Professor Ni Haixia’s Wall-knocking Exercise to Remove Blood Stasis

This wall-knocking practice (zhuang qiang gong 撞墙功) taught by the famous professor of Chinese medicine Ni Haixia 倪海夏 is great for clearing up stagnation of qi and blood, eliminating turbid qi, improving cardiovascular health, and it also makes a great addition to your qigong warm-up routine. Eliminating stagnation early is important because it eventually leads to blockages if left unchecked.

One indicator of blood stasis is darkened and/or enlarged sublingual veins under the tongue. So many yangsheng enthusiasts, following Ni Haixia’s teachings, practiced this exercise daily for a while and then posted before and after pics online showing improvements in the appearance of their sublingual veins.

The following are instructions and tips for practicing:

Find a flat and sturdy surface that is wide enough. Don’t use a surface that will break easily (don’t do this against drywall) or that is round or has dips and rivets.
Stand with your back to the wall, a few inches from the wall, feet shoulder-width apart but one foot is slightly forward.
Keeping your head forward so that it doesn’t hit the wall, start gently and rock backwards banging your upper back against the wall.
Keep you back relaxed. Don’t pull the shoulders forward (exposing the spine) or push them backwards (sticking out the shoulder blades). You want to come into contact with the meaty portions of your upper back, not the bones.
Keep your body upright and gently contract the abdomen and anus when breathing out and hitting the wall.
As you hit the wall, exhale strongly to expel turbid qi and make a “hē” sound. The hē 呵 sound corresponds the zhi 徵 tone on the ancient Chinese five-toned scale and, through the five phase correspondence is related to the heart organ system.
As you get comfortable with the motion you can go a bit harder.
Practice for 2-5 minutes.

The video below includes the clip in which professor Ni Haixia explains and then demos the practice himself.