Tai chi walking can boost balance, strength and more

Tai chi walking has been popping up on social media recently with proponents claiming it can provide all sorts of physical and mental health benefits. And if you’re looking to add some mindfulness or balance practice to your usual walking routine, tai chi walking may be just what you’re after.

Tai chi was originally developed as a type of martial art in China hundreds of years ago, say Yun Kim and Jacques MoraMarco, both acupuncturists, doctors of traditional East Asian medicine and co-authors of the recently released book “Walking Your Way to Vitality: Integrating Walking, Breathwork and Mindfulness Into Your Daily Exercise.”

Today, you probably know it more for the slow, hypnotic movements and its potential for preventing falls in older adults.

But the authors encourage people to start building that practice early for better balance, strength and mobility that will provide benefits now and later in life.

“Prevention is the highest form of medicine,” Kim tells TODAY.com. “The concept is to start these preventative practices when you you’re relatively young and healthy to prevent something serious that could happen in the future.”

And tai chi walking offers the chance to combine the controlled, meditative movements of tai chi with the well-studied benefits of regular walking.

What is tai chi walking?

While tai chi is typically performed generally in place, forms of walking that incorporate tai chi-inspired movements have been making their way around social media.

The type of movements used in tai chi walking are actually based on “transitions between the stances of tai chi,” MoraMarco tells TODAY.com. So, while there is no such thing as “pure tai chi walking,” he says, these movements are still based on the slow, mindful, intentional weight transfer that you’ll perform in traditional tai chi practices.

You can perform tai chi walks for five to 10 minutes at a time or add a few minutes of these movements into your usual longer walks.

Benefits of tai chi walking

One of the biggest benefits of practicing tai chi and tai chi walking is the balance, strength and mobility needed to prevent falls, MoraMarco says, which is particularly important for older adults.

“Depending on the posture, you’re affecting specific muscles like the hip flexor and the quads that are beyond what you would get in regular walking or jogging,” he explains.

MoraMarco, now in his 70s, recalls a moment when he nearly fell while presenting at a convention. His foot got caught on someone’s bag as he walked to the stage “and I went flying forward, but I caught myself,” he says. He credits his tai chi practice with saving him that way many times.

Meanwhile, Kim, 53, says the practice has helped her maintain strength and manage symptoms as she went through perimenopause. For her, the benefits of weight-bearing exercises to support bone density are top-of-mind as she gets older. While lifting weights is one option to get those benefits, she says, tai chi is another, gentler option.

Three times a week, Pui Lan Tsang leads residents at Atria Almaden in San Jose through a tai chi inspired workout. Garvin Thomas reports.

For people with chronic pain or limited movement, tai chi and tai chi walking can help them stay active and build strength with much less impact on the body, the experts add.

There is also the mindfulness component, which supports both better body awareness and mental health. This concept, also called “yi,” translates to “mind intent” in Chinese, Kim says, and it’s “the secret sauce in all of these movement therapies.”

Tai chi is not just choreography, Kim explains. “You’re not just going through the motions,” she says. “If you want to really derive the health benefits, you want to be in your body.”

This type of awareness can also help us notice when we’re ruminating about the past or anxious about the future. With mindfulness, we are better able to “anchor our mind” in what we’re doing and feeling right then and there,” Kim says.

“When you’re doing tai chi, we’re fully in the present moment,” she says. “We are feeling the feet on the ground, the shifting of the weight, the knee lifting and the core engaged.”

There is also research supporting the benefits of tai chi for improving sleep and reducing anxiety, as well as benefits of simply practicing outdoors.

How to start tai chi walking

In their book, MoraMarco and Kim share three variations of tai chi walking in order of increasing difficulty. They each evoke a different animal’s careful, considered movements.

The first one, the tai chi cat walk, does not involve the upper body and the experts recommend people start here.

To perform the cat walk:

• Start in a right bow stance, meaning your right leg is forward and bent slightly at the knee. Your left leg is stacked behind you, also slightly bent. You can rest your hands at the top of your hips.
• Take a moment to relax into this form with your back straight and your chin slightly dropped.
• Sink your waist and right hip down while rotating to the right and opening slightly. Lift the toes of your right foot and rotate them out at a 45-degree angle. Your heel should stay glued to the ground. At this point, all of your weight should be on your right foot.
• With all of your weight on the right, you can now slowly pick up your left foot and bring it past the right. Your left leg should stay bent but low, held under your body while you bring it in front of you. Straighten the leg before you gently bring your foot down, heel to toe.
• As your toes come to the ground, you should straighten the right leg behind you. Shift your weight to your left leg so that you end in the left bow stance, mirroring the right bow stance you started in.

• Continue walking like this for a few minutes, ideally up to 10 minutes.
• When you’re ready to end, stand in the “wu ji” position, also called “standing like a pole,” to center yourself and clear your mind after your practice.

When you’re just starting out, the authors recommend aiming to perform the cat walk for two minutes and build up to 10 minutes in future sessions. You can do it outside or inside, Kim says, even up and down a hallway in your home.

And, when you’re ready, try the golden rooster walk or bear walks, which add arm movements and require a little more careful balance. As you progress, you can start to focus on your breath more intentionally, too.

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY: