During an expedition down an internet wormhole I came across a BBC news article talking about the benefits of Tai Chi for sufferers of Parkinson's disease. The BBC article went on to show a couple of Yang Shi Ba Shi Qigong exercises labelled as Tai Chi. Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of the subject knows that Qigong exercises are not Tai Chi (although it could be said that Tai Chi is a subset of Qigong in so far as they both involve cultivation of internal energy). I'm petty enough to be irritated by this sort of inaccuracy, so I decided to dive a little deeper...
The article was based on a study first published by the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry in October 2023. The paper was based on an average of 3.5 years' observation of groups practising Tai Chi twice a week for 60 minutes per session. The Tai Chi coaches were from a professional organisation called Sino Tai Chi who, after a little more digging online, I believe to be a Chen style Tai Chi organisation.
The study compared the persistent Tai Chi training group with a control group who didn't engage in any regular exercise beyond their usual daily activity. Compared with the control group, the people who maintained Tai Chi training showed a slower annual worsening of overall Parkinson's symptoms. In addition, they required lower annual increases in the daily dosage of their medication, exhibited a delayed progression into further anti-Parkinsonian therapy and demonstrated greater stability and improvements in motor function tests such as balance and gait.
In addition, the Tai Chi participants showed a slower deterioration in cognitive function, autonomic symptoms, sleep quality and overall quality of life. They also exhibited a lower prevalence of motor and non-motor complications such as dyskinesia, cognitive impairment/dementia, drops in blood pressure and impulse control disorders.
The Tai Chi practitioners did report falls, dizziness and back pain, but these phenomena weren't significantly higher than those experienced by the control group.
In summary, the study suggests that persistent long-term Tai Chi training when delivered correctly is associated with slower symptom progression and improved functional outcomes in people with Parkinson's disease compared to people not engaged in regular training. Whilst it doesn't prove causation, it does provide compelling evidence that sustained physical training such as Tai Chi can be beneficial in long term management of Parkinson's disease.
When trying to explain the mechanics of Tai Chi can be challenging when you're unfamiliar with the Qi paradigm. We talk about energy releasing (fajin) in association with breathing, relaxation and intent, but what does it mean from the point of view of the Western biomechanical paradigm?
We came across this YouTube short from Professor Hannah Fry recently where she talks about using the breath to open jars. Whilst she isn't thinking about Tai Chi, Qi or even general martial arts theory, she is talking about the connection that the arms have to muscles located in the back and sides of our torsos and how the breath interacts with them. An awareness of these interactions makes it easier to feel them and in feeling, to harness them. If you find it difficult to make sense of some of these concepts, take a look below and see if she can give you a lightbulb moment!
In 2015 the British Journal of Sports Medicine published a study suggesting that Tai Chi is great for older adults with conditions like arthritis, COPD, and even heart issues. Researchers found it helps with pain, stiffness, and overall quality of life without making symptoms worse. The gentle, flowing movements combine relaxation with deep breathing, making it an accessible way to stay active. With evidence from over 30 studies, experts think Tai Chi could even be prescribed in the future for multiple chronic conditions.
When I first began my Tai Chi journey 14 years ago, a phrase I heard repeated regularly was that to learn Tai Chi is to learn a new way of moving. Other concepts such as the Dantien, internal connections and the spiralling, circling nature of the movements were impressed on me again and again as I progressed in my training which, over time, began to make sense as I became increasingly aware of how my body felt during practice.
These concepts can seem a little esoteric for a new student more familiar with the ideas of Newtonian mechanics and cause and effect than with the Chinese concepts of Yin Yang, Qi and meridians. When introducing new students to Tai Chi I find it helpful to explain these ideas using concepts that are more familiar to the western mind such as potential/kinetic energy and elasticity.
In recent years, western medicine has increasingly begun to investigate and understand the role the fascia plays in the body. I'd like to suggest that it's the fascia which provides the internal connections we feel during practice and act as the medium through which forces/energy/Qi flows around the body.
