Tai Chi Practice for Health, Fitness & Martial Arts Conditioning

Practicing daily, 3-5x a week or even 2-3x a week will help achieve improvements to both posture and balance.  It couples the deep programming methodology of learning via slow movements in tai chi with repetition to build the muscle memory to achieve balance in posture, health and musculature as well as reinforcing the training classes.

With repetition, slow moves may also become fast moves in high level execution in advanced training or push hands.

Qi Gong Health

Our Qi Gong Health classes consists of exercises that combine breathing, stretching, and calisthenics to promote health and vitality. A set of Qi Gong exercise typically consist of 8 to 12 movements. Each movement is repeated multiple times in a slow and controlled manner. (Read more about Qi Gong…)

Each class includes:

• Practicing one to two sets of Qi Gong exercises
• Detailed instruction and explanation of one to two moves from the set

Classes will cycle through the following sets of Qi Gong:

• Tendon Changing Classic (Yi Jin Jing)
• Eight Section Brocade (Ba Duan Jin)
• Ma Wang Dui Daoyin Shu
• Six Healing Sounds (Liu Zi Jue)

This class is especially suitable for desk jockeys and anyone seeking a simple, effective way to relieve stress, relax and stretch out tense muscles, and to promote healing of tendons and ligaments. This class however is not suitable for those who have just incurred spinal injuries, as there are many moves that involve twisting and stretching of the spine.

Tai Chi Fitness

The goal of the Fitness classes is to improve the fitness level of participants and at the same time to practice and improve on form techniques. This class is beneficial to both beginners and experienced tai chi practitioners. There is no prerequisite for the class, just come prepared for a workout.

The class content includes:

• Warm-up with Basics
• Techniques with a slow increase in intensity to provide whole body strengthening and cardio workout without causing injury
• Stretching to improve flexibility
• Conditioning with equipment for a fun workout
• Then finishing with static poses for postural alignment and self-healing. 

You do not need any prior training to take this class and you can also take this class regardless of your fitness level. Each technique is practiced with 3 levels of intensity and you can choose the level for your workout.

Forms Practice

This class is suitable for anyone who is currently taking a Forms training course or has taken a Forms training course in the past. If you are still learning the sequence of movements from the Tai Chi forms, more practice will help you remember the sequence and moves better. The instructor and other senior students are on hand to help and guide you through the moves. On occasions when you miss a regular training session, this is where you can get some help to catch up.

If you have finished learning the form and is taking an Advanced training course, you will also need more practice to apply the concepts learned in Advance training in order to progress from understanding to knowing (dong jin).

For those who are taking a break from training, this is the class to continue your practice to maintain and keep what you have already learned.

Push Hands Practice

Push Hands is a two person exercise to practice and apply the principles learned in the Forms training. When there is a real opponent present to distract and interfere with your balance and posture, are you still able to keep your mental focus and calmness, your body relaxed and centred, in order to move and react using your internal force. It takes diligent practice for a long time before your “yi” intention, “qi” internal force and “jing” energy can move in sync.

Aside from practicing Push Hands, a portion of the class will involve conditioning exercises. These exercises are physically strenuous and may involve the use of equipment like the 10 foot pole. This class is not suitable if you are currently suffering from an injury or illness, have a heart condition or any medical condition that does not allow strenuous exercises.