I was also told that lifting was bad for Taiji by a bunch of my friends but something about it never sounded right. I talked to a trainer about how to keep the muscles conditioned with out getting tight. Her first comment was to increase my stretching, the more I stretched the less likely I was to get stiff. Secondly, to increase my aerobic workouts such as jogging. And, lastly she suggested if I wanted to work with weights, to do more reps at a slower pace with a lighter weight.
Lifting weights is not bad for tai chi. It may be bad for you. (Don’t panic Vash, it may be good for you) Clearly, exercise effects muscle bulk which may interfere with a certain range of motion. Clearly, muscle bulk is not an indication of fitness or conditioning either. Clearly, every body is different. A good teacher may tell you to avoid weight lifting and tell the guy next to you something else. Do you have a good teacher? Ask him.
Breast stroke fits right in with tai chi motion, but seems to me, the most relaxing stroke to do. Maybe if you push it hard you might get a conditioning workout. What do you think about butterfly stroke?
That’s a curse I could live with. Maybe try something like Pilates, they talk about working with the core all the time and you’ll meet lots of cuties!
There are a lot of good suggestions out there Shawn, though I thought Tai Chi should be enough, at least you don’t have to sacrifice your body,(knees) to get in shape
Gymnastics, break-dancing, rock climbing, Taiji ball QiGong with varying sizes and weights… stance training, trance-dance for hours.. custom diet prepared by a knowledgable nutritionist.. swimming (i favor the back-stroke).. make every physical task a mindful training in principles..
Above all, I think that you should focus mostly on your health. If you’re heavier than you want to be, so be it, as long as you’re not overweight or unhealthy. I don’t want to give you some cheesy philosophy that you should accept yourself and love yourself. Personally, if I were in your situation, I’d way (weigh -haha) way my image of myself against what it would take to change that i.e. I simply could not partake of a fitness/ diet regimen where I was forcing myself to eat things I didn’t enjoy (not to be construed as a knock against vegetarianism at all). What I’m trying to say is that I eat well and if it means I carry a bit of weight, so be it. If I’m healthy with a bit of weight, screw it - that’s fine with me.
Sorry, I rambled. I think I had a point in there…I do understand your pursuit of slimness, though.
Did you ever read Asterix and Obelix when you were young? Obelix was ‘larger’ but man could that dude fight!
In the end, if oprah and dr. phil have taught us anything, it’s that if you’re a big, fat lardo, it’s not your fault!
In the end, if oprah and dr. phil have taught us anything, it’s that if you’re a big, fat lardo, it’s not your fault!
“we are what we have chosen to be.. the beauty of it is that we are free to choose again and again”.. If Oprah and Phil taught us anything it’s how to avoid taking responsibility for our own existence.. choose who you want to be and do it, period. If you are comfortable with excess weight, fine.. just don’t blame it anything other than your own choices.. unless, of course, you have a real medical condition.. genetics are tendencies and can largely be overcome with diligent effort, just another choice depending on what one chooses to be…
I find that practicing yoga gives me a lot of strength. I think some people have the wrong impression about it in that they think it’s all about flexibility. Really you work all your muscle groups with vinyasa and standing poses while becoming very flexible. The idea is to do all this fluidly, with long breaths, effort without tension. You might find that it complements your tai chi well.
I too have a slow metabolism. In fact, at one point I gained twenty pounds while playing 3 soccer games per week and it wasn’t muscle. I found that I really had to adjust my diet because it was all about the foods that I was eating.
I second or third the idea of getting your thyroid checked. If your doctor is mystified you might want to check in with an endocrinologist. These doctors really understand thyroid problems, blood sugar issues and metabolism.
Since I’ve been focusing on the internal side of things, since I had a stomach problem about 2-3 months ago, I’ve lost 15 lbs and have never felt better. For the most part, it’s been a change of mind, I just don’t get urges like I used to, I find myself skipping dinner for the first time … maybe just havong some oatmeal or cereal or dumplings for dinner. Not every night, but 2 or 3 times out of the week.
On a physical side, two man drills, punching drills, groundwork, etc. You’d even be surprised what walking the circle and the up/down of the opening Taiji can do … without increasing your heart rate too.
