1, Zhaobao traditional Tai Chi often does not quickly produce obvious fitness effects. It seems to be similar to slow walking and mountain climbing, but it is not.

There are two reasons for this feeling. One is that the time for practicing Tai Chi is not enough, that is, the amount of exercise is not enough. If you only practice 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 normal healthy people. 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 play slickly. Therefore, you must practice boxing seriously and carefully, and only by persisting every day can you see the effect.

2, What direction should you work towards in practicing boxing.

    We often learn a set of boxing and practice it every day. We are not clear about the direction of improvement and don’t know how to work hard. Tai Chi theory talks about the three stages of being familiar, understanding strength, and being spiritual. Tai Chi boxing mentions the three stages of training the body, training the qi, and training the spirit. Being familiar corresponds to training the body, understanding strength corresponds to training the qi, and being spiritual corresponds to training the spirit. Generally, boxing practice is between training the body and training the qi. Training the body is to train the body to be soft and loose; training the qi is to fill the internal qi. When you have internal qi and internal strength, you can get the greatest fitness effect. This is the direction of our efforts. We must train the body to be soft and have a certain amount of internal qi and internal strength. There are still many levels for us to experience.

    3, The process of boxing practice 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 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.

    A. 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.

    B. Distinguish between the real and the fake:

    Whether you are moving forward or backward, 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. One point of fake here, one point of real there, and keep changing.

    C. Follow up and down:

    That is, the movements of the hands and feet must be coordinated with each other. They must start to move and reach the end of each posture at the same time. For example, in the Vajra posture, the front bow leg must move in unison and reach the position at the same time. The leg cannot be bent in place while the hand is still pushing forward. You must 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 posture first, and then pay attention to it everywhere in the routine.

    D. Use intention without force:

    It means to use more thoughts and less force. Using 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, it only needs 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 smallest force. There are many contents of intention, and they are different at different stages. For example, practicing boxing 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 to correct the posture when practicing boxing, not just for fighting.

    4, 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 style with a very obvious waist rotation arc. Practice a single style repeatedly and experience how to use the waist many times. The left and right rotation of the two hands is driven by the waist. The hand turns from the front of the knee is the result of the waist rotation. The forward grab of the hand is the result of the waist driving the hand and the body forward together. When forming a bow step, the waist turns and moves forward (the rotation takes a little lead, which can also be called turning first and advancing later). Within a certain distance, the relative position of the two hands and the body remains unchanged, and the advance takes a little lead and the rotation takes a little time (called advanced entry and then rotation). The upper hand realizes the series of movements under the rotation of the waist. The pushing and pressing of the Vajra is achieved by the waist driving the body forward, not by the hands pushing and pressing forward alone. Once you have an understanding of using the waist, by extension, even the extremely small arcs of the hands are the external manifestation of the waist moving in an arc. Once you know how to use the waist, it is the waist that is practicing the boxing, not the hands. You will find that your previous boxing practice was all artificial, with too much active limbs and too little passive, and it failed to work from the inside to the outside.

    Once you know how to use the waist, the complete strength is no longer the local strength of the hands. You should also understand 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.

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

      The even and slow movements of Tai Chi naturally make your breathing deep and long. After practicing the boxing stance for a certain period of time, you can consider spending a period of time practicing breathing. First practice breathing when you are still, and then adopt the breathing method that focuses only on exhalation. 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. If some forms can be combined, then combine them. If they are not easy to combine, do not force them.

      6, about the flavor and meaning of boxing.

      The meaning of boxing refers to the special style of Tai Chi, which is better 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 state, 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 comfortably.

      7, relaxation Tai Chi has two requirements for the limbs: looseness and looseness.

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

      A. When practicing Tai Chi, first relax the whole body, especially the arms, which should be as loose as a string tied to the shoulders, without any restraint. Wait until the body and mind are calm before starting to move. Relaxing the shoulders means imagining that the shoulder joints are loose.
      B. The relaxation of the feet is closely related to whether the crotch can be opened and the qi can be sunk. If you practice Tai Chi with larger steps, you should focus on sinking strength, and each posture should have both rising and sinking, then the feet will naturally reach a considerable degree of relaxation. The feet should be trained to be like two springs with extremely strong elasticity, which can move forward and backward at will and be flexible and changeable.
      C. The key to loosening the waist is to slightly retract the navel of the abdomen (retract it backwards, not press it down or lift it up), and then support the gate of life (pull it backwards), mainly with the intention of retracting and pulling. This action is usually called “pulling the waist”, which is actually the key to loosening the waist.
      D. The hips are more difficult to loosen, so you can do exercises to loosen the waist and activate the hips. Grasp the ground with ten toes, stand firmly on the heels, and naturally center the waist and hips. Relax the waist and hips completely, and use the two hip joints as the axis to 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.

      8, When you are completely loose, you will feel heavy all over your body (it is natural heaviness, not force), and you will slightly rotate 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.

      Practicing 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 occasionally appearing to frequently appearing when practicing boxing.

      9, further practice sinking the strength to the soles of the feet.

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

      10, Further practice the release of power.

        Every time you reach a fixed posture, when it seems to be fixed but not fixed, you must sink into the release of power. This kind of power training is actually the reason for the generation of internal power in Tai Chi. How to practice the internal force: When 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, and support (pull) your life gate. Slowly send your palms forward, and sit back slightly. The joints of the joints are loosened, and the ligaments are stretched, forming the hand bow, leg bow, and body bow. The body is equipped with five bows. Look far ahead, as if you are relaxing your force to the horizon. “The farther your mind is, 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 in your hands. Of course, if there is someone blocking your hands in front of you, that person will feel a lot of force. In this way, you are sending hidden force, not obvious force. Use your consciousness as a guide. Each move starts from the heel (rebound force). Use your mind to guide the internal force to the waist, spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers. After a long time, you will feel numbness and swelling at the destination, and your hands (Laogong acupoint) will feel a sudden jump.

        In short, you should realize that after learning a set of Tai Chi, it only means that you can practice it alone, but it does not mean that you have learned it, because Tai Chi is not only about form, but also about content, and there are many contents. Only when you have content can you be considered to have the flavor of Tai Chi, and then you can be considered to have basically mastered it. You 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, and you will not improve your skills when you practice it. If you insist on practicing Tai Chi every day, whether in winter or summer, you will definitely be healthy, but the degree of effectiveness may vary. After practicing Tai Chi, the blood circulation of the whole body will be normal, and you will feel relaxed and comfortable, and your body will be healthier, and you will be on the right track.