A Tufts University School of Medicine study demonstrated evidence based results that Tai Chi Eases Osteoarthritis Pain in older adults. The study participants practiced Tai Chi for 12 weeks. During the study they practiced for an hour twice a week.

Over the 12-week study period, Tai Chi was also observed to be equally effective as aerobic exercise in reducing both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

They also conducted a longitudinal, prospective study comparing two-year trends in cardiorespiratory function of a group of elderly Tai Chi practitioners with an age-matched, sedentary control group. Their results suggest that Tai Chi may delay the decrease in aerobic capacity usually found with aging.

They also conducted a cross-sectional, case-controlled study to evaluate the health benefits of long-term, geriatric Tai Chi practitioners. Cycle ergometry revealed that peak oxygen uptake was greater for Tai Chi practitioners compared to age-matched sedentary subjects.

No adverse effects related to the short- or long-term practice of Tai Chi were reported in any of these studies.

Body Bouncing and Shaking is a very simple and effective way to relieve stress and release energy blockages from your body and mind. Best done while standing, the trick is to relax as much as possible and initiate the movement from your feet. Allow the vibration to go all of the way through you and let it release everywhere. You may find that one or another of places in your body are tense and do not shake and bounce with the rest of your body. Do the practice of body bouncing and shaking until the tension is released and is expressed out of your body everywhere.

Not only does Body Bouncing and Shaking release physical, mental and emotional stress thereby helping you to relax it can also be aerobic and strengthen and improve your balance. Body Bouncing and Shaking can loosen joints, increase flexibility, burn calories and raise metabolism. The practice will also typically lubricate your joints and get your circulation going.

It is really helpful to laugh and have a good time while body bouncing and shaking. At first the vibration may just be external but with a little time and practice you can make the vibration internal. Practice body bouncing and shaking for a few minutes and when you stop stay relaxed and feel the buzz of the energy flow through and around you.

I learned Body Bouncing and Shaking over 15 years ago from a Chi Kung Master in Shanghai China. Two years ago I found out that it is now known that most animals from deer to elephants shake dozens of times a day to clear away the effects of trauma and stress.

Body Bouncing and Shaking is an excellent and simple way to alleviate stress and remove energy blockages from your body.

Photos by: Bert Heymans & Ol.v!er

Now I will address Tai Chi Qigong for health.  If you have a wide range of movements in your Tai Chi and the energy cycle through the acupuncture meridians is correct then the vast majority of the time you do not need more moves for the health aspect of Tai Chi Qigong.  What you do need is the proper application of the energy and an understanding of how to work that energy for specific purposes suited to your needs and health.  For example a person who needs stress relief or who has a headache may need to perform the moves very light and extra soft.  A person who needs more bone density and mass will most likely want to practice moving with rooted heavy energy in order to add that bone  density and mass.  Notice these two energetics are very different.  A person who has arthritis will need to use certain kinds of electrical energy expression to specifically address the arthritis.  I have personally used this one with great affect against osteoarthritis and as a result I have never had any pain from it.

In Tai Chi Qigong there is also the Nei Kung internal work which at some point in your training is supposed to be practiced while you perform your Tai Chi set.  In Tai Chi,   first you get the chi in your body to activate so that it flows through your body properly then you build your Chi, then you get the chi to move and flow in various ways according to your mental desire and internal skill development and use.  Then, you store and build more chi in your entire body from the inside of your bone all of the way out to the skin and then you learn to activate it and move it faster and faster.

Eventually you work the Tai Chi Qigong energy without having to practice the moves.  First you do it while simply walking and eventually you work the energy no matter what you are doing.  The idea in Tai Chi is to grow to the point that your body internally works in a Tai Chi Qigong energy way and you are practicing the art most of the time without having to give it much thought.  This is one of the secrets to good health and longevity in Tai Chi.

In Tai Chi Qigong as in all Qigong after practicing or using Chi you should always settle the Chi and put it back into the deeper storage areas of the body particularly deep into the bones.  The Chinese teachers I have studied from call this like putting money in the bank.  Store your money for a rainy day when you will need it.  In the case of energy this means when you are old or sick.  I have written more about storage areas and dan tiens here.

