Tai chi
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I did tai chi for a while many years ago and would like to get back into it to improve my flexibility and balance. I stopped by a session being held by the same group whose classes I attended in the past but they only have a continuing class for people who are familiar with the entire form. I feel like I need to start at the beginning and become more comfortable with the movements again (I seem to remember virutually nothing despite having practiced for a couple of years!) rather than struggling to keep up with and/or to slow down the class because I'm trying to catch up.
I looked around online and found a really good course on YT that was developed during COVID. I guess there was something good that came out of the pandemic! Anyway, I've just started back in but thought I'd link to their website and YT page in case anyone else is interested. The teachers are quite good with their instructions and methodology. And of course having a video to go back so I can review things over and over is great.
Rocky Mountain Tai Chi website:
https://www.rockymountaintaichi.com/online-beginning-class
The links to the individual online class videos are in the previous link, but here's the first class if you want to take a quick look. Some nice quick exercises in this first video. Even if you don't go any further, you'll get something out of this!
Link to video -
@wtg Thank you! We are taking Tai Chi for Better Balance at our local community center. It’s nice, but I would like to just do the form and not have her teach parts of it over and over again because it’s one big class with beginners all the time. I’ll check out this video.
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@AdagioM This is the video of the entire form that Rocky Mountain does.
Link to videoI was part of the Taoist Tai Chi group here maybe twenty years ago, and whose class I stopped in for last week. I’m the opposite of you-I’m the beginner and need the repetition.
This is the Taoist Tai Chi form. Scroll down a bit for the video.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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I can appreciate tai chi but I think I need something more to address strength training. Probably both balance and strength are things I could do at a local gym, if I would get serious about it.
I was shocked that after 3 years off the bicycle (following my accident) I nearly fell over when trying to even mount the bicycle. I was afraid of losing my balance. So, even though I had been an active cyclist for 50 years, I took a beginner cycling class to overcome that fear. Now I’m back, but I am still a bit skittish in traffic.
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@RealPlayer Taking a class sounds like a smart move. I crashed and had a concussion (with helmet!) in 1997, and it took me a good while to feel comfortable riding again. I don’t remember anything about the crash, other than it was starting to rain, and the new tar patches on road cracks were slick…
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@AdagioM Based on what you said I had a feeling the video that is great for me wasn't right for you; it's for rank beginners. And it was just a warm-up to starting the form. They mostly focused on the qigong five animal moves and nothing but the opening move of the form.
One thing I generally liked about what they did is that they have one person facing you and the other one facing away. Lets the student get a 360 view of the moves when there aren't any mirrors in the exercise space.
I'll be interested to hear what you think of the two videos where they do the entire form.
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My mother studied and practiced it for about fifteen years. I went with her and one of her friends once. She moved so beautifully. I'm sure she had a respect and fascination of Asian cultures dating from when she was a young child living in Japan.
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Interesting - thanks for sharing the links! I'll give them a try. My "new" thing has been Pilates. I saw videos of an instructor on TikTok - and after
oglingappreciating her fitness, I thought it might be a good counterpoint to my weightlifting routine inasmuch as it's focus is on bodyweight and hand weights. It's part of an online program called Ladder, and the benefit of that is that should I desire, I can switch to a whole other universe of fitness activities should I find Pilates not to be my thing. I thought I'd only do 3-4 programs a week - but now I've upped it to 6 days a week.Still, after a few weeks, I'm finding it does precisely what I was looking for - exercising muscles I wasn't working on, enhanced flexibility, and a great warm-up for my heavy lifting.
On the cycling front, I'm thinking of getting rid of my bicycles - and now is the time of the year to do that. I'm thinking of that for 2 reasons - one is a fall at my age - no longer desirable and secondly, I really don't want my wife to ride - as it is even more undesirable for her to have an injury - where risk of crippling is much higher due to her bone density issues. If I abandon cycling, it is very unlikely that she'd go out on her own.
