Friday, July 3, 2009

Book review: You Are How You Move: Experiental Chi Kung by Ged Sumner

Book review: You Are How You Move: Experiental Chi Kung by Ged Sumner

I’m usually weary of books on Eastern motion arts, such as Tai Chi, Chi Gong, and to some degree even yoga because these are nearly impossible to learn by a book. The movements are too difficult to capture, and generally the author additionally advocates unusual spiritual ideas.

This book, instead, is written by a capable writer and master practitioner who simply explains the applicability of Chi Gong principles into daily movement. No hype or spiritual mumbo jumbo.

The problem remains that the movements still remain very difficult to describe by text. And as each individual’s starting posture is different, even if one reads the text carefully, one can be doing the explained Chi Gong movements by the book, and be doing these incorrectly.

So, for learning Chi Gong, I believe the better methods are DVDs or classes—this book would be better served by an accompanying DVD. Additionally, the book’s B&W photos are grainy, insufficient in numbers, and needs overlay arrows and numbers to better tie into the book’s text.

So, why am I giving this book a 5 star? It has some of the best explanations on body movement and awareness I’ve ever read. For examples, the explanations on how to stand straight, how to move—these are instantly valuable--for nearly everyone. This is one of the few books that explain the whys of simple body movements—extremely valuable information for everybody.

Bottom line—if you want to learn Chi Gong by this book, this is very difficult. If you want to understand why Chi Gong and why body movements work the way they do—best book I’ve ever read. One of the few books I review and want to reread.

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