I wanted to put a message out to say hope you are staying safe and keeping well and that I have a YOUTUBE channel called FRESHFIELD FITNESS which is already up and running and has lots of Tai Chi and Qi Gong that you can follow along at home. I am also aiming to upload every morning at 10 o’clock UK time a new session of Tai Chi, QiGong and Low Impact, Gentle Exercises that will help you stay active, maintain your strength and your mobility while we are at home. I will put a link in my bio and in the comments below to my youtube channel and I hope you join me tomorrow at 10 o’clock UK time. See you then.Bye
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One of the fundamental Tai Chi movements is the Tai Chi walk and depending on the style of Tai Chi that you are learning it depends then on the variation of the Tai Chi walk that you will be practising. I am going to concentrate on the Yang Style Tai Chi walking. I’m going to break it down into about five easy parts. So let’s get started.
Always remember to practice your Tai Chi with a really good posture. I’ve got a video of that – some top tips for you and always listen to your own body and move within your own limitations and comfort zone.
I’m going to kick this off with our starting position. So if I stand facing centre. Facing forwards, facing you guys at home and I’ve got my hands in this position for now just to demonstrate the point. I’m going to turn this foot out to a 45 degree angle. I’m now, if I was stood in a square, I’m pointing my body, as a whole and that foot to the corner. So a corner of my own square. I’m going to tap this foot in. All my weight now is on that back supporting leg, it’s pointing to the corner, my hips are pointing to the corner, my Dan Tien, all my core, my whole body it’s all to the corner.
My next move is I’m taking my heel out. Now at this point my hips and all my body is still facing that corner but my my heel is planted on the floor here and if I brought it back actually hip width apart so aim for quite a wide position here with your heel.
Third move is that we are going to put this toe down and we’re transferring our weight forward, It all happens together. And we end up in our Bow Stance. Now let’s just break that down. So we’re here facing the corner, as I put my toe down and transfer my weight, my hips, my Dan Tien all power this movement. I’m facing centre. Facing you guys at home, I’m facing the front. 70% of my weight is on this front leg. The front leg is bent. The front foot is facing forwards. Back leg is straight and the back foot is
still pointing towards that corner. So let’s just do that last part again. From our heel, with toe down, transferring the weight into our Bow Stance and I’m moving from corner to centre.
Final part is that I’m rocking back , transferring my weight back into this back leg and the toe is coming up. Then I’m going to
turn my waist, turn my hips, turn my whole body to face the corner on the other side. So from the centre here, the rock back, we turn to that corner and then I’m going to transfer my weight. This time we’re going the whole hog, finishing off the step and tap it in. Then I’m here starting position but with the other leg.
So heel out, all my body’s facing the corner. Then we’re going to transfer my weight, toe down into my Bow Stance. I’m rocking back, hips are still facing forwards and then I’m turning everything to face the corner and I’m standing up, transferring the weight and tapping in. I’m going again. So heel out, toe down, transfer the weight, rock back, turn to the corner and stand up here. Heel out, quite wide, toe down, transfer the weight, so headed for the centre, we’re rocking back, turn to the corner and stand up and tap in.
Now there’s a couple of things to work on, that’s the bare-bones. One is making sure the move suits you so from a health and
well-being point of view we want to make the position of our knees and the use of our thighs safe and comfortable so if you need to make it a small step, a small step forwards and keep the movement quite upright into a very shallow, a very small Bow Stance and then rocking back only ever so slightly, not much bending this knee, turning round and tapping in. The angles may be a bit shallower so we’re not using as much of our movement due to limitations. In that time just listen to your own body, pull up so it’s a bit more of an upright stance and just make the movement small. Don’t step out too far, don’t step out too wide and don’t bend too low.
On the flip side of that, so we can really go low and we’re sinking down this weight, grounding into the floor. Putting our heel out and we’re transferring the weight, powering that Dan Tien from corner to centre. We’re rocking back, still keeping on a very low
level, turn and stand up here. We’re not going tap this foot in and we’re taking it all the way through. Heel out, we’re taking it forward, we’re rocking back keeping it nice and slow and steady continuous movement.
So it just depends what level you are practising at, as to whether you require more modification of this movement or maybe you really want to go whole hog and do it with lots of balance and control.
I’m going to go outside. It’s a nice sunny day and I’m in a video myself just walking up and down. So you can see, hopefully the Tai Chi walk Yang Style in action.
Thanks for joining me. Tai Chi walking is one of the fundamental movements and I hope this video has got some way to break it down into smaller portions. Like I say always listen to your own body. There is always a modification that you can use so that you can practice Tai Chi. It’s for everybody and make it suit yourself.
OK I’ll see you next time. Check out any videos. If you’ve really enjoyed this video then CONSIDER SUBSCRIBING I really do appreciate your support. Thanks. Bye
Hi, so todays’ video is going to focus on Tai Chi for Balance and Strength. I’m going to share with you a short, simple routine
that you can follow along and then practise regularly at home. It’s going to work our major leg muscles and hopefully it will improve our strength so that we can improve our balance. So without further ado let’s get started straight away. I’m going to jump straight in with the routine today but if you want a full body warm up before we practise our Tai Chi then check out the video above. That goes through a lovely warm up that will get all your body moving and prepared ready for our Tai Chi practise.
