Tai Chi workout often do not have obvious fitness effects. Why? It seems to be similar to slow walking and mountain climbing, except that it is not easy to catch a cold.

There are two reasons:

First, the time for practicing boxing is not enough, that is, the amount of exercise is not enough. If you only practice simplified Tai Chi three times a day, it will take about 15 minutes, which may be suitable for weak people, but it is too short for ordinary people. Generally, you should practice five to seven times, and the practice time should be more than half an hour. Some people advocate one hour, not including standing and chatting. Whether the amount of exercise is appropriate or not should be based on your own feeling. After each practice, you feel happy and relaxed.

Second, you do not practice boxing strictly according to the essentials, and you practice less lazily. Therefore, you must practice boxing seriously and carefully, and only by persisting every day can you see the effect.

What direction should Tai Chi workout work towards?

We often learn a set of boxing and practice it every day. We are not clear about the direction of improvement and do not know how to work hard. The boxing manual talks about the three stages of familiarity, understanding of strength, and spirituality. Yang style Tai Chi boxing has three stages: training the body, training the qi, and training the spirit. Familiarity corresponds to physical training, understanding strength corresponds to qi training, and spirit corresponds to spirit training. Generally, boxing practice is between physical training and qi training. Physical training is to practice the softness of the body and make the body soft and relaxed; qi training is to fill the internal qi. We do not aim at fighting, but only for fitness. When we have internal qi and internal strength, we can get the greatest fitness effect. This is the direction of our efforts. We need to practice to make the body soft and have a certain amount of internal qi and internal strength. There are still many levels for us to experience.

The process of Tai Chi workout is a process of continuous deepening, continuous discovery and correction of errors.

Generally, you should first learn a routine and get the posture correct (hands, eyes, body, and steps should be in accordance with the method), and then practice boxing lightly, slowly, roundly, and evenly according to the essentials, and further achieve coordination, continuity, flexibility, upper and lower follow-up, and distinction between the real and the fake. As you practice boxing in a simple and easy-to-understand way, your understanding of the essentials and requirements will continue to deepen, and you will continue to find your mistakes and correct them. At this time, you should consciously exercise according to the essentials one by one. For a period of time (one or two months), you should pay attention to the practice of one essential, and then pay attention to the next one after mastering it.

1, Zhongzheng Anshu: The original meaning of standing upright is that the body is naturally upright, with the head hanging, the tailbone retracted, and the shoulders and hips in harmony. The shoulder and hip harmony means that the line connecting the two shoulders and the line connecting the two hips should always be kept in a vertical plane during exercise without twisting.

2, Distinguish between the real and the fake: When you advance or retreat, you must make the fake foot gradually fake and the real foot gradually real. You cannot change suddenly or suddenly. You must show the gradual change of the center of gravity slowly and evenly. This is fake, and that is real. It keeps changing.

3, Follow up: That is, the movements of the hands and feet should be coordinated with each other. They should start to move and reach the end of each posture at the same time. For example, in the Luo Xi Ao Bu style, the forward push hand, the lower hug hand and the front bow leg should move in the same way at the same time. The leg cannot be bent in place while the hand is still hugging or pushing forward. You should practice the whole strength, that is, not only the hands are moving, but the body and legs are moving together. You can practice a single style first, and then pay attention to it everywhere in the routine.

4, Use intention but not force: It means to use more thoughts and less force. Less force means lightness. Lightness is the cause of relaxation and the necessary bridge to relaxation. Assuming that the weight of the hand below the shoulder is 4 jin, all you need is the smallest force greater than 4 jin to push the hand to move. The same principle applies to the force of pushing the body and the foot. To learn Tai Chi, you must patiently and carefully explore how to practice with the least amount of force.

    There are many contents of intention, and different contents are available at different stages. For example, practicing according to the essentials mentioned here is the content of intention when practicing the body. Learning Tai Chi mainly relies on the use of imagination. In addition, understanding the use of each move and form will help you to practice the correct posture when practicing, not just for fighting.

    When the movements are correct, you can start to pay attention to using the waist.

