To beef up or qi up?

I appear to be getting stockier/bulkier. Well, a bit anyway. My idea of adding whey protein to my peanut butter and banana smoothie (with turmeric) seems to be paying dividends and my weekly visit to the gym has magicked up muscles where no muscles existed before. Then I started going to Chi/Qi kung/gong again; the Chinese martial art that’s focused more on cultivating internal energy than the ability to batter someone.

Exercises in Qi gong (I’m bored of appeasing the different Chinese dialects) require as much motivation than brute strength in execution. It’s an amazing art to practice and, as a mere beginner, should point you in the direction of http://www.meiquan.co.uk/qigong.htm to give further details about it.

Anyway, to go back to the original point, “To beef up or qi up?” I appear to be in a bit of a quandary. Working out in the gym feels good and is definitely beneficial for my MS. Qi Gong appears to be even better. Maybe I’ve fallen in love with the symbolism and mysticism surrounding Jackie Chan movies (Drunken Master etc.) or maybe my sense of logic recognises the ultimate truth in it’s practice. (Stop laughing at the back!), but I’m definitely going to focus more on unblocking the blockages in my system than create more!

Gym today

Think I’m gonna start documenting what I did in the gym so I remember what I’ve done! Trouble is I don’t know the names of the machines/apparatus so this will be a very rough estimation of what I did!

Power plate

Did a lying down crunch for a minute to work my core muscles

and a minute(?) of a seated arm pull whilst holding the attached grips and resting feet on plate

Chest press

2 x 12 reps at 60 lbs

Leg Curls

2 x 12 reps at 40?? lbs

Bicep curls?

2 x 12 reps at 35 lbs

Tricep curls?

2 x 12 reps at 40lbs

Lats pull down?

2 x 12 reps at 60 lbs

Rowing/hand pedalling?

10 minutes at level 2 for 3?km

Cycling

1 km at level 1 in 8minutes?