The Tai Chi Movement

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The Tai Chi Movement A Taoist longevity exercise, an internal martial art, & one of th best exercises for the brain.

Working with energy, Tai Chi and Qigong rejuvenate mind body to higher levels. Slowing down the effects of aging however originally a martial art. Teaching Yang Style Tai Chi and various Health Qigong forms on Zoom and across SW London and Surrey

03/10/2026

Rollback is often taught as yielding backward when pressure comes i...

01/10/2026
30/09/2026

Why Do Some People Practice Taijiquan for Life?

The best exercise may not be the one shown to provide benefits in a clinical trial. It may be the one you are still practicing years later.

A recent study in "Frontiers in Psychology" looked at why older adults continue practicing Taijiquan. The study was small, involving only 16 participants, so its findings are exploratory. Still, the results are interesting because they focus on something often overlooked in exercise research: "long-term commitment". Benefits come from continuous movement, even if they appear small.

Researchers identified several factors that may help people stay with Taijiquan, including appropriate practice content, instructor support, encouragement from fellow students, personal motivation, and simple ways of tracking progress.

For many practitioners, this probably sounds familiar. People may begin Taijiquan because they want better balance, less stiffness, stress reduction, or a gentle form of exercise. But if they continue, their reasons often change.

New feelings appear within movements that seemed simple at first. Practice can gradually become part of daily life rather than something done only to reach a particular health goal.

This is one of the important differences between Taijiquan or Qigong and a short-term workout program. Learning the movements is only the beginning. There is always another layer of balance, coordination, relaxation, breathing, attention, or body awareness to explore.

A lesson for instructors: We need people to begin practicing, but keeping them practicing may be even more important.

30/09/2026

What Is the Brain Doing During Cloud Hands?

Cloud Hands is one of the most recognizable movements in Taijiquan. To an observer, the slow shifting of weight and circling of the arms may appear relatively simple. But a recent study suggests that considerably more is happening beneath the surface, particularly in the brain.

Researchers from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and collaborating institutions studied 100 healthy adults while they worked with Yúnshǒu (云手), or Cloud Hands. Rather than asking participants to solve mathematical problems or perform some unrelated mental task while moving, the researchers compared three activities directly related to Taijiquan: watching Cloud Hands being performed, imagining themselves performing the movement, and physically performing it.

The researchers used functional near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, a non-invasive technique that measures changes in oxygenated blood near the surface of the brain. Unlike conventional brain scanners that require a person to remain relatively still, a wearable fNIRS system can record cortical activity while someone is actually moving. That makes it particularly useful for studying an activity such as Taijiquan.

See full article at: www.qi-journal.com/3566

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