Tai Chi and Health Preservation
Humans constantly battle diseases that harm the body, accumulating vast knowledge and methods for health preservation. Tai Chi is one such method. Although classified under Chinese martial arts, Tai Chi is also part of traditional Chinese medicine. Practicing Tai Chi achieves disease prevention, health preservation, and longevity. Martial arts fall into two categories: external and internal. External styles emphasize training sinews, bones, and skin, while internal styles like Tai Chi focus on cultivating qi and unblocking meridians—essentially, relaxing and adjusting the body’s qi and blood flow—making it a form of qigong. Thus, Tai Chi is particularly suitable for treating illness, regulating qi and blood flow, and restoring normal internal circulation.
Practicing Tai Chi is not merely learning forms—it requires mastering foundational skills and achieving “relaxation” and “smooth qi flow.” The lungs govern the body’s qi; when lung qi is harmonious, the entire body’s qi flows smoothly. Thus, practice must ensure unimpeded qi flow, avoiding stagnation. Therefore, one must never hold breath or exert force during practice—relaxation and sinking qi are paramount. Practice must be coordinated with breathing and opening/closing movements. Due to these requirements, Tai Chi practitioners naturally focus on relaxation and breath control, leaving them feeling relaxed and energized after each session. Slight perspiration increases metabolism, providing significant health benefits. Exercise physiology tells us that any sport must have sufficient intensity and duration to positively impact health—especially the circulatory and respiratory systems. Proper combination of intensity and duration is essential for enhancing these systems. Tai Chi, infused with the essence of Chinese culture, is both martial art and cultural heritage; both fitness and martial art; training both inner (mind) and outer (body), cultivating spirit, qi, and essence—offering both health benefits and aesthetic appreciation.
Emphasizing lower-body exercise greatly helps prevent the “upper excess-lower deficiency” syndrome prevalent in modern times. Since the 20th century, a major shift in human lifestyle has been the growing focus on health and exercise for physical well-being. Fitness routines increasingly emphasize lower-body movements, such as walking.
Long-term Tai Chi practitioners commonly report thicker thighs. Sports experts believe that high-functioning calf and thigh muscle groups act like numerous small pumps, assisting the heart—reducing cardiac workload and benefiting cardiovascular health. Because Tai Chi emphasizes lower-body strength training, it promotes downward flow of qi, correcting the “upper excess-lower deficiency” state, helping prevent hypertension, falls, and aging. The saying “old age starts with the legs” reflects that middle-aged and older people often suffer from upper excess-lower deficiency conditions. In the U.S., falling-related deaths among seniors have risen steadily and are now ranked as the third leading cause of death. Government funding supports research on Tai Chi’s ability to prevent falls—this is a major reason for Tai Chi’s rapid growth in America over the past few years.
From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, “upper excess-lower deficiency” is a term describing liver and kidney deficiency in middle-aged and elderly people, leading to yin deficiency and yang floating—resulting in high blood pressure, insomnia, cold intolerance, cold extremities, indigestion, constipation, etc. Patients often appear rosy-cheeked with no obvious signs of illness. However, due to lower-jiao deficiency, they feel weak legs, difficulty walking, heel pain after walking, stiff knees, back pain, and general fatigue. TCM holds that after age forty, liver and kidney are prone to deficiency—like roots drying up and leaves turning yellow. To nourish, one must start from the root—strengthening liver and kidney is the secret to health preservation. Besides consuming tonics, the key is enhancing movement in the Dantian area and lower limbs. The Dantian and Mingmen regions (lower abdomen) are the most critical sites where ingested nutrients convert into essence and blood (and hormones). Thus, strengthening the lower abdomen, waist, groin, and lower limbs is the fundamental step to promote digestion, absorption, and qi-blood circulation. Stronger waist and legs mean smoother blood flow, vibrant spirit, and lasting vitality—effectively eliminating or preventing “upper excess-lower deficiency” symptoms. Tai Chi emphasizes not only physical relaxation but also mental relaxation throughout practice, balancing cerebral excitation and inhibition. It also promotes emotional equilibrium. Therefore, for modern lifestyles, practicing one or more forms of Tai Chi and its implements is a reliable path to health. As long as you practice daily, it will help you maintain lasting physical and mental balance and dynamic equilibrium.