The function of QI gong and its relationship with gimnastics and sport in health promotion

The main purpose of Qi Gong is to reproduce and reformulate those patterns which, through body exercises, postures and different forms of movement enable to regain an instinctive reactivity obtaining the rebalance of the vital energy, activating the single energetic and psychic, material and mechanic components. The big differences existing between the western and eastern societies reflect the single countries' cultures, which have developed starting from very different historical background. They tackle different issues, but the purpose is the same: man's health (Maciocia, 1996). One of the main differences is the way human being is examined; the Chinese way, different form the western one, always takes into account the person as a whole and is a less palpable way, which means that it is not based on quantitative data which can be precisely measured, but on general concepts and empirical observations. The study of the movement, too, analyzed in connection with education and sport issues, is affected by such a distance between psychological and somatic concepts, and is not easy to imagine it as an integrated phenomenon, even though it probably represents one of the best exemplification of the wholeness which is characteristic of the human being.