Chen Jing, an officially recognized inheritor of the Wu Qin Xi exercise, performs the tiger stance with local residents in a park in Bozhou, East China's Anhui province, on Sept 26, 2017. [Photo by Liu Qinli/asianewsphoto.com]

Editor's note:

Exercising regularly is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. But the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has kept millions of people from partaking in outdoor activities since late January. Indoor workouts have since become an important way to stay healthy and protect against illness, especially at a time like this.

Here's a look at one of the most popular traditional Chinese indoor exercises people have been practicing for centuries, one which has proven to be highly effective in enhancing health and fitness.

Wu Qin Xi

If you are a fitness enthusiast, you must know about Animal Flow, a new type of ground-based, bodyweight fitness workout mimicking the movements of about 40 wild animals.

The extreme sport was created by American fitness specialist Mike Fitch in 2015 to help people improve strength, flexibility, mobility, and coordination.

But if you do not want to go extremes, try Wu Qin Xi, literally five-animal frolics.

It is a 1,800-year-old daoyin qigong exercise, much milder than animal flow, featuring a series of animal-imitating movements, too.

As its inventor Hua Tuo (108–208), an Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) surgeon was quoted in Records of the Three Kingdoms as saying, "The human body must have physical exercises, but it should never exert itself to the extreme."