So im healthy I must have strong Qi then, but why use the word Qi or energy, why not say well nourished with plenty of spare glucose energy?
How does it affect punching power? Is it as simple as a poorly nourished unhealthy person is going to be physically weak and not punch as hard as a healthy person?
I'm with Xuesheng.
Adding to that ... I look at Qi like "zip." My friend Franco has a lot of "zip." He's quite healthy, energetic and vivacious. So it could be said that he has good Qi, or a lot of Qi. Now, he may have a lot of it (good quantity), but he may be nervous and erratic (bad quality). Calm, but with much in reserve would be good quantity and quality. Probably.
Or ... look at it this way. Imagine early Chinese studying people who were healthy and those who were sick. Those who were vibrant and those who were draggy. So ... what would be the difference between them? Well, the vibrant people had a lot more of ... something. They were full of life, the "whatever" that makes us live: they just have more of it. So the people studying them called this "whatever" thing ... "Qi." It relates to breath. It's just a way of describing something that is observed.
Now then ... can Franco punch? He has to be trained to use his body to punch effectively. But if his Qi were low, if he were draggy or unhealthy, he probably wouldn't be able to punch with much power. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Now, you can increase what you have through sensitivity, concentration and training. To make this scientific, consider how the brain can affect the body through the sympathetic nervous system: see a charging rhino and the pupils dilate, heart beats faster, breathing gets short, digestion shuts down and so on. This all comes from the brain after seeing a charging rhino and thinking "move it!" The brain affects the body, or the Yi affects the Qi. In my opinion, doing so basically improves your bodily functioning.
For more science, check out Dr. Shin Lin's work. He's a Chen practitioner, if I recall. Nice fellow: I was his tackling dummy in a demo.
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The Chinese didn't invent Chi. It's simply a word for something we see all the time: the "whatever" that makes us go and makes chemical reactions happen. But instead of calling it "zip" or "Fred", the Chinese call it "Qi."
... but I would be wary of people who treat Qi like The Force, as some mystical electric-force-field-raygun thing that you add to a punch to make it stronger. We should also be wary of westerners (and easterners) who treat all things Oriental as mysterious and magical. This is orientalism.
Isn't there another forum about Qi?
