Today I did the two qi gong forms I usually do as a single form. Usually it’s five golden coins followed by a break of breathing, and then eight pieces of brocade followed by a break for breathing, and then the tai chi short form I know, it’s a pretty regular pattern.

But today for the first time, I wasn’t even breathing hard when it came time to end five golden coins. So I just kept going. About halfway through eight pieces of silk, I was heaving like a bellows, but I kept going. And I was able to finish without much reduction of precision of form. So, in effect, I combined my two qi gong forms today into a single form.

It wasn’t bad at all. It was, in fact, a better workout that I’ve been getting recently. Of course, I usually do it as two separate routines with a break in between. But my skill set and my strength have grown and evolved to the point where I can do both as if they were one.

The obvious next step is to do this for a while, and see if I can reduce the “breathing like a bellows” effect at the end of the two forms together. I should also go back to the Tai Chi Classics and see if this kind of increase in the form’s length is supported in the literature.

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