Soft fist fitness: with concentrated purpose, tai chi offers a balanced blend of mental and physical
With concentrated purpose, tai chi offers a balanced blend of mental and physical training.
Each morning in Shanghai’s Huangpu Park, dozens of people of all ages and sizes can be seen moving slowly and gracefully, with concentrated purpose. Alone in his or her own world, practitioners of tai chi from teenagers to elderly appear to enjoy what they are doing. The two most important principles in performing tai chi are relaxation and stillness. Relaxation helps keep the body feeling natural, and the movements mild, gentle and coherent–with no strong force. Stillness allows the mind to concentrate and reach serenity.
The first step is to develop pliability and softness in order to carry out the exercises correctly. Tai chi begins with a slow movement, then continues without stopping through a series of forms and postures in smooth, sequential moves. It is, as David Lee, a Canadian teacher, has written, “Like a rubber band being pulled taut and then slowly released and pulled taut and released again.”
Tai chi is utterly different from the better known martial arts in this country. The popular “Bruce Lee” conception of “hard fist” kung-fu tends to stress tense, fast moves, great physical exertion and fierce competition. The opposite end of the spectrum is tai chi chuan, the “soft fist” method.
The purpose of tai chi’s flowing continuous movements is to develop good breathing, which leads to good biorhythms and in turn to good health. “Tai chi conforms to physiological laws that can help people keep fit,” says Ying Lehua, a renowned teacher of tai chi. “Practicing tai chi can raise the degree of intensity of the central nervous system, activate other systems and organs and improve the coordinating function of the cerebrum, creating conditions for preventing arteriosclerosis and other heart diseases.”
Many of the exercises are based on animal movements. There is a theory Chang San Feng, credited with founding tai chi, derived the animal method from observing a white stork fighting a snake in the mountains. Exercises are called “White Stork Displays Its Wings” and “Carry Tiger Home To the Mountains.” There’s also “Golden Cock Stands On One Leg,” “Five Darts Whistling Into the Cave” and “Parting of Wild Horse’s Mane.” Tai chi’s ancient originators had nothing if not poetic imaginations.
Due to the great increase in immigration from mainland China and Taiwan in the past decade, there are tai chi classes in most cities in the United States and Canada now. But many are finding the best way to fully absorb the study of the art is to combine a tourist trip to China with tai chi classes. Travelers can work with a teacher in the early morning, before the day’s sightseeing, or afterward in the late afternoon. Even when traveling from city to city, tourists will find tai chi practice takes place close to each new hotel, and the Chinese International Travel Service can make arrangements ahead of your arrival.
Tai chi is undoubtedly the most widely used physical training system in the world. Conservative estimates say 200 million citizens of the Peoples Republic of China practice the discipline. For those who choose to study tai chi in the East, it’s a chance to walk on the Great Wall–the only man made object on earth visible from the moon. You also have the opportunity to stroll through the Forbidden City in Beijing, home of the 1421 Ming and Qing Emperors and known to moviegoers who saw The Last Emperor, or view the thousands of life-size terra-cotta warriors of Xian buried in battle ranks 2,200 years ago to protect the tomb of Emperor Qin.
Indeed, to be able to experience all that while learning tai chi at its source would be a feast for any traveler.
Each morning in Shanghai’s Huangpu Park, dozens of people of all ages and sizes can be seen moving slowly and gracefully, with concentrated purpose. Alone in his or her own world, practitioners of tai chi from teenagers to elderly appear to enjoy what they are doing. The two most important principles in performing tai chi are relaxation and stillness. Relaxation helps keep the body feeling natural, and the movements mild, gentle and coherent–with no strong force. Stillness allows the mind to concentrate and reach serenity.
The first step is to develop pliability and softness in order to carry out the exercises correctly. Tai chi begins with a slow movement, then continues without stopping through a series of forms and postures in smooth, sequential moves. It is, as David Lee, a Canadian teacher, has written, “Like a rubber band being pulled taut and then slowly released and pulled taut and released again.”
Tai chi is utterly different from the better known martial arts in this country. The popular “Bruce Lee” conception of “hard fist” kung-fu tends to stress tense, fast moves, great physical exertion and fierce competition. The opposite end of the spectrum is tai chi chuan, the “soft fist” method.
The purpose of tai chi’s flowing continuous movements is to develop good breathing, which leads to good biorhythms and in turn to good health. “Tai chi conforms to physiological laws that can help people keep fit,” says Ying Lehua, a renowned teacher of tai chi. “Practicing tai chi can raise the degree of intensity of the central nervous system, activate other systems and organs and improve the coordinating function of the cerebrum, creating conditions for preventing arteriosclerosis and other heart diseases.”
Many of the exercises are based on animal movements. There is a theory Chang San Feng, credited with founding tai chi, derived the animal method from observing a white stork fighting a snake in the mountains. Exercises are called “White Stork Displays Its Wings” and “Carry Tiger Home To the Mountains.” There’s also “Golden Cock Stands On One Leg,” “Five Darts Whistling Into the Cave” and “Parting of Wild Horse’s Mane.” Tai chi’s ancient originators had nothing if not poetic imaginations.
Due to the great increase in immigration from mainland China and Taiwan in the past decade, there are tai chi classes in most cities in the United States and Canada now. But many are finding the best way to fully absorb the study of the art is to combine a tourist trip to China with tai chi classes. Travelers can work with a teacher in the early morning, before the day’s sightseeing, or afterward in the late afternoon. Even when traveling from city to city, tourists will find tai chi practice takes place close to each new hotel, and the Chinese International Travel Service can make arrangements ahead of your arrival.
Tai chi is undoubtedly the most widely used physical training system in the world. Conservative estimates say 200 million citizens of the Peoples Republic of China practice the discipline. For those who choose to study tai chi in the East, it’s a chance to walk on the Great Wall–the only man made object on earth visible from the moon. You also have the opportunity to stroll through the Forbidden City in Beijing, home of the 1421 Ming and Qing Emperors and known to moviegoers who saw The Last Emperor, or view the thousands of life-size terra-cotta warriors of Xian buried in battle ranks 2,200 years ago to protect the tomb of Emperor Qin.
Indeed, to be able to experience all that while learning tai chi at its source would be a feast for any traveler.
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