Tai Chi for Beginners Best Tai Chi Tutorial Videos

Hi, my name is Christopher Pei. Welcome to Getting Started with Tai Chi. Tai Chi is an ancient art, came out of China. It offered many things for us to train to improve our health. But most people practice Tai Chi, will find it that not only they improve their energy, which is the most important part, and the other one is they find they are balanced, their muscle toning, and everything is improved. When we practice Tai Chi, normally speaking, there are three different things that is melded into this art. One is the philosophy, the ancient art of Yin and Yang. And the second part, very little people know Tai Chi is also a martial art. And third, Tai Chi combine many elements of the traditional medicines. And that's what it becomes today of Tai Chi. In Chinese, we have found somethings that flows in our body, and we call it Qi, and rough translation in English, that means vital energy or energy force in our body. The Qi flows in our body by following through a certain path, what we call the meridians. When we practice Tai Chi, we open up the meridians and the channels, and the Qi flows better. Everyone who practice Tai Chi can always feel that after a while, their energy levels is increased, and that's what we aim to, is to increase our energy when we practice Tai Chi. When one practice Tai Chi, the first thing that we need to do is to let go our tensions in our body, especially around the neck, shoulders, and our chest. Because our bodies affect how we feel and what we think. If we have little discomfort with our physical body, and that will affect our mind. So when we practice Tai Chi, the key words to remember is to let go the tensions in our body. When the tensions are let go, the mind is much more easy to become. And that's for the mind part. For the body, when we move slowly, more muscles is needed, and that will force more blood flow in our body, and that in turn will push the hearts to pump more blood. So our circulations will improve, and our muscle toning will improve. Tai Chi is moved continuously, and I find through my teaching experience, most people sees the beginning and the ending posture. They sometimes get confused or totally ignore the process between the beginning and the ending. What's most important is the process. So I teach to move very mechanically in the beginning to show everyone that this is the timing point where your hands and feet has to reach at the same time. And also I point out the mistakes that everyone made. After you memorized the timing point, then it will begin to move smoother. Practicing Tai Chi is very much like carving. You cannot carve what you wanted in the first layers. You have to carve layer by layer. You take out the first layers, and you have a shape. Then you go back and refine, and each layers as you take up, it becomes more and more refined, and more beautiful. The final product of Tai Chi, when we practice, is moved smoothly without hesitations, and yet every frame is clearly executed. For the health part, I wanted to talk to you. It's like taking a medicine. If I go to a doctor for a medicine, he gives me a medicine for seven days. It is better for me to take my medicines once a day instead of just before I go see the doctor, I take all seven days medicines all at once. Practice is the same. Don't do once a week, because that really does not benefit you. Do once every day, or twice or three times a day. It's better for you. The breathing in Tai Chi should be done naturally and not forced. But many people ask, how should I breathe? If you wanted to breathe, try to focus on the ending move, or the ending posture. Normally the ending posture is exhale, and you will breathe naturally, and all end transitions. So focus on the exhale at your ending of the move. When you exhale, feel your shoulders, chest, and let go the tensions in your shoulders and neck. In Tai Chi, every posture has a name, and every posture has an ending frame, or the ending move. Ending move is what this move looks like when you're finished. We try our best to coordinate our exhale with the ending move, but never, never hold your breath trying to do the ending move with one extra, extra long exhale. Breathe naturally, just toward the end, when you come to this final posture of this frame, or this move, let go your tensions. Let go the shoulders, chest, and neck muscles. There is no tensions at this moment. It is recommended that we start off with a warm-up, especially in the morning. In ancient Chinese traditional medicine, there is a book. Whoever wanted to study this traditional medicine, we all have to study with this book first. The first chapter, first paragraph, it says, the running water will not stink. The hendrons that are constantly used will not become rust. So what it's talking about is the blood, if it circulates constantly in our body, we will not get sick. And our joints, if it's moved continuously, we will not have any trouble with that. Joint is one of the most important parts of our body function. If your muscle feels hurt and has pain, or you have pull muscles, you pretty much can still move around. But if your joints is hurt, your motions will be limited. And in the morning, right after we wake up, we should do our exercise to loosen up our joints. When the joints are loosed, our muscle motions will be much more easy for us to use our muscles. On the warm-up exercise, please do not limit yourselves to a very rigid number. You do what you feel that you can do right now. As your body gets stronger, you may do more in the repetitions. But if you feel tired or weak, you can do less. And please don't force