Thanks for the solid info, everyone. And, just so no one thinks of me as Orca, I’m 5’7 at 196lbs., with a lot of muscle development. In truth, I have about 25 lbs. of fat I should loose. Its not that I’m huge, its that what I have seems so resilient as to defeat my every effort to loose it.
Thyroid, food, exercise - I agree that the answer is in there, somewhere. Lilkely more variations are needed to discover the actual problem. My eating habits are solid, but possibly wrong for my needs. My level of activity is high, but maybe its all the wrong stuff. Its frustrating as hell.
Cam, to your point, yes I’m happy that I’m strong and healthy. I’m athletically inclined and pretty quick - a big surprise to some sparring opponents in the past who assumed I was heavy because I sat on my ass and ate chips or something. This weight thing is just a part of my training I want to fine tune. If I don’t carry the extra weight, I don’t have to work as hard. Chi vs. strength, etc. blahblahblah.
Dead horse thoroughly beaten. Onward and upward. Chicks galore etc etc etc
I’m sticking with the go running to loose weight. I run 3 times a week now and 4 or 5 times a week during the summer. It’s a great wy to loose weight and then keep it off. It’ll boost your metabolism too.
For those that think lifting weights atomatically means bulking up YOU ARE WRONG! Lifting weights will make you stronger, it can increase your flexibility and will boost your metabolism. Bulking up requires that you eat A LOT. The increased tissue size just doesn’t come out of thin air. It is a result of an increase in calories. If you eat more while also lifting, you will increase in size or bulk up. Body builders eat all the time. If you just maintain your normal calorie intake while lifting, you’ll burn body fat, get stronger and boost your metabolism.
You can do whatever resistence training you want. It’s true that Taiji seeks to avoid using brute strength to accomplish the goal, but that doesn’t mean that the practitioner must be physically weak. In Taiji, you use your muscles differently no matter what their size. Movement is integrated and relaxed. In fact, traditional Taiji training involves solid basic gong fu skill, such as flexibility and strength. What do you think pile standing does for strength?
Well said. Without muscle what can your chi do for you in terms of physical expression or power issueance?
The reason I avoid lifting weights though is two fold: 1) it trains the mind to fight weight/resistance 2) I didn’t believe my master when he said it, but I did find my punching power actually decrease after 3 weeks of lifting. This was about a year ago.
It seems a common misconception that being muscular is against internal principles. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Firm, toned, buffed muscles shouldn’t be confused with tensing the muscles. The latter being totally against the aforementioned principles. It all boils down to relaxing and letting your structure and alignment work as nature meant it to. Nothing mystical about it. I think the chinese term is “song”, relaxed but firm [not sure if this is the correct term here]. Not relaxed like a wet noodle.
Shawn, if you are trying to lose weight in hopes of improving your Taiji, you might want to rethink that. Remember, bigger is always better especially in internal. [i.e., without being flabby or obese]
Welcome to the wackiest forum on earth. For the most part, I don’t disagree with your first post. But it is a common misconception that what is good for one is good for everyone. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Some people learning the so called “internal martial arts” should ask someone who knows whether weight training at certain times in their development would be an aid or detriment.
Yeah, I agree. Everyone needs to find what works for them. Whether they learn it on their own or from someone/somewhere else.
I guess my point being that weight training or whatever training should not be detrimental to his Taiji as long as he adheres to the principles of the art.
Good posts here, and I think basically the view on the whole is that you can be physically strong AND relaxed/ supple/ adhere to the taiji principles.
I weight train and do Hung Quan or Hung Gar/Kuen. I’m pretty muscly yet I can easily relax and stick to the principles. In my opinion, it helps to be physically fit.
For exercise, Chen Lao Jia Yi Lu is definitely a good one to practice. Takes a good 10 minutes to get through and you can do it extra slow and emphasize on the fa jing. The stances can also be quite low if you prefer- a lot of people differ their opinion on that. I practice this form almost shaolin style in terms of stance height- really helps with rooting and leg strength. Ma bu is also a good stance in the hung gar to practice (everyday) but a lot of people hate having to do this static stance and more to the point, it isn’t relevant to the taiji in principle.
