Tai-Chi Chuan for Health and Fitness

It was found that Yang style of t’ai-chi significantly reduced high blood pressure in overweight hypertensive individuals, who were over 60 years old. They did tai chi for 30 to 45 minutes four to five times a week. The researchers found that, "Exercise intensity may be less important than other factors." Because even though Yang style t’ai-chi studied was low intensity, it reduced high blood pressure as well or better than other more strenuous aerobic exercise. In another study, 126 heart attack patients (acute myocardial infarction), average age of 56 years, were randomized into three groups: T'ai-chi, aerobic exercise and non-exercise support group. They exercise 2 times a week for 3 weeks then once a week for 5 weeks. Only the patients practicing t'ai-chi ch’uan showed a decrease in diastolic blood pressure. There were significant reductions in systolic blood pressure in both exercise groups. Click to learn how Chinese medicine treats Stroke (Apoplexy).

T’ai-chi has also been found to prevent falls, reduce the negative effects of stress and it may even make you smarter and more coordinated. Some of my UCR students commented it helped to improve their golf and tennis games. The latest research on aging shows that stress adversely effects the brain as we age. Stress hormones actually cause part of the brain to shrink which results in memory loss. To reverse this you have to reduce stress. Researchers have also found that learning a novel activity and performing a physical exercise helps to improve brain functioning. T’ai-chi ch’uan, which is an ancient form of Chinese Internal Kung-fu, helps to reduce stress and may even make you smarter and more coordinated. T’ai-chi acts similar to yoga as a stress reduction method.