What are the Health Benefits of Tai Chi and Qi Gong?

The benefits of healthy exercise – gentle and therapeutic movement for health enhancement – are well documented. However, there is a difference between therapeutic and athletic exercise. In both vigorous and gentle types of exercise, the body produces a powerful mix of metabolic resources.

Vigorous Exercise

Athletic exercise is for healthy individuals who seek to compete with themselves and others in developing the body into greater ranges of enhanced ability. This type of exercise results in gains in weight resistance and aerobic endurance in general. Individuals may also may be very appearance conscious, sculpting their bodies for a specific external look. Sports medicine was developed primarily to address the risk of injury from this type of heightened body usage. Issues arising from repetitive syndrome are common. There are many young athletes today who now have life long injuries, due to their ambitious over worked practices to attain sport scholarships or professional sport careers. Sport competition is often times not healthy exercise.

Gentle, Healthy Exercise

Therefore, it supports the body’s optimal function, recovery, and longevity.In ancient China it was known as “the inner medicine” or “the healer within.” Above all, there are three potential benefits of therapeutic exercise, due to the increased oxygen available. Firstly, energy production; secondly, cellular and intracellular hydration, as a by-product of energy metabolism; and thirdly, enhanced immune function.

More gentle exercise can have many therapeutic benefits. This is because it helps boost oxygen and circulation in the body, which can also trigger the body’s health-enhancing capacities. Qi Gong exercise can be medical or therapeutic. The aim of general healthy exercise is to maintain good health. Our first principle is ‘Do no harm’.

No pain, no gain?

In other words, struggling through an exercise session is likely to harm your body and your health. So, at Movement In Mind, we think about ‘fitness’ in a different way.  We believe that moving your body should never feel like a chore or a punishment. Instead, we prefer to think of exercise as a celebration of all the ways you can move. In this way, you can appreciate all your body is and does. 

Rather than coming to a session because you want to change your body, we encourage you to tune in to it and listen to its cues. If you can let go of ideas of right and wrong, you can find release and freedom in movement. 

Health Benefits of Tai Chi

It can take a while to become familiar with the rhythm and feel of tai chi, perhaps three to six months, However, once they are over the initial learning phase, most people continue with the exercise.Regular practice of Tai Chi can lead to better health. Nature intends the human body to move and be active. Consequently, if we neglect movement a host of health problems may arise. Inactive muscles quickly deteriorate and joints become stiff. This can result in pain and reduced function. Keeping physically active through healthy movement will help to keep muscles toned. In addition, activity will maintain range of motion within joints and release tension within the body.

Our Tai Chi & Qi Gong for better health sessions self-paced. They are gentle on the body. Breath, movement and awareness are aligned for a calm, mindful state. Slow, flowing movements and mindful stepping help to improve strength, balance and flexibility. Many studies associate the practices with improvements in cardiovascular fitness and immunity as well mental wellbeing.

Tai chi is slow and gentle and doesn’t leave you breathless. However, it still addresses the key components of fitness.

Muscle strength. Tai chi can improve both lower-body strength and upper-body strength. When practiced regularly, it can be comparable to resistance training and brisk walking. Although you aren’t working with weights or resistance bands, the unsupported arm exercise involved in tai chi strengthens your upper body. The slow stepping and weight transfer, combined with a lowered stance, helps to strengthen the lower body. In addition, the smooth controlled movement with focussed body awareness promotes strength in the core muscles of the back and abdomen.

Flexibility. Tai chi can boost upper- and lower-body flexibility as well as strength.

Balance. Tai chi improves balance and, according to research, reduces falls. Proprioception — the ability to sense the position of one’s body in space — declines with age. Tai chi helps train this sense, which is a function of sensory neurons in the inner ear and stretch receptors in the muscles and ligaments. Because Tai chi improves muscle strength and flexibility, it makes recovering from a stumble easier.

Practiced regularly, Tai Chi can help reduce pain. For instance, the pain associated with knee osteoarthritis, back problems, and fibromyalgia. In addition, it can significantly lower the risk of falls among older adults.

