Tai Chi is a form of martial arts that focuses on slow, relaxed movement, meditation, correct posture, and movement of energy through the body. It involves 13 basic postures, which are divided into eight gates and five steps. Tai Chi is popular in the West for its fitness and relaxation benefits, including better balance and flexibility.
Tai Chi, also known as tai chi chuan, was originally a form of martial arts, although it evolved into a system that focuses more on slow, relaxed movement, meditation, correct posture, and movement of energy through the body than on attack. or defense. Classical tai chi involves 13 basic tai chi postures, practiced in different sequences called tai chi forms. These 13 tai chi postures are also known as 13 powers, 13 entrances, or 13 energies. Although the tai chi stances are fairly simple, mastering them, as well as the various forms, can be a challenging task in the long run.
Many tai chi traditions divide the 13 main tai chi stances into eight gates or gates and five steps. The eight gates consist of four main hands and four corner hands. Pressing, pushing, guarding, and pulling back comprise the four main hands. Elbow, shoulder, pull down, and split are the four corner hands. Concentrating more on lower body movements, the five steps consist of stepping forward and back, steps left and right, and balancing in the center.
To learn the basics of tai chi, students work with a tai chi instructor who will teach them the basic tai chi stances and the different ways they are combined into shapes. Beginning students usually have the original form consisting of 13 postures. Another commonly practiced form of tai chi is the Long Yang Form, which consists of 108 postures and can take up to 20 minutes to fully work. A shorter, less repetitive version of the long form involves 37 poses. As time has passed and the discipline has developed, tai chi stances have evolved to focus on the movement of energy in the body, but these forms still contain elements of tai chi’s origins as a martial art.
Although it originated in China, the benefits of tai chi have made it progressively more and more popular in the West. Many Westerners have discovered the connections between tai chi and health, leading them to pursue this ancient art more for its fitness and relaxation benefits than for its spiritual and meditative elements. Tai Chi Fitness has become a common activity, almost as popular as fitness-oriented yoga. Other benefits of tai chi include better balance and flexibility, which are major draws for older practitioners who find it easier to perform than more strenuous types of martial arts.
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