Hobbies

The unfamiliar may cause apprehension and uncertainty but that is the entire point. Undertaking new pursuits and interests breaks you from lifelong bad habits and the risk of indolence.

You will also meet new and unexpected people.

Nutrition

You are what you eat. No matter what you do with your body or your mind, nutrition remains paramount. Take the time to find out what qualifies as high quality nutrition and eat to stay alive.

 Most studies agree that there are a number of key personality characteristics that are important for healthy aging: easygoing, cheerful, self-confident, adaptable, active, independent, creative, happy, relaxed, satisfied, calm, open, agreeable, conscientious, sociable and having a high tolerance for frustration being mentioned most often.

The traits that lead to an unhealthy, shorter life? Being repressed, dogmatic, stubborn, hostile, neurotic, angry, guilty, sad, fearful, anxious, depressed and aggressive.

(Dr Bradley Wilcox, Dr Craig Wilcox and Dr Makoto Suzuki)

A spanner in the works?

Most people exercise with extremely bad posture and poor habits of body use. Qigong and tai chi are trying to remedy these.

If you train another system frequently enough, the benefits of tai chi are nullified. It is OK to train a wide range of exercise methods without ruining your tai chi. The key concern is moderation.

Avoid over-doing it: over-stretching, straining or exerting. Be mindful of posture, poise and tension.

Cross-training?

Students often want to do other forms of exercise in addition to their tai chi. This is fine. The question is: does the other method conflict with the goals of tai chi? Balance? Relaxed muscles? Coordination?

If it does, the tai chi will not work and you will not get the desired fitness benefits or any martial skill.

A balanced body?

Tai chi is not aiming to produce a 'tai chi body'. Rather, it seeks to restore the body to a unified condition of wholeness. Balanced. Mobile. Coordinated. Agile. Supple. Youthful.

Balance is a good thing to think about, but can lead to a false idea of fixity. Our aim is not to be rigid and stable like a wardrobe or a house.

We want to be balancing... 'Balancing' is a process of adjustment; altering what we do in response to what is taking place. Now, that is healthy. Mentally and physically.

Hope

Our information-saturated culture has produced a distracted, lazy, bored, restless, stressed, unhealthy population. People expect instant gratification. They want to show off.

They want results without putting in any work. They want to share their opinions. Speculate. Talk politics.

Not a great starting place for a new starter? However, the very fact that the person wants to try something new is a good start. It offers hope. The possibility of change.

At some level the individual wants to change. This is good. However, to make any real progress in tai chi they have shed these modern, unproductive attitudes...

Thinking habits

The thinking patterns and habits of new students are often far worse than their bodies. Most people have never stuck any new endeavour long enough to understand what learning entails.

They tend to be impatient, overconfident and naive concerning their own abilities. e.g. we once had a man with an artificial hip who neglected to mention it on his 'medical liability disclaimer' because he personally didn't consider it to be a medical matter...

If you want to reconsider 'thinking', why not read Grit, Smarter Faster Better, 5 Elements of Effective Thinking and Peak...? Then put the suggested thinking skills into actual practice.

Body habits

New starters tend to have appalling body habits. These have been accumulated across a lifetime; producing a random, haphazard mess. Sometimes, the habits are the outcome of yoga, the gym or a sport.

The tai chi teacher usually wishes they could dismantle the student's body and start again, but it doesn't work like that because bodies are organic. The body needs to loosen up, relax and then re-grow.

This requires patience, focus and perseverance... like a gardener. Results won't come overnight.

Muscles

If your muscles are working optimally, they should move your body around without there being any sense of work taking place. Everything will feel comfortable, easy and smooth.

When you are chronically over-working your muscles, this is not the case at all. You exert constantly. You apply vast amounts of energy to the performance of simplistic tasks that require almost no energy to accomplish.

A big impediment

The largest impediment faced by a student of tai chi is their own perception of strength. Invariably, the student is convinced that their physical experience of strength is strength.

Quite often they are wrong. What they are feeling is not strength at all. It is tension.

Looking is narrow

Looking is focussed and narrow. Seeing is expansive and open. Meditation is the condition of being present, of seeing without impediment.

You are very much in the immediate moment: feeling, seeing, experiencing. There are no thoughts and no worries.

Spacing out

Modern people are seldom fully present. They try to 'multi-task'. Even when there are no obvious, visible distractions, they somehow manage to be elsewhere.

These same people worry about Alzheimer's disease...

The sage speaks. You hear what you want. I hear what I want.

(Chakravarty)

Our next induction course is Monday 7th September.

New starters are welcome!

What is science?

Science is the attempt to understand the nature of reality.

In martial terms it refers to the techniques and strategies used in real combat, as well as the physical requirements that make the system operate effectively.

In tai chi we must ask: how can natural law be used in combat?

 Tai chi is often described as "meditation in motion," but it might well be called "medication in motion." There is growing evidence that this mind-body practice, which originated in China as a martial art, has value in treating or preventing many health problems. And you can get started even if you aren't in top shape or the best of health.

