Originally Posted by cheech

Qigong. There are aspects that are useful from a combat viewpoint, but generally speaking not useful unless practiced in conjunction w/ combat skills. Muscle control, breath control and focus are useful products. Qigong is usually part of iron shirt/golden bell training. Learning proper breath control when exerting force helps to conserve energy. Muscle control helps to "shield" from injury when hit. Learning focus under stress helps keep mental stability in a stressful situation. Also helps to develop conscious control of what I think of as "fast time", a mental/physiological condition when time seems to slow down. Neigong, similar, but mostly an internal manifestation, whereas qigong is the harder form usually practiced by the "strongmen".

Proper practice and expression of qigong should assist w/ generating and delivering force to a target. It should also assist in developing breath and muscle control to assist in protecting from strikes. Iron shirt training usually comes in at least two levels. The first relies mainly on muscle control and reduction in sensitivity to pain. The next level adds absorbing and slipping, and automatic activation of the proper response to a received strike. At one point I'd actually developed the basic skills to the point where I could properly shield against a strike w/o anticipation. The first touch was enough of a stimulus to elicit the proper muscle control w/o having to consciously prepare to absorb the impact.

Qigong/neigong can develop some very useful skills as regards combat training, but on it's own it's more useful as a healthy exercise.