yourself. Everything about Tai Chi is done comfortably based on what you can do. Section one teaches us to move forward. And section two teaches us to move backwards. Section three teaches us to move sideways and beginning to learn balance. Section four, we have a very challenge squatting down and lifting the legs up and moving in angles. So it's better to learn how to move forward before we learn how to step back and sideways. Whenever we want to learn, I understand that everyone wants to go to the end product first. This is what I want, and this is what I want to do. So I skip one, two, three, and go right into four because this is what I wanted to do. In learning Tai Chi, we cannot do that. We have to build our body up. This routine is very easy to learn, but however, it is built into four different sections. I recommend that we start with section one first. Each section offers different things and teaches us in different things. Start off slowly by the number and no rush. Be patient. When we practice, it's very much like lifting weights and you watch someone lift a large weight and say, that's the goal I want to get to, but I have to start off with a small weight. So in this instructional DVD, I have purposely to teach you by standing a little bit higher. As you're getting stronger in your muscle, you can feel your flexibility is also improved and along with your balance, then you may begin to take a little bit larger step. To take a larger step, you will need to squat down a little bit more. And sometimes when we say I have reached to my limit, then you squat down for another inch and that inch, it becomes a very big challenge. And I encourage everyone to go through the whole instructional DVD first before we begin to think about how high I can kick or how low I can squat down. Normally when we wake up, we want to have more energy, so it is good to practice when we wake up. After warm-up exercise, we practice Tai Chi to improve our energy flow. And you can also practice in the afternoon when you feel a little bit fatigued from work, just a few minutes of Tai Chi and you do not have to do the whole forms. You can do a section of it just to make you feel more energized. But at night, it is best not to practice just before you go to sleep because you are going to build up so much energy. It is okay to practice in the evening, but not before you sleep. We'll do the warm-up exercise before practice Tai Chi. Place your hands in front of your stomach and circle your neck. Remember to place your hands in front of your stomach so you will not feel dizzy as you circle your neck. Gently circle one direction, then the other direction. When we do the warm-up, do based on how you feel. If you feel good, you can do more. Second exercise, cross your fingers and rotate your wrist. Loosening the wrist, rotating in a circular motion. Third, we're going to loosen up our elbow. Pull the elbows back, circle the hands back and forward. When we pull back, palms facing up. When we circle hands forward, palms facing down. So now it's hands down, turn palms up, pull elbows back. Move gently as you can. When we do the warm-up, it's a natural flow. Nothing is forced. Number four exercise, we're going to place your hands in front of your chest and make a big circle of your elbows. This exercise will loosen up your shoulder, but we need to circle our elbow to loosen up the shoulders. Hold the elbows ends in front of you as close as possible. Gentle as you can do it. Number five, we are going to circle our right arm backward. Circle the shoulders so the shoulders become more loose. Now we circle the left shoulder. Shoulders and neck are one of the most important muscles for the modern people. Most people when they have illness, most of it is tied to their neck or their shoulder because the way we sit and the way we use our computers, we need to take care of those parts of the body. Next, circle one hand forward, one hand back. This might be a little bit challenging for the beginners, but keep a clear mind and do it slowly. You will figure this out. Make sure the shoulders are loose and not tight. If you're tight, you cannot rotate one forward and back at the same time. And now we switched to the opposite direction. Gentle and smooth, not forced. Next, we're going to learn to expand our chest. Cross the hands, turn palms up, open both hands to the side to feel the chest muscles stretched. Cross, bend elbow, cross palms up, stretch the chest. Palms down, elbows bend, palms up, open chest. Move in a very smooth motion. Every time when you open your chest, feel your chest muscles are stretched outward. This exercise is very good to improve your lung capacity, helps you to breathe. Cross and open, cross and open. The next exercise, hold both hand fist, elbow bend, shoulder level high and twist your elbow into almost a 90 degree from your foot position. When we do this exercise, remember not to twist your knee. This exercise is to loosen up your back muscles and your waist. Sometimes when you work really hard or sitting for a long time, you may just select this exercise to loosen up your back muscle. Do it gentle, not forced. And now, the next exercise is called tapping. You turn your waist and you circle your arms. The front hand tap gently on your ribs and the back hand tap gently on your kidney. Tapping produces vibrations. This exercise vibrates all the internal organs, so the internal organs get a chance to move around. If we do not have proper exercise for the internal organs, one will only have good muscle, beautiful body, but body still not well. So internal organs' wealthiness is very important. We use this