Friday, September 2, 2016

Tai Chi for Health-care Practitioners

I recently started taking TAI CHI lessons to improve my balance, flexibility, and coordination.
It looks pretty easy on movies but does take a fair amount of training. People like myself, who cannot dance or suffer from right to left confusion will need to practice to gain muscle and brain memory.

The article Tai Chi for Health-care Practitioners emphasizes the value for health care practitioners helping their patients. The programs includes  “applications for balance, geriatrics, stress and pain management, oncolcogy, PTSD,TBI, polytrauma, autoimmune diseases, women’s health. orthopedic, neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory rehabilitation".
           
Wikipedia states that “Tai Chi generally provides health benefits. In all the forms of Tai Chi there are movements that involve briefly standing on one leg, which may improve balance; circular movements of the shoulders and wrists which improve suppleness and circulation; learning the sequence of the set movements may improve cognitive function such as concentration; the social atmosphere can sometimes forge friendships and alleviate loneliness and anxiety; and the exercise itself can boost a person's mood and alleviate depression.[3][4]”
                       
My wife figured out at the first lesson that all the hand and feet movement should be considered preparations for striking and/or blocking an opponent. She’s right to have intuited the relationship between this originally Chinese practice, and the martial arts.  Many in the far east are skilled in both.  Not having 2 left feet will help with the movements. The individual motions are easy but the linkage and flow take practice, practice, and practice.
           
In general, TAI CHI is another worthwhile avenue to explore as we have a tendency to live longer and become quite immobile. You may learn how to dance. And if not, you may be able to defend yourself better.

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