Tai chi for beginners: easy keys and exercises

What is tai chi and what is it for? Tai chi is a relaxation technique from China that consists of performing delicate unison movements that seem to caress the air, not only with their hands, but with their body. Bare feet –or shoes with flexible slippers– They glide smoothly across the floor. Practicing tai chi is almost a ritual that is repeated every morning in many cities on the planet, both eastern and western. The placidity that her movements give off fills us with tranquility.

Taichi means “what came first”, “the most essential”. Chuan It means “fist” but also “”concentration or gathering of energy”. Tai Chi Chuan means “the gathering of the most essential energy”. To shorten and popularize it, it is called Tai Chi.

In this article we discover how the tai chi for beginners and we explain various exercises that allow you to apply the teachings of tai chi to the most common problems of daily life: against anxiety and over-stress, to alleviate back pain, to relax, clear the neck or even to combat insomnia.

Tai Chi Keys for Beginners

If we have always been curious about how tai chi is practiced, here are some keys to understanding what people who practice tai chi are actually doing. Observing them carefully, we will be able to understand it.

1. Position and arrangement

Every inhabitant of this planet, whether animate or inanimate, needs to be rooted in the earth. and have a position according to it. A building needs its foundations, a tree its roots and a table its support in the form of legs.

Human beings depend on the position of the feet, hips and legswhich act as transmitters between feet and hips, to pick up and react to gravity.

If we observe the position of the tai chi practitioners, we see that their feet delimit a grid, which receives the force of the earthand through the legs, which are slightly bent, it leads to the hip, which receives it in its circular sinus, and he directs it circularly throughout the space.

It is a position common to all those activities that require gravity: cWhen we run, walk or climb a ladder; when the tennis player waits for the ball, when skating, or when practicing surfing.

in this position the center of gravity located in the pelvis is attentive without being tense and, by letting gravitational energy pass in any direction, it helps us to better relate to the earth and the environment.

We gain in balance, orientation and stability. With the addition that a good body position facilitates a good disposition in all senses.

2. The rhythm and the spiral

What most characterizes those who practice taichi is its rhythm: soft, light, chained movements that caress air in a fluid and calm breath.

They paint the space with their bodies, without any type of syncopation. They flow like the ray of sunlight that filters through the trees, and that runs through the forest throughout the day. They are following the rhythm of the earth.

Imitating the rhythm of the earth, they relate to it, its changes and transformations, and to the solar system to which our planet belongs. But also with most the internal organs of the body and with themselves. So they balance internally and externally by toning themselves.

Another feature that surprises us is that its evolutions in space are based on curved forms: spirals, circles and arcs.

They are the movements and structures that constitute the base of any vital manifestation..

Celestial phenomena (storms, tornadoes etc); the sailors (waves, tides); the that are an intrinsic part of nature of our cells (DNA); those that allow the growth of vegetables; those that serve for the transmission and reception of sound, and those that produce heat and energy from magnetic fields.

When we practice tai chi, through spirals and circles we modify the force that comes from the earth. We are increasing our chi or life energy.

3. Concentration for expression

Finally we must refine our perception to observe an invisible qualitybut what accompanies all tai chi practitioners. Their look gives them away: they are there even though they seem not to be.

The lids of their eyes are half open and they see everything that this overture lets pass by without looking at anything in particular. They look in and see out, feel and look at the same time.

They try to keep their attention on the line that delimits the inner world from the outer world. Which allows them to accompany the weight of the foot, the movement of the hip and the arms with the thoughtwhile seeing what is happening around them.

Thus they establish a relationship between thought and weight, between mind and body. From this relationship that enriches both, a unit results: the whole human being, including as part of that whole the integration of the human being on Earth.

Whoever practices tai chi is with his thought in the physical center (in the center of gravity, in the bowels) and follows his breath, concentrates, is here and nowIn a word: meditate (which means being in the middle, being in and with the center). With the consequent reduction of stress, anxiety and increased concentration.

Tai Chi: exercise for beginners against anxiety and overstress

Stand upright, with your legs about hip-distance apart. Stare one point ahead. Try to open the field of vision without taking your eyes off the point. Feel your feet. Transfer your weight from one foot to the other, appreciating all its parts. Root yourself, bending your knees (the knee should not exceed the big toe), feeling a path to the center of the earth and, at the same time, its opposite to the sky. Walk, from this position, listening to how it comes and goes the weight of your feet goes. Make a fluid movement. Include your arms and perform the wild horse. Listen, look, smell, taste, live.

