The Benefits of Chinese Internal Martial and Health Arts

By Jordan Misner

In China, the practice of combining the principles of movement with breath and mindfulness has been used to maintain health, cure chronic conditions and develop the practitioner’s overall physical and mental well-being even into advanced old age.  The two primary practices used are Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong, both of which extend back in time 100s and even 1000s of years, with Qi Gong being the oldest of the practices.

In recent years a substantial body of evidence based research has been published regarding the benefits of meditative movement. One study reviewed over 70 published articles on studies that demonstrated positive outcomes in nine (9) categories:

• Increases in Bone density
• Improved Cardiopulmonary effects
• Improved Physical functions
• Reduced Falls and related risk factors
•   Increasing Quality of life
• Increased Self-efficacy
• Improved Patient reported outcomes
• Improvements of Psychological symptoms
• Enhanced Immune functions

According to a University of Florida study Tai Chi Chuan practice appears to be beneficial in lowering blood glucose levels in Type II diabetics, allowing people with diabetes to better control their disease. In adults with type 2 diabetes, the study found that participants in a supervised tai chi exercise program two days per week with three days of home practice lowered their fasting blood glucose levels, better managed their disease, and improved their overall quality of life compared to those who participated at a lower level of intervention. The study demonstrated that tai chi chuan provided benefits similar to other more strenuous aerobic exercises, like walking or jogging.

Tai chi chuan and Qi Gong are low impact meditative exercises, which makes them appropriate for individuals of any age or fitness level. In a very real sense practicing Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong is much like taking a mini vacation from stress and our typically hectic lifestyles each day. Chinese Internal martial and health practice can be a cornerstone for a healthy and more enjoyable way of living.

Unseen Benefits of Taijiquan (or any Martial) Practice

by Jason Hurford

If there is one thing I regret about my martial practice it is that I did not start sooner.  Not just for the health benefits, but all the other ways it has influenced my life and changed it for the better.  My practice has been there for me through everything; no matter what is going on.  From my taiji family to the learning a whole new way of being, the experience has been priceless.

Even on my worst days, no matter how much I don’t want to go to class (or even practice on some days), by the end I am always glad I do.  My teacher once told me “You will fail your taiji before your taiji will fail you.”  He was right.  There was a year I stopped practice to try and get a handle on my life, and I was worse off for it.  It was my practice that centered me and helped reduce my stress so I could carry on.  Without it being there, life’s pressures just continued to pile on.  Life has a way of filling my time, so if I don’t make time to practice I can get overwhelmed just handling my responsibilities.  I know now I would have never been able to make it back on my own and was fortunate to have brothers and sisters to call me back.  It is that family, those brothers and sisters, who have been the most valuable change to my life.

Did I become healthier practicing taiji?  Yes.  Did I learn new limits to myself?  Every day.  Gain self-esteem from practice?  Very much.  Acquire discipline?  Constantly.  However, of every benefit I gained, it is the school that keeps me going and the people brought newness in my life.  Sure, some days I want to smack one or two of them, but overall they are the spice of life.  No matter how great a martial artist is, he or she did not get there without someone to practice with.  My Si Gung likes to say it takes two to master the art, but I say twenty minds are better than two.  Two hundred is better than twenty.  I would rather see all of us master the art and carry it into the future, playing together with enjoyment as we once did as children.  We are social creatures, and the school is the perfect place to gain what we need the most:  human interaction and understanding.  The benefits of having that social interaction enriches my life and self-understanding, which in turn deepens my practice.

The second most influential benefit from practicing taiji is the power of self-knowledge which translates into self-reliance.  No matter what occurs in my day or around me, I now have the skill, confidence and determination to handle the situation.  That self-belief has become invaluable.  While I know it can be gained from many things, it is through martial practice (particularly taijiquan) that I acquired it.  Looking back, I know a big part of it is through the dedication I’ve given to my practice and the self-esteem that arrived.  However, there are other aspects and reasons that I do not fully understand (yet) that also played a part.  Regardless, thanks to my practice I have found a peace and well-being that cannot be described.

