Tai Chi can provide many benefits to those who are arthritic or who have pre-arthritic conditions or who have a high risk of developing arthritis.
Breathing exercises in China date back more than two thousand years. Correct breathing (abdominal breathing) is necessary to gain the maximum benefit from Chinese Health Art exercises such as Tai Chi. Abdominal breathing uses the diaphragm, not just the shallow rising and falling of the chest. Tensing and relaxing the abdominal muscles alternate the pressure from high to low. This not only makes the blood within your abdominal cavity flow more efficiently, but also improves the blood circulation to all other organs, especially the liver and spleen, the blood reservoirs of the body. Other organs to benefit from this internal diaphragmatic massage include the heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, small and large intestine, bladder and gall bladder. Khor Tai Chi Asthma Body-Mind, Medicine Program (ABMM) focuses on breathing skills in combination with a series of relaxation techniques and specific exercises drawn from Chinese Health Arts. The result is a program that utilises these therapies in a complementary manner to considerably increase their effectiveness.
How do we exercise the “energetic heart”? In Tai Chi we try to use visualisations and to “feel” the Tai Chi this has a direct influence on the heart meridian. Physical movements also translate into energetic impacts and the nature of Tai Chi movement is particularly beneficial in terms of its energetic impact. The “Suspending the head top” technique is used specifically to “raise the Shen”. The prescribed use of the eyes in Tai Chi also helps to release the flow of Shen Qi.
One thing that often causes confusion is how Tai Chi can be both beneficial to high and low blood pressure. The relaxation response developed in Tai Chi helps to reduce blood viscosity, take stress out of muscles and encourage vasodilation. What is happening here is the reversal of stress response effects. Once the stress response effects have been reversed there are no further effects on lowering blood pressure in other words the relaxation response can only normalize blood pressure – providing that there are no inherent low blood pressure problems.
Tai Chi based exercise program can provide many benefits to those who are diabetes or who are pre-diabetic or who have a high risk of developing diabetes
TAI CHI is an exercise system that uses slow flowing movements with focus on correct breathing, posture and a relaxed, meditative mind. Our Tai Chi is taught are designed to leave the student feeling relaxed and invigorated.
STRESS REDUCTION. Through movement, breathing, meditative and postural techniques the student is taught how to release muscular stress and initiate the relaxation response. For the MS student this is particularly beneficial in combating fatigue, improving muscular co ordination and boosting the immune system,
MUSCLE TONE. Tai Chi tones the muscles without exhausting them and without placing the MS student at risk of injury. The risk of muscle wastage is therefore reduced.
MUSCLE COORDINATION. Tai Chi focuses both on coordinated movement of limbs and body torso and on the development of awareness of movement. Tai Chi dramatically improves balance and stability.
Tai Chi is an exercise which helps to relax and strengthen the body. It is soft but hard as the same time as well as gentle allowing anyone to practice it. Even people unable to stand can do the exercises seated. Gradually the body changes, tendons and ligaments which had contracted and tightened through the disease become more elastic. Muscles become fuller and move willing to bear the body weight which enhances the individual’s confidence level.
Many changes of Parkinson’s Disease are not related to the underlying nerve disease. Weakness, loss of balance, cramps, fatigue, memory loss and other symptoms are present partly because of the decrease in overall movement. When the body moves less, the soft tissues change quickly. Muscles become smaller and tire more easily, ligaments and tendons become contracted and stiff, bones lose their calcium and become brittle. These are changes all people face as they age, not just those with Parkinson’s Disease.
Excess Weight (Obesity in extreme circumstances) is a major problem in our society because of its medical consequences. Because Tai Chi is a slow relaxed exercise it is not often seen as a weight management tool, which is a pity as Tai Chi exercises, are ideally suited to being part of weight management problems. The purpose of this guideline is to explain to instructors and through them to students both the consequences of excess weight and how Tai Chi can both help manage body weight and help protect against the health risks arising from excess weight.
Any exercise will burn calories so why not pick the one that burns the most calories? Even if the only objective of practicing Tai Chi was to increase the number of calories used by a person a good argument could still be made for using Tai Chi. Most people judge the value of an exercise as a means of reducing body weight by the number of calories that exercise consumes per minute. The more calories an exercise consumes in a minute the faster you will lose weight, right?
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