What Are the Health Benefits of Tai Chi?

Tai chi is an increasingly popular fitness and wellness practice. It combines slow, deliberate and low-impact movements with a focus on breathing and mental clarity. 

As a mind-body practice, tai chi is good for both physical and mental wellness. The benefits are often most important for older adults, but anyone can enjoy tai chi and use it to improve fitness and mental health. It is highly adaptable for all fitness and ability levels. 

About Tai Chi

Tai chi is a type of mind-body practice. This means it combines physical movement with mental focus and breath control. Mind-body exercises are based on the idea that the two are vitally connected. You can harness their connection and improve the mind and body together through these types of exercise. Yoga is another example. 

Today, most people use tai chi for physical fitness and mental wellness. The modern practice developed from an ancient Chinese martial art. It combines slow, gentle movements, mental concentration, and focused breathing. 

There are a few styles of tai chi, but the one most commonly practiced today was standardized in the 1950s. It includes 24 postures and adheres to the main principles of all types of tai chi: 

• Initiating movements with the mind

• Keeping the joints loose and relaxed

• Synchronizing movements

• Using circular motions

• Maintaining a gentle flow from one posture to the next

Training older adults presents unique challenges and many rewards. Check out this interview with an expert in working with senior clients.

The Physical Health Benefits of Tai Chi

A tai chi class might not involve lifting heavy weights or heart-pounding cardio, but it is still a good workout with a lot of health benefits. It is adaptable to ability level and for physical limitations. It is also low-impact and easy enough for fitness beginners to try. These characteristics make tai chi a particularly good choice for older adults, but anyone can benefit from it. 

Gentle Fitness That Supports a Healthy Weight

The movements are slow and deliberate, but tai chi is movement and that means it benefits fitness. It is particularly good for developing strength, balance, and flexibility. 

One study found that adults who practiced tai chi for 45 minutes, five times per week, lost over a pound in 12 weeks (1). They didn’t make any other changes to their lifestyles. It’s not a lot of weight loss, but it shows that practicing tai chi can support a healthy weight. 

Reduces Falls in Older Adults

One of the greatest physical benefits of tai chi movements is improved balance, which most benefits older adults. Falls can be devastating, causing more than minor injuries. Recovery from a fall at an older age takes a long time and may never be complete. 

Tai chi has been proven to improve balance in seniors. It also improves balance in people with certain conditions that impair balance, like Parkinson’s disease. The focus on slow movement develops muscle strength throughout the body, but especially in the core, which is so important for balance. 

Manages Chronic Illnesses and Pain

Tai chi is a great type of exercise for people with limitations. Not only does it provide exercise that can be scaled to any ability level, but it also is proven to help people manage chronic pain and illnesses (2): 

• Tai chi improves pain and reduces stiffness in joints caused by osteoarthritis.

• In people who have had a stroke, tai chi improved walking gait. 

• Tai chi reduced pain and improved everyday functioning in people living with chronic low back pain. 

• Hour-long sessions done up to three times per week for 12 weeks reduced pain scores in patients with fibromyalgia. 

• For people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), regular tai chi practice improved lung function and quality of life. It was found to be more beneficial than walking or breathing exercises. 

• Tai chi was shown to be better than other exercises and even medications at lowering blood pressure. 

• Tai chi has also proven to be better than other types of exercise and some medical treatments in improving aerobic capacity in patients with cardiovascular disease. 

• Tai chi improved cognitive impairment in patients in the early stages of dementia. 

Mental Health Benefits of Tai Chi

Tai chi is good for fitness and physical wellness, but it also benefits the mind and mental health. It is often described as a moving meditation. As with meditation, it requires mental concentration and a focus on the present moment. 

Reduces Stress

As a practice that focuses both on the mind and the body, tai chi is great for stress relief. Any physical activity can reduce stress. The addition of focused breathing and concentrating on the body’s movements enhances stress relief. This is especially helpful for anyone who is unable to engage in more vigorous or high-impact workouts but still wants the stress benefits of exercise. 

Here are some other types of exercise that are great for reducing stress. 

Reduces Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Disorder

Tai chi can reduce stress and boost mood for anyone, but there is also evidence that it helps people with diagnosed mood disorders. 

A study involving older patients with diagnosed depression found that tai chi helps improve symptoms (3). Some patients even experience remission. There is also evidence that regular tai chi practice can reduce anxiety. 

Improves Sleep

Getting adequate, high-quality sleep is essential for both physical and mental health. Insomnia and sleep deprivation contribute to several conditions and health problems. Health problems, in turn, exacerbate poor sleep. Any type of exercise improves sleep, including tai chi. 

A study of young adults with anxiety found that regular tai chi classes for ten weeks reduced their symptoms and helped them sleep better (4). Similar results were found in a study that involved older adults with cognitive deficits (5). 

Is Tai Chi Safe? 

Tai chi is one of the safest types of exercise for people of all ages, abilities, and fitness levels. It can be adapted to suit nearly anyone, even people in wheelchairs or with chronic conditions, like heart disease. The low impact and slow speed of the practice make it safe for beginners and practitioners with balance issues or joint conditions. There are very few risks associated with tai chi. 

Tai chi has a lot to recommend it. Best of all, it is accessible to anyone at any fitness and ability level. If you have older clients, recommend tai chi as a gentle form of exercise to supplement personal training. 

Teaching Tai Chi

Learn how to help your clients enjoy the benefits of both physical activity and relaxing the mind through Tai Chi movements, along with learning how to create a structured exercise program using this martial arts form.

Getting your Tai Chi Basic Certification with ISSA can help you grow your fitness business while also helping clients improve their minds and bodies, providing a whole-body transformational experience. Get started today!

References

1. Hui, S. S.-C., Xie, Y. J., Woo, J., & Kwok, T. C.-Y. (2015). Effects of Tai Chi and walking exercises on weight loss, metabolic syndrome parameters, and bone mineral density: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2015, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/976123 

2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Tai Chi: What you need to know. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/tai-chi-what-you-need-to-know 

3. Lavretsky, H., Alstein, L. L., Olmstead, R. E., Ercoli, L. M., Riparetti-Brown, M., St. Cyr, N., & Irwin, M. R. (2011). Complementary use of Tai Chi Chih augments escitalopram treatment of geriatric depression: A randomized controlled trial. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 19(10), 839–850. https://doi.org/10.1097/jgp.0b013e31820ee9ef 

4. Caldwell, K., Bergman, S. M., Collier, S., Triplett, N. T., Quin, R., Bergquist, J., & Pieper, C. F. (2016). Effects of Tai Chi Chuan on anxiety and sleep quality in young adults: Lessons from a randomized controlled feasibility study. Nature and Science of Sleep, Volume 8, 305–314. https://doi.org/10.2147/nss.s117392 

5. Chan, A. W., Yu, D. S., Choi, K., Lee, D. T., Sit, J. W., & Chan, H. Y. (2016). Tai Chi Qigong as a means to improve night-time sleep quality among older adults with cognitive impairment: A pilot randomized controlled trial. Clinical Interventions in Aging, Volume 11, 1277–1286. https://doi.org/10.2147/cia.s111927