Tai chi

Tai Chi Exercise

What it is, in one paragraph

A set sequence of slow movements, done standing, in which your weight travels from foot to foot. You learn it by copying. There is no equipment and no floor work, and a beginner session looks almost embarrassingly undramatic from the outside.

The reason it is worth your Tuesday evening

Balance. Spending half an hour repeatedly loading one leg slowly is training for the moment your foot catches a kerb on Longueville Road. Falls-prevention guidance includes tai chi because the trials hold up, and because it is one of the few forms of exercise people in their seventies and eighties keep doing.

Consistency is the whole trick: twice a week for a few months is the dose that showed results, and a class five minutes from home gets done far more often than one across the bridge.

What it is not for

It is not treatment for a condition, and we are not going to imply it is. The supporting evidence thins out quickly beyond balance, falls and some knee osteoarthritis pain. If you came across a longer list of benefits somewhere, treat it with suspicion.

Who should ask their GP first

Anyone who has fallen in the past twelve months, anyone who gets light-headed standing up, and anyone with a heart or joint problem that already limits their activity. The likely answer is that a seated or supervised version suits you better — not that you should stay home.

Starting

Wear whatever you walked in wearing and stand at the back. Nobody learns the sequence in the first month and everybody is too busy remembering their own feet to watch yours. Ask at reception what is running and when.