The right time to exercise with your qi flow
There are some acupuncturists who believe in needling their patients at a time of day that coordinates with the maximum or minimum qi flow through the organ network they are trying to treat, depending on whether the condition is one of excess or deficiency. While this may be optimum for treating specific imbalances it was much more doable for the doctor before the introduction of an eight hour working day. However, it is not impossible for the patient to practice healing exercises, such as qigong, during meridian flow times. The following chart shows those times:
| Yin organs | Yang organs |
| Lung: 3-5am |
Large Intestine: 5-7am |
| Spleen: 9-11am |
Stomach: 7-9am |
| Heart: 11am-1pm | Small Intestine: 1-3pm |
| Kidney: 5-7pm |
UrinaryBladder: 3-5pm |
| Pericardium: 7-9pm | Triple Warmer: 9-11pm |
| Liver: 1-3am |
Gall Bladder: 11pm-1am |
Note that qi flows in a perfectly balanced sequence of yin – yang – yang – yin, each organ pair working together in a 4 hour time period of 24 hours total.
According to TCM the best overall time for healing exercise is at sunrise. The period from 12 midnight to 12 noon is called Sheng Qi ”the time of the living breath”. Qigong for health is best practiced in the middle of this period, 6am, which is the time of sunrise, or ”spring time” of the day, when yin is turning to yang. Public parks in China open at sunrise and are typically full of people doing taijiquan and other forms of qigong at that time. The winter portion of the day, noon till midnight, is called Si Qi ”the time of the dead breath” and is not considered to be as beneficial for qigong exercise. Many qigong masters will also not practice during the hours of 11am-1pm when heart (fire) is at its maximum.