Simple T'ai Chi Chuan Exercises
Beginners Guide to Soft Martial Arts - Improve Breathing and Health
These simple, easy to perform T'ai Chi exercises will help improve breathing, calm the mind and increase energy flow.
T'ai Chi Chuan is an ancient Chinese soft martial art, widely practiced for its health benefits. It exercises the body and the mind, teaching concentration, awareness and the ability to connect better with the world. It can help improve your self discipline, increase your energy, alleviate many common ailments and encourage supple, fluid movement.
Ideally, T'ai Chi Chaun (commonly shortened to T'ai Chi) should be practiced in a class with a good teacher. T'ai Chi is learned completely at your own pace, but it is important to know how to perform the different movements correctly in order to gain health benefits. If you are a beginner at T'ai Chi, or have yet to locate a suitable teacher in your area, here are a few gentle exercises you can do on your own, that will help prepare your body. These are the sort of exercises performed during a warm up, and contain basic T'ai Chi movements that are integral to the form.
Warm Up Breathing Exercise
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, and your knees slightly bent. Tuck your bottom in, keep your chin down and your head up. Try to imagine a piece of string emerging from the top of your head, pulling you up straight. Now raise your arms straight out in front of you, palms towards the floor. Ensure your arms and legs stay soft, with plenty of bend in the elbows and knees. Your hands and fingers should be loosely flopping over, not pointed or extended. As you raise your arms up to about shoulder height breathe in. Now as you lower your arms down along the center line of your body, breathe out. Lower your arms slowly, with your fingers trailing after, as though you were combing your fingers through a horse's mane. The finishing position for your arms is resting loosely at your body's side, with a little space still remaining under your arms. Now repeat, raising the arms up to shoulder height as you breathe in, down to rest at your sides as you breathe out. As you perform this exercise, your tongue should be touching the roof of your mouth, and your feet should be connecting firmly with the ground to encourage the flow of Chi (energy).
Carrying the Ball
Standing in the same position, turn slightly to the right as you lift your left arm up and hold it across your body at chest height. Then tuck your right arm underneath, just below your navel. Try to imagine you are carrying an imaginary ball, with your arms and hands folded loosely around it, top and bottom. Carry the ball by turning from the right to the left. This movement comes only from the waist. As before, your feet stay firmly planted on the ground. Now you are turned slightly to the left you need to roll your arms over so that the left arm is at the bottom of the imaginary ball, and the right arm is at the top. Always do this by rolling the ball away from your body. Now carry the ball back to the right, and roll it over again. Repeat several times, breathing slowly and calmly and focusing your mind only on the movements.
Natural Breathing
T'ai Chi encourages you to breathe correctly. This might sound like the simplest thing in the world, but in fact many people breathe using only a tiny proportion of lung capacity. This breathing is very shallow, coming only from the chest. In T'ai Chi, the breath should come from deep down in the pit of your stomach. One of the easiest ways to practice natural breathing is to place your hands on your stomach and actually feel your diaphragm filling with air. As you breathe in, your body should physically expand to take in the air, as you breathe out, your body should condense. Breathe in - stomach out, breathe out - stomach in.
Looking for a T'ai Chi Class? Try the American Tai Chi & Health Information Center, they have a search engine for locating instructors, or try the Tai Chi Finder, for classes predominantly in Britain and Ireland.
