The meaning of relaxation in a Tai Chi context is often confused with the same kind of limp, collapsed, let-go feeling you get from flopping on to the couch after a long day. In fact, there’s a very different sense of “song” or relaxation in Tai Chi, which is at once easy and loose, but also energized and alert. In his translator’s introduction to Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan, Louis Swaim nails the nuance of the concept.

Most people are familiar with the benefits of basic Tai Chi: relaxation, better balance, relief from stiff joints. As you get more internally connected and learn to listen to the inside of your body as you practice, there are whole other layers of benefits, hidden beneath the surface of the graceful, flowing movements typically associated with Tai Chi. In this video, Robert Tangora explains one of the more interesting ones, that is rarely taught with the precision he is outlining: how to use specific Tai Chi movements to target and massage individual organs in your body, like your liver, spleen, heart, and lungs.

Try this follow-along practice on Emptying the Leg. We’re combining principles from Standing Qigong and Tai Chi to create a blend of stillness, movement, and internal contrast.

The progression includes: Varying your stance, increasing in complexity and physical demands. Increased contrast over time between empty and full or unweighted and weighted legs Heightened sense of sinking as you stabilize in each posture

Perhaps the most surprising element of this exercise is the way that it’s going to help you build flow.

Every six months or so, one of our Senior Instructors at Brookline Tai Chi tells me that he’s had an amazing revelation about how to do the kwa squat. The kwa squat is one of the very first things we teach, he’s been doing Tai Chi for 40 years, and he gets new insight into it all the time. Amazing, right? Tai Chi and Back Pain One of the reasons we get so interested in this exercise is its power to relieve pressure on the spine and open up important joints of the body.

In April, we will host Energy Arts Senior Instructors Eric Peters and Craig Barnes for the Wu Style Tai Chi Immersion Week at Brookline Tai Chi. As Craig and Eric have been preparing for the event and planning their curriculum, I’ve been thinking about all the different ways you practice Tai Chi. Sometimes, it depends on your stage of learning. Sometimes it comes down to the kind of day you’re having or your overall practice goals.

I want to thank Paul Brennan for making translations of classic Tai Chi texts available online. Please visit his site and let him know we all appreciate the awesome work he’s doing. In THE TAIJI BOXING OF MR. WU JIANQUAN - FOR SELF-STUDY, by Chen Zhenmin & Ma Yueliang, published by the Health Magazine Society, May, 1935, translation by Paul Brennan, May, 2012, the authors explain the foundational body mechanics of Tai Chi.

In issue 48 of Qi Magazine, there is an article about Wu Style Tai Chi Master Wang Hao Da. The article describes Master Wang’s early training and his desire to interact with as many different people as possible to refine his art. The description of Zhong Ding, or Central Equilibrium, drawn from the article, explains much of what organized Master Wang’s teaching and personal practice, as described to me by one of my teachers, Robert Tangora.

Fuzhong Li, Ph.d, is a leading Tai Chi researcher, based at the Oregon Research Institute. Since 2001, he has studied the effects of exercise, especially Tai Chi, on balance and falls prevention in aging populations. Tai Chi: Moving for Better Balance is the CDC-approved falls prevention program that Dr. Li has developed based on his research. When I visited him in Oregon recently, he showed me the refinements he’s made to his program, we visited one of his classes and we played with some of the equipment he uses in his lab for testing different components of balance (see how I did below!