If we balance on one leg, our body will make tiny internal adjustments to muscles and tendons in the supporting leg to help us balance. The body achieves this in part by means of proprioception, an unconscious process which happens automatically without the need for conscious engagement. As we progress in our practice, we aim to develop an ability to manipulate these subconscious processes in order to initiate and augment movement in the body without the usual recourse to the consciously controlled muscles we're all familiar with such as biceps, triceps, quadriceps or hamstrings. I find it helpful to think of the Chinese concept of shen as being, in part, this process of harnessing conscious control the tendons and muscles associated with the fascia in order to initiate movement and deliver additional power.
In my opinion, it isn't a great leap to imagine that the fascia and associated muscles and tendons are a significant physiological factor in the Tai Chi experience. The article below talks about the fascia, the role it plays in the body and it's importance to our muscle and bone health and will hopefully give you some food for thought when you next practice your forms...
Fascia: the most neglected part of our body is finally starting to receive attention
We are constantly reminded about how exercise benefits our bone and muscle health or reduces fat. However, there is also a growing interest in one element of our anatomy that is often overlooked: our fascia.
Fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue, mainly made of collagen – a rope-like structure that provides strength and protection to many areas of the body. It surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fibre and muscle in place. And scientists increasingly recognise its importance in muscle and bone health.
It is hard to see fascia in the body, but you can get a sense of what it looks like if you look at a steak. It is the thin white streaks on the surface or between layers of the meat.
Fascia provides general and special functions in the body, and is arranged in several ways. The closest to the surface is the superficial fascia, which is underneath the skin between layers of fat. Then we have the deep fascia that covers the muscles, bones and blood vessels.
The link between fascia, muscle and bone health and function is reinforced by recent studies that show the important role fascia has in helping the muscles work, by assisting the contraction of the muscle cells to generate force and affecting muscle stiffness.
Each muscle is wrapped in fascia. These layers are important as they enable muscles that sit next to, or on top of, each other to move freely without affecting each other’s functions.
Fascia also assists in the transition of force through the musculoskeletal system. An example of this is our ankle, where the achilles tendon transfers force into the plantar fascia. This sees forces moving vertically down through the achilles and then transferred horizontally into the bottom of the foot - the plantar fascia – when moving.
Similar force transition is seen from muscles in the chest running down through to groups of muscles in the forearm. There are similar fascia connective chains through other areas of the body.
When fascia gets damaged
When fascia doesn’t function properly, such as after injury, the layers become less able to facilitate movement over each other or help transfer force. Injury to fascia takes a long time to repair, probably because it possesses similar cells to tendons (fibroblasts), and has a limited blood supply.
Recently, fascia, particularly the layers close to the surface, have been shown to have the second-highest number of nerves after the skin. The fascial linings of muscles have also been linked to pain from surgery to musculoskeletal injuries from sports, exercise and ageing. Up to 30% of people with musculoskeletal pain may have fascial involvement or fascia may be the cause.
A type of massage called fascial manipulation, developed by Italian physiotherapist Luigi Stecco in the 1980s, has been shown to improve the pain from patellar tendinopathy (pain in the tendon below the kneecap), both in the short and long term.
Fascial manipulation has also shown positive results in treating chronic shoulder pain.
One of the growing trends for helping with musculoskeletal injuries is Kinesio tape, which is often used in professional sports, although evidence for its effectiveness is mixed. It is also being used to complement the function of the fascia, and is used to treat chronic lower back pain where fascial involvement is a factor.
The spaces between fascial layers are usually closed (think of cling film being folded over), but when an infection occurs, germs can spread between these layers. This is a particular problem in the neck, where there are several layers of fascia for infections to travel along.
In severe cases, surgery is often needed to remove the dead tissue and save the healthy remaining tissue.
One of the primary examples of fascia functioning in health, and the challenges its dysfunction can bring, is seen in the common complaint plantar fasciitis, which causes pain on around the heel and arch of the foot.
This incredibly common ailment affects 5-7% of people, rising to 22% in athletes. It is recognised as an overuse injury, causing the thickening of the fascial bands on the soles of the feet that help give the arch support.
