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Breath And Chi Kung with Scott Cole Gentle Chi Training Description:

Physical pain, stiffness and stress can result from blocked breathing and lack of chi and (energy) moving through your body. By combining simple breathing techniques with ancient Chinese energy exercises, SCOTT COLE’S BREATH & CHI KUNG program brings energy back into your body while improving strength, balance, flexibility and lung capacity. Best of all, IT’ EASY TO DO!

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27986 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-05-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 33 minutes

Customer Reviews:

Eastern mysticism in bite-size pieces
Scott Cole has a great talent for de-mystifying Eastern meditative practices. He brings a down-to-earth approach to teaching disciplines such as tai chi and chi kung. Because the segments in this DVD are short, they are ideally suited to the time-crunched.

“Breath and Chi Kung” is divided into three sections. In the first section, “Breathing and Letting Go of Stress” (about 11 minutes) Scott demonstrates deep breathing and stress reduction techniques from yoga, martial arts, tai chi, chi kung - and demonstrating he doesn’t take himself too seriously - a technique he learnt from an acting coach in LA! Scott also explains the physiological reasons why these techniques really do work. He demonstrates the exercises in a chair; once you’ve learnt them, you could easily do them at work when you get stressed out.

In the second section, “Chi Kung Energy Exercises” (about 15 minutes) Scott takes the viewer through an enjoyable simplified chi kung routine. I like to use this segment to get focused and energised when I really don’t feel like working out - it works every time!

In the third section (about 8 minutes) Scott demonstrates his “Eight Poses of Empowerment”, a slightly more challenging chi kung routine.

Scott is a charismatic and knowledgeable instructor who is easy on the eye and has a very pleasant voice. If you enjoy this DVD, you may also like his joint production with Janis Saffell, Janis Saffell Tai Chi Balance Workout which alternates tai chi and kickboxing segments.

Overall, I think this is a useful DVD for anyone who suffers from stress, is short on time and is curious about Eastern meditative practices. I took off a star for the less-than-brilliant production values, but would still recommend it as a worthwhile addition to your exercise DVD library.

Simple but effective, good for beginners
This is a decent Chi Kung video. Scott Cole is a relaxed and casual instructor and does a good job demonstrating and explaining the moves. The DVD is fairly short at about 33 minutes and consists of 3 sections. Part 1 (about 10 mins) are seated breathing exercises, which are pretty basic (belly breathing, vocalizing sounds on exhalation, alternate nostril breathing). Part 2 (about 15 mins) are standing Chi Kung movements which include Gathering, Centering & Opening the Chi (involving lowering and raising the arms in circular patterns) which are often used to begin Chi Kung workouts, a simple torso rotation, Flying Wild Goose (from Tai Chi Qigong 18 movements), Heaven Hands (also called Waving Hands like Clouds), 8-Part Energy Breath (a slight variation of the Golden Ball exercise taught on the video “Chi Kung: the Healing Workout”), Monkey-Bear (a kind of arm swinging, weight shifting movement), and Bending Bear (a really nice forward bending/releasing). Then as a “bonus” section, there are the “8 Poses of Empowerment” (about 6 mins). This one’s a bit more complicated and challenging, but an interesting way to ground, center and stretch.

Cons: I could have done without the generic new agey background music and ocean waves (nothing against new age music in general, but I find even good music on videos like this to often be distracting; some people might prefer it), and the production value is OK but not fantastic. I also think there should be at least 10 more minutes of practices here for the $15 list price, comparable to other Qigong videos I’ve bought. Overall, this is probably not a 4-star DVD (probably 3 1/2) but I like the exercises and I think it would be a good and effective starting place for a beginner or someone looking for a gentle and holistic workout.

Scott is very good
Nice pacing and instruction, very knowledgeable and motivating, Scott is wonderful in this DVD. Learned some stuff I didn’t know and enjoyed it. Find myself using it once or twice a week now.

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