Tai Chi

Krav Maga vs. Tae Kwon Do

Krav maga is an Israeli self-defense discipline. Its name translates from Hebrew as "constant combat." Tae kwon do is also a self-defense discipline, but it originated in Korea. Its name consists of words meaning "foot," "fist" and "discipline." Though both disciplines emphasize self-defense, there are considerable differences between them.

All About Tai Chi

Tai Chi Classes for Multiple Sclerosis

Tai chi, an ancient Chinese martial art, has been found to have a variety of health benefits. Although more research needs to be done regarding its efficacy for people with multiple sclerosis, one small study has shown that it ...

The Five Elements & Tai Chi Movements

Tai chi is an exercise method derived from martial arts. It involves slow, deliberate movements, along with mediation and deep breathing that are thought to enhance health and emotional well-being, according to the University o...

The Five Levels of Tai Chi

Tai chi, also known as tai chi chuan, is a martial art focusing on slow, flowing movements of the body. Because of the gentle and meditative nature of tai chi, it is believed to help with stress, pain, hypertension and a variet...

Can Tai Chi Replace Walking?

When considering whether tai chi can replace walking, purpose is of utmost importance. Tai chi obviously would not be an option for walking around your home or office, but for physical fitness, it might be an adequate, or bette...

The Art of Chi & Body Control

Depending on who you ask, chi is a phenomenon somewhere between phenomenal cosmic power and the intentional manipulation of neurochemicals and hormones. A traditional approach toward personal energy, proponents of chi claim tha...

Definitions of Kundalini and Tai Chi

As a global environment encourages the sharing of cultural customs, Eastern philosophies and practices have found a place in Western societies, especially as a means for dealing with stress. Americans are embracing practices su...

Tai Chi Moves & the Bellybutton

Tai chi is a gentle exercise that originated in China as far back as the 13th century and has spread throughout the Western world in the past 50 years. The practice consists of graceful movements designed to promote the flow of...

Tai Chi & Tendon Engagement

Tai chi is a low-intensity, flowing internal martial art that emphasizes slow movements, breathing and mental focus. Its movements require your tendons to engage and stretch, making it beneficial for those with a decreased rang...

Five Major Family Styles of Tai Chi

The Chinese martial art known a tai chi, or "meditation in motion," is typically practiced to eliminate stress and tension, and enhance overall health. Originally intended as a means of self-defense, tai chi is a sequence of sl...

How to Master Tai Chi Chuan

Tai chi chuan is a Chinese martial art that has been in existence for hundreds of years. Meaning "grand ultimate fist," it is one of the internal martial arts, or "nei jia," which emphasize softness, relaxation and body mechani...

Difference Between Tai Chi & Kung Fu

Some of the martial arts developed thousands of years ago as methods of conditioning, both for the mind and the body. Although Kung Fu and Tai Chi are both forms of martial arts and contain many similarities, distinct differenc...

Calories Burned by Tai Chi

Tai chi is a form of exercise designed to improve your strength, balance, flexibility and peace of mind. You can burn calories while performing tai chi, but it provides you with a host of other benefits as well. It can help inc...

Can Tai Chi Help With Weight Control?

Tai chi is a form of Chinese movement that emphasizes meditation, flexibility and balance. It originated as a type of martial arts in China in 1200 A.D. through a Taoist boxer named Chang-san Feng, according to the website for ...

Tai Chi Self-Efficacy & Physical Function in the Elderly

Self-efficacy is defined as the way you perceive your ability to perform activities. Tai chi is an ancient martial art involving graceful movements that provide a number of health benefits, which can help the elderly population...

Ba Gua Vs. Tai Chi

The Chinese meditative martial arts of ba gua and tai chi are more similar than they are different. Derived from the same common ancestor art, today the practices are still so similar that an observer might be hard put to tell ...

International Tai Chi Sash Rules

Tai chi is an internal martial art with origins dating back to several thousand years BCE. Originally, the practice of tai chi did not include rank sashes. That practice entered into the sport during the 20th century due to the...

How Loose Should a Tai Chi Uniform Be?

