Tai Chi Core Exercises
Introduction to Tai Chi Core Exercises
Tai Chi is a soft movement form that anyone of any age can do. Master Li Wong has specifically adjusted his tai chi forms so that young and atheletic people can push themselves to reach their best, while older and less capable people can also do the same forms in a softer less strenuous manner. This allows anyone interested in doing Tai Chi to participate at their level of comfort and ability.
With Tai Chi originating from a martial arts background, Master Li Wong did rigorous training in his youth. Some of the techniques he learnt can assist others in their training needs.
Horsemans Stance
The horsemans Stance is a fundamental posture that is used in almost every form of martial arts that exists. It is primarily a leg strengthening pose that helps people maintain good posture and balance. According to Master Li Wong, he was required hold this stance for 30 min every training session before training commensed.
No, that isn’t part of the training he teaches now. But it does show how important it is a core part of Tai Chi and other forms of martial arts.
The Horsemans Stance can be described as:
- Place each foot below its connected hip and have your weight centered on each foot.
- Stand Tall with a straight Back and head looking forwards.
- Lower you height by bending the knees, while maintaining the straight upper body
For people with strong legs and knees, lower yourself as deeply into the pose as you can while maintaining a straight upper body and nothing feels uncomfortable, especially the knees.
The longer the posture is held, the harder the legs work to maintain the pose. That is where the strengthening/toning comes from.
If you find the pose is uncomfortable or something is tight and straining, straighten the legs to releave the strain and adjust as needed.
Once you have identified what height you are capable of maintaining for any duration, you can use this as a guide for your movements during your Tai Chi practice.
Push-ups
- Push-ups are a standard excersize that many peole do for fitness. Master Li Wong was also required to do many push-ups during his training for Tai Chi as a youth.
For the style of Tai Chi, Wu Shu and other martial arts that Master Li Wong was trained for,there is a variation in the standard push-up technique that few people learn. It strengthes the fingers and hands to a much grerater extent than most forms of training, which when developed correctly improves your self-defense capabilities significantly.
- Start by placing your hands on the floor, sholder width apart.
- Keep your fingers long and straight with only the finger tips in contact with the floor. Make sure the joints don’t ever extend as you want the bones to maintain a straight controlled alignment. It is better for knunckles to be slightly under flexed than over flexed.
- With your hands under your chest, extend your legs out behind you and take up a plank posture, with your back straight and in line with your legs. If needed, you can keep your butox a little higher to prevent the belly from lowering too much. Your fingers and hands should now be holding much of your body weight and your toes should hold the rest of the weight.
- Lower your body by bending your elbows and sholders. The further you lower, the harder the muscles work. Don’t lower completely. Maintain the pose so you never quite reach the ground with your chest.
- After reaching the lowest point, press-up to return to the plank posture again.
Every time you lower towards the ground and press back to plank posture counts as one push-up.
By maintaining only finger tip contact with the ground, you strengthen your fingers. As you develop in strength, you can increase the work load by reducing the number of fingers in contact with the ground. According to Master Li Wong, a master can do push-ups using only their index fingers to hold their entire body weight.
Leg Stretches
Every martial artist knows that flexibility is a major advantage in their practice. Tai Chi is no exception.
Everyone has different levels of flexibility and you should never push yourself beyond your limits or you will cause muscle strain or even muscle tears. Listen to your body and don’t over exert yourself to prevent harm. Also, as you age, increasing flexibility is much harder, while recovery is much slower, so be aware of your current capabilities and use restraint over determination. It is better to take longer to get results than needing to recover from an injury.
If you do want to increase your leg flexibility, Master Li Wong explains that when he was younger, he used a rope to help stretch his legs and increase flexibility as follows:
- Connect a rope to something taller than you are. A door frame is often a good option for this.
- Make a loop at one end of the rope and place one ankle into the loop. This will be the leg that elevates, so you need to have your weight on the other leg.
- Standing tall and straight, raise the leg with the rope on the ankle. Both legs should be straight at all times to get the best stretch.
- Use the rope to support the raised leg, but make sure you don’t put too much pressure on it. The rope will reduce some of the weight from the muscles and focus the stretch without requiring pure muscle strength.
- If you feel comfortable in the stretch, you can raise the rope further to increase the stretch, but never pull beyond your current limits.
- Maintain the stretch for as long as is comfortable and then slowly lower the leg.