You may be working wrong in your Tai Chi and Qigong

I look at a lot of videos, and photos of Qigong and Tai Chi. It’s interesting to me to see the variations and differences between styles.

A few things I see a lot of:

· Extremely low dips and squats

· Locked joints

· Sunken chests

I am not a fan of super deep squats, partly due to envy. I can’t get that low safely. And because they can lead to injury. Done correctly with proper training and skills, they are ok. Too few have the background to do them as many show in the training ads and videos.

Locked joints are energy and blood flow blocks. I see lots of folks with wrists at hard right angles, tightly pinched fingers, tight fists, stiff arms and so on, seemingly very tense. I prefer softness, opening the joints, relaxing the supporting tissue and using just the tension needed to perform the movement.

There is a huge difference between hollowing the chest and sinking it. Sinking puts pressure on the lungs and whole thoracic cavity. Hollowing keeps the chest relaxed, rounding out the shoulder blades and helping move energy from the spine to the arms and upward.

Just some things for discussion. Thoughts?

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