Fascia can also be implicated in more serious health conditions, such as necrotising fasciitis. This is a rare but serious bacterial condition that can spread through the body quickly and cause death.
The condition is almost always caused by bacteria, specifically group A Streptococcus or Staphylococcus aureus. The initial infection comes from a cut or scratch, and then the bacteria travel along the fascia to other areas away from the initial site of access and multiply in the ideal environment afforded by the warm recesses of the body.
We can see it better now
One reason fascia has been overlooked in health and disease is because it was difficult to see using current imaging technology. More recently, though, MRI and ultrasound imaging have been shown to be beneficial in visualising fascia, particularly in musculoskeletal conditions such as plantar fasciitis, and pathological changes in the fascia of the shoulder and neck.
With the growing interest in fascia and the growing understanding of its contribution to musculoskeletal health, it’s sensible to suggest that we look after it in the same way we do with the rest of the musculoskeletal system - by using it. Simple techniques like foam rollers and stretching are beneficial in increasing mobility, but there is still much to learn about our fascia and the role it plays in our day-to-day health.
Clarification. The sentence: “One of the growing trends for helping with musculoskeletal injuries is Kinesio tape, which is often used in professional sports” has been amended to make it clear that evidence for the tape’s effectiveness is mixed.
Anyone who's tried, or even just read about Tai Chi will have encountered talk of energy.
The Chinese paradigm of Qi and Jin can be confusing to western minds when first encountered, but we're really just discussing how we move our bodies. The language of Newtonian mechanics (ie: potential and kinetic energy) can serve just as well to describe the process of storing and releasing energy in the body, but to fully understand how this energy is expressed we need to consider something called the 8 Strengths/Energies which underpin all movements within Chen Style Tai Chi.
In our weekly sessions we often practice a standing exercise which cycles through the first 4 of these energies: Peng, Lu, Gi and An, whilst our advanced sessions expand the exercises to encompass the remaining 4 energies: Tsai, Lie, Zhou and Cow.
The following article from the Tai Chi Basics website does a great job of describing each of the 8 energies to help you better understand the purpose of the exercises we practice and how they relate to our Tai Chi forms:
Tai Chi is known to be good for the health, but do you know how and why? Michael Moseley discusses the medical evidence for both the physical and mental wellbeing aspects of our beloved art in his BBC Radio 4 show "Just One Thing".
If you're interested in trying Tai Chi, join us in Penwortham tomorrow night for our 7pm class. Beginners are always welcome. We also run a session in Bamber Bridge on a Saturday morning and Tarleton on a Tuesday afternoon (check out the classes page for times and locations).
The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) paradigm can be difficult to understand in relation to the Western Scientific/Medical model that most of us are familiar with. Many of the ancient Chinese texts can seem difficult to interpret without the appropriate cultural knowledge. Despite this there's no shortage of people sharing internet memes with quotes from texts such as the Dao De Jing. Whilst these writings do indeed offer some profound insights into the business of being a human being, those insights are often only really available to those with sufficient understanding of the contextual culture and metaphor surrounding them. To many people I suspect they evoke a sense of the profound, whilst actually communicating very little.
By way of contrast, the reality of TCM is that it's an ancient practice which is the result of millennia of observations of illnesses, diseases and the human condition in general, and the efficacy of certain natural treatments, exercises and remedies. Whilst the explanatory framework is somewhat figurative, it doesn't invalidate the observations or proposed treatments. Indeed, modern medicine is only now waking up to the links between mental health and gut health, or the importance of the facial layer in referred pain, both of which are accommodated within the TCM framework.
I find it helpful when western scientific research concurs with the Chinese model. As a Western student of Tai Chi and Qigong with an educational background in the sciences, such confirmations provide a greater insight into how two such different paradigms can both have merit and comfortably co-exist.
