The Post delves deeper into this emerging trend.

What is it?

Baduanjin dates back more than 800 years to China’s Song dynasty (960-1279) and stands as one of China’s oldest health and fitness routines.

Translated, it means “eight-section brocade”, a reference to the combination of eight stylised exercises comprising slow, flowing movements.

As a form of qigong, an ancient Chinese discipline, baduanjin training combines breathing exercises, meditation and gentle body stretches, focusing on regulating energy, or chi, and blood flow.

Generally, it uses the spine as the axis, incorporating symmetrical movements of the left and right and coordination between front and back.

According to qigong, diseases arise from blockages of chi flow, and treatment should promote blood circulation and chi circulations.

How did it go viral?

With the average working week exceeding 48.9 hours, the incidence of chronic fatigue syndrome in first-tier Chinese cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou ranges from 10 to 25 per cent, according to the China Association of Health Promotion and Education.

Research suggests that practising baduanjin may alleviate symptoms such as anxiety, muscle pain and extreme fatigue, making it particularly suitable for office workers.

“For those suffering from neck pain, the effects are truly remarkable. Plus, my sleep quality has notably improved, and I often wake up refreshed,” said one online observer who has been practising baduanjin for six months.

Compared to physically demanding activities like gym workouts, it is slow-paced, goes with soothing music, requires no equipment and can be practised in a minimal space.

In August last year, German fitness influencer Pamela Reif posted a video of herself doing baduanjin, which received more than 1.2 million views.

The hashtag translated as “What? Pamela is doing baduanjin?” also hit the trending topic charts on the X-like platform Weibo, attracting more than 160 million views.

Above and beyond

As well as practising baduanjin, workers in China grappling with heavy workloads and health problems are increasingly embracing traditional Chinese healthcare practices.

“Prolonged indoor stays deplete the spirit” is a quote from the classic Chinese scripture, Huangdi Neijing, which explains chi, and has been widely shared, serving as a caution for workers who remain seated for long periods.

Chinese herbal medicinal milk tea is also gaining popularity on the mainland social media platform, Xiaohongshu.

In addition to milk, tea and sugar, they incorporate ingredients such as tangerine peel, cinnamon, astragalus root and donkey-hide gelatin.

These ingredients are believed to address digestive issues and replenish chi and blood circulation.

For years, federal physical activity guidelines have told Americans how much time they should spend moving each week: at least 150 minutes, or 75 minutes if workouts are particularly vigorous. But the popularity of wearable fitness devices has made many people obsessively track their step counts instead, often shooting for the goal of 10,000 per day (even though some studies suggest that number is arbitrary).

Is the length of your workout or your daily step count a better measure of wellness?

“Both are good metrics,” says Dr. Rikuta Hamaya, a preventive-medicine researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and lead author of the new study. But Hamaya and his colleagues wanted to know if one was better than the other, so they designed a head-to-head comparison.

The resulting study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, is based on data from more than 14,000 U.S. women who were tracked for about a decade. When the study began, the women were all at least 62 years old and free of cardiovascular disease and cancer. They were asked to wear an activity monitor for a week, removing it only to sleep, shower, or swim. From those data, the researchers calculated how many steps people took per day, as well as how much time they spent doing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity like cycling, jogging, or walking quickly.

Read More: Why Walking Isn’t Enough When It Comes to Exercise

Among women in the study, the median number of daily steps was around 5,200, while the median physical-activity duration was about an hour per week. People who exercised more also tended to walk more, but the two measures weren’t perfectly synced. That’s in part because slower forms of walking, like puttering around the house, aren’t necessarily intense enough to register as moderate-to-vigorous activity on a fitness monitor, but still count toward the number of steps taken.

So which measure was better? Both were equally good: however they measured it, more movement equaled better health and longevity.

Over the years of follow-up, about 9% of women in the study died and 4% developed cardiovascular disease. Compared to the most sedentary members of the group, the most active women were significantly less likely—by 30% or even more—to experience either outcome, no matter how the researchers measured their activity. In the end, Hamaya says, there wasn’t a “material difference” between the two metrics, at least for the people in the study. 

But it’s important to note that the study focused solely on older, predominantly white U.S. women who were healthy when the research began, so it’s impossible to say if the same finding applies to all people. Younger adults, for example, may benefit more from vigorous activity, although more research is required to say for sure.

Still, the takeaway from the research is encouraging, Hamaya says, because it suggests that—at least for certain groups of people—there’s no single best way to assess fitness, and that people can shoot for whichever benchmark feels right to them. “If someone likes to count steps, go with it,” he says. “Or if someone likes to count [workout] time, that would be a good choice” too.