Why should you stand in Wu Chi before performing your Tai Chi set?

Wu Chi is the first standing posture before you begin the physical movement in most Tai Chi styles and forms. Properly standing in Wu Chi helps to train the basic physical structure and alignments of the body while activating the energy. The Wu Chi alignments are made prior to starting your Tai Chi moves and then the Wu Chi physical and energetic alignments are supposed to be maintained while you practice your Tai Chi set.

Wu Chi translates as No action Energy. The “Wu” No action refers to the fact that there is no external physical movement while you are standing in Wu Chi. The “Chi” or energy refers to the fact that the energy is activated even though there is no physical movement. Together Wu Chi refers to the idea that the energy is activated and moving even though there is no physical motion.

BENEFITS OF WU CHI

• Standing in Wu Chi is designed to build Chi energy and to internally circulate Chi energy.
• Proper Wu Chi Physical Alignment from head to toe specifically benefits you by aligning your spinal column. This Improves Respiratory and Vascular Circulation.
• Wu Chi alignment in the body also Improves Oxygen flow to all of the cells of the body.
• Wu Chi Enhances Proper Nervous System Function and Combats Neuropathy (loss of nerve function and feeling).
• Properly standing in Wu Chi Alleviates Arthritis and Arthritis symptoms due to the the flow of Chi energy heating up the synovial fluid between the joints.
• Wu Chi Enhances Mental Concentration and Focus as you stand there and relax with your mind quiet and calm while the energy flows due to the proper Wu Chi physical and energetic alignments.
• Wu Chi Facilitates Recovery and healing time by helping you to relax the Internal Organs and the External Muscles while building and circulating the energy

To learn the 10 essential steps to proper Wu Chi practice and utilizing Wu Chi energetics in your Tai Chi practice you can purchase our book Chi Energy: Activation, Cultivation and Flow and the accompanying DVD or our Wu Chi and Combat Tai Chi DVD. These 10 essential steps of Wu Chi are the most complete and comprehensive version of Wu Chi in writing or on DVD available today.

Another pertaining issue that I have been mulling over is that I have specifically learned how to practice the Tai Chi to achieve most of these health benefits from Chinese masters both here in the US and in mainland China. These teachers have often stated these Tai Chi Documented Health Benefits work and as far as these masters are concerned, they know that this is true in a particular region or area and often in all of China.

So, if a specific kind of Tai Chi is practiced for longevity and those who practice it are well known for living into their late 90’s and early 100’s making this a Tai Chi Documented Health Benefit then it seems that this could be labeled as Tai Chi for Longevity. However no study has been done in the states to verify this statement. So, how can I legally make such a claim in the title of the DVD explaining this method? I am sure there is a way to go about it but I do want to make sure that I am legally on solid ground.

Part of the solution for us is that here at Clear’s Tai Chi we are currently hard at work to get a study going on the positive effects and medical benefits of Clear’s Tai Chi so that we can present our own documented health benefits as found in a legitimate US medical study. We are interested in receiving any input or feedback on this that would be helpful for publicly promoting the medical benefits right now and that will help us to get a study going or listing currently known Documented Tai Chi Health Benefits.

to be continued…

Personally I have found it difficult to publicly present the health benefits of Tai Chi due to not having an easy way to present and back up the health benefit claims of the art in a legal way. Because I have used Tai Chi to help myself with a number of personal health issues and I have taught quite a few students over the years who have received medical benefit I have a track record regarding my own Tai Chi Documented Health Benefits. I know where and how I and students of mine have received benefit and where and how I and they have not received benefits. I generally use this to back up my statements regarding Tai Chi and the benefits generally occur quickly enough that this works okay on a small scale.

However, I am greatly concerned about the legal aspect and ramifications of any statement I make including my own personal Tai Chi Documented Health Benefits and feel the need to overly state the legally buttock covering words of; this does not work for everyone and individual experiences will vary widely etc etc.. Having been involved in Tai Chi for over 30 years now and seeing folks get excellent results with specific conditions and situations causes me to want to simply state in public advertising that we have Tai Chi that is good for (name the specific condition that applies and there are over 15 different conditions that I have seen it really help).

