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Grip Training with Baoding Balls

July 1, 2019 July 3, 2019

There’s no better validation that baoding balls are a great tool for building grip strength than from a world record setting grip strength strongman named John Brookfield. Some records he hold are bending 520 penny nails in 1.5 hours and ripping 100 deck of cards in 2 minutes 15 seconds. And by the way, Mr. Brookfield wrote the book on hand and grip strength in his books “Mastery of Hand Strength” and “The Grip Master’s Manual“.

There are several common names for baoding balls and in Grip Master’s Manual, he calls them dexterity balls. If you found this article looking to improve your grip strength but are not familiar with dexterity balls, they are two or more metal balls you rotate in your hands to build strength and dexterity. To the beginner the easiest method would be to rotate two hollow balls in a clockwise direction with your right hand and a counter-clockwise direction with your left hand. Other than the normal ball rotation exercises, some of the techniques he suggests aims to make rotating the balls harder. First you can try rotating the balls with your palm in a vertical direction. And if you can do that, rotate the balls with your palm facing down. As you can imagine, you will have to be gripping and rotating the balls at the same time so they don’t fall which takes great endurance and control. Once that is mastered, you do things to make the exercise even harder by moving up to heavier balls, adding more balls, and rotating the balls without touching.

From his book, he writes:

“The method that I have developed with these balls will make your hands much stronger even if you’re not doing any other grip training at all. When I have been practicing the following system that I invented, every aspect of my hand strength has gone up, even though I have not been doing any other hand exercises at that time.”

Although his system is just his own routine of training with the balls, the underlying foundation is the same of baoding ball exercises used for centuries. One of the reviewers of this book personally experienced the grip strength phenomenon after getting sick. He was a rock climbing enthusiast and could not go to the climbing gym or workout. However, he had read John’s book and was able to work his hands with the dexterity balls while recovering for 2 weeks. After he recovered, he was surprised the rock walls he struggled with before became much easier and he was moving on to the hard walls he could never attempt before. His grip strength which was weak and failing on easy walls after a small amount of climbs was now holding strong.

Baoding balls are not the only gadget out there for building grip strength, but they would make a good addition to your collection of things to develop grip strength. The 1.5″ solid stainless steel baoding balls would make a good starting point as those ball are versatile in doing various exercises and are small enough to do the exercises with the palm vertical and facing down. The weight of solid steel is also beneficial.

Using Baoding Balls to Enhance Tai Chi

June 25, 2019 April 14, 2020

If you are a student of Tai Chi you will be aware of the many ways in which the hands, wrists and fingers are employed when practicing the movements and forms. There is always a reason why a particular hand movement is included in a routine and this is usually for the health benefits that such movements bestow upon the practitioner. For example, the locked wrist and tight fingers of the “bird’s beak” which occurs in so many forms, and is an important part of the “Single Whip” movement, is believed to be very beneficial in the prevention of arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome. Flexibility is at the core of the practice of Tai Chi, and this extends to every single muscle, joint, ligament, and tendon. Tai Chi’s approach to health works on the premise that your hands and feet are as important as your spine and hips when it comes to maintaining good health. This balanced principle is identical to the way baoding balls work so if you are having good results with baoding balls or Tai Chi, it should make sense to explore the other.

A good reference to have is a hand reflexology chart. By strengthening the wrists with the use of the balls you are also working the lumbar region of the spine. Increasing the flexibility of the fingers with baoding balls will benefit your sinuses, eyes and ears, and the increased stimulation of the meridians in the hand will have a therapeutic effect on the digestive tract, liver and lungs. As you can see by being able to target the areas of the hand, you can amplify and enhance the effectiveness of the Tai Chi forms you use for those same areas.

Baoding balls can be integrated into your Tai Chi routines quite easily. No matter which form you are learning you can adapt the hand movements so that the balls stay in the palms of your hands. Whenever there are “open palm” movements within a routine, you can use the baoding balls to aid you in maintaining the correct hand position. After you are able to hold the balls while doing the Tai Chi, start to rotate the balls at the same time. It takes practice as not all forms will be conductive to rotating balls.

Most Tai Chi Forms were developed to act beneficially on particular aspects of our health, such as Dr Paul Lam’s Arthritis and Diabetes Forms. Older forms draw their inspiration from the animal kingdom and mimic animal movements in some way to bring the qualities of that animal into the human realm, so that we find the movements associated with birds such as the goose or the crane, focus very much upon the graceful movements of arms, wrists and fingers. Wild Goose is a particularly good example of this and if you have ever seen it performed by a group of people in perfect synchronicity you will agree that it is as beautiful as the best of ballet performances. Using baoding balls to increase both strength and flexibility in the fingers, palms, and wrists will add to the effectiveness of such movements in your own practice.

