Anybody else do Tai Chi?
Back in the 90's I tried tai chi for a summer until life and traveling interrupted.
Started back again for balance and general flexibility.
Your experiences?

quote:

Originally posted by walkinghorse:
Anybody else do Tai Chi?
Back in the 90's I tried tai chi for a summer until life and traveling interrupted.
Started back again for balance and general flexibility.
Your experiences?

I did, at my local Y.

I believed it was helpful, and I think you should give it a try.

Best wishes to you.

Great stuff on multiple levels.

gesundheit!

Qi Gong these days.

Similar.

A martial way takes it's toll on back and knees. If I can keep my movement for the 'get off my grass' days, I'll be a happy grump.

I took it up again for the same reasons you cited: core strength, balance, and flexibility. Kept it up for a solid year and a half too. About a year ago, I dropped out. I appreciated what it could do for me, but I got bored with it. I kept after the teacher, who I considered a friend, to feed me the applications from the form, as a Gung Fu instructor had many years before. I never got enough of the applications. I appreciate the benefits as sort of an active meditation, but I learned the long form and next was Tai Chi weapons. I watched the forms intently and couldn’t find the applications there either. As I recall, Taiji Chuan means something like “Ultimate Fist.” IF I felt like I was learning an internal MA, I’d be there now.

About 15 years ago I was turned on to Chi Running. Started by Tai Chi practitioner Danny Dreyer, when I spoke to people about it, the concept was met with skepticism and derision. But the facts are: it works.

https://www.chirunning.com/danny-dreyer/

I don't think there are many in the U.S. that know or teach the martial applications. Should be books or videos available.

The class I started has hand fans, and they are teaching movement, as well as snapping opening etc. I asked the instructor about the fans, as my understanding is back in Imperial China, the fans and fan use was a segment of martial arts use. Guess bright red fans would be OK in most environments. Maybe, black, tactical or camoflage fans would be ******?
Some of the ladies in the class were pretty fast with the fans!

That would probably be good training for TaiChi. Focusing on applications may be missing the point and counter productive in the first several years

My wife is a fan of Chai Tea.

My grandmother did Tai Chi for years and she's still traveling the globe at 80 years old.

Did it for about 15-years along side learning Aikido, then work and life got in the way. Much like any other fitness activity, gotta carve some time and make it apart of your daily/weekly MO.

It's still early January..I can still start a new years resolution right?

Great fitness and focus activity.

I used to do the Yang long form but lately I have just been doing the CMC short form. I also do Dragon and Tiger Medical Qi Gong on a daily basis. These are all worthwhile pursuits if done regularly.

I found Tai Chi while looking for someone that could teach the Chi Na joint locking movements as an supplement to regular LE control holds. The form I learned was the Yang style long forms and the instructor was very good about balancing the postures (form) with what is referred to as push-hands which moves the student toward application of the various postures. When I moved away from Vegas back to Colo. to help my folks, one of the greatest losses was my association with that teacher. He passed away going on 2 years ago. Many people doubt the practicality of Tai Chi as a martial art and I would grant that you have to be a diligent student and to have a skilled teacher.

One story that I like to tell is about a day when I was doing push-hands with the teacher. Was feeling just a little froggy and added a bit of 'extra pressure' to the "give and take" movement. The teacher was about 5'4" and looked like the average middle age Chinese dude. Kind of heavy set with a pot belly. I'm 6'5" and about 245 at that time with a fairly low body fat ratio. We had a mattress stood up against the wall at the guy's house we met at each week, to be able to do the practical stuff. So Alwin and I were doing push hands and he worked me around so that my back was toward the mattress. As soon as I was lined up he went in and I had the sensation of separation between my upper and lower body, as if my legs were still rooted in the spot as I was flying backwards through the air to hit the mattress. I've been hit with flying tackles before and nothing came close to the speed that I went backwards at. It was seriously one of those Matrix-esque "Whoa" moments and I can remember the feeling two decades later.

Tai Chi is an excellent exercise. It's been proven great for older folks to maintain their ability to balance and stay mobile. As you develop skill you widen the postures and it becomes a way to develop strength and clean up your posture. It's a form of moving meditation and a tool to learn self control. You control the speed of the transition between postures, the width of your stance, the speed of your limbs in completing the postures as you move between postures. The mental demands of maintaining those different aspects of control is a great way to de-stress & clear your mind. I still do the short forms and obviously, I highly recommend it.

Tai Chi isn't bad at all!
Look into yoga as well.

My take on this is-
ANYTHING to get your ass off the couch and moving. Yes, getting older sucks, and things hurt a little more, and are more apt to break the older we get. You know your body, and what it can and can't do. Give it a little push every once a while to gain a little more strength and flexibility.

While I don’t do it, my wife has been doing T’ai Chi Chih for 23 years. She has been an instructor for about 20 years.

What has it done for her? Well, we’ve been married 35 years. She has maintained a body weight within 5-10 pounds of what she was the day we were married. She has also maintained her fitness. Think the Tai Chi helps.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
While I don’t do it, my wife has been doing T’ai Chi Chih for 23 years. She has been an instructor for about 20 years.

What has it done for her? Well, we’ve been married 35 years. She has maintained a body weight within 5-10 pounds of what she was the day we were married. She has also maintained her fitness. Think the Tai Chi helps.

Tai Chi Ruler? I need to get back to doing that. Thanks for the reminder!