Tai chi differs from other types of exercise in several respects. The movements are usually circular and never forced, the muscles are relaxed rather than tensed, the joints are not fully extended or bent, and connective tissues are not stretched. Tai chi addresses the key components of fitness — muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and, to a lesser degree, aerobic conditioning.

(Harvard Medical School’s Harvard Health Publication, May 2009)

 The Chinese exercise practice of tai chi can significantly boost the body's immune system response to virus infection.

(ABC Science, regarding a University of California study)

Jerky

Making very small movements is difficult initially. In modern society, our bodies are not encouraged to make small, smooth, controlled movement. Everything is jerky and abrupt.

Jerky movement agitates the nervous system and this in turn leads to anxiety and a lack of calm.

e.g. if you simply flick the wrist, the joint is not exercised properly but if you move the wrist extremely slowly, you feel a very notable stretch throughout the entire movement.

Think small...

It is easy for most people to perform large, extended movements that rotate the shoulder joint or bend the elbow. No particular skill is involved.

Whilst large movements may indeed exercise some of the muscles and the joints, they fail to address the full range of potential movement.

The real skill lies in the small, in the subtle. Your hands in particular need to be good with small movements.

Body building and weight lifting are fashionable activities today. The emphasis is upon developing external muscles which creates an armouring effect that can eventually distort the bony structure. It is the over developed musculature that actually torque's the bones and discourages them from bearing additional weight. The body attempts to compensate and problems arise.

Running does not necessarily in and of itself improve posture that is already poor and constricted. It often exaggerates problems due to the substitution of inappropriate muscles. The repetitive inappropriate development of the musculature (as in body building or weight lifting) often leads to diminished sensitivity. Stress occurs in the knees and lower back, encouraging injury.

Swimming is an activity that can either create structural problems or release them depending upon the way it is taught and practiced. Professional swimmers are known to develop shoulder tendonitis and kyphosis. Overriding head/neck righting reflexes (as occurs when the head is repeatedly turned but the body does not follow) eventually result in overdeveloping shoulder muscles, pinching nerves and distorting the rib cage.

Various sport activities emphasize strength, endurance and speed. Development of muscle control rather than skeletal balance takes precedence. Gaining speed at the expense of mounting tension, is too often the goal.

(Liz Koch) 

Curious

A student needs to be intensely curious about human biomechanics: balance, leverage, structure, stability, mobility, coordination, range & reach, natural order...

They should research different methods of using the body: other styles of tai chi, other martial arts, sports, yoga, Pilates, Alexander Technique, ergonomics, rehabilitation therapy.

Open your mind to new possibilities. Watch people use their body. Observe your own usage. Study how animals move and why.

What is biomechanics?

It is the study of the structure and function of biological systems.

Sacroiliac - the lost joint?

Many people have no idea what the sacroiliac is or what it does. Often the joint is frozen and other joints are required to compensate for the lack of movement.

Frequently the knees are tasked to do the work of the lower back.

Our next induction course is Monday 7th September.

New starters are welcome!

Hollow back

An alternative to upper back fat can be a serious lack of muscular development between the shoulder blades. This is the outcome of neglect. The back looks hollow and sunken. 

Fatty deposits

People who don't use their scapula in a healthy manner can develop extensive fatty deposits between the shoulder blades. This is essentially a large slab of fat located on the upper back.

Shoulders & neck

Shoulder and neck tension can occur from stooping, leaning the head forward/craning the neck and from exerting with the arms. (There are no doubt other reasons too).

Computers and TVs have flickering, hypnotic screens. Craning forward forces your shoulders to compensate for the weight of your head.

The risk of heart failure was more than double for men who sat for at least five hours a day outside of work and didn't exercise very much, compared with men who were physically active and sat for less than two hours a day.

(Dr. Deborah Rohm) 

Stop

Resting is not the same as relaxing. To rest is to stop all activity. If you make the time to rest properly your spine will widen and lengthen quite naturally.

Weight

The weight of your head and ribcage should be supported by the spine and by the strong muscles of the lower torso.

If the muscles are weak and the skeleton slumps forward, the weight of the bones/muscles/internal organs are supported by a slouched spine.

Only a spine that is upright and maintaining its natural curves can handle the weight of your upper body.

Slouching

Computers, driving the car, sitting and poor day-to-day standing can lead people to stoop and slouch. Modern technology does not help.

Naivety

Poor alignment, unrealistic ambitions and a failure to warm-up thoroughly enough result in back problems.

Many people go to the gym, lift heavy weights and then suffer from injuries, or run with an unhealthy, unbalanced, tension-filled technique.

Would-be martial artists do no training all week and yet expect to engage in challenging combat uninjured...

Losing the natural curvature

Instead of relaxing the lower back and allowing the pelvis to remain neutral, many people shorten the lower back.

The spine loses its natural curvature and becomes weaker; more vulnerable to injury. They are typically unaware of this habit because it is 'familiar' and seems 'normal' to them.

Releasing the lower back is easy. However, you need to monitor it repeatedly throughout the day until it becomes an established habit.