    The waist should play the role of leading the limbs. Tai Chi requires the waist to move first and drive the limbs. Using the waist can be experienced from the boxing styles with obvious waist rotation arcs, such as the knee-hugging step. Repeatedly practice a single style and repeat it many times to experience how to use the waist. The left and right rotation of the two hands is driven by the waist. The hand that hugs the knee turns in front of the knee is the result of the waist rotation. The hand’s forward grab is the result of the waist driving the hand and the body forward together. When forming a bow step in the Luo Xi Ao Bu, the waist rotates while moving forward (rotation takes a little precedence, which can also be called rotation first and advance later). Within a certain distance, the relative positions of the two hands and the body remain unchanged, and the advance takes a little precedence and the rotation takes a little time (called advance first and turn later). The upper hand realizes the series of movements under the rotation of the waist.

    In the Lan Que Wei, the squeezing and pressing are achieved by the waist driving the body forward, not the hands alone. With the experience of using the waist, even the extremely small arcs of the hands are the external manifestations of the waist moving in an arc. If you can use the waist, then it is the waist that practices boxing, not the hands. You will find that you used to practice boxing artificially, with too many active limbs and too few passive ones, and failed to work from the inside to the outside. If you can use the waist, the complete strength is no longer the local strength of the hands. It should also be understood that the rotation of the waist is actually achieved by the rotation of the two hips, because the rotation that the human spine can achieve is very small, and keeping the body upright does not allow the spine to twist.

    When you are just starting to learn breathing, you can completely ignore breathing and focus on learning the boxing stance.

    The even and slow movements of Tai Chi naturally make breathing deep and long. After practicing the boxing stance for a certain period of time, you can consider spending some time practicing breathing. First practice breathing when still, and then adopt the breathing method that focuses on exhalation only. It is important to note that the coordination of movements and breathing should not be too mechanical, because Tai Chi is not a breathing gymnastics. Some forms can be combined if they can be combined, and those that are difficult to coordinate should not be forced to coordinate.

    About the boxing flavor and boxing intention: The boxing intention refers to the special style of Tai Chi, which can be represented by looseness, stability, slowness, and evenness. Looseness includes lightness and softness. Stability includes distinguishing between the real and the fake, not being hurried, and not moving around. Slowness is conducive to silent understanding and speculation, and the spirit should be restrained, which is conducive to the meticulous use of imagination. Only when it is even can there be static, and only when the whole body is evenly coordinated inside and outside can complete strength be achieved. To practice boxing with the artistic conception of Tai Chi, you must do a good job of being loose, distinguishing between the real and the fake, following each other up and down, combining the inside and outside, and breathing smoothly.

    Tai Chi has two requirements for limbs: softness and looseness:

    Softness refers to the softness and high flexibility of limbs, especially joints. Looseness refers to the appropriate lengthening of joints in natural comfort. What we pursue is the ingenious combination of softness and looseness. Relaxation runs through all stages of Tai Chi. Softness is the soul of Tai Chi, and practicing is a constant effort to pursue a higher degree of softness. The relaxation required by Tai Chi is to gradually achieve maximum softness through the role of thoughts and consciousness while using as little force as possible, and it is from light to loose.

    1, At the beginning of practicing boxing, relax the whole body first, especially the arms should be as loose as a strong man tied to the shoulders, without any restraint, and start the movement after the body and mind are calm. Relaxing the shoulders means imagining that the shoulder joints are loosened.

    2, The softness of the feet is closely related to whether the crotch can be opened and the qi can be sunk. If you practice boxing with larger steps, you should focus on sinking strength, and each form has both rising and sinking, then the feet will naturally be quite soft. The two feet should be trained to be like two springs with strong elasticity, which can move forward and backward at will and be flexible.

    3, The key to loosening the waist is to slightly retract the navel of the abdomen (retract it backward, not press it down or lift it up), and then support the gate of life (pull it backward). It is mainly the retraction and pulling of the mind. This action is usually called “pulling the waist”, which is the key to loosening the waist.

