I've been learning Chi Gong a little bit here and there from the folks at my dojo. I am in no way any kind of expert, but some of the waking up of the body techniques are quite interesting.
There's simple hand and body rubbing. This improves circulation a bit and if you are focusing on the feeling gives you the sense of your whole body. this warm up bit has an interesting piece where you just kind of make "funny faces" rolling your eyes and just generally doing random stuff to activate the nerves of the face and stretch the muscles. It looks weird as hell, but definitely puts a slight alteration on the consciousness. You can do this while washing your body in the shower, the hot water does the job marvelously. The real key seems to be consciously focusing your attention on the sensation and feedback from the body.
The chi cultivation and balancing exercises can really jazz you up or instil a sense of calm, both sometimes. I get a feeling of high energy, but smooth and controlled attention. I'm personally not entirely sure that the chi-force and energy body are scientific fact, but the cause and effect of the exercises certainly is there for me subjectively.
As a side note one of the guys once hit me with an "elemental strike" and the difference was hard to credit. He struck with a cupped "C" shaped hand to my collar bone in a lazy and slow motion, but when it made impact it felt like I had been kicked by a goddamn mule! When I get a bit more time I'll give a description of a Russian martial art called "Systema." It seems more scientific, but is definitely a weird science and fighting philosophy.