exercise to make our internal organ strong. This is the same, but now the top hand circle tap down on the base of your neck and the back hand still on the kidney. Neck is full of nerves and this stimulates the nerve to make them more sharper. It's sort of like waking them up. Remember, tap gently. The next is most people call it the hula hoop. Circle your hips, your waist, but the key is to keep your head in one spot. So it's only the midsection that does the circle. Keep your foot solid on the ground and head not move. Circle gently in one direction and we circle the other direction. As we make the circle, you can feel your back muscles, your hip muscles, your leg muscles as a little stretched and loosen up at the same time. All those exercises, it's very good. You do not have to do it just before you practice Tai Chi. And now we are going to circle our knee. Knee is one of the most important joints in our body. We need to take care of it. When we circle the knee, make sure you do not circle too wide or too big and make sure your both feet are flat on the ground. Circle gently. Taking care of the knee, it will take care of how you walk. If your knee is sore or not able to move the way you want it, you will have a problem in your walking. And walking is the most based and most fundamental for our independence. So taking care of your knee, I circle the knees. Circle in and circle out. There are two different directions. And finally, place your hands on your hip and circle your ankle. Make sure your head, body is naturally lined up upright. And don't move your head or your body. And just circle your ankle. Then circle the other direction. Always do your warm-up exercise before any other sports. And Tai Chi is the same. And now we may begin our Tai Chi practice. In section one, first part, we learned how we feel. We learned how to stand. And then we learned the first move to coordinate our upper body and our body together. And that is called parting the wild horse's mane. And the way the white crane separates its wane. Stand with body naturally upright. Feel your head and neck is also aligned with your spine. Close your eyes. Focus on how you breathe. Focus on your exhale. When you exhale, let go the tensions in your neck and your shoulders. Exhale, let go the tensions in your chest. Exhale, let go the tensions in your upper arms and feel your elbows dropped. Exhale, let go the tensions in your forearms. Rest. Exhale, let go the tensions in your hands. You will feel the blood rushing down to your hands. There is a tingle, sensations in your hands. Now open your eyes as slowly as you can. Shifting your weight to your right leg and picking up your left heel as you step your left foot out to the side. Place your toes down first. Bend your heel. Adjust your body to the center. Extend your fingers. Bend at your wrist and push your fingers forward to rise to your shoulder level high. Pull your elbows back and lower your shoulders. Press your hands down then bend your knees. This is called the opening. Now let's do that again. Stand naturally with the body upright. Head, neck with the spines perfectly aligned. Eyes closed. Focus on exhale. When you exhale, let go the tensions in your neck, shoulders, and chest. Exhale, let go the tensions in your upper arms and elbow. Exhale, let go the tensions in your forearms. Rest. Exhale, let go the tensions in your hands. And you will feel the blood rushing down to your hands much faster than the first time. Now shift weight to your right leg. Step out with your left toes and heel. Center your body. Weight on both legs. Extend your fingers. Bend at the wrist and push your hands forward. At this time, I like to caution everyone. The common mistakes people make is leaning back their body. I want you to pay attention to how your spine is still aligned with your body. And let go the tensions in your shoulders and chest. You will feel your arms heavier. And let go the tensions in your elbow. Pressed hands down. Bend your knee. First time we learned the mechanical moves. This is second time. It's important that you feel what you do. Now let's do that again. A little bit more smoother. And we should move like the water that flows without any hesitation. Shift weight to the right. Picking up left heel. Step left toes and heel. Center your body. Extend your fingers. Bend at wrist. Push your hands forward to shoulder levels. Pull elbows back. Pressed hands down. Let go the tensions in your chest. And now we learn parting the wild horses mane. First we learned it mechanically. Circle your hands with the right hands on top as you are holding a ball. Shift your weight to your right leg. Turn your waist to your left. Pick up your left heel. Then step left legs out. Heel down first. Toes down. Foot flat. Shift your weight from right leg to left leg. Adjust your right toes slightly in an angle. And now we change the hands. Bottom hand rise up to your shoulders level. And right hand pressed down in front of your right leg. Now let's do that again. From the first opening position. Circle both hands to hold the ball. Right hands on top. Shift weight to your right leg. Picking up your left heel. Turn your waist to left. Step heel. Toes down. Shift weight from right leg to left leg. Adjust right toes in a slight angle. Separate the hands. Left hand from the bottom. Rise up to your shoulder level high. Right hand pressed down in front of your right leg. At this point I like to point out most common mistake people make. One is the positions of your left knee. The correct way is to make sure your left knee and your left angle are perpendicular to the ground. The common mistakes people