Interestingly, tai chi began as a martial art form seeking to avoid the more rigid requirements of other practices that required formal costumes or military uniforms as part of their ritual. Consensus suggests that your tai chi...

Tai Chi Vs. Krav Maga

China is home to more than 300 styles of martial arts, including tai chi and kung fu. Many East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea are the origin of other popular martial art forms such as karate and tae kwon do. The Middl...

Tai Chi As Disease Prevention

Tai chi is a Chinese martial art practiced for its health benefits and as a form of self-defense. Tai chi involves slow, gentle movements performed while you meditate and breathe deeply. It is believed that tai chi encourages t...

Tai Chi Breathing Techniques

Taking up the practice of tai chi can help you calm your nervous energy and focus it with greater discipline. As you perform tai chi breathing techniques, it is often difficult to separate the practical from the mystical. As yo...

Tai Chi for Expecting Mothers

Tai chi chuan comes from the Chinese meaning "supreme fist." It is one of the more gentle martial arts and is often practiced to increase fitness and agility rather than as a martial sport. It is gentle enough to be practiced b...

Arthritis & Tai Chi Classes

As the stiffness increases in your joints, lack of mobility increases as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arthritis is the most common cause of disability in the United States. Tai chi may help...

Tai Chi & Sickle Cell

Sickle cell anemia, a genetic disease that results in abnormally shaped red blood cells, causes patients to experience intense pain in their bones, fatigue and stress. Tai chi, an ancient form of Chinese exercise, can help eas...

Tai Chi & Prevention of Hip Fractures

Having a hip fracture can be devastating. You can lose your independence: 40 percent of people who suffer a fractured hip require nursing home care, and 50 percent will have to use a cane or a walker permanently. Practicing tai...

Qi Gong Vs. Tai Chi

Martial arts historian Dave Coffman likes to joke that the main difference between Qi Gong and Tai Chi is "the spelling." While it is true that both arts have similar emphasis, and probably stem from common origins, there are s...

Tai Chi & Peripheral Arterial Disease

Tai chi is a martial art that combines movement, breathing and meditation in the service of mind-body awareness and self-healing. It constitutes part of an ancient Chinese medical system called qigong. When used primarily as a ...

The Effects of Yoga & Tai Chi in Cancer Patients

Chemotherapy is a severe treatment that not only destroys damaged cells, but healthy ones as well, leading to side effects such as nausea, insomnia, fatigue and depression. The practice of yoga and tai chi can help reduce the s...

How to Become a Tai Chi Teacher

While the slow, flowing movements of tai chi may look relatively simple, understanding this meditative art from the inside out takes a lifetime. In traditional tai chi schools, teaching others is one step toward advancing your ...

Alzheimer's Tai Chi Treatment

This devastating disease results in memory loss, forgetfulness, reduced balance and depression. In addition to medications, the benefits of exercise, such as tai chi practice, have applications for Alzheimer's sufferers.

Tai Chi & Anxiety Attacks

Tai chi might be able to help you cope with anxiety attacks, episodes of intense panic or fear that typically peak within 10 minutes and seldom last longer than a half-hour. Symptoms can include heart palpitations, chest pain, ...

Comparison of the Benefits of Tai Chi & Yoga

Unlike a traditional workout, yoga and tai chi focus on precise movements that allow the body to slowly transition from one position to the next. Both practices attempt to coordinate the muscles, bones, heart and mind with the ...

Which Is Better: Pilates or Tai Chi?

Pilates and Tai Chi are two classes that are often grouped together as relaxing exercises that can help you lose weight. Because each develops long, lean muscles and soothes the mind, the exercises have some similarities. Howev...

Types of Tai Chi and Yoga

Yoga and tai chi are both mind and body connection modalities that stress the importance of exercising the body and calming the mind. While they share similarities, there are marked differences between the two exercise forms. B...

Tai Chi Information

Tai chi, one of the popular martial arts and meditation practices to emerge from China in the 20th century, focuses on releasing tension in the muscles and tendons, opening the joints, and stretching the spine. Combined with a ...