Tai chi: exercise for beginners to ease back pain.

We start as in the previous case, but with the feet and the back glued to the wall. From those two or three points of contact with the wall (the hip, the shoulder blades and perhaps the head), when we root, the hip curves slightly forward to bring the lumbars closer to the wall and open them. Do the overture.

Tai chi: exercise for beginners to relax

We lie on the floor on a mat, face up, with a pillow under the knees to slightly arch the hips. It should be a comfortable position. We listen to the in-breath, the out-breath, and the pause. We try not to control the process. We concentrate on the exhalation. With her, we begin to feel the weight of the feet, we compare them. The more precise we are, the better. Next, we feel the weight of the calves and knees, until we reach the thighs and the entire leg. Let’s compare them. We continue gradually releasing the weight of the body with the exhalation. Feel it pulsing with your breath, sheltered by the earth. Don’t worry if you fall asleep, five minutes of restful sleep can be worth more than a whole night of bad sleep. Then get up, and perform the figure Closing the door. Repeat it several times listening.

Tai chi: exercise for beginners to clear the cervicals

We stand on the edge of a chair with our legs open, with a cushion or a notebook on the floor, next to the legs of the chair. We let the entire spine fall from the head to the ground, rolling it between the legs. In this position we take the tip of the cushion or the notebook and place it in the space between the seat and the coccyx, and we recover the vertical position, unrolling the trunk, sitting on the cushion and the seat of the chair. The entire spine is aligned and rests. We surround one leg below the knees, over the tibia, with the fingers of the hand interlaced, we draw the shoulder blades back and down and open them; we stretch our chest and belly and breathe. Breathing manifests itself in the pelvis. Next we make the figure Hands like clouds.

Tai chi: exercise for beginners against insomnia

When some problem does not allow us to sleep, you will notice that your breathing is not very deep and it is also tiring and short and can even be loud. We can restore its qualities by pressing the heels of the feet against the ground. Then enjoy full breathing, feeling alive: choose any movement from the sequence and do it.

A sequence of tai chi exercises

It doesn’t matter if you don’t follow the sequence, you’ll learn it. The most important thing is, first, slow and fluidand these are achieved by visualizing the gradual change of weight on the feet.

Be aware of your entire environment. Throughout the day, look at the sky and the light changes that are projected onto the earth, they possess the secret of taichi and the essence of life.

The wild horse shakes its mane

Stand with your weight supported on your right leg, your knee slightly bent, and your right toes resting on the floor. Place your arms in front of you as if they were holding a “ball of air”. Rotate the trunk on the left foot and leg about 45 degrees, until the trunk, head and gaze are in this direction. Take a step with the right foot in the same direction, starting with the heel. The width of the step will be that of your hip. Shift your weight to that leg and undo the “air ball”, opening your arms.

Move the knee away with one hand and push

Starting from the same starting position as in the previous exercise, place the palm of your right arm in front of you, at ceiling height, looking at the floor. Bend the left elbow and place the palm of the hand facing to the right, at the level of your head. Then turn the trunk 45 degrees to the right, support the right heel and then the foot, shifting the weight of the body towards the leg right. At the same time, the right arm and hand descend in a wide circle around the right knee, stopping near the hip; while the left arm goes down, placing the hand to the right of the body at head height, with the palm still facing the ground. The movement should flow. To do it on the other side, shift your weight back and rotate your trunk 45 degrees, returning to the starting position but reversing right and left.

Closing the door

Open your legs to hip width. With the weight of the body supported on the left foot, lift the toes of the right foot, resting the heel on the ground. Place your two palms on either side of your hips, facing down. Shift your weight forward while simultaneously pushing your hands through the air forward, up to shoulder height. From there, shift your weight back to the left foot, and at the same time change the direction of the hands, which will be with the palms facing the sky, and let them fall gently, together with the arms, at the height of the hips. Repeat the movement from the beginning. To switch feet, as you drop your arms, pick up your back foot next to your front foot and step forward as you push off.

hands like clouds

Open the…