This website is dedicated to the Students of Seifu A.S. Umar Sharif, MA. It is also dedicated to the promotion and propagation of the Traditional Afro-Asian Martial and Healing Arts. Our goal is to inform, educate, inspire, encourage, and motivate others to improve their lives by applying The Wisdom of the Ancients.
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Tai Chi Lessons 5
The Health Benefits of Longevity Way Tai Chi
Namaste’ Students and Fellow Martial Arts Enthusiasts!
According to Master Waysun Liao, Tai Chi means 'the ultimate'. It means improving, and progressing toward the unlimited; it means the immense existence and the great eternal. According to the original Taoist Tai Chi theory, the abilities of the human body are capable of being developed beyond their commonly conceived potential. Accordingly, one reaches the ultimate level, or develops in that direction, by means of the ladder of balanced powers and their natural motions – Yin, the negative power (yielding), and Yang, the positive power (action). Philosophically speaking, it is the interplay of constructive and destructive forces that causes the essence of life to materialize, the material world to manifest. This notion includes the ongoing processes of our physical bodies.
Tai Chi encourages and promotes the fulfillment of the individual person, and at the same time it emphasizes that our goal should be achieved through moderate, natural ways of living. Within the Chinese Taoist culture, Tai Chi developed as a way to motivate the civilization toward an ultimate level or state of existence, a way to elevate the human body, mind, and spirit to their ultimate level. According to Master Dr. Yang-Jwing-Ming, ‘Taijiquan is actually a profound training for spiritual enlightenment.' In fact, the final goal of Tai Chi practice is enlightenment.
Although most contemporary practitioners of the art of Tai Chi practice some form of the Longevity Way, it is important to realize and remember that the original motivation behind Tai Chi creation was twofold: self-defense and spiritual cultivation, hence it is both a martial art and a spiritual practice. Through the practice of Longevity Way Tai Chi you naturally learn to calm your mind, locate your spiritual center, and consequently find your entire being. We have referred to this as Isopo, connectivity (a state of integrated awareness of all aspects of self, other, and nature.
Today, Tai Chi has become a popular practice not only across China and throughout the world. Tai Chi has also made it way into the mainstream medical model with more and more physicians and hospitals recommending the practice for their patients to treat and manage a wide range of symptoms and conditions based on the latest scientific research. Longevity Way Tai Chi is the non-competitive practice of the martial art known also as Taijiquan and Taiji. As a form of exercise, it combines gentle physical exercise and stretching with mindfulness. In other words, Longevity Way Tai Chi is a moving meditation.
Research has produced some mixed results, but appears to show that Tai Chi can improve balance control, fitness, and flexibility, and might cut the risk of falls in older people. Tai chi also appears to reduce pain and the symptoms of depression in some cases. It has become a means of alleviating stress and anxiety, a form of ‘meditation in motion’, and it promotes serenity and inner peace. Longevity Way Tai Chi is safe for people of all ages, as it does not put too much stress on the muscles and joints. One of the most significant benefits of this practice is that it can help restore your energy, called chi or qi.
Although Tai Chi (and Qigong) are excellent fitness activities for beginners and people with health conditions, elite athletes also benefit from doing the slow movements, because everyone needs better balance and muscle control. The slow, interconnected, low-impact movements of the Tai Chi Forms target specific areas of the body:
Core: You won't be doing moves like crunches, but you'll be using your core muscles as you flow from move to move and as you practice the recommended abdominal or Tan Tien breathing method.
Arms: Your arms are part of the movements in this gentle martial art and practicing the long forms or repetition of short pieces of the form will improve your hand-arm coordination and strength.
Legs: You do the movements standing up, so Tai Chi (and Qigong) do use your leg muscles, but not in an intense way. The development comes not from aerobic and high-impact movements but rather from the very slow transitions for your full body weight from one posture to the next.
Gluteus: The exercises don’t include positions that specifically target the gluteus, but those muscles will be working as you move and transition through the form.
Back: Tai chi (and Qigong) use your whole body, including the muscles in your back. Proper posture, structure, and alignment are emphasized in the proper practice of the art.
Flexibility: The movements help improve flexibility and muscle coordination.
Aerobics: Tai Chi is not an aerobic exercise but this moving meditation uses all of your muscles in a coordinated fashion and thereby improves both respiration and circulation.
In addition to posture and breathing, one of the keys to getting the most out of your Longevity Way practice of Tai Chi is to progressively do the movements and form at a slower and slower pace. This will enhance all of the benefits that Tai Chi has to offer you. "Move Slow, To Grow!"
Ref: The Essence of Tai Chi, by Waysun Liao, ISBN: 1-57062-039-3
Ref: Tai Chi Chuan – Classical Yang Style, by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, ISBN-13: 978-1-59439-200-9/ISBN-10: 1-59439-200-5
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It is not simply practice that makes perfect. It is perfect practice and consistent practice that makes perfect.
