Derived from the Chinese word T’ai chi ch’üan or Tàijí quán, Tai chi is a classical martial art form from China that descended from ‘qigong’, an ancient Chinese discipline with its roots in traditional Chinese medicine. Its history says that, like all forms of martial arts, this art too was actually meant for self-defense purposes (like Judo and Kung Fu), but later evolved as an exercise and meditation technique because of its several health benefits.
Tai Chi primarily involves various physical postures, accompanied by controlled breathing techniques, as well as yoga and meditation. With the gradual popularity of this martial art, and all its proven benefits, let us throw a vivid look on what it is, its techniques and advantages, styles and forms, training, and everything that you always wanted to know.
Tai chi has the amazing ability to improve the strength of both the lower body and the upper body. If you practice it regularly, it can give you the benefits of brisk walking and resistance training. It can also boost the flexibility of the upper and the lower body, thus enhance your overall strength. Despite the fact that tai chi does not involve weights and resistance bands, the arm exercise in tai chi involved strengthens the upper part of the body. It has the potential to strengthen both your lower and upper extremities, along with the core muscles of the back and the abdomen region.
This martial art form can improve your body’s balance. Some studies have suggested that tai chi can reduce falls and maintain proprioception, i.e., the power of sensing your body’s position in space, which apparently declines with aging. Proprioception of the body is maintained by the sensory neurons located in the inner ear, as well as by the stretch receptors located in the ligaments and the different muscles of the body. Thus, tai chi can help someone recover from a stumble. While the fear of falling can increase the chances to fall, a few researches have shown that training in tai chi can help you overcome that fear.
This exercise form can benefit both healthy adults, as well as adults living with various chronic conditions. The following are a few of those health benefits:
Tai chi has been classified into five different forms or styles, with each style incorporating continuous movement from one pose to the other. Each of these styles is so flexible that they can be modified as per your goals and levels of personal fitness.
This tai chi style involves slow and graceful movements for relaxation. This style is primarily meant for beginners since it is basically a good starting point.
This style focuses on various micro-movements of tai chi, and is essentially practiced quite slowly.
The chen style emphasis on both fast and slow movements and might prove to be relatively tough for you, especially if you are a novice to the practice of the martial art.
The sun style has various similarities with the above style, and involves less kicking, punching, and crouching. This makes the sun style demand less physical exertion.
The hao style is practiced rarely since it is relatively lesser known, and is defined by an emphasis on internal strengthening and accurate positioning of the body.
As a martial art form, tai chi has evolved into a graceful form of seated exercise too, especially for the elderlies. Presently, seated tai chi is meant for reducing mental stress, as also, different other health conditions.
Seated tai chi has been rightly defined as “meditation in motion”. It promotes serenity of your mind manifested through various gentle, flowing movements of the body. This form is actually based on the short form of the ‘yang’ style. However, apart from aged people, it can also be used by general public, tai chi trainers, as well as medical practitioners.
Basically, all the styles of tai chi involve two primary techniques, with one being the solo exercise form that is practiced singly, while the other is dual, i.e., partnered with others.
As the name suggests, this form is practiced singly, and it takes the participants or learners through a natural and complete range of movements over the body’s center of gravity. Also called taolu, neigong and qigong, practicing the solo form repeatedly and accurately can retrain your body’s posture, enhance blood circulation all through your body, and maintain your overall flexibility of the muscles and joints. Furthermore, this form also familiarizes the practitioners with different sequences of this martial art implied by the five different forms mentioned earlier.
Also called tuishou and sanshou, it resembles a combat with an opponent (partner) through three primary aspects:
This dual technique is mainly based on improving the sensitivity of the movements of both the participants, as also, betters the center of gravity that is responsible for dictating appropriate responses of the human body by affecting the center of gravity by means of contact. However, the grasping these techniques involve thousands of hours of practicing ‘yin’ (which is slow, repetitive, and meditative, involving a low impact) first, and then, adding ‘yang’ (which is rather active, fast, realistic, involving a high impact) to it.
Books, eBooks and DVDs: If you would like to get a tai chi training course in the comfort of your home, you can get a lot of helpful tutorial books online, or from the book store. It might, however, prove to be difficult for you to relate to the tactics and the accurate movements in the long run, since you might go through a hard time learning them through still photos and hand-drawn illustrations. Instead, you can also buy DVDs on Tai Chi training (e.g., two-decade experienced Scott Cole’s ‘Discover Tai Chi for Balance and Mobility’).
PC or Mobile Apps: Thenext option can be electronic applications. This format is better in the sense that, it will be with you at all the time. You can download tai chi apps, including ‘Yang Tai Chi for Beginners’, on your PC, tab or smartphone, and keep it handy for practicing anywhere.
Regular Classes: This is naturally the best option, since there is hardly any better way to learn an applied martial art than attending regular classes. This will not only help you learn the correct postures and movements, but also keep chances open for asking questions to your trainer, get or give feedback, find fellow learners for interaction, and so on.
…that a learner of Tai Chi is called a T‘ai-chi Ch‘üan Student?
