Tuesday, June 29, 2010

What is Tai Chi- Tai Chi Benefits

Tai Chi & Tai Chi Benefits :-

Tai Chi is an internal Chinese martial art. It is often promoted and practiced as a martial arts therapy for the purposes of health and longevity. Tai Chi is considered a soft style martial art, an art applied with as much deep relaxation or "softness" in the musculature as possible, to distinguish its theory and application from that of the hard martial art styles which use a degree of tension in the muscles.

Variations of Tai Chi basic training forms are well known as the slow motion routines that groups of people practice every morning in parks across China and other parts of the world.

Traditional Tai Chi training is intended to teach awareness of one's own balance and what affects it, awareness of the same in others, an appreciation of the practical value in one's ability to moderate extremes of behavior and attitude at both mental and physical levels, and how this applies to effective self-defense principles.

Tai chi, sometimes called tai chi chuan, is a noncompetitive, self-paced system of gentle physical exercise and stretching. To do tai chi, you perform a series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner. Each posture flows into the next without pausing.

Anyone, regardless of age or physical ability, can practice tai chi. It doesn't take physical prowess. Rather, tai chi emphasizes technique over strength.


Stress reduction through tai chi :-

(1) Reducing anxiety and depression. (2) Improving balance and coordination. (3) Reducing the number of fall. (4) Improving sleep quality, such as staying asleep longer at night and feeling more alert during the day. (5) Slowing bone loss in women after menopause. (6) Lowering blood pressure. (7) Improving cardiovascular fitness. (8) Relieving chronic pain. (9) Improving everyday physical functioning.

Pregnancy & Tai Chi:-

Tai Chi is also beneficial for pregnant women who have never done any forms of exercise before as it reduces the chances of these women injuring themselves. Other exercises, even yoga, involve a certain amount of moving that could be a problem for pregnant women in later trimesters.

Coping with changes in body size, lifestyle and work can be stressful for a pregnant woman. This is where the mediation portion of Tai Chi kicks in. Deep breathing and helping the mind to focus on the slow repetitive movements of the breathing, provides relief to these external changes. Tai Chi also teaches patience and enhancing such a quality would be beneficial especially when the baby arrives.

Cancer & Tai Chi :-

Those who promote the use of tai chi say that it helps to balance qi or chi - the vital energy or life force of the body. Balanced qi is said to prevent illness, improve health, and extend life expectancy. Tai chi also is based on the ancient theory of yin and yang and those who promote the use of tai chi for cancer patients say that balancing yin and yang helps patients to achieve inner harmony.