make is by extending your knee forward. When we do this you are pulling the pressure of your body weight into your left knee. And this done improperly you will have knee injury in the future. So it's important that we have the knee and your angle are perpendicularly lines up. Second mistake people make is their upper body is leaning back too much. We need to make sure the body feels naturally upright and it's comfortable. Now let's do that again. From the opening position circle both hands with the right hand on top. Two hands face each other. Shift your weight to your right leg. Turn your waist picking up left heel and step left heel down. Left toes down. Shift your weight from right leg to left leg. Adjust your right toe in an angle. Extend left hand from the bottoms up to shoulder level. Press your right hand down in front of your right leg. And now let's do that one more time. From the opening this time we are going to execute our movements much smoother. And you will also notice that the timing of the hands is slightly different. Before we move our body one part at a time but now we are all going to move together to coordinate everything together. Circle our hands to embrace like a ball. Right hands on top. Shifting weight to right. Picking up left heel. Steps out heel and toes. Shifting weight from right to left. Adjust right toes. And the hands now separate at the same time. Bottom hand goes up. Top hand press down. Finished. A little bit more smoother and we should move like the water. It flows without any hesitation. Circle both hands. Right hands on top. Shift your weight to the right. Picking up left heel to step out. Heel toes down. Shift weight. Adjust right toes. Separate hands. Left hand up. Right hand press. And now let's do that one more time. From the opening we will move smoothly. Upper body. Lower body at the same time. Circle both hands to embrace. Turn your waist to the left. Picking up left. Steps out. Foot flat. Shifting weight. Separate hands. Adjust right toes. Now we understand parting the wild horse's mane and it's easy for us to duplicate the other side. First follow me. Go through the movement by movement. Sit back onto your right leg. Turn your waist to your left. Adjust your left toes approximately 45 degrees. Turning your both palms to face each other. Shifting your weight from right leg to left leg. And step slowly and soft. Right heel down. Toes down. Shifting your weight from left leg to right leg. Separate the hands to shoulder level. Left hand press down in front of the left leg. And let's do that one more time. From the first parting wild horse's mane to the second one. Sit back. Put the weight on right leg. Turn waist. Open left toes approximately 45. Turn your palms to face each other like you're holding the ball. Shifting weight from right leg to your left leg. Feel the softness in your left foot first. Then we pick up right heel and toes to step forward. Move gently and soft. Place your heel down gently and toes down. Shifting your weight from left to right. Separate the hand by rise your right hand to shoulder level. Press your left hand down in front of your left leg. This is called the right side parting the wild horse's mane. And let's do that one more time. From the left side to right side. Sit back. Put the weight on your right leg. Turn your waist to the left. Open left toes 45 degrees. Turn your palms to face each other. Shifting your weight from right to left. Feel the solidness of your body weight on your left leg. Then pick up your right heel, toes, step softly. Place your right heel down gently. Right toes down. Shift your weight from left leg to right leg. Separate your hands. Right hand rise up to shoulder level. Left hand press down in front of your left leg. And now let's do that one more time. And this time I will point out the most common mistake people make. Sit back. Put your weight onto your right leg. The correct posture is body upright. And the common mistake people make is when they sit back, they also lean their body backwards. So make sure your body is upright. Turn waist towards the left. Open your left toes. And turn palms to face each other. Shifting your weight from right leg to left leg. The common mistake people make at this time is they will put more pressure onto their left leg and they feel more tilted towards the left and their right shoulder rise up. This will cause a problem as you move forward. You will most likely to fall towards your left side. You want to make sure everyone's shoulder is parallel to the ground. Then picking up your right heel, toes to step forward. The common mistake people make at this time is when they place their right foot forward, they just drop their whole foot down one time. Make sure it's the heel down first. Then toes. Then shifting the weight from left to right. Then separate the hands. Bottom hand rise to your shoulder level. Left hand press down in front of your left leg. And now let's repeat that. Sit back. Put the weight onto your right leg. Turn waist. Open left toes. Turning palm to face each other. Shifting weight forward. And pick up right heels and toes to step forward. Heel, toes down. Shifting weight from left to right. Separate hands. Lift right hand to shoulder level. Press left hand down in front of left leg. And now we are going to practice one more time, but this time with smoother movement. Sit back to your right leg. Turn waist. Open left toes. Turn palms to embrace your hands. Shifting weight to the left leg. Picking up right leg to step forward. Separate your hands and shifting weight. Same time. Lift right hand up. Press left hand down. One more time. Sit