How to Do a Tai Chi Balance exercise
You may think that balance is no more than the ability to stay upright, but in this Tai Chi Basics Article you will learn a lot more: how to reduce falls, build a stronger body, improve peripheral vision, achieve a better work-life balance & live 10 years longer*
WHAT IS THE BASICS TAI CHI SERIES?
Tai Chi is often portrayed as something complicated and difficult to learn, but truth is, it's pretty simple. The Basics Series provides short articles, instructions and video guidance on the fundamentals of Tai Chi. No need to join a course, enrol in a program or give me an email. Just start here and now.
Read on to discover:
In what way can better balance help me live longer?
Is Tai Chi good for balance?
What Tai Chi exercises can help with balance?
Tai Chi can help the elderly improve balance, but can it also help all other age groups?
TAI CHI Balance RESEARCH: increase YOUR Life Expectancy
According to the World Health Association, falling-over is the second cause of accidental deaths in the world. This is an alarming statistic and is getting worse as each generation progressively becomes more sedentary, less mobile and opts for a digital rather than analog path in life. This may sound unimportant but our obsession with looking at screens is having untold consequences for our head, neck and back alignment, our eyesight and our ability to interact with our environment. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
One study (amongst the middle-aged or elder), from 2008 to 2020 found that someone with an inability to stand on one-leg for 10 seconds, was twice as likely to die over the next 10 years of any cause - compared to those that could maintain the posture for the full length of time*.
The BBC Radio show Just One Thing presented by Doctor Michael Mosley* explores all these issues with health experts and concludes that it is a "marker of decline". Balance is the manifestation of many different systems at work in our body - brain coordination, joint responses, sensory systems, the inner ear and eye coordination. If we have poor balance then we may well have a problem in one of these other areas.
In fact, those people with good balance, will likely live longer - by a substantial number of years...Dr. Michael Mosley
The evidence and the discussion around the subject are fascinating and the BBC program ends recommending Tai Chi as one of the best exercises to improve balance. (A more recent follow up BBC Tai Chi episode has now been devoted exclusively to the art)
Where the BBC Falls Down
But what is it about Tai Chi that develops good balance and are there exercises we can do for ourselves at home? In the radio program they mention standing on one leg, but they don't give the details as to how to do this. So, the teapotmOnk steps in where the BBC and WHO does not ;) and presents you with 5 Easy Steps for better balance, better brain coordination and a longer life.
IMPROVE Balance WITH THESE 5 Easy Steps
Good balance is more than just a physiological capability. In Tai Chi terms, it is made up of 5 elements or steps that in my online courses, I take you through stage by stage:
Work-life balance.
Ligament and tendon strength
Staying relaxed
Rooting and learning from balance in nature
Staying alert with Peripheral Vision
STEP 1. WORK-LIFE BALANCE
That BBC program was right about the importance of being able to stay upright when walking across a slippery surface - but it is not the only definition we need to look at to develop a better work-life balance.
Balance is a lot of other things too, it is also about learning to listen with both mind and body, and it is about learning to observe and stay open to all that life hurls at you.
Is Tai Chi good for Balance?
There is plenty of evidence from the research and investigative studies that show Tai Chi helps in improving balance and countering a fear of falls. If you are interested, take a moment to read these reports, otherwise, lets' begin the exercise called Stand Like a Flamingo
To start, we need to first look at your posture. I'll give the basic pointers here, but there is also short video at the end of this article that walks you through some of these basic posture points. Make sure you watch that too.
STEP 2:
LEARN THE TAI CHI BALANCE EXERCISE
This exercise is also known as Stand Like a Flamingo. Though we try and emulate how a Flamingo stands, it is important to avoid where a Flamingo stands. Teapot tip: Stay out of puddles and salt beds.
Tips for improving balance with tai chi
Start with feet flat on the ground.
Spend a moment allowing your breath to settle down to a gentle rhythm.
Avoid looking down at the floor or your feet.
Keep your head up. Look ahead of you.
The knee of the supporting leg should be soft and open (slightly bent). This allows the weight of the body to be carried by your large thigh muscles, and the balance adjustments to be carried out by the ligaments and tendons.
Keep you shoulders, elbows and hands relaxed at at your sides.
Relax you chest and don't hold your breath.
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Just practice holding your foot off the floor for a few seconds to begin with. Then try with the other leg. You may find that one leg is stronger than the other. Don't panic, this is normal. Knowing this, you can then devote more of your time to developing the weaker leg/side.
