Tai Chi, making lemonade out of lemons...

The personal challenges I experienced teaching classes the last two weeks have led me to explore further what was helping and what was hurting my hip injury. In a sense, I took the opportunity to make lemonade out of the lemons I had been given. The first few days I was significantly restricted in my motions and had to be extremely careful with my alignment. Any guesses as to what we worked on in class? ALIGNMENT and SMALL STEPS. ;-)

Stress and the power workout...
In the western mindset of effective exercise, there is a prevailing concept of bigger, better, faster MORE! While this is beginning to soften, I still see many "Fad" exercise programs cropping up that focus on crunching as many exercises into a 20 minute "power workout" as possible to meet the demands of our ever shrinking "personal time". In the eastern world there is a clear focus on balance; working towards harmony instead of strife. If you live your life as a turtle or sloth you will suffer from the diseases related to that slow paced life style. (obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure...) Conversely, if you live the life of a hummingbird, you will attract the diseases related to that life style. (Hypertension, migraines, strokes, heart attacks...) It is no wonder to me that statistically, over 70% of the diseases we see in this country have been DIRECTLY linked to stress. CLICK FOR ARTICLE ON STRESS AND THE MIND The ideal scenario is to create a balance whereby you spend the majority of your time in the median with brief jaunts into turtle mode to relax, rest or recover from an illness or into hummingbird mode to move past a challenge quickly and effectively. Too much in any one place can clearly harm your health.

Dr. Esther M. Sternberg, M.D. has provided us some wonderful research in this field:

CLICK HERE - LISTEN TO A PBS INTERVIEW WITH DR. STERNBERG

CLICK HERE - ORDER DR. STERBERG'S BOOK - THE BALANCE WITHIN The Science Connecting Health & Emotions

Small steps + Strong alignment = Safe strength and flexibility training...
While I do not recommend going out and getting injured to any Tai Chi teacher, I have felt great personal value in the past two weeks. As I went through my week of teaching I noticed that even slight lapses in attention caused me pain while going through the Tai Chi forms. The Sun Style forms (Tai Chi for Arthritis) were more forgiving in nature while the strong steps and deeper angles of the Yang Style required much more of my attention to prevent pain. In between classes I found myself doing some gentle "step only" form movements to help loosen the hip and warm it up for class time. Keeping it simple has really helped me to increase circulation and flexibility in the injured area while not creating undue stress and pain. I have found that Tai Chi steps (forward, backward and sideways) are excellent for helping to release a stressed, painful hip joint. I have also learned that if you over do it, you will pay for it later. Keep it slow, simple and gentle to gain the maximum results. These are things I have been sharing with my students for years now, working to help them create an environment of trust in a chronic or acutely injured area, however, experiencing it for myself again, at this juncture of my training, has been very beneficial.

Keeping it simple...
For the purpose of this article, I want to keep things simple and discuss (using Tai Chi Walking) how to create effective alignment. It all begins with three points on the feet.

By staying in tall posture and keeping these three points evenly weighted to the floor you are effectively keeping the foot, ankle, shin, knee, thigh, pelvis and spine all in proper alignment. Beginning with basic Tai Chi Walking, keep your steps very small (half or smaller) and focus intently on the three points with your proper alignment. Begin by shifting weight to one leg while releasing the other leg to the floor, relaxed. When you place your empty foot forward, make sure it releases completely to the floor before you place any weight to it. The when you begin to shift weight to the front leg for a forward step, make sure you release the BACK leg to the floor BEFORE you free it and bring it forward. ALWAYS paying close attention to proper alignment. This is why you will need to take smaller steps. We are not as flexible as we think we are as proper Tai Chi Walking clearly shows us. Make sure your hips and shoulders are facing the direction you are moving and not turning out when making the steps. You can also apply these same procedures to a backward or sideways step depending on what your particular challenge is at this time.


As always, consistency and gentleness are more important than a hard, overbearing style. Listen to your body, treat it with respect and it will serve you very well.