This report, pulling together research from around the world, demonstrates the very real benefits that regular practice of Tai Chi and Qigong can bestow upon the practitioner. It's a bit of a dry read for those who don't make a habit of reading science papers, so let me spoil the report for everyone by sharing its conclusions with you here:
"A compelling body of research emerges when Tai Chi studies and the growing body of Qigong studies are combined. The evidence suggests that a wide range of health benefits accrue in response to these meditative movement forms, some consistently so, and some with limitations in the findings thus far. This review has identified numerous outcomes with varying levels of evidence for the efficacy for Qigong and Tai Chi, including bone health, cardiopulmonary fitness and related biomarkers, physical function, falls prevention and balance, general quality of life and patient reported outcomes, immunity, and psychological factors such as anxiety, depression and self-efficacy. A substantial number RCTs have demonstrated consistent, positive results especially when the studies are designed with limited activity for controls. When both Tai Chi and Qigong are investigated together, as two approaches to a single category of practice, meditative movement, the magnitude of the body of research is quite impressive."
For those of you out there who do enjoy wading through the odd scientific journal, you'll find the full paper here:
A Comprehensive Review of Health Benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi
The moral of the tale? Keep doing what you're doing, as long as what you're doing is Tai Chi and Qigong!
If you aren't currently a Tai Chi or Qigong practitioner but feel compelled to find out more after reading this article, head to our Beginners page to get in touch and join us at a session.
There have been a number of clinical studies which demonstrate that Tai Chi and Qigong can be helpful in the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of people suffering from respiratory diseases such as Asthma and COPD. Researchers now believe that the benefits of both disciplines can also help people avoid and recuperate from Covid 19.
The Article from Wisconsin Tai Chi Academy linked below pulls together some of this research and explains how Tai Chi and Qigong can help people to avoid and recuperate from Covid.
Wisconsin Tai Chi Academy - Tai Chi & Qigong Could Help Prevent, Treat & Rehabilitate COVID-19
We regularly talk about the importance of visualisations to assist in training the conscious mind to access the subconscious processes of the body during practice.
The following research, whilst limited to diabetes sufferers, highlights the real physiological effects that mental imagery can generate. It's quite a dry read (it's a research paper after all!), but the abstract and conclusion are worth reading even if the body of the paper is a little more information than you require.
The private Facebook group where I initially found the research offered this summary:
"We did study at Loma Linda University Drayson Center: An 8 week class, twice a week. There were two groups: one of normal older adults and the other, Diabetics with Neuropathy. The curriculum taught was exactly the same as that taught to new students.
After completing 8 weeks of classes, all the students had a significant reduction in blood pressure. A Previous study on this group demonstrated a significant improvement in the balance of all participants.
Curriculum taught by Harvey Kurland, MSc, MFS, CSCS, Certified Instructor with the assistance of Myra Allen, Instructor."
It's a phrase that gets thrown about in Tai Chi classes like confetti at a wedding. Unfortunately, the concept is often misunderstood and shrouded in mystical terminology. At it's heart, Tai Chi is a fighting art, however practicing it without martial intent also delivers a wealth of health benefits.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) puts Qi at the centre of its paradigm and Tai Chi incorporates TCM principles in its practice, which in turn actively promotes good health. As a result, the TCM principles are often conflated with the concepts of martial Qi expressed through Jin.
Examples of apparently superhuman strength exhibited by King Fu practitioners are common. These feats are possible because the practitioners have spent years training and developing their internal physiology just as an Olympic athlete would train their muscles and cardio for strength, speed and endurance. The video below demonstrates the incredible internal power than can be developed and released through the body. This isn't a demonstration of "strong fingers". In terms of modern science, you can think of the strike as transferring kinetic energy from the body into the rock through the fingers.
Intrigued? At Ling Shui we try to offer members to the opportunity to develop both the martial and the TCM aspects of Tai Chi as they prefer. Whilst we can't promise to have you smashing rocks with your fingers, we can teach you how to start developing these skills while also enjoying a nice hot cup of the finest green tea!
We have weekly classes in Penwortham, Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall and Tarleton. Beginners are always welcome. For further details regarding times and locations, take a look on the classes page.
Click to watch a Shaolin Monk break rocks with nothing but his fingertips.
