7 Ways to do Lajin

La-Jin method #1 - in reclining position (on the La-Jin bench)

Step 1: sit down on end of the bench, move the buttocks to the edge of the bench; lie down on your back

Step 2: place the left leg up against the pillar, while the right leg bends to touch the ground as much as possible. 

Step 3: Put the arms straight behind your head, and keep them flat on the chair. Keep the position for ten minutes.  Your left leg may also do bicycling or swing so as to relax the hip joint

Step 4: switch the position of the legs, and repeat the exercise for another 10 minutes.

Notes

1. If the raised leg is curved and somehow couldn’t be pressed against the pillar, you can bind it to the pillar with a piece of cloth or a towel.

2. If the leg bent down could not reach the ground, you can put a sandbag or other weighty stuff to press the leg.  Add the pressure until the leg reaches the ground.

3. If the arms stretching backward could not flat on the surface of the bench, you can hold something in the hands to increase the pressure; or you can also ask someone else to press the hands, but this process should be done in progressive manner.

4. You can tell the effect from your Facial expression, the greater pain it manifests, the better the effect.  Nevertheless, the pain should be limited to a tolerable range. 

In the absence of the special bench, there is a simple way to La-Jin.

Step 1: Line up two safe and even chairs near a wall or a doorframe;

Step 2: Sit on the chair closer to the wall or the doorframe, move the buttocks to the edge of the chair; 

Step 3: Lie down on your back, with right foot leaning against the door or the wall, and the left leg curved and pointing downward. Try to reach the floor with the left leg. Raise both hands and sprawl them on the chairs.

Maintain the position for 10 minutes.

In the meanwhile, you can move your left foot in a manner similar to that of

riding a bicycle. This movement relaxes the pelvic joints.

Step 4: Move the chairs to the other side, shift the position of both legs and practice it vice versa for another 10 minutes.

Effects

1. This position helps the circulation of Qi throughout your body, which alleviates pain, helps the discharge of poisonous wastes and enhances immunity and sexual potency.

2. This position produces a shocking effect against lumbago, skelalgia, gonyalgia, nostalgia, menorrhalgia and headache.

3. This position is effective against chronic diseases like hypertension, cardiac disease, diabetes, prostatitis, hemorrhoid and constipation.

4. This position cures insomnia, reduces body weight and speckles, and develops fine body linage.

5. There are plentiful cases in which readers and friends on line benefited from this therapy. It is also effective against some other diseases.

La-Jin method #2 Standing position

Particularly suitable for those who work in offices.

1. Stand in a doorframe, raise both arms to hold the doorframes on both sides; stretch your arms as much as possible.

2. Put one foot forward to do a bow step; place the other foot behind so that the leg can straighten as much as possible.

3. Keep your upper body parallel to the doorframe, keep your head straight and your eyes looking ahead horizontally.

4. Keep the position for 3  minutes and then switch the legs and repeat the exercise for another 3 minutes .

Effects
This therapy stretches the muscles and ligament in the scapular, back, legs and other related body parts. 

It can easily be practiced at home as a therapy for aching shoulder and neck, periarthritis, backache, and so on. It also helps stretch the bladder meridian at the back of the crus.

La Jin method 3

Integrated La Jin .This position combines the reclining position with the horizontal position and is therefore a much more difficult one.

Step 1: Lie near the joint of two walls.

Step 2: Raise one leg and press it against on the wall vertically, and then try to press the other leg against the wall horizontally.

Effects
1. This method complements for those who do not benefit enough from the reclining and standing positions.

2. This method enhances the dredging of liver, spleen and kidney meridians and is therefore effective against spleen, stomach and kidney disease, diabetes, cardiac diseases and hypertension.

Note:

If you are able to position both legs in right angle, then you have very flexible Jin. This position is an integration of the reclining position and horizontal position and is therefore more difficult. You can either do it on your own, or ask someone to help. Stretch each leg for 10 minutes.

La-Jin method 4 Horizontal position
Note:

If you wish to enhance therapy, ask for someone’s assistance. Lie in bed or on the ground, and ask someone to press on one leg. And then stretch the other sideway till you can no longer tolerate the pain. Hold the position for 3 minutes. Once you are done with one leg, shift the legs and do it vice versa.

