Tai Chi walking – the truth behind the craze

Tai Chi walking is beneficial for many of the same reasons as Tai Chi itself, but there are some wild claims out there on YouTube, Tik Tok and Instagram. Often these claims prey to people’s insecurities, promising amazing weight loss, the best six pack you’ve never had, and perhaps even that you’ll be super athlete fit. Is there any fact in the fiction?

Let’s first look at the body as a whole – that’s the mind, body and spirit. Physical and mental health combined, the feeling of wellbeing and strength that goes alongside the numbers of physical health and ability. Bear in mind here that we don’t all like the same thing either which adds an extra facet to what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. We all know that a ‘healthy lifestyle' is the key to our optimum health and happiness. Sometimes though, we fail to connect all elements of that healthy lifestyle and it's kind of like a fire triangle – if you take one side of the triangle away, the fire doesn’t light.

I used to do a lot of physical cardio sport, martial arts, running, squash, badminton and the like. However, my diet consisted of cake and biscuits and probably not enough fruit and vegetables. I also didn’t take time for myself or do anything that could be classed as relaxing. So, while on the outside people thought I was fit, the internal workings of my body were probably struggling as much as the spiritual element of myself that couldn’t find enough time in the day to fit everything in and failed to organise the millions of thoughts and storylines that never happened. I had no mental clarity, nothing felt organised, I missed appointments and events, forgot things for the children and all while the inside of my body was having to work extra hard to try to create nutrients and energy from the wrong foods. Realistically I was a mess.

After the ADHD diagnosis and in the three years leading up to that point, I was able to start making sense of all of the things that had been before. Alongside the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, I’d had in 2010, and all the knowledge and qualifications in nutrition, mindfulness and meditation, I began to be able to work out new strategies that would work for my life, likes and dislikes, while also being strong, fit and yet relaxed. This was no quick fix and I’m still doing a lot of work. This helped to shape an all-round program for myself that wasn’t all cardio and nothing else. We all struggle with different elements of our mind, body, and spirit triangle which often leads us to trying to use quick fixes – and like building a fire, even once it’s lit, it still takes work on all elements of the triangle to keep it alight.

What is Tai Chi walking? In its simplest form, it’s a mindful based exercise of being aware and definite in every step. It reteaches the body how to walk using the heel and toe sequence which in turn also makes us lift the knee more which utilises hip mobility. It’s meant as a slow movement which in itself has muscle and soft tissue strengthening benefits. Like Tai Chi, when done properly it can improve posture, mobility, coordination, stronger hips, knees and ankles, and it’s good for the mind – but we’ll talk about that bit in a minute! Any movement is good movement and will always trump sitting or laying for long periods. The more of it you can do the better. Physically, we need a combination of cardio or heart raising exercise, resistance training working on all of the muscle groups, and good nutrition.

Physical exercise strengthens the cardiovascular system, keeps joints supple and moveable, strengthens muscles and bones. This combined with the good walking technique while practicing Tai Chi walking is sure to be a benefit to anyone, especially if that someone is leading a sedentary lifestyle. The gentleness of the movement means that even people with mobility issues can do the basic concept of Tai Chi walking and see benefits. Those with better mobility can move it around, work in circles and increase the hip and knee mobility of the movement, perhaps adding in some cloud hands type movements with the arms.

This is all great and also works well for mental wellbeing because mindfulness in itself is shown to improve mental wellbeing by keeping clarity and reality in our outlook and thought process. Mindfulness prevents us from spending so much time thinking about the future or the past, often making up stories of things that didn’t or won’t happen. Sometimes these visualisations can feel so realistic that they can actually change our present mood, even though the thought is in the past or future. Be honest, how many times have you thought about a disagreement, whether it’s one that happened or one that you imagine materialising from an impending situation, and then found yourself pulling a face ‘out loud’? A bit embarrassing when you realise, you’re also standing at the bus stop, and everyone is side eyeing you quizzically.

A study published in the peer reviewed ‘Lancet Psychiatry’ studied over one million people from 2011 to 2015. On average people had around three and a half ‘poor mental health’ days each month, which could be due to stress, emotional issues and depression. For those who exercised these figures dropped by a massive 40%. That’s only half of the story though. Better mental health and the general feeling of ‘wellbeing’ also keeps the body in the parasympathetic nervous system or, ‘rest and digest’ mode, as opposed to the sympathetic nervous system which is our fight or flight response. This means that the body then utilises nutrients better and digests food at optimum levels. When we are in fight or flight mode our body shuts off blood supply to non-essential organs like the stomach and digestive tract which means they then don’t work efficiently – in turn this (as well as the stress itself) can cause stress on the heart and other major organs.

Exercise, is classed as an activity that raises the heart rate above what it is when we are sedentary. So, is tai chi walking enough? The honest answer?

No.

While tai chi walking can bring our thoughts to a mindful place and aid mental and spiritual health and clarity, it’s only one side of the ‘fire triangle’. It needs to be combined with that heart raising exercise which benefits the whole respiratory system and can prevent things like heart disease, type II diabetes, some cancers and other major illnesses. It also needs to be combined with good nutrition. Staying within your calorie usage each day (ignore the influencers that try to tell you calories don’t matter – they really do) and eating a wide variety of different single ingredient food is another side of our ‘fire triangle’.

The truth is that you also can’t spot target fat loss. I thought everyone knew this now and yet people are still peddling the same myths to the unsuspecting public. There’s only one way to see your six pack…note that I say ‘see’ not ‘get’ because we all already have one, the only reason that we don’t see it is because of our body fat percentage. It’s not necessary to be able to see a six pack and this will mean that your body fat percentage is very low – for men this could be from 6% to 17% and for women this might be 14% to 20% - although for a well-defined pack you’d need to be around the 10% or less for men or women.

When we lose body fat, we lose it from all over at the same time. When we gain it, the same happens.

Can you lose weight doing tai chi walking? Probably not. Weight loss requires work on all sides of your fire triangle. Like when I was doing lots of sport, I was only working on one side of my triangle, I wasn’t healthy and my body fat was still quite high.

In conclusion, tai chi walking can be great for balance, building strength in the soft tissue of the leg and hip, mindfulness, and maybe slightly improved mental health, but it will not on its own, give tangible weight loss or a six pack. Combine tai chi walking with another exercise or two, and good nutrition, and you could be on to something.

If you would like advice on your current lifestyle or nutrition, I’m also a qualified weight management consultant since the early 2000’s and recently took an up-to-date nutrition qualification. I’ve been very successful in the past, although success depends a great deal on following the advice given rather than simply having a good intention. I charge £35 for this service and can visit you at your home or you can come to me. The advice I give is designed to teach you good, lifelong habits, with zero banned foods, no sins or points.

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Until next time…

xx

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