    4, The hips are difficult to loosen, so you can do exercises to loosen the waist and activate the hips. Grasp the ground with ten toes, stand firmly with your heels, and naturally center the waist and hips. Relax the waist and hips completely, and use the two hip joints as the axis. Driven by the waist, draw a flat circle of 8 back and forth left and right, and then draw a circle with the knee joints and ankle joints in the same way. You can also do hip rotation and knee wrapping exercises.

      When you are completely loose, you will feel heavy all over your body (it is natural heaviness, not force), and you will slightly rotate yourself and contact the air like moving in water. The longer you sit on the rack, the looser and softer your body will be, and the heavier your body and hands will feel, and the more you will feel the increased air resistance, which will increase your hearing.

      Internal strength is mainly obtained in the practice of the frame. When walking the frame, sink the shoulders and drop the elbows to experience the weight of the shoulders and elbows on the arms; sink the qi to the dantian, relax the waist and sit to experience the gravity of the upper body; walk like a cat, and make sure that the legs can feel the pressure of the whole body’s gravity in the transition between virtual and real. The day when each part of the body experiences the gravity of the loaded limbs is the day when the internal strength of Tai Chi is applied to the body. The practice of internal strength usually starts with the hands, allowing the hands to experience their own weight, and then slowly expand this experience to other parts of the body. Internal Qi is a subtle proprioception. Keep your mind calm, relax your whole body, and practice slowly without exerting force. Over time, your hands will feel swollen and hot, from occasional to frequent during practice.

      Further practice to sink the force to the soles of the feet:

      Specific practice method: All the forward, backward, left and right movement of the hips must be driven by the force of the soles of the feet lying on the ground and the reaction force of the soles of the feet twisting left and right. In this way, the force of the soles of the feet drives the two hips, and the two hips drive the movements of the whole body. The longer you practice, the more relaxed and light the whole body will be. All the force comes from the reaction of the soles of the feet on the ground. At this point, you can sink the force to the soles of the feet. The boxing theory says that “the force starts from the feet” and “the waist is dominated”, which means this. In addition to the Mingmen acupoint, the waist refers to the two hips.

      Further practice to release the force:

      When the frame is in a fixed form, when it seems to be fixed but not fixed, you must sink into the release of force. This kind of force release exercise is actually the reason for the generation of internal force in Tai Chi.

      How to practice the internal force: Whenever you are in a fixed posture, such as when you push your hands forward or press forward, you must lower your shoulders and elbows, have the intention of pushing your head up, send your tailbone forward, support your life gate (pull) backward, send your palms forward slowly, and sit back slightly. The joints of the joints are loosened, the ligaments are stretched, forming the hand bow, leg bow, and body bow, and the body is ready for five bows. Look far ahead, as if you relax your force to the horizon, “the farther you look, the longer your force will be.” This should be done in every fixed posture when walking the frame. At this time, you don’t feel the force on your hands. Of course, if there is someone blocking your hands in front of you, that person will feel a lot of force, and this is hidden force, not obvious force. Use consciousness as a command, and each move starts from the heel (rebound force), and use your mind to guide the internal force to the waist, spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers. After a long time, there will be a numbness and swelling at the destination, and a sudden jump in the hand (Laogong acupoint).

      In short, we should realize that after learning a set of Tai Chi, it only means that we can practice it alone, but it cannot be said that we have learned it, because Tai Chi is not only about form, but also about content, and there are many contents. Only when we have content can we have the flavor of Tai Chi, and then we can be considered to have basically mastered it.

      We must continue to pursue and make the flavor of Tai Chi stronger and stronger. If the flavor of Tai Chi is not right, it is still an empty frame. You will not be able to improve your skills when you practice it. Of course, for fitness, it doesn’t matter if the specifications of the frame are a little worse. As long as you can persist in Tai Chi workout every day, winter and summer, you will definitely be healthy, but the degree of effectiveness will be judged. After persisting in Tai Chi workout, the blood circulation of the whole body will be normal, and a sense of relaxation and comfort will be generated. If you feel comfortable often, you will be healthy.