When you first come into a tai chi class, the terminology can seem confusing at first – so I thought I’d explain some of the most common questions here. What is tai chi? Tai chi is essentially a moving meditation. It is a coming together of the mind and body with everything working together in oneness and quiescence. We are used to using parts of our body individually, and so the difficult part of tai chi is learning the coordination to use the parts of the body together – as one. Beginners...

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...

Short form is therefore a fantastic introduction to Yang tai chi but can still take a very long time to learn. The form seems simple when you watch people do it on YouTube but then you come to a class and realise that it actually requires a high level of coordination, muscle memory and learning of the actual sequence to achieve that level of ease.