What is Tai Chi?
Well, as you might know already, it is Chinese for 'frightening the ducks in the park'
No, seriously, it is a Chinese martial art, but it is gentler and nowhere near as aggressive as things like judo or karate, it is slower and concentrates more on the movements and exercises than any contact
There is a certain amount of stuff about life force, expanding your mind & energy levels etc, but if you want you can ignore that and just treat it as an exercise
There are a series of standard movements or exercises that you do in a sequence called a Form; that's why you sometimes hear of people 'doing their Form'.
A Form of about 6 or 8 movements is a start; 18 is a good standard to aim for; and experts do Forms of 24, 32, or even more
Search for it on YouTube, there are loads of videos. Some of them are a bit slow and slightly disjointed as they are instructional, but some of them show a longer, uninterrupted Form of 18 or more movements, and that's quite graceful, and you realise 'Oh yes, that's how it works'.
I used to do a lot of hiking & backpacking, but not so much now as my legs are not as strong as they were
I live on my own, and especially during The Lockdown I've been staying in a lot
So I joined a local Tai Chi group/class, and was pleasantly surprised
Although it doesn't look very strenuous, at the end of the session I definitely felt as though I'd done some exercise, and though I don't go in for all the deep meaningful Zen stuff, I realised that after a few weeks I felt livelier and more motivated
So if you want some exercise but not too violent or strenuous, I can recommend Tai Chi; Search around for classes/sessions
Classes are usually held in places like sports centres and church halls but sometimes they do indeed have them in a park!
Well, as you might know already, it is Chinese for 'frightening the ducks in the park'
No, seriously, it is a Chinese martial art, but it is gentler and nowhere near as aggressive as things like judo or karate, it is slower and concentrates more on the movements and exercises than any contact
There is a certain amount of stuff about life force, expanding your mind & energy levels etc, but if you want you can ignore that and just treat it as an exercise
There are a series of standard movements or exercises that you do in a sequence called a Form; that's why you sometimes hear of people 'doing their Form'.
A Form of about 6 or 8 movements is a start; 18 is a good standard to aim for; and experts do Forms of 24, 32, or even more
Search for it on YouTube, there are loads of videos. Some of them are a bit slow and slightly disjointed as they are instructional, but some of them show a longer, uninterrupted Form of 18 or more movements, and that's quite graceful, and you realise 'Oh yes, that's how it works'.
I used to do a lot of hiking & backpacking, but not so much now as my legs are not as strong as they were
I live on my own, and especially during The Lockdown I've been staying in a lot
So I joined a local Tai Chi group/class, and was pleasantly surprised
Although it doesn't look very strenuous, at the end of the session I definitely felt as though I'd done some exercise, and though I don't go in for all the deep meaningful Zen stuff, I realised that after a few weeks I felt livelier and more motivated
So if you want some exercise but not too violent or strenuous, I can recommend Tai Chi; Search around for classes/sessions
Classes are usually held in places like sports centres and church halls but sometimes they do indeed have them in a park!
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