As I have stated these are my personal Tai Chi Documented Health Benefits and not the result of a long term documented University study. It also is important to know that the proper internal aspects of Tai Chi are very specific and need to be very correct in order for a person to get specific benefits for specific health issues. In the USA I have seen many teachers of Tai Chi who are not qualified and they teach a very watered down version of Tai Chi that is designed in a “1 size fits all” kind of way that is really not appropriate or correct. This makes the medical claim issues that I am writing about here that much more difficult for legitimate teachers of the art because the public generally can not tell the difference between the real thing and other Tai Chi without obtaining more education than most folks will acquire before taking a class.

to be continued

In University medical studies in the United States there have been a number of Tai Chi documented health benefits. There have also been a number of Tai Chi health benefits that Tai Chi is known and widely accepted for particularly in China but that are not very well documented in the USA.

I have been very fortunate in that I have been trained in both Tai Chi fighting skills and in Tai Chi for health. The difference between the Tai Chi documented health benefits and the Tai Chi fighting skills is that the fighting skills are relatively easy to verify. If I can show that a slap or punch will hurt someone, launch them into the air or break a board (demonstrating force and power) then the idea that Tai Chi can be used for self defense is not difficult for the average person to believe. i.e. Seeing and particularly feeling is believing.

To accomplish a basic level of acceptance for the health benefits of Tai Chi is a lot tougher. First of all many studies are small and many others are inconclusive and some studies state that Tai Chi although not detrimental has shown no positive or negative effect on the disease/malady being studied at all. This is often due to simply not having enough participants and the study being short in its duration (8-12 weeks) so that it is statistically very difficult to draw any real long term conclusion. But, it does not solve the problem of how to present the real health side of Tai Chi to the American public.

to be continued…

Another reason that often students in the USA do not get the Tai Chi health benefits is that there is simply a lot of unqualified Tai Chi instructors in the USA today. This is mostly due to the amount of weekend certification workshops whereby someone with no real prior knowledge of Tai Chi can go to a weekend workshop and leave as a fully certified Tai Chi instructor. This person (often an occupational or physical therapist or nurse) then goes home and starts teaching Tai Chi classes using their Western medical credential to try to legitimize their Tai Chi.

This current state of affairs is very unfortunate and Tai Chi in America as a whole suffers as a result of this rip-off scam of Tai Chi by unqualified instructors where real Tai Chi and the Tai Chi health benefits can not be found. Who will want to do Tai Chi if the consensus is that it does not work? And, what other opinion will the public come to about Tai Chi if most of the Tai Chi that is available is incorrect or poorly taught and people are not getting any of the substantial Tai Chi health benefits? I and we as an organization are working very hard to try to prevent this from happening. Please see our article on what a legitimate Tai Chi instructor should know and do your diligence (by being an informed consumer) even when just looking for Tai Chi health benefits.

Tai Chi health benefits are many and varied. In this article I have touched on a few of them but there is a great deal more. If you are a student of Tai Chi but have not been getting the Tai Chi health benefits please contact us so that we can try to assist you in your practice and training.

A basic example of this is the bone density that Tai Chi is known to develop that helps prevent falls in the elderly. The way to obtain this Tai Chi health benefit and part of the way that this actually occurs is that the practitioner must align their upper body weight over the legs and then relax the entire body so that the weight of the entire body presses down through the structure due to gravity. This alone will increase the thigh bone density and mass over time and increase the muscle mass and strength through the entire leg.

The problem is that most people do not like the muscle soreness and work that this requires one to go through so they do not get the Tai Chi health benefits because of it. This alignment does more that just increase the bone mass in the upper thigh and is important for other Tai Chi health benefits as well as being a component in the proper use of Tai Chi for self defense.

Another reason that a lot of people do not get the physical Tai Chi health benefits is that, all to often, highly qualified instructors are teaching large groups of people in order to make a living and they can not take the time with their students to make the smaller and more specific corrections required to help the students really obtain the Tai Chi health benefits. This is why all of my Tai Chi instruction is performed one on one or with very small groups with a lot of one on one attention.

to be continued

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…