A simple beginning practice might involve:

1. Stand comfortably with the feet approximately shoulder-width apart.

2. Allow the knees to remain relaxed rather than rigidly locked.

3. Let the body remain naturally upright without forcing the posture.

4. Relax unnecessary tension through the shoulders, chest and arms.

5. Allow the breathing to remain comfortable and natural.

6. Pay attention to your balance, posture, breathing and the sensations you notice within the body.

There is no need to force a particular sensation or imagine that something special must happen.

Simply standing and paying attention gives us somewhere to begin.

With appropriate instruction, the same standing practice can later become a context for exploring increasingly subtle aspects of structure, relaxation, connection, intention and internal awareness.

Internal Training in Qigong, Tai Chi and Kung Fu

Internal training is not necessarily separate from martial arts training.

Many of the qualities explored through Qigong and Neigong can also be investigated through Tai Chi and Kung Fu: balance, structure, relaxation, coordination, sensitivity, intention and awareness.

The training method may change, but the practitioner remains the same.

Standing practice might give us a quiet environment in which to recognise tension or investigate alignment. A Tai Chi form introduces movement and continual changes in balance. Partner training adds contact, pressure, timing and another person whose movement we cannot completely control.

Each provides a different environment in which to explore and develop what we are learning.

At Kung Fu Blue Mountains, these practices are therefore not treated simply as isolated exercises. They form part of a broader process of learning to understand and develop the body, mind and our experience through training.

From Exercise to Practice

One of the interesting things about internal training is that progress does not always require learning another exercise.

We can return to the same movement or standing practice many times and discover something we hadn't previously noticed.

At first we may simply learn the shape.

Then we notice tension.

Later we begin recognising relationships between posture, breathing, balance, attention and intention.

The exercise hasn't necessarily become more complicated.

Our ability to practise it has developed.

That is part of what gong represents: qualities and skills cultivated gradually through continued practice.

Begin Exploring Internal Training

Qigong and Neigong are difficult to understand entirely through definitions because much of their meaning emerges through practice.

At Kung Fu Blue Mountains in Wentworth Falls, Qigong is taught progressively, giving beginners somewhere practical to start while allowing more experienced students to continue exploring deeper aspects of internal training.

You don't need previous experience or a particular belief about Qi. You simply need somewhere to begin paying attention.

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Want to learn more first? Explore our Qigong classes in the Blue Mountains.

Yours in Kung Fu,

Sifu Aron