Preface
No. 4 Health Boosting Chi Gong ( Qi Gong) –Tendon-Muscle Strengthening Exercise is a health and fitness exercise handed down from ancient China.

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Based on the traditional  12 routines of NO. 4 exercise features the same names and key points of the original exercises while putting the theory, skills and effects on the same solid foundation as knowledge of health and fitness Chi Gong ( Qi Gong ) , traditional Chinese medicine and other related scientific fields.

This Chi Gong ( Qi Gong ) features extended. Soft and even movements displaying a graceful charm, an it puts focus on the turning and flexing of the spine, thus invigorating the limbs and internal organs. These movements have been proved to be able to improve the intellect. In particular, practice of the NO. 4 exercise has every impressive effects on the respiratory system, flexibility, balance and muscular strength. It can also prevent and cure disease of the joints, digestive system, cardiovascular system and nervous system.

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It requires the practitioner to keep their spirit totally relaxed. It involves an integration of mind and body, natural breathing, gentle movements infused with strength, and interplay of the insubstantial and the substantial. Easy to learn and perform, this refreshing exercise has impressive health and fitness effects, and is adaptable to all age groups.

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Origins and Development
NO. 4 Health Boosting Chi Gong ( Qi Gong ) exercise are thought to have their origin in primitive shamanistic rituals. The earliest description of the exercises if found in the Bibliographic Treatise History of the Han Dynasty almost 2,000 years ago. A brocade painting names Illustration of QI Conduction was unearthed in the 1970s from an ancient tomb in the central China city of Changsha. It has more than 40 illustrations of exercise identifiable as the prototypes of the basic movements of the current NO.4 exercise.

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This exercise are widely thought to have been development by the Indian Buddhist monk Bondhidharma, who was also the originator of the Shaolin martial arts tradition. It is recorded that Bodhidharma arrived at the Shaolin Temple in the Songshan Mountains in central China’s Henan Province in 526 AD. According to legend, he was the founder of Zen Buddhism and initiated the Buddhist practice of Dhyana or deep meditation, in China. Monks of the Shaolin Temple played an impressive role in the evolution of the NO.4 (Yi Jin Jing ) exercise. As Dhyana featured long and quiet sitting , the monks took up martial arts ( Wushu ) to limber up their bodies after meditation.

A number of works on NO. 4 exercise appeared during the Song Dynasty ( 960-1279 ). Among them was the Cream of Daoist Doctrine compiled by Zhang Junfang by order of the then emperor.

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The earliest account of the modern 12-movement exercises is including in the Illustrations of Internal Exercise compiled by Pan Wei in 1858 in the Qing Dynasty.
As traditional NO.4 exercise relies heavily on the traditional Chinese medicine theory of the Five Elements—mental, wood, water, fire and earth—different schools of the exercises have sprung up emphasizing this aspect in many works. It has absorbed the cream of the traditional 12-routine NO.4 exercises together with a modern scientific approach. The movements form a continuous integrity, focusing on tendon stretching and bone flexing, and combining softness with strength. An essential part of the routines is natural breathing, assisted by calmness of the mind to make the circulation of the vital energy as unimpeded as possible.