Recovery from Illness, Tai Chi and Qigong

James Drewe
May 9
4 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

I might be perceiving this completely wrongly, but I'm sure that I recover quicker from illnesses (colds, coughs, stomach upsets, back problems etc.) when I'm in the middle of my teaching term compared to the breaks that I take between terms.

Before I began teaching 20-25 classes a week on a regular basis, I would practise every day, getting up extra early in order to do so (I took Sundays off).When I began teaching, my practising took on a different slant, and the teaching helped me with my practising.

I set up my classes in the school term format, 3 terms a year with holidays in-between, and as it was pretty full-on with 6 classes a day sometimes, I decided to rest during the holidays and deliberately take a break from tai chi and qigong.

The idea of doing this was that I mentally stepped back and could get my thinking about what and how I was teaching in perspective, as well as resting physically from quite an energetic program.

Time of recovery from illness

I think it was a good plan up to a point, but I have noticed that my recovery time from minor illnesses increases when I'm 'resting'.

If I get (for example) a cold or a stomach upset in the middle of my term, the constant daily activity of tai chi and qigong appears to shorten the recovery time by a surprising amount.

In my 'holidays', I'm sure that it takes me longer to recover.

School teachers and illness

I was a teacher in schools for 11 years, and rarely became ill during the term – there wasn’t time. Then the holidays would arrive, and I, and many other teachers, would often come down with something or other.

I’ve heard of people in other professions having a similar thing happen to them; it’s as though the ‘letting go’ means your immune system drops its guard.I was a teacher in schools for 11 years, and rarely became ill during the term – there wasn’t time. Then the holidays would arrive, and I, and many other teachers, would often come down with something or other.

I’ve heard of people in other professions having a similar thing happen to them; it’s as though the ‘letting go’ means your immune system drops its guard.

It must be the exercise

Doing any form of exercise on a regular basis avoids stagnation in the tissues and organs, but I suspect that practising Tai Chi and Qigong has a greater effect on the organs of the body compared to, for example, tennis, golf, rowing, etc. to name only a few, although these obviously have a major effect on one’s health also.

Tai Chi, qigong, and Chinese medicine

Tai Chi, qigong and Chinese medicine all work on the principles of ‘holism’:

holism /hō′lĭz″əm/

noun

1. A theory or belief that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

2. The theory that living matter or reality is made up of organic or unified wholes that are greater than the simple sum of their parts.

3. A holistic investigation or system of treatment.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts

In all 3 methods of managing your health (Tai Chi, Qigong, and Chinese medicine), this means that the unification of the body will strengthen it, not only from a muscular viewpoint, but also from a health viewpoint. In all 3 cases, the organs of the body are ‘trained’ to work more efficiently as a whole, rather than over-emphasising individual parts/units of the body.

From only a muscular point of view in Tai Chi & in Qigong, one of the things that you learn is how to operate the body as a collective whole, rather than by individual muscles; the fascia therefore plays a large part in this.

Recovery

So when I become ill in the middle of a term, I’ve noticed that the exercise shakes the illness off more rapidly, whereas, without the exercise, it can take longer to recover.When the body is working as a whole, it is using less energy to fulfil a task, and on top of that, from a Chinese medical perspective, when the organs are functioning collectively, the whole system is far more efficient – not greatly different to individual parts of an engine fulfilling their roles to produce a more efficient engine.

Why even get ill?

The question that arises from all this (and which I occasionally get asked) is, ‘why do you even get ill, if you’re doing all 3 of these things?’

Maybe it’s because I’m a bit fixed in some of my ways, and slightly resistant to changing those ways; with change happening in some parts of the body, but perhaps not in others, the tensegrity of the entire structure is compromised, with too much tension in some places and not enough in others, so the overall stability of the structure (in this case the body/mind) is less stable?

Maybe it’s because ‘stuff happens’ and you’re unable to process the various stresses quickly enough? Possibly that’s like going out in a light rain-shower, as opposed to going out in a hurricane – in one there are only a few parameters to deal with, and with the other…!

Maybe, as someone suggested to me the other day, illness is the body having an essential ‘software update’. How well we process that upgrade or update is dependent upon our general health.

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James Drewe teaches Tai Chi and Qigong in both London and in Kent and online.Details of weekly classes both live and online can be found on the website, and there are classes for 2-person Tai Chi on one Saturday a month.You can also learn both tai chi & qigong through a monthly subscription, and there are also many free videos on YouTube.