Tai Chi Exercises for Health

Some people skip introductory exercises when they are learning something new. If exercises are included in any type of course, remember there may be a good reason for them. There is a good reason for the ones presented in this chapter so do not skip them.

As you study Tai Chi you will discover many things about yourself if you are alert. You will find that you are not aware of your habitual body posture, the line of your back, the position of your shoulders in relation to your back, neck and head, and other things which you generally take for granted. In addition, and in a sense more importantly, you will realize how tense you usually are, even if you think that you are a relaxed sort of person. Tai Chi can improve your appearance; that is, your carriage, the way you hold yourself. The following exercises will help you in this discovery and will contribute to your performance of the Tai Chi Forms and Sets as well.

Try to be patient. Water dripping down gradually wears away stone. Metal can quickly crack and shatter stone. As you are dealing with your own body, nervous system and brain, it is better to be like water.

This advice might have been taken from a Taoist text and as such it fits in well with Tai Chi training. This is because Tai Chi, like Taoism and other traditional teachings, depends greatly on the development of awareness. You begin with more gross aspects such as the relative position of hands, feet, head and trunk and move on to more subtle things such as awareness of muscle tension, weight and speed and later perhaps to awareness of energy.

If you try to be aware of energy immediately you will ignore the important question of correct posture and Exercise 1 movement, which in Tai Chi should come first. You will use tension instead of relaxation to achieve results, and later if you want to deepen your Tai Chi you will have to unlearn all your bad habits. This can take a long time.

Please proceed with care when exercising; take your physical condition into account.

Tai Chi Exercises for Health

Exercise 1

Find a wall which has no skirting board to it and stand with your back to the wall. Both your heels touch the wall and you stand up in your habitual upright posture. Your buttocks and upper back also touch the wall. Put your hand round to the small of your back and feel the gap, which there will almost certainly be, between that region of the back and the wall. Gently push the small of the back towards the wall so that it is as flat as possible, without using force. Spend some time studying this. As you push the small of your back to the wall, try to find the most relaxed way of doing it. If you notice that you tense your abdominal muscles then bend your knees a little and try to relax your abdomen. You let your abdominal muscles go and let the back move to the wall. It is very different from forcing your body to do something. Be prepared to be patient and perhaps unsuccessful at the first few attempts.

Then, still keeping the small of the back in the same position, that is in line with the rest of the back, walk away from the wall using small steps. The purpose of this exercise is to begin a movement away from the usual over-arched small of the back which most people have. If your back is already well aligned, then ignore this exercise. It is not a question of having an unnaturally straight back, but having a more pliable back in this region of the spine. Study this change of posture and begin to notice how the change in one area affects other areas. In this way your body is allowed to become more mobile, which it is designed to be after all.

Exercise 2

Get a stick which is not more than half an inch (1 centimetre) thick and about 3 feet (1 metre) long. The section shape does not matter. Hold the stick in one hand some 4 inches (10 centimetres) from the top between your thumb and the first two fingers so that it hangs down straight in front of you. Raise and lower the stick freely, moving it about 6 inches (15 centimetres) vertically upwards and then downwards as if you were bouncing it on the floor, but it does not touch the floor. Try to feel that the stick is very free in your grip, holding very lightly, and the part of the stick below your grip hangs down; feel its weight, however small. As you do this, put the fingers of your free hand on your occiput - the point where the top of the spine meets the back base of the skull.

Use your imagination to feel that your occiput corresponds to that point of the stick which you are gripping, and that the part of the stick which is below your grip corresponds to your body below the occiput. Transfer the feeling of free movement, and 'hanging down', which is in the feeling of the stick, into your body. Bounce your body, at the knees, freely and gently, in time with the rhythm of the stick bounce. Your body 'hangs down' from the occiput. The feeling includes your shoulders, which also hang down. Then try walking and very, very slightly 'bouncing', being aware of the stick, your point of grip, your occiput and the body below it. Then take your fingers away from your head and feel the occipital region without their help.

This may result in a much greater feeling of freedom in the body, if you practise. When you think you can, add to this exercise. Allow your jaw/chin to sink down a little way, to help release tension in the back of the neck, and imagine that your head is suspended from above 'as if by a single hair', to quote an old Tai Chi saying.

It is not advisable to do this exercise in full view of the general public; they may have doubts about your state of mind!

Once you think you can, try also turning your head from side to side as you walk and bounce so that your head moves freely at the occiput.

Tai Chi Exercises for Health

These first two exercises can do much to 'set you up' for Tai Chi. Later, when you are doing the Forms, occasionally remember the two exercises, and the sense of freedom they can bring. They could help you to perform Tai Chi movements better.

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