Tai Chi: Scoop the Moon

Video Transcript

"This next segment I'm going to show you is called Scoop the moon from in a horse stance. With this one, I do make a caution, if you have hypertension do not attempt this exercise. Also, do not overdo if you're not physically fit. OKay, so what we do is the legs are straight, we circle our arms, we want to fold at the waist, keeping the legs and arms straight, holding a ball down at the bottom. We drop down, holding the ball right in front of us, so it's not total squat, not up to high. Now we only raise up a little bit, here. Keeping the leg straight, legs bent, legs are really working here. Let the arms come up, up, up, and then we push the pelvis forward, let the ball push us backward. So we come here, let the ball pull us back, back, back, and then we raise up and then we go through the motion again. Hold the ball, drop down, pick the ball up, rise the body only a little bit, keep the legs bent, letting the ball pull us back, pull us back, pull us back, and back up to the front. So, with this one, I really do recommend you exercise a lot of caution. If it doesn't feel right to you, if it feels very uncomfortable in some way, I'd recommend that you find a qualified teacher to teach you this exercise."