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The Health Benefits of Tai Chi

Posted on: Monday, 16 May 2005, 12:00 CDT

Tai chi can be best described as a moving form of yoga and meditation combined.

Originally derived from martial arts, the slow, graceful movements reflect the natural movements of animals and birds and is designed to focus the mind and breathing through a complex series of executions.

In Tai Chi muscles and joints are in motion, and breathing is regulated. The effect is a sedative upon the central nervous system which helps to stimulate improvements in the body's other systems.

It is also regarded as a calming and de-stressing form of exercise.

When practised properly, Chi energy is increased, and participants have described feeling a 'tingling' in their fingers and toes, and a warming up of the body.

There are various schools or styles of Tai Chi - Chen, Yang, Wu and Sun styles.

The Peking Style is a modern, shorter 24-element style commissioned by the Chinese government which recognised the benefits of Tai Chi. Made up of elements of the other styles, Chinese workers are able to practise Tai Chi every morning without taking up too much time.

The Yang style - the most practised school - is made up of two sub-styles, the long form and the short form, and was developed in the 1800s by Yang Lu Chan.

His grandson, Yang Chen Fu, standardised this style and made it popular in China the early 1900s.

A Tai Chi form is made up of separate moves, each joined by a transition called a link.

Each movement may be very short, or made up of a complex sequence of sub-moves.

Although each is an individual definitive element to the form, they flow continually into each other and are not practised as separates.

There are 128 separate postures in the long form and it generally takes about three years to properly learn them all.

Many of them are repeated several times and therefore do not require actually learning again.

But learning how to get from one to the other - the bits between, the directions and the footwork - does.

Source: Western Mail

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