{image1}Perhaps you're wondering why the old guys in the parks twist and bend their bodies into peculiar poses at wee hours of the morning. As odd as it looks, they achieve something with those Chinese-inspired movements that every Tom, Dick and Harry is seeking: relaxation and peace of mind.
If yoga, bubble baths and self-help books just aren't doing it for you, maybe T'ai Chi (T'ai Chi Ch'uan) is what you need to tranquilize your mind, body and spirit.
"The primary principle in T'ai Chi is to relax," says Michael Meyers, who has been practicing for almost 20 years. "It's different than couch potato relax. It is energized, alert, alive and sensitive."
Meyers says that this "Internal, soft-style martial art" is "Part of Chinese philosophy and way of thinking about health, and how people operate. It's about keeping things in balance."
To balance his own life, Meyers rises every morning before the sun at 3:45. He gets in an hour to an hour and a half every day. When he's teaching T'ai Chi at UWM, the East West Connection or Westwood Health & Fitness Center, Meyers racks up extra hours of this low-impact self-refinement.
"There are a lot of places that offer it, certainly more than when I started, especially in clubs and YMCAs," Meyer adds.
At the West Suburban YMCA, Bill Sciano instructs T'ai Chi through his Silver Dragon Martial Arts school (silverdragonschool.com). Sciano agrees with the relaxation factor but accentuates health benefits, too.
"It can lower your blood pressure," Sciano says. "And it can relieve hypertension, one of the leading factors of strokes and heart attacks."
Where did this magical martial art come from?
"There's not a lot of real clear records on how it got started," Meyers says. But the T'ai Chi seed was planted in China in the 1300s and took root in the United States because of Professor Cheng Man Ching, he says.
Ching was a talented medical doctor, painter, calligrapher and a master of T'ai Chi. The Chinese community scorned him as he strove to institute this sport in New York. Meyers says Ching's philosophy was, "The more people who learn it, the better off we're all going to be." And he was right.
Although relaxation is the payoff to pose for, T'ai Chi is also a system of self defense and can be used as an aid to medication. Physical enhancement does not lag far behind. Muscle tone and strength, range of motion and flexibility, and balance and coordination are all refined.
"It really helps you to stay in touch with your body," says Meyers. "It keeps you connected with yourself."
The benefits are endless, but they're not as easy to obtain as people might think.
"A lot of people start T'ai Chi because they think it's easy to do, that it's an easy exercise for older people to do," Meyers says. "And it can be."
But, "The more energy, time and effort you put into it, the more results you'll get out of it," Meyers adds.
"You need to have discipline in T'ai Chi," says Sciano. "You need to make sure you do it every day. It doesn't even need to be a lot."
Sciano says you can incorporate T'ai Chi into your life simply with breathing exercises, for a start. Once that oxygen flows through you, you'll want to take it to the next level.
And when you do, it's about understanding your positions and poses. "You're always refining your movements," says Meyers. "You're always making things more round and smooth and connected."
The more you do it, the more you'll feel the results, Sciano says. "T'ai Chi is so graceful and so beautiful. It's something anybody can do," he says. "It's ultimate energy."