Regardless why you practice, or how much you practice, I’m sure there are hundreds of ways that it has also helped you in your life.  Some are very subtle, but others overwhelmingly obvious.  We would love to hear about these and include them in our newsletter.  It doesn’t have to be a long article, it can just be a few sentences or paragraph, but we want to know how your practice helps you in your life.  If you do not practice and have thought about reasons to start, hopefully this article has helped.  Thank you!

The Core Elements of Tai Chi Chuan

By: Jordan Misner

There is almost an unlimited variety of Tai Chi Forms and even among the primary forms within traditional Tai Chi Chuan there are unlimited variations in execution and arrangement of the movements. 

The 13 postures (also called energetics or gates) are core elements of tai chi chuan.  These 13 can be further divided into 8 basic hand energetics and 5 basic footwork elements. Each of the 8-basic postures have a related trigram from the I Ching (Book of Changes) and the 5 steps are correlated to the 5 elements. 

The 8 gates/energetics/postures (Ba fa):

·       The 4 primary hands

• Peng (ward-off) – Heaven (Chien) 
•  Lu (roll-back) – Earth (Kun)
•  Chi (press) – Water (Kan) 
•  An (push) – Fire (Li)  

·       The 4 secondary hands

• Tsai (pull-down) – Wind (Sun) 
•  Lieh (split) – Thunder (Chen) 
• Chou (elbow strike) – Lake (Tui)
• Kao (shoulder strike) – Mountain (Ken)  

The 5 steps/footwork (Wu ba):

• Chin (advance) –Fire
• Tui (retreat) – Water
• Ku (step left) - Wood
• Pan (step right) - Metal
• Ting (staying center) - Earth

There are many people who have written about the trigrams and their relationship to the 8 energetics, however these concepts cannot be deeply understood until there is some understanding of the cosmology of the postures as they relate to heaven, man, earth and to substantial and insubstantial.

In ancient Chinese cosmology heaven and earth are connected by man, who stands between the two with feet on earth and the top of the head in heaven. This trinity also exists within man as the upper portions of the body represent heaven, the mid-section represent man and the legs and feet represent earth. The waist of the body (containing the dan tien) connects man’s heaven (upper) and earth (lower). In ancient Chinese cosmology heaven is round and earth is square (the 9 kingdoms), in tai chi chuan the same concepts apply. All the tai chi movements exist within a sphere supported by footwork that occurs within a square. 

The 3 lines of the trigrams may also be equated in this concept as the top line relates to the upper gates (heaven), the middle line to the middle gates (man), and the lower line to the lower gates (earth). Within this configuration each line is either whole or broken and represents substantial (yin –broken) or insubstantial (yang – solid). Earth (rooting) being much more substantial than heaven in tai chi chuan. So how do these relate to the postures?

Looking at Peng (ward-off) – Heaven (Chien)    we see there are 3 solid (yang) liines representing the lower, middle and upper gates as well as how the energy presents within the posture. Peng energy is an uprooting energy and one of the two primary energies due to the solid nature of the 3 lines. The other primary energetic is rollback represented by the 3 broken lines. This also tells us the nature of the gates as being filled with an upward heaven bound unity. Attempt to distinguish in your practice, which of the 3 gates is yin or yang in each posture. This concept applies throughout the form even to very small details in how tai chi is practiced. 

Many practitioners attempt to simplify substantial and insubstantial down to double weighting usually talking about how weight should be distributed in the stance and yes at the lowest level of tai chi this is true. However, at the higher levels these concepts become much more than simple weight distribution. One can be double weighted in any part of the body creating a handle for your opponent and limiting the practitioners effectiveness as well as the benefits of the practice. 

These concepts also apply to the use of yielding, softness and no force in tai chi chuan. I will try to go into more detail on these concepts in my next article. 

Jordan Misner teaches classes for Wind River Tai Chi Chuan (Internal Martial Arts for Health and Enlightenment), which are held at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center.