Xiang Gong

Xiang Gong runs every Friday from 13:00 to 14:00 at The Salisbury Centre in the Southside of Edinburgh. It's a weekly chi gong session, and if you've never come across the name, it's also known as Fragrant Chi Gong. The facilitator, Margaret, learned the form while living in China, and that's the version she teaches here.

The session itself is a 20-minute sequence of 14 arm movements. It's a short enough routine that you can follow it through in one go, and because it focuses on the arms, it's a gentle way to move without needing a huge amount of space or a lot of preparation. One of the best things about it is that you can do the whole sequence either sitting or standing, so it works whether you're on your feet or prefer a chair — it's open to people with different levels of mobility, which is something you don't always find with these kinds of classes.

Because it's a set sequence, it's the kind of thing that gets easier the more you do it. The 20 minutes fit into a lunch hour, and since it's a weekly thing, it's easy to slot into a Friday routine. The session is free, and it runs from 13:00 to 14:00 at The Salisbury Centre in the Southside.