It’s common for people to say,  “ Chinese martial arts can be
   divided into Neijia ( ‘internal’ ) and Waijia ( ‘external’ ) arts.”   don’t dare say I have
  

  "Exercise" is something everyone is familiar with and frequently engaged in.
  Why do we exercise? For “health,” of course. But, have you ever stopped for a minute to think

   carefully about what “health” really is? And what is real “exercise”? We often hear people say :

  “I wasn’t careful working out today and I hurt myself.” We also hear about people incurring

  “repetitive stress injury” and the like by exercising. But isn’t it to be healthy that we exercise

  in the first place? Why would we spend time thinking of new ways to injure ourselves?

  Is this a problem with the exercise itself or a problem with the exerciser? Of course,

  the exercise itself has some problems, but the problem in our own attitudes about exercise

  is the real key issue.




   As we consider what we mean by real “health,” let’s first calmly ask ourselves:

  is what we’re after real “health” or is it an over-propagated fad?




  Nowadays, many woman are after a slim figure and we can’t say this is necessarily a mistake.

  However, pursuing this ideal to the point of “heroine chic” is actually a kind of disease,

  a kind of mass delusion. Maybe people will cast envious glances at her as she walks down the street,

  but what terrible price has been for the achievement of that figure? If you were to try it yourself

  you’d have to ask: is this a way to maintain health or a slow form of suicide? I have a good friend

  who was once a TV star and who is now involved in the so-called fitness industry. For some time now

  I very rarely see him eat lunch. The reason, of course, is that he doesn’t want to get fat. After all,

  we can’t deny that in the health and fitness industries, physical appearance is an important marker

  of success. Every meal watching me eat something delicious while he had nothing more than a nutritional

  supplement—I wonder how long one can take this? If it were me, I would never be able to play

  this kind of joke on myself. I recently accepted a beautiful young girl as a new student. I asked her

  why she didn’t go to study dance like other young girls. She said “I don’t want to look like those dance

  teachers who starve themselves until they’re nothing but skin and bones.” We also need to ask ourselves:

  was this slim figure the product of exercise or the product of self-imposed starvation? After all, lack of

  nutrition can’t be considered a kind of health practice. If you use a fashion as a standard for health,

  then the problem, of course, is with your own attitude, not the type of exercise you’ve chosen to do.



 
  Let’s first discuss the issue of “fat” and “thin.” Which of the two is healthier? This question is

  one that we might say even God himself is tired of minding, with no one finding any clear links

  between health and weight. Who’s to say some eminent but eccentric person might not one day

  start claiming that “fat is beautiful,” sparking the whole world to go back to appreciating the

  Reubenesque? Would we consider this a revelation about health or just another fad? I only know

  the natural law won’t change: people who are starving will spend all their time thinking how to get fat;

  people with too much to eat will spend all day trying to get thin. This issue has dominated the 20^th

  century health discourse to the point that one wishes people could just follow their own idea of health.

  Thus, during these past few thousands of years the fashionable body type has ranged from spherical

  to skeletal. We can almost imagine asking God why, when he designed people, he didn’t just make them

  like an inflatable ball: when it’s fashionable to be fat one could just add a little air; when it’s fashionable

  to be thin one could just let a little out. Then people could change their bodies as they wished and we

  wouldn’t have to spend so much time worrying over this.




  So which of the two is really healthy in the end? “Just right” is healthy! If you’re just fat

  enough and just skinny enough, then so long as you’re honest with yourself, you can easily tell the

  difference between healthy fat and pathological fat, healthy slender and pathological gaunt.

  Real health doesn’t depend on just how heavy you are. After all, even just looking at your outer

  appearance isn’t enough to make an accurate judgment. Real health depends on looking at the whole

  picture and not just the parts in isolation. It’s from the inside-out. For healthy insides your organ systems

  must be in balance and your blood circulation smooth. For the outside, you need your four limbs to be

  in balance, your posture straight and your muscular development even. The type of exercise we usually

  encounter tends towards emphasizing the “outer” portion of this equation while neglecting the “inner.”

  Thus, if we’re engaging in an incomplete sort of exercise then the health benefits we can derive are also

  naturally limited. A common problem with this sort of exercise is that in many cases, the more seriously

  a person applies himself to it, the more problems tend to crop up. Even simple jogging can result in

  joint injuries when practiced too much. This cannot be the inherent nature of exercise. Only a very

  complete sort of exercise can result in excellent health. Let’s look back on all the different kinds of

  exercise we’ve engaged in over the course of our lives: how many are really complete unto themselves?

  How many can you do for years and years and into old age without hurting yourself? I would guess

  the number isn’t very high. If even simple jogging can cause so many problems, then it means that

  the problem lies not in the exercise itself but in our own concepts of “exercise.”





  What kind of exercise do you want to do? The choice is in your hands. But, as you make this choice,

  do you have a clear “concept” of what you plan to get out of the exercise, its benefits and its drawbacks?

  Do you understand the theory behind this type of exercise or are you only following a trend? After all,

  trends come and go and if you choose an exercise based on how simple it is, you may end up creating

  more trouble for yourself down the road. After all, the health of the body is an important, complex thing.

  We can’t shortchange ourselves when it comes to this.




  Having begun practice at the age of six, I’ve now been studying Chinese martial arts for fifty

  years exactly and can feel very keenly with my own body the benefits it has brought me. Many people

  describe Chinese martial arts as a kind of all-inclusive exercise; it can break through age limitations

  such that it’s appropriate to start at age six or age eighty. This form of exercise is not only a martial art

  you can use to defend yourself, but it also helps nourish and maintain bodily health. The study of

  Chinese cultural arts has recently become a trend, with people lining up to study them all over the world.