back onto your right leg. Turn waist. Open left toe. Embrace your hands. Shifting weight to the front leg. Step forward. Gently heel, toes down. Shifting weight forward and separate hands. Right hand up. Left hand down. And now we are going to practice parting wild horses mane from the left side to the right side as smooth as we can. Sit back to right leg. Turn waist. Open left toes. Turn palms to face each other. Shifting weight to the left leg. Pick up right leg to step forward. Place heel, toes down. And now shifting weight forward to the right leg. Separate both hands at the same time to finish parting wild horses mane right side. And we'll do that one more time. Sit back. Turn palms to embrace. Shifting weight forward and step forward. Shifting weight to the right leg. Separate both hands. Now we have learned parting the wild horses mane both sides but we need to do it one more time to the other side. Let's do that slowly. Sit back. Put your weight onto your left leg. Turn your waist. Open right toes. Approximately 45. Turn your palms to face each other. Right hands on top. Shifting your weight from left to right. Picking up your left heel and toes to step forward. Left heel down first. Left toes down second. And shifting the weight from right to left. Separate your hands. Bottom hand left and right. Up to shoulder level. Right hand press down in front of your right leg. Since we have the experience of both sides, we will do this one more time. From the second parting wild horses mane to the third parting wild horses mane. A little bit smoother. Sit your weight back to your left leg. Turn waist. Open right toes. Turning palm to embrace the hand. Right hands on top. Shifting your weight from left leg to right leg. Picking up left heel and toes to step forward. Left heel down. Toes down. Foot fly. Feel the solidness in the floor. Shifting weight from right to left. Separate hands. Left hand rise. Right hand press down. Now we are going to repeat that one more time. And this time we'll do it smoother than before. Sit your weight back to the left. Turn waist. Open right toes. Turn palm to embrace your hand. Shifting weight to the right leg. Picking up left leg to step. Gentle and soft. Place foot fly on the ground. Shifting weight from right to left. Separate both hands at the same time. When you're finished, same time. White crane separated swing. First shifting more weight onto your left leg by picking up your right heel. Move your right foot a small step close to your left but not next to each other. Shifting your weight from left leg and sit the weight back onto the right leg. Turn your palms to face each other. Left palms on top. Pressed left hand down. Lift right hand up at the same time. Place your right hand above eye level. Left hand at your belly button and separate both hands out to the side. Picking up your left heel and pull more weight onto your right leg. This is called white crane separated swing. And let's repeat from parting the wild horse's mane. Let's learn this move one more time. Shifting more weight to your left leg by picking up your right heel. Move your right leg with a small step close to the left but not together. Shifting your weight from left leg back to the right leg. Turn your hands to embrace and face each other with the left hands on top. Pressed left hand down. Lift right hand up at the same time. Right hands rise to eye level. Left hands at your belly button. Then pull both hands apart away from each other. Right hands on top. Left hands on the bottom. And lift your left heel. White crane separated swing. And let's repeat that one more time from parting the wild horse's mane. Shifting your weight more to the left. Picking up right heel to take a small step. Set your weight back to the right leg. Turn palms to embrace by facing each other. Lift and pressed right hand and left hand. Separate hands out to the side. Lift your left heel up. And now we will do this again. And we'll point out the common mistake people make. Shifting weight to the left. And some people shift the weight too much so they bend their left knee a lot. This will damage your left knee. Make sure just a little shift weight to allow you to pick up your right legs easy. Placed right foot close to the left. Then shifting weight back. And again the common mistakes is people leaning backwards on their body, upper body. Turn palms to embrace. Lift right hand, pressed left hand. The common mistake people made at this time is they lift their right shoulder more. And the body become off balance from the left and right side. Make sure the shoulders are parallel to the ground. And pull both hands out to the side. Lift, lift, heel. And now we will do a smoother version from Parting the Wild Horsesman. Shifting weight to the left. Pick up right small step. Sit back to embrace the hand. Lift and press. And separate both hands out to the side. Lift, lift, heel. And now let's put this all together. Focus on exhale. Shoulder, chest, let go. Feel the blood rushing down to your hands. Pick up left toes and heel. Balance center. Fingers extend. Lift both hands shoulder level. Pull hands back. Press and sink body weight down. Embrace the hand. Turn waist to left. Step left heel toes out. Separate hands. Adjust right toes. Sit back. Turn waist. Open left toes. Turn palms to embrace. Shift weight to step forward. Separate both hands. Shifting weight to right. Sit back. Turn waist. Open right toes. Turn palms to embrace. And step left leg forward. Shifting weight to the left leg. Separate both hands. Take a small step from right leg. Sit back. Embrace the hand. Lift and press. Separate hands. Pick up left heel.