Tai Chi for Health 1: Alignment and Posture.

Some Tai Chi health benefits are a direct result / effect of improved skeletal alignment and posture.  Back pain is one of the number one untreated and undiagnosed medical problems that most people suffer from.  The back pain can be and sometimes is due to an injury but more often than not it is simply due to many years of bad or / and improper posture.  In Tai Chi the back is aligned very straight and practice involves very correct posture from the beginning to the end of the set.

If you do not have very correct skeletal alignment you are not receiving much of the physical aspect of Tai Chi health benefits.  Unfortunately, in recent years I have worked with many serious students of Tai Chi who come to me after hitting a dead-end in their current practice of the art and who are unable to attain the higher level skills of Tai Chi and are not receiving much of the better known Tai Chi health benefits.  The first thing I usually find I have to teach them is correct structural and spinal alignment.

There are a number of reasons for this lack of Tai Chi health benefits and overall Tai Chi ability.  One of them is that unfortunately many people will not diligently work their Tai Chi with an attention to proper alignment and often do not understand what they are trying to accomplish with proper alignment and body structure.

to be continued…

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