Make sure you’ve got a clear floor area so you’re not going to trip over anything and always do all of the moves within your own comfort zone. Really important to keep exercises within your own limitations, listen to your own body. Make sure you don’t push too far. We’re hopefully moving forwards step by step, we don’t want to injure ourselves and take a step backwards.
Starting with your feet together. Think about your posture whilst you are here. Nice relaxed stance. Joints tension free. We’re going to breath in and breath out, sinking our weight into that right leg. I’ll do it mirror image. We’re peeling our left foot off the floor and we’re going to place it into our Parallel. I’m going to centre my weight here. Very important so weight is 50/50 on each leg. Breath my arms up, exactly like our Opening Stance and bend down, sinking down, just a little bit. Small little knee bend here. Inhaling as I’m coming up, bringing my hands down and stepping that left foot in. We’re going to repeat that on the other side. So breathing in, breathing out. So this time sinking into that left leg, peeling off that right leg, nice and slowly, taking your time. Really centre the weight here and inhaling and exhaling. So we’ve just brought our feet to the Parallel Stance, hip width apart. Bringing our arms down, closing the stance. So we’re going to repeat that. Inhale, exhale. Centring the weight. Transferring the weight so that we can step back in. And again. Sinking the weight, so we can peel that foot off and make our movement. Centre the weight. One more time.
Repeating the move but this time adding a little tap in to progress the movement and challenge the strength of the legs and to hold that knee bend for a little bit longer. So follow along. Inhaling and exhaling, sinking the weight into that right leg. This means you can release this left leg to make the movement. All our w eight in that right leg. Peel down and centre the weight here. Inhaling and exhaling as we bend our knees. Just into a comfortable position. We’re going to transfer our weight back to the right hand side. We’re tapping that left foot in and taking it out. Replacing it, centring our weight again. Lifting up, bringing the arms down and stepping in. That’s do that on the other side. Inhale, exhale. Sinking that weight into that left leg so we can peel that right leg off. Centring our weight here. Inhale and exhale. Just to a bend wherever you are comfortable. We’re transferring our weight to the left hand side and tapping in. We’re taking it back out. Lifting up, bringing it down and stepping. Let’s do that again. Really taking your time. Thinking about where your weight is, so we’re transferring it over to tap in, taking it back out and up. And again, other side. Let’s repeat that. And final time.
The final progression. We’re going to hold the knee bend for a little bit longer. We’re going to bring our hands in and push back out so it extends the amount of time that we’re holding that knee bend. Inhale, and exhale. Sinking that weight, peeling that foot. Centring the weight here. Grounding into the floor. Bring our hands in and push forwards, bringing them into our table top. Transfer our weight, tap in, tap out. Lift up and bring it in. Let’s do that on the other side. Centre the weight and really ground into the floor here. Bringing our hands in, we’re pushing them out. We’re bringing them into the table top. Transferring, tapping that toe in, taking it back and lift up. Bring it down and stepping in. Let’s repeat all that. Final time. Remember to keep breathing, keeping it calm. Holding this knee bend here. Pushing out. Transferring and tapping in. Final time.
If you practise that regularly you will definitely increase the strength in your legs. Make sure your knees are safe and comfortable position. Now if you want to challenge your leg strength even more, you can do exactly the same exercise but in Horse Stance. So with that we would be breathing in, breathing out . As we peel our foot off we would be taking it a little bit further than hip width apart so that we can sink down a lot deeper into our Horse Stance. Only do this when your leg strength is up to it and making sure again that you stay within your own comfort zone and limitations.
So I’ll do one repetition of each of the routine using Horse Stance just so that you can see. Breathing in and breathing out. Sinking the weight. Peeling that foot off, this time slightly wider than hip width. So a big long stride . Centre your weight again, very important. Inhale and then really sinking down. So you’re going to sink quite low and holding it here. Bringing the hands in, push and exhale and then bring the hands down. I’m going to transfer my weight. I’m tapping in, trying to keep it as if I’m keeping the same level. Bringing it in. Inhale and exhale. Peeling that foot off, slightly wider than hip width this time so I can inhale. Centre the weight and exhale, really pushing down into that Horse Stance. Sinking down. Inhale and exhale, holding that bend, bringing the hands down. Like I’m under a low ceiling, I’m trying to keep myself in the same position, so it’s really challenging those thighs. And stepping in.
Hope you’ve enjoyed todays routine. It was all about Tai Chi for Balance and Strength. LEAVE ME A COMMENT BELOW to let me know what benefits you’ve had from practising Tai Chi on a regular basis and if it has helped to improve your leg strength and your balance. If you’ve enjoyed todays video then check out some of my others. Lots of short, easy to follow routines there. Also LIKE, GIVE ME A THUMBS UP. And SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL. Please help me out and subscribe to the channel. That way I know that you want more of these videos to follow along at home. Take care and I will see you very soon.
