Peer-Reviewed Research: Regulation Over Relaxation - What Qigong Really Does to Your Heart and Mind.
When most people hear the word "relaxation," they imagine melting into a couch or drifting off during a massage. But what if there’s another kind of calm—one that’s not about turning off, but tuning in? This is exactly what a group of researchers explored in a fascinating study on Qigong, an ancient Chinese mind-body practice.
Qigong is often described as a gentle exercise that combines movement, breathing, and mental focus. But does it really relax the body, or does it do something more active—something that regulates rather than sedates? This study asked that very question, and the answers are both surprising and illuminating.
Why Study Qigong?
Qigong, which literally means "working with/on vital energy," has been linked to improvements in stress, sleep, fatigue, and even mental health conditions like depression. However, scientists still don't fully understand how Qigong produces these benefits. Is it just relaxation? Or is something deeper at work?
To find out, researchers from Germany and China teamed up to examine what happens in the body and mind of experienced Qigong practitioners immediately after doing a standard exercise called Baduanjin, also known as the “Eight Pieces of Brocade.”
The Study Design: East Meets West, Rest Meets Movement
The study included 42 experienced Qigong practitioners—half from Germany, half from China. Participants began by resting quietly in a lying-down position, then performed two rounds of Baduanjin Qigong, followed by another period of rest. Throughout this process, researchers recorded their heart activity using electrocardiogram (ECG) technology and collected subjective reports on how participants felt before, during, and after the exercises.
The goal? To measure both subjective states (like calmness, energy, body awareness, and focus) and heart rate variability (HRV), a well-established indicator of how the autonomic nervous system—our body’s stress and recovery command center—is behaving.
Key Findings: A Unique Kind of Calm
Rather than inducing a sleepy, passive kind of relaxation (what researchers call hypotonic slackness), Qigong led to what they call eutonic calmness—a state of calm alertness, or being relaxed yet energized. Participants felt:
More vital and alive
Increased body activation and awareness
Enhanced attentional focus
More pleasurable bodily sensations
A stronger sensation of Qi, or internal energy
As one might expect, these effects were not observed during simple resting. It was the act of doing Qigong—moving with breath and intention—that triggered these shifts.
“Qigong induced a state of eutonic calmness, characterized by high calmness and perceived body activation, increased subjective vitality, attentional focus, and body awareness…” (Goldbeck et al., 2021, p. 6)
But What About the Body?
Now here’s where it gets even more interesting. On the physiological level, Qigong produced a blend of effects:
Heart rate increased slightly during practice, suggesting a mild activation—not unlike moderate aerobic exercise.
Parasympathetic activity (the “rest and digest” system) decreased during Qigong, as measured by HRV metrics such as RMSSD and HF power.
Yet SDNN (a measure of total autonomic modulation) increased, pointing to an overall rhythmic regulation between the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic systems.
In simpler terms: Qigong doesn’t just calm the body. It trains it to regulate itself more effectively, like a thermostat finely adjusting to changes in temperature.
One of the most compelling physiological findings was a pattern called "cardiac coherence"—a harmonious rhythm in heartbeats often associated with emotional balance and mental clarity. During Qigong, this coherence increased significantly, especially in Chinese practitioners.
Regulation, Not Relaxation
The researchers argue that Qigong’s main benefit isn’t about shutting down the nervous system to rest, but training it to find balance. They call this process psychophysiological regulation.
This kind of inner regulation is especially important for those dealing with conditions like depression, fatigue, or stress-related disorders—situations where the nervous system tends to swing too far toward collapse or overactivation.
Belief and Background Matter
Interestingly, the study also found that beliefs about Qigong and cultural background influenced the experience. German participants showed stronger subjective changes, while Chinese participants showed clearer physiological coherence. Older participants tended to gain more vitality from the practice, and those who believed strongly in Qi felt more focused and grounded.
This highlights that Qigong is not just an exercise—it’s a multicomponent intervention, shaped by context, experience, and personal belief systems.
Real-World Takeaways
So, what does all this mean for someone practicing or prescribing Qigong?
Qigong doesn’t just calm you—it regulates you. This is a nuanced but powerful distinction. It suggests that the practice fosters adaptive flexibility in the nervous system, rather than merely lowering stress hormones.
Subjective vitality matters. Feeling more alive and energized is not just a nice bonus—it’s a measurable psychological shift with clinical relevance.
It’s the movement, breath, and focus combined that matter. Lying down and resting didn’t produce the same effects. The integration of breath, attention, and posture is what induces the beneficial state.
Cultural context and beliefs enhance the effect. Practitioners who deeply believe in the system may get more out of it. This suggests a mind-body synergy that deserves further exploration.
Conclusion
Qigong, as practiced in this study through the Baduanjin form, is not merely about “relaxing.” It is about learning to regulate the body and mind through rhythmic movement, focused breathing, and mental clarity. The result is a unique state of calm energy—one that may help explain the long-term health benefits of this ancient practice.
In a world where stress is often treated with numbing rather than tuning, Qigong offers something profoundly different: a return to inner rhythm.
Reference:
Goldbeck, F., Xie, Y. L., Hautzinger, M., Fallgatter, A. J., Sudeck, G., & Ehlis, A. C. (2021). Relaxation or Regulation: The Acute Effect of Mind‐Body Exercise on Heart Rate Variability and Subjective State in Experienced Qi Gong Practitioners. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2021, Article ID 6673190
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