Tai Chi & Parkinson's Disease

This causes numerous problems with movement and muscle control. Medication and certain types of exercise can help. Some research shows that tai chi chuan, a form of Chinese martial art commonly called tai chi, can be beneficial...

Breathing in Tai Chi and Other Fighting Arts

As any exercise enthusiast knows, breathing well can enhance performance. Breath plays an especially significant role in tai chi and other fighting arts. In addition to ensuring proper oxygenation, martial arts breathing techni...

Difference Between Qi Gong & Tai Chi

Out of their efforts emerged qi gong --- "energy work" or "the study of qi." Legend has it that in the 13th century, Taoist monk Chang San-feng developed tai chi when he combined the martial arts skills of Shaolin monks with th...

The Best Shoes for Tai Chi

Tai chi is a great exercise option for seniors, people recovering from surgery and anyone else looking for a low-impact workout. According to an article from Harvard University, tai chi is a "mind-body practice" originating in ...

Breast Cancer & Tai Chi

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Certain holistic and alternative health practices, such as tai chi, may be helpful in alleviating some of th...

Tai Chi for Arthritis Training

Tai chi is an ancient Chinese martial art that incorporates mind awareness with slow and gentle movement. Tai chi can supply a well-rounded exercise program that improves your flexibility, endurance and strengthening capabiliti...

Free Step by Step Instructions for Tai Chi

According to Master Lam Kam-Chuen in his book “Step-by-Step Tai Chi,” the proper name for the martial art is Tai Chi Chuan, which translates to “supreme ultimate fist.” He also notes that Tai Chi is a ma...

Tai Chi Teacher Certification

Tai Chi is well known around the world for promoting longevity and managing stress due to its meditative forms of movement. Most Tai Chi practices can be performed by nearly everyone. This opens up better opportunities in acqui...

Basic Positions of Tai Chi

Tai Chi is a form of self-defense and exercise. With its blend of self-discipline and healing, Tai Chi has developed into an art that may take a person a lifetime to master. Tai Chi follows the simple basics of Yin and Yang -- ...

Number of Tai Chi Movements

Historians credit Taoist monk Chang San-Feng with the creation in the 16th century of tai chi, translated as "supreme ultimate fist." Tai chi uses internal force instead of the external force used by other martial arts such as...

Tai Chi Instructor Training

Tai chi is a form of traditional Chinese exercise that incorporates meditation with slow, controlled body movements and controlled breathing. According to the National Cancer Institute, tai chi is used to improve balance, flexi...

Basic Yang Style Tai Chi Movements

If you've seen people doing tai chi in your local park or recreation center, they likely were doing Yang style. One of the oldest schools of tai chi taught outside the temple system, Yang-style tai chi is also the most popular ...

How to Become a Tai Chi Instructor

You can take several roads to become a Tai Chi instructor. Several reputable organizations offer certification in different styles and at different levels of Tai Chi performance. The one you chose will depend on the requirement...

Tai Chi Movements

"Tai chi" translates as "supreme ultimate"---a name that expresses tai chi's status in Chinese culture as one of the best things you can do for your body. The peaceful, constant movements of this ancient form of exercise and me...

The Best Tai Chi Videos

You've probably heard that tai chi is great for you. As of 2007, about 2.3 million adults in the U.S. used tai chi to improve strength, flexibility and overall wellbeing, reports the National Center for Complementary and Altern...

How to Use Tai Chi

If you've studied tai chi for any amount of time, you've probably heard someone joke that you can now defend yourself--very slowly. Although self-defense is one goal of tai chi, it is useful as a general tool for improvement in...

How to Perform Tai Chi

Good tai chi is all about how you do it. This Chinese system of cultivating chi, or energy, requires you to use your body in a way that’s unique to eastern forms of exercise. Stuart Alve Olson, tai chi practitioner and au...

How to Become a Tai Chi Master

Becoming a master of tai chi, like becoming a master of any martial art, requires decades of committed study. You need to take many hours of classes, impart many more hours of instruction and perform countless repetitions of pr...

Qi Gong Movements for Beginners

Qi Gong uses slow movements of the body and breathing to bring balance and alignment to the life force, or “qi” of its practitioners. Qi Gong movements appear similar to the movements of Tai Chi, with graceful, circ...

