What You Need to Know about Tai Chi Cottonwood AZ
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What You Need to Know about Tai Chi
Health and Fitness
| What You Need To Know About Tai Chi By Arthur Rosenfeld |
Tai chi is the fastest growing exercise in America. More accessible than yoga because it doesnt demand great flexibility, and easy for people of all ages to begin because there are not special fitness requirements, it is a gentle, beautiful exercise that improves strength, balance, hand-to-eye coordination, teaches you to relax more deeply than ever before, and gives you an unparalleled workout for butt and legs. There are many medical studies touting its good effects on the degenerative diseases of aging, including arthritis, diabetes, high-blood pressure, and asthma. Tai Chi has also been shown to strongly stimulate the immune system. It improves attention disorders in children, and helps the elderly guard against the kind of dangerous falls that can ultimately prove fatal. In addition to all this, tai chi is fun to practice, beautiful to watch, and is based on a philosophy that helps change the way you see the world for the better. Here are five things you need to know a
bout Tai Chi:
1. Tai Chi and other martial arts
Tai chi differs from all other forms of exercise because it sits atop the unique legs of a very special tripod. The first leg is Chinas long history of folk martial arts, systems developed in the days before firearms and before the kind of reliable infrastructure that protected people and their property from bandits and other criminals. Chinese martial arts enjoy a great reputation for effectiveness, although these days we see and appreciate them mostly in the movies. Tai Chi is one of the most sophisticated and effective of all Chinese martial arts, although it does take a while to learn to use it for self-defense.
2. Tai Chi and Chinese medicine
The second leg of the tripod is Chinese medicine. Devotees of Chinese medicine claim it is cheaper and safer than Western medicine and just as effective. Chinese medicine is holistic, meaning it looks at the whole person rather isolating specific problems and trying to figure them out. Because of this system-thinking Chinese medicine is more likely to put together symptoms and observations rather than considering them separately. In the Chinese medical model, and in Tai Chi, the body is crisscrossed by energy pathways known as meridians. These meridians carry qi or life force, a vital elixir the body requires for health. Some scientists define qi as the bioelectric energy of life, the information contained in our DNA, and even as ultra-low frequency vibration. The object of Tai Chi practice is to open all the bodys meridians so that the extremities, skin, senses and organs receive maximum qi flow. In this way, Tai Chi assures optimum health.
3. Tai Chi and Asian philosophy
The third leg of the Tai Chi tripod is a philosophy called Daoism. Daoists were woolly mountain men in China, great lovers of ...