On top of everything else, with Tai Chi and Qi Gong there’s the bonus of having a sound wellbeing, healthier soft tissue and joints, more body strength, better mobility and posture, increased blood flow and immunity, less tension and more inner peace.

A study into the psychological and physical effects of the Covid-19 virus was published recently. It concluded that the unique breathing and movement rhythms of Tai Chi Chuan positively affects the mental and physical health of older adults. This is particularly beneficial in the wake of the recent pandemic.

The outbreak of COVID-19 and home isolation narrowed of the scope of activities for older adults. This meant a lack of exercise. Consquently, older adults were more likely to experience depression and low immunity.

Scientific research shows that practices such as Tai Chi Chuan, Baduanjin, Yijin Jing, and traditional Qigong can promote better health. Tai Chi Chuan, which is gentle and easy to practice, can promote all systems of the human body. Studies have shown that it can help to relieve anxiety and depression. In addition it can reduce the effects of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Consequently it helps to improve quality of life and boost immunity. In conclusion, research shows that Tai Chi is likely to have a potential role in recovery, treatment and prevention of illness. In addition, it has positive benefits for mental health and wellbeing.

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Health benefits of Qi Gong

Health Benefits of Qi Gong

This centuries-old system of coordinated body posture and movement is associated with many physical and mental health benefits. They include improved focus, digestion, balance, posture, circulation, and much more.

Qi Gong will give the core, glutes, back, and leg muscles a workout. Consequently, it will improve flexibility and help build strength. In this way, Qigong helps to improve balance and muscle control. This makes it great for older adults and people with health conditions. In addition, it is low impact. In other words, there is minimal stress on the joints and muscles.

According to a study in Medical News Today, research suggests that it may help with certain aspects of health. For example, reducing pain, supporting respiratory health, and improving quality of life after cancer. The study particularly mentions the Baduanjin as promoting fitness and flexibility. Overall, it found evidence that regular practice can improve:

• balance
• hand grip strength
• torso flexibility
• blood pressure
• resting heart rate

These benefits were present in studies on younger and older adults. Because qigong is a fairly low impact activity, it can be a suitable form of exercise for individuals with limited mobility or stamina.

Importantly, some studies show that it reduces the symptoms of depression and decreases anxiety. Others identify positive effects on cardiovascular and bone health. Moreover, there is evidence that the practice can decrease blood pressure and cholesterol. In other words, with regular and consistent practice, Qigong can reduce stress while helping you to achieve optimal body function.

Certainly there is no reason not to give Qi Gong a try. It requires no special equipment and very little space. It is not hard to follow the slow, purposeful movements. They are simple and easily modified. Furthermore, you can do most Qigong on a chair or even a bed. Short sessions of daily practice are enough to reap some of its amazing health benefits.

Regular Practice

Taking time to practice Tai Chi or Qi Gong regularly is an important part of self care and wellbeing. There are many benefits for physical and mental health

Taking time for yourself and developing day to day habits that nurture the body and feed the sprit allow change and growth to evolve through small adjustments, good systems and beneficial processes.

“The Mind leads the body. Through countless mindful repetitions, the mind teaches the body good habits that become automatic.” (Kenni Lee Burgess)

There is no formula nor one size that fits all, after all we don’t all have the same bodies, stamina or capacity, and it also depends on your personal objectives and goals, but regular practice of Tai Chi and Qi Gong will help the movements to sink in to motor memory and repetition will help to strengthen the body. Then, once you have a grasp of some postures and the form, there is so much more to experience. Tai Chi is a journey, not an end point.

The intention of maintaining a consistent practice of healthy exercise is to refine what is learned. Repetition without intent is meaningless. On the other hand, refinement is with intent to improve. Every insubstantial step forward becomes a substantial step linking to the next set of refinement. “師父领进门，修行在个人” Teacher can show you the way but the practitioner’s own effort decides what level of learning they attain.

“Consistent, unhurried practice of Tai Chi wins every time” (Howard Gibbon)