Method 1: Lie in bed or on the ground, and stretch both legs sideways in opposite directions. Practice for 10 minutes.

Method 2: Lie in bed, press both legs to the wall and stretch them sideways in opposite directions, like a Y.

Effects
You can adopt this method to complement the reclining position. If the pain still persist around the waist, the back and the coccygeal vertebra after you practice the reclining position, adopt this position.

La-Jin Method 5 Neck La Jin

It is applicable to the treatment of cervical pain and shoulder-back pain

Method 1: Lie face up on a bed or a bench. Stretch your head to the edge of the bed or the bench and stretch your arms backwards as possible as you can so that you head can hang down .Hold this position for three minutes.

Method 2: Sleep on your back or side without a pillow. Because you can put your head forward and down and make your head remain motionless for a long time while at work, cervical pain will occur. This method is contrary to the position of your head while you are at work. It is a soft La-Jin method, which lasts a long time. You are not accustomed to sleeping without a pillow at the very beginning, but you will adjust yourself in a few days.

La-Jin Method 6

Simplified La-Jin

It combines reclining position with standing position. If there is a chair or sofa, it can be used.

Step 1: Kneel down with one leg on the ground and rest the other leg on the chair or sofa.

Step 2: Raise your hands up and fold them with your forefingers pointing to the sky. Stretch your arms to the basal part of your ear.

Step 3: Stretch for three to ten minutes. The intensity and time are up to you.

Effects

1. Your knees under the pressure in the kneeling position can aid the treatment of the illness in knee joints. Putting your arms up can treat frozen shoulder.

2. It will help the patient recover from the large part of visceral illness.

3. It is an excellent daily health-care method.

La Jin Method 7

Squat stretching Method

 It is the oldest La-Jin method. You squat as if you were shitting.

Step 1: Squat yourself down with your close feet pressed to the ground.

Step 2: Hug your legs with your hands and lower your head (The Daoists call it “baby hugging”, a pose of a baby in the womb

Effects

This exercise will help stretch your muscles in the neck, breast, waist, back, coccygeal vertebra, crus and activate the meridians and collaterals in your body to facilitate the smooth flow of Qi and blood and bowel movement. It also helps the treatment of a great part of such known chronic diseases as high blood pressure, heart disease, andrological disease, gynecopathy, kidney deficiency, arms deficiency, constipation and hemorrhoids.

It is an excellent daily health-care method.

Note:
If someone cannot squat all the way down to the ground, it doesn’t matter.

If one practices often, one will gradually be able to squat down with his or her soles pressing the ground.

In addition to its therapeutic functions, La-Jin can also help in diagnosis. Bodily illness can be diagnosed from La-Jin posture and treated in the course of the La-Jin practice. Take the following examples:

1. If the knees have pain and are not able to straighten, these are symptoms of Jin Suo, which indicates a blockage in the Liver Meridian (the channel related to liver), because liver governs the Jin.  A blockage in the Liver Meridian will certainly affect the stomach and the spleen.  The liver belongs to the wood, while the spleen belongs to the earth, and wood influences earth. 

2. If there is pain in the hip and the back of the knees, it shows that the passage of the Bladder Meridian is blocked, and the kidney has problems.  This is because the bladder and the kidney are closely connected, both belonging to the water; neither one can be healthy if the other one is not.  Diseases caused by the blockage of the Bladder Meridian include edema, obesity, frequent micturition, diabetes, and so on. 

3. During La Jin in reclining position, if Raised hands and arms cannot reach the surface of the bench. It is related with such diseases as frozen shoulder, heart, lung, head, five sense organs, galactophore.

4. Raised leg cannot stretch straight and lowered leg hangs in the air without touching the ground, which suggests that Jin Suo is serious, and the liver, spleen, kidney channels are not smooth, and there will be the ache in the waist and back or even troubles with abodominal organs. Women with these symptoms are likely to have gynecopathy whereas men with these probably have troubles with their prostate.