The 8 Best Tai Chi Movements for Health

If you ask 100 tai chi instructors what the best moves for health are, you'll get 100 different answers and 10,000 heated arguments. However, for sustainable health over a lifetime, Dr. Mehmet Oz, author of "You: The Owner's Ma...

Difference Between Tai Chi & Qi Gong

Tai Chi, also known as "Taiji," and Qi Gong, also known as "chi kung or qigong," is an ancient Chinese discipline for the cultivation of health through mastery of qi, the internal energy essential to both Chinese medical theory...

The Effects of Tai Chi

Tai chi is a martial art form that originated in China. According to "Yoga, Tai Chi, Massage, Therapies and Healing Remedies," by Mark Evans, tai chi has roots in the philosophy of Taoism. It is made up of slow, rhythmic moveme...

Tai Chi Benefits for Seniors

According to the Mayo Clinic, tai chi can help you improve your balance, coordination and flexibility; regulate your body weight and blood pressure; and improve your overall quality of life. Tai chi, which is a gentle Chinese m...

Tai Chi for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Tai Chi, an ancient Chinese art now spread throughout the world, has recently gained the attention of Western medicine. Its health benefits are no longer just anecdotal but have been demonstrated scientifically for conditions ...

Introduction to Tai Chi Chi Kung

Tai Chi Chi Kung, also referred to as Qigong, is a traditional Chinese self-healing art, according to the Qigong Institute. The term comes from the Chinese words "chi" or "qi," meaning energy, and "gong" or "kung," which means ...

Tai Chi for Stiff Joints & Arthritis

However, provided it is the right type, routine exercise is recommended by the experts at the Arthritis Foundation to help manage arthritis. The gentle fluidity of tai chi makes it a good option for helping keep joints less sti...

Tai-Chi & Improving Depression

Tai chi had its origins in ancient China as a form of self-defense. It has evolved significantly, according to the Mayo Clinic, and now many Americans practice it as a gentle, non-competitive form of exercise. It has many physi...

Tai Chi Vs. Chi Gong

Tai Chi and Chi Gong are traditions that originated in China. Both are types of exercises that involve the use of breath to develop and balance the energy, or Chi, of the body. In fact, Tai Chi can be considered a type of Chi G...

Different Forms of Tai Chi

While there are many different forms of tai chi, they all adhere to the basic principle that the mind and body are connected. Tai chi is a martial art akin to a moving meditation, and it relies on balancing the mind and body to...

What Are the Benefits of Tai Chi for Seniors?

Tai chi is an ancient discipline of slow, fluidlike movements. This excellent art is instrumental in relaxing the full body and mind with a variety of health benefits. China is known for its history and founding of numerous ma...

Tai Chi Meditation Techniques

Tai chi is a form of martial art and thus utilizes movement in its meditation techniques, report mediation trainers at Project Meditation. Physical stamina that comes from tai chi is required to achieve the mental and spiritual...

How to Use Tai Chi Effectively

Tai chi is a traditional Chinese way of healing the body. By doing specific movements and exercises, chi (also called qi) will flow more evenly and consistently throughout the body. The flow of chi is what promotes healing and ...

Basic Movements of Tai Chi

Many people associate tai chi with a group of people making dance-like movements in the open air of a park. Tai chi is used by millions of people around the world as a way to relax and help with concentration, but it began as a...

Tai Chi 101

Tai chi, translated as "supreme ultimate," was developed in China in the 1300s as a martial art, not unlike karate and judo, which were used for self-defense. It evolved into a technique for promoting health and meditation, wit...

5 Things You Need to Know About Tai Chi For Seniors

Derived from an ancient Chinese martial art, tai chi exercises offer numerous health benefits. Tai chi for seniors is particularly attractive due to the slow, low impact movements that reduce the possibility of injury. Benefits...

5 Things You Need to Know About Tai Chi

The original Chinese characters used to write Tai Chi translate as the "Ultimate Supreme Force." The "Ultimate Supreme" is a reference to the concept of yin and yang, the balance of dual energy which exists in all things. "For...