The better you know your body, the easier it is to improve . your posture, the more your posture improves, the better your balance.
To get maximum benefit, try to keep your body relaxed. Avoid locking the knee that is carrying the weight. Keep the knee soft and the joint open. Staying relaxed and keeping your joints open means that you will be working the ligaments and tendons, as well as the muscles of the leg and lower back.
STEP 3: IMPROVE BALANCE BY STAYING RELAXED
try this simple TAI CHI Balance Exercise
Okay, let's start.
Hold on to a chair, but preferably something fixed that will not fall over with you, such as a table top or window ledge.
Keep the other arm loose, at your side.
Sink down slightly, taking the weight into the supporting leg.
Bend the knee a little.
Check your posture once again (see list above)
Lift the other foot off the floor, just an inch or two.
Use a chair, a table top, a friends shoulder or a tall dog to help if you need to
Give yourself a Bigger BALANCE Challenge
Want a bigger balance challenge? Once you feel comfortable raising your foot an inch or two - you can move on to the next step to develop your balance skills.
Still hold on to the chair or something more solid, like a table. But this time, try raising your leg a little higher. Pick up the thigh, so that the foot is level with your knee and hold it there for a few seconds, working up to a minute.
Once you can do this, try keeping the thigh still but circling your ankle one way, then the other.
Once you can do this comfortably, try relaxing the ankle but this time swinging your thigh out to the side, then back in front of you 3 or 4 times.
Finally, if you want a further challenge still, try going back to the beginning, but instead of holding on to a chair or table top, place both arms out to the side. Imagine both palms are still holding on to the chair or table and push down on these imaginary surfaces. This is how we develop a greater balance, especially as we work towards lifting the knee and moving it out to the side.
STEP 4: IMPROVE BALANCE BY ROOTING AND LEARNING FROM NATURE
INSTRUCTIONS TAI CHI WALKING EXERCISE
So good balance is partly physical, partly mind (imagination) and partly conceptual (see the poster at the top of this article or read more in the Manual of Bean Curd Boxing). In all Tai Chi exercises and practices, the imagination plays a crucial part, and in the area of balance it arises within the concept we call rooting. Rooting involves imagining that from the soles of your feet, roots grow out of your legs, feet and soles of the feet and into the earth.
Try to keep this image in your mind when practising the balance exercises. Also, keep your head up, back straight and look directly ahead. Don't look down, as this throws your body weight forward, and you'll more likely topple over. Imagine you are a bamboo stalk, swaying in the wind, fragile and vulnerable perhaps, but with a good root structure you will never fall down.
STEP 5: IMPROVE BALANCE WITH PERIPHERAL VISION
At the beginning, you may only be able to hold the foot up for a few seconds, but in time, this will increase, as your ligaments get stronger and stronger.
There is one last concept I want to mention, and that is about the eyes and where we focus. I said earlier not to look down and some of you might be thinking - I need to look down to check my posture. That's ok, but raise your head up straight away or you will topple over. To avoid having to always look down we should begin to develop our peripheral vision. This is our ability to see what is happening around us without needing to look up, down or to the sides. (See examples and ideas in PDF)
WHERE AND WHEN TO PRACTICE TAI CHI BALANCE EXERCISES
Practice the balance exercise at least three or four times a day, but perhaps more importantly, try to incorporate the exercise into your daily life - preferably whilst you are doing something else, such as:
Waiting for the kettle to boil.
Cleaning your teeth
Waiting in a bus queue or supermarket
Waiting for the dog to pee up the 600th tree that morning
Waiting for your phone to find a wifi signal
Anywhere that you have a free moment in which to regain some balance in life.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND UPDATED BBC TAI CHI PODCAST
Learn about Circles and Energy in Tai Chi - *Surveys and research: this Guardian Article on adding 10 years to your life or this in the Independent - Listen to full podcast by the BBC on Standing on One Leg but come back here for the exercises.
Update! The BBC Just One Thing Series has now released a full podcast in the series on the benefits of practisingTai Chi. Sadly, the chosen subject only “trials” a Tai Chi Youtube video for a week - hardly a thorough introduction to the art - but nevertheless breathes some useful oxygen onto the subject.
What is the Secret to Good Balance?
Some Tai Chi schools bander the word "secret" about a lot. You'll see "Secret training methods, secret techniques, secret flapjack recipes" etc. But, the teaptomonk says - there are no secrets. It's all just a question of practice. But don't just practice in class or when you are in a training session. Learn to blend your training with your daily life as a Quiet Ninja. Live the change you want to see.
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