Qigong with Baoding Balls

June 18, 2019 June 21, 2019

Qigong forms and exercises are very much focused on the inner workings of the energy lines or meridians which run throughout the body. Regular practice of qigong brings many benefits, as students will already know. Qigong is gentle yet powerful and increases the body’s flexibility, stamina and resistance to disease. It helps to calm the mind and to relieve anxiety, tension and stress in a natural way. The goal is always to bring the body’s systems into harmony and balance because it is this balance that confers good health. If you are familiar with the concept of Yin and Yang you will already know that the two forces are always in a state of flux and that for every action there is an opposite reaction. Regular practice of qigong gives you the tools your body needs in order to restore balance between the two forces.

Baoding balls can be a useful addition to your qigong practice in many ways. The movement of the balls mimics the constant state of movement in the energy channels, or meridians, as Chi moves throughout the systems of the body. You may also be familiar with the expression “Sick Chi”, meaning any feelings of discomfort or negativity that you would like to let go. Stagnant Chi, according to the principles of traditional chinese medicine and qigong, will bring illness and disharmony, whereas healthy, life-giving Chi is fluid and in a state of perpetual movement. Holding the baoding balls during your preparation time at the beginning of a qigong session serves to remind you to focus on fluidity in all things. Manipulating them as you sit or stand quietly, breathing deeply and rhythmically in qigong style will help to amplify the beneficial effects of your breathing by stimulating the meridian points in the hand.

The lung and large intestine meridian runs from the thumb to the collar bone, meaning that the action of manipulating baoding balls both stimulates and supports these organs. The thumb is of course the most important of the digits in the human hand and receives a good workout when you manipulate baoding balls. Stagnant Chi can be shifted by moving the affected area of the body, and in the same way, the action of the baoding balls on the fingers, wrists, and palms of the hand helps to open up the meridians, clear the energy channels and release any blockages.

Qigong is also referred to as “moving meditation”. Conventional meditation requires the body to be still so that the mind can follow and find its own stillness. In contrast, qigong meditation involves the conscious and deliberate movement and placing of parts of the body. Meditation with baoding balls incorporates smooth and rhythmic movement. When qigong meditation is combined, the baoding balls helps to amplify the beneficial effects of the qigong movements.

How Do You Pronounce Baoding Balls?

June 15, 2019 February 16, 2022

A common question people have is how do you pronounce “Baoding”? Bao is pronounced “bow” as in bowing down like the Japanese do when they greet someone. So baoding is pronounced bow-ding.

Now you are one step closer to being a baoding ball expert!

Healing Philosophy of Chinese Health Balls

March 29, 2019 June 25, 2019

To understand how Baoding Balls keep the body healthy, a person would need to have some understanding of the Yin and Yang philosophy. The Yin and Yang are symbols of two forces kept in balance by the flow of your internal energy. This energy is your Qi (“chi”) which is the energy of life that guides and controls everything.

Yin and Yang are best compared to as active and passive principles. The Yin represents the passive, dark, cold, and negative aspects. The Yang represents the active, bright, warm and positive aspects. They are on opposite poles in conflict with each other but always connected to each other. A metaphor would be the Sun to the Moon and Light to Dark.

In a healthy and balanced person, the Yin and Yang energy interact in harmony so that a person’s emotions, body, spirit, and mind are all in balance with each other. In Chinese medicine, when a person is unhealthy, it is believed that the person’s internal energy is imbalanced and requires specific treatment to correct it.

Chinese medicine practitioners believe that the body’s Qi (“chi”) flows through pathways known as meridians. There are 12 meridians in the body and each is related to a particular organ. For thousands of years, acupuncture doctors would use needles inserted into a person’s meridian to affect the flow of the internal energy. The acupuncture doctors have studied which organs are connected to Yin energy or to Yang energy and what points of the body they must stimulate to treat the condition. By the same theory, using pressure (Acupressure) can also stimulate the meridians through massage.

In your hand, there are several meridians and acupressure points connected to your organs. By using Baoding Balls in your hands, these points can be stimulated to affect the energy flow of your organs. To increase Yang energy, the balls should be rotated quickly to increase the temperature and in a clockwise direction. To increase Yin energy, they should be rotated slowly and in a counter-clockwise direction.

Using Baoding Balls in this way to affect the body’s energy has given them the name of Chinese Health Balls. However, practice with these balls has health benefits in addition to balancing the flow of Qi. Regular use of the health balls will improve and stimulate the circulation of the fingers. The exercise will also strengthen the muscles of your hands and fingers.

If you are suffering from the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome or feel the onset of the condition, using baoding balls can help manage your condition. Rotating the balls will stretch out the tendons and warm up the hands and wrist. Regularly performing short warming up exercises for the wrist before engaging in activities with intensive or long periods of wrist activity can prevent and avoid the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.