Tai Chi and Qigong Do What Is Right

In this guest post, Al Simon, Founder of Cloudwater.com and ChiFusion sums up the concept of the “individual” in regard to Tai Chi and Qigong perfectly.  Take a read through and let me know what you think.

On the private support forum for our students and instructors, we’ve recently been discussing one of the “big concepts” to get when learning Tai Chi and Qigong.

This concept is especially true when learning kinesthetically, as opposed to just learning choreography like you do in many Tai Chi programs.

And the big idea is this:

Making the choice for independence

On a recent trip to Florida I had some moments of clarity conversations with mom.

To begin with, mom is halfway between 80 and 90, spunky and still pretty darn sharp. She always has been and has used this to make lots of independent choices about her life.  She was always very active and enjoyed going where she wanted, when she wanted and being, well, the word independent come up again.

Hands Above the Heart

Today’s class was similar to most of my classes. We did standing position shoulder lifts and circles, worked on basic weight shifting, heel lifts, side to side and front to back toe points, leg lifts, rolling step and so on.

As soon as the group tired out from standing exercises, we sat and began to work on the upper body.  The upper body work includes a lot of breathing with chest high and overhead arm movements.

Senior Fitness Classes and The Group Dynamic Effect

For about a year I have been teaching one class a month at the Hackettstown, NJ Senior Center. Each class I would get three or 4 of the women to come to the back corner of the facility where they had a place set aside to give my demonstrations.  Each week I would try to entice more of the group to come back to participate, and would always get the same response.  ”I don’t want to” or  ”I already did my exercises” were typical.

Body Awareness is an issue for aging balance and independence

It had been a few years since I last saw mom. I was not sure what to expect to see or learn during my recent trip down to visit for the week. She had starting having issues with falling. Speaking with mom on the phone was still normal. She kept saying thankfully she has no major injuries from the falls, no broken bones and that she was really doing fine.  Well, it was time to see for myself.

“Mary” and her reluctance to improve her senior fitness

At one of the senior centers where I teach my once a month program, I managed to get a reluctant  67 year old visitor to the center,  let’s call her Mary,  to participate in the class.

She was hesitant at first saying her balance was  bad and she felt she would not be able to do any of the stretches since her shoulders and upper back almost always hurt.  I mentioned she could just watch and participate where she could, and to do just as much as her body would allow.

What Is Fitness To You?

Is it about walking faster, breathing better, having more balance, being more flexible or have you never really thought about it?

Before you begin any program, think about what you want to get out of it.  What do you expect to gain, and what will you consider as having been successful. No matter our age or state of fitness and mobility, there is room for improvement.

Simple movements, stretches and balance exercies make it easy to do. Stan has created a unique method of teaching his system of movement exercises. Check here for class information.