  The only problem with this is that the more popular a topic of conversation Chinese martial arts become,

  the more mythologized and confusing they seem to be. This veil of mystery has unfortunately opened

  the way for all manner of watering down and outright fraud.




  As for all the talk and theorizing that goes on in regards to Chinese martial arts, people are not only

  familiar with it, they can practically recite a litany of “common knowledge”: “Chinese martial arts

  are divided into the external and the internal schools. Taiji is ‘internal,’ so it can be used to cultivate qi,

  so I practice Taiji for the energy.” “When I was young I practiced Shaolin; now that I’m old I can’t move

  so well, so I practice and teach Taiji.” “Qigong can be used to heal illness: it was me who cured so-and-so’s

  illness by infusing him with my energy.” “My Qigong is from an esoteric, spiritual school and is so powerful

  it can make those paralyzed in a wheel chair walk again.” With the popularization of these sorts of

  messages and theories, Qigong has come to be viewed as some sort of magical silver bullet and Taiji as

  a shortcut to cultivating energy. Unfortunately, both the teacher and the student are fooling themselves

  in such cases, risking harm for both parties.




  So what is the reality, then? I’ve certainly never seen a paraplegic walk again as a result of Qigong

  and I’ve never seen someone’s serious illness cured by an infusion of energy from a so-called Qigong

  “Grandmaster.” People live for hope, but this kind of mythologizing isn’t a way to give people

  hope—it’s a sure path to disappointment and disillusionment. Without a solid grasp of the theory

  behind these things, fantasy and confusion are the sure result. Can Qigong really cure disease?

  Of course, it can! But, it’s a type of self-healing, not a type of treatment. People can’t escape the laws

  of nature: when you’re hungry you need to eat, when you’re tired you need to sleep: other people can’t

  do these things for you. If you think about it you’ll realize that these kinds of stories that can only

  be found in novels are actually easier to fool adults with than children!




  Chinese martial arts are a type of exercise that includes health-cultivation benefits.

  It’s incorrect to say that this particular style has health benefits and that one doesn’t. In fact,

  if you look carefully, all schools of Chinese martial arts have methods for training both the inner

  and the outer aspects of health. Sadly, it seems that as the number of practitioners has grown,

  the size of the martial arts themselves has shrunk. At this rate, even in the midst of a boom in popularity

  of Chinese culture and arts, who will look twice at this treasure of traditional martial arts? Many people

  want to rush to become teachers, but while their intentions may be good, if they don’t actually have much

  real material, they can only resort to telling tales of mystery and magic.




  No matter which school, all styles of Chinese martial arts train from the outside-in,

  first teaching you how to move your limbs and then training your inner energy, the inner and the outer

  supplementing and supporting one-another. What kind of martial art doesn’t start out as “external,”

  and what martial art doesn’t become “internal” as it its practice deepens? However, the distinction

  between “internal” and “external” martial arts has become almost a commonplace; if you don’t want to

  make that distinction people will seemingly not understand or consider you someone who doesn’t get it.

  However, the only way to make this really applicable would be to never practice your Taiji form at speed

  and to never practice the energetic aspects of Shaolin arts. However, when you look at those arts like

  Shaolin and Mantis that have now been lumped under the “external,” it’s easy to see how just learning

  the basic movements is hard enough without going deeper to train the internal. And who among

  those walking a Bagua circle or practicing a Taiji form doesn’t mistake these forms for Qigong?

  They are obviously two separate issues that shouldn’t be lumped together. You should realize that life

  is complex—if it was really so simple then wouldn’t just jogging suffice for a complete workout?

  What need would there be to go to the trouble of learning Chinese martial arts?




  Regardless of the style, all types of Chinese martial arts need to be able to break through

  limitations of age. They are all a type of exercise that can be used from age six to age eighty.

  Who says “now that I’m old and can’t move well it’s time I switched over to Taiji”? Regardless

  of the style, the ability to practice it well has nothing to do with age. If you establish a good foundation

  at six and can perform flying kicks at age twenty, if you keep up the practice then even after seventy your

  fists and feet can continue to fly as before. What’s more, you’ll have added a layer of internal training.

  This is the goal of every student receiving a complete Chinese martial arts education. Unfortunately,

  most students are caught up in the business of their job or other daily matters, looking entirely to the

  limited time spent at a martial arts school to help them achieve these goals. As a result, they cannot

  even finish learning the forms and are on their own for understanding the theory. It’s no wonder, then,

  that there are so many errors in interpretation of old boxing manuals nowadays. When you get up in

  years and keep practicing without a firm foundation, it’s no surprise you lose the ability to punch and

  kick fast. The natural place to put the blame is on the aging and not the practice. Anyone can forgive

  you for being old. When I used to practice a lot in the park as a child there was a popular saying:

  “The park is full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons—a master under every tree.” Those who

  didn’t understand it might go looking for such masters, but those who understood only laughed.

  After all, what Chinese person isn’t clever enough to have read a few martial arts novels, seen a few

  martial arts movies? Anyone can talk all day about such things. If they ask you to show a few moves

  then there’s no need to worry. After all, you can just say “I’m getting old.” You can start telling

  some stories about the good old days. I can guarantee the one who wants to hang around will be you,

  not him. Who says the Chinese have the virtue of respect for the elderly? At the very least you can

  get some young kids to listen to your stories for a few minutes.




  So what, in the end, is real health? What are real Chinese martial arts? These both require

  your own participation to understand. Life isn’t simple, but maybe not as complex as you think, either.

  You’ll never understand the true meaning of life lying down. Nothing good comes cheap and nothing

  easy will get you somewhere. This is something that should actually be quite obvious to you and I both

  just by looking at the world around us.