Tai Chi - anyone tried it?

I’m with Pesta on this - I love the idea but like Yoga, its a bit slow for me. Not that I’m a frantic exerciser by any means, but I like to feel as if I’m burning up energy. Having said that, I am intrigued by you saying (Ember, that is) that you feel better despite not thinking you are doing much. So I might give it another go :slight_smile:

Hi

If you cannot stretch you cannot exercise.

Speed is everything.

I used to go to elementary Tai Chi every week before the lockdown and l loved it.
I did the Crane and other moves l can’t think of the names of.
When l went shopping after the class, l found myself holding onto the trolley whilst standing on one leg with my other leg resting on my knee! I only did it if the aisle was empty!

I also did some Tai Chi in the mornings down by my chicken coops. Especially, the moves where you make a sort of a square with your hands and look through it.

I did some stretching this morning and a few yoga poses. It did make a difference, I admit. This lockdown has really made me a bit stiffer than I would like.

I disagree with Swim’s comment about if you can’t stretch, you can’t exercise, because there are still lots of things we can do, Pixie. Nothing to do with speed whatsoever, either.
In fact yoga is not done speedily at all.

It depends on what people think stretching is too, daft as that sounds. :slight_smile:
It doesn’t have to be all the weird and wonderful positions you see some people attempting at all, even getting a tin of beans out the cupboard, or putting your shoes/socks on, or combing your hair involves gentle stretches!

You could also do some Yoga breathing exercises, too.
I believe there are about 8 types of breathing exercise we can practice.

There are more exercises we can easily do just by sitting down and raising the hands and arms to shoulder hight, or sitting down and doing head and neck exercises - again, lots to choose from.

So perhaps you can see why I don’t agree with Swim’s comment about can’t stretch - can’t exercise!
It is just a matter of knowing how. :slight_smile:

Yes, Mups…I’m still stretching, but now I have the allotment, its quite physical work so I feel like I’m really exercising now, so that’s good. Plus I power walk there and back…oh I’ll be like an eel come the Summer! :smiley:

That sounds plenty of exercise to me, Pixie.
Well done. You’ll also get a lovely tan this summer down on that allotment. :wink:

I know what you mean about enjoying it but not enjoying it. In my case it was back in 1991. We were going through an adventurous phase with friends and I was also doing kick boxing classes at the time (!). The tai chi was annoying because the instructor would go around “correcting” us. So we had to wait for “corrections” when in a pose. I found that very controlling but then I felt the same way in Le Roc classes.

I might give it another go using you tube and maybe it will be more fun. But at the time it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.

Oh I did kick boxing for a while too…I loved it! That correcting while in a pose sounds SO infuriating!

Ahhh kick boxing - the gift that keeps on giving you muscles in places you didn’t realise muscles existed! :slight_smile:

I was a lightweight especially doing the exercise where you stand back to back and then lift someone onto your back while doing squats! But one of my best mates carried on for years, even went skiing with the kick boxing crowd. They were a nice bunch. Some a bit obsessed with the whole philosophy. But a nice crowd. Also very fit!

I’m going to try doing tai chi. It would be really cool to do it in the garden and impress the nosy neighbours. I think my original inspiration was watching Patrick Swayze in Road House! :-D:-D I was the one dragging my friends to all these classes then packing it in myself after a few half hearted tries.

Oh I didn’t try that one! I had to do some weird thing whereby I lay on the ground and someone chucked a medicine ball at me and I had to catch it on the way up. Kind of like extreme sit ups! I had a fab stomach but its gone a bit soft since then, heh!

There were a few Gits, on the Estate, who had done a “Stretch”.

I have to replace painful yoga positions lol!

I follow these two channels on YouTube. The first one explains what to do. The second one gives you the health benefits background. You’ll see that those slow movements are incredibly beneficial.

https://youtube.com/@Taiflow

Blessed be!

I haven’t, loved the kata sequences in karate though.

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Ah yes karate… Weren’t we all into the Martial Arts at the time the song came out in a wee 45: “Kung Fu Fighting”.

I did karate and got the following belts: white, yellow, orange, green and blue. After hurting myself, twisted knee, I was off for a month. When I went back, a rowdy bunch had joined up.

After getting attacked and had to defend myself by myself, as the teacher just looked on. I got angry and left for good.

I love Chinese culture and the discipline. Beautiful movements.

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Carl Douglas on vinyl?
1973 I think.
Enter The Dragon showing at the cinema, an X film , I didn’t get to see it.
It’s in my Blu-ray collection now I hasten to add.

I wouldn’t even attempt to execute a roundhouse kick these days… The NHS has enough to deal with :wink:

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Hahaha! Yes, we were fearless with our kicks.

Was lucky as my gramps had a friend who managed a small cinema house in the neighbourhood. I got to see films about Bruce Lee and a deadly lady called “Lady Whirlwind, Her Story”

Jackie Chan’s collection anyone? The third Mummy film with Jet Li. The mother and her daughter are so graceful in their movements. Jackie Chan was an extra in one scene of a James Bond film: The Man with the Golden Gun! Favourite…

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I went to a class run by AgeUK today, it was amazing, so relaxing, I thoroughly enjoyed it. £5 for an hour

She started with a gentle warm up, then we did the 18 poses, then she talked us through a seated deep relaxation. We had a chair in front of us all the time in case we wanted to catch hold of it for balance

Is anyone else doing it?

This is the link to AgeUK exercise classes in case you’re looking for one

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/services/in-your-area/exercise/

I injured my knee when I was 32 and had 3 operations and 5 months off work. I was told I would get arthritis when I was older and would need a new knee eventually.

I did, I got a replacement when I was 58. It’s annoying I can’t bend it enough to ride a bike, they tried to bend it under anaesthetic and failed miserably.

The one thing I can do is swim. Fortunately we have 2 private schools in our market town, both have leisure centres including swimming pools which are open to the public and pensioner rates are brilliant.
Hopefully you will get your knees done sooner rather than later, but I don’t know what the current waiting times are. My husband is waiting for a hip, it feels like forever.

I tried Tai Chi once but it didn’t do anything for me

I love that scene, it’s one of my favourite scene from JB. When I was at University I did martial arts. One of our teachers had a girlfriend who looked like these girls and she was equally talented.