Tai Chi: Yin Yang Palm Up & Down

Series Summary

Tai Chi is a Chinese martial art that has been practiced and adapted throughout the years to encompass many different styles. Though not as "hard" a martial art as say, Taekwondo in that it does not overtly foster sparring and contact fighting, Tai Chi is nevertheless made up of forms which mimic blocks and strikes of "harder" martial arts. It is now primarily used as a form of spiritual and mystic exercise that incorporates body and mind through meditation and movement. In this free video series a professional Tai Chi instructor, Rich Marantz, will teach you a simplified for of Tai Chi for senior citizens. This form of Tai Chi is designed to help senior citizens who can't perform some of the more technical and rigorous movements. Rich will begin by teaching you several ways to warm up and stretch the body in order to relieve stress and increase mobility. You'll learn moves, such as: the ying yang palm up and down movement, walking for balance, kicking in four directions, preparation movement and swirl the water movement. Watch these videos and start improving your well-being and general health today.

Video Transcript

"In this segment I'm going to be teaching you something called yin yang palm up and down. And this helps us to really create balance in our body as well as really connect our left side with our right side. So that the right and left sides know what each other is doing and helps us to become more centered. So begin with one palm up, one palm down, it doesn't matter which one. Now if you think of a well in a bucket, what you want to do is to pull down on the rope let the bucket come up, then what you want to do simultaneously turn the hands. Now pull down on the rope, let the bucket come up. The bucket does not come up quicker then the rope goes down. Turn the palms simultaneously. Now this time sink your body and exhale, pull down on the rope let the bucket come up. Turn the palms, raise your body inhale, one palm up one palm down. And when you turn you want them to turn simultaneously, so it's not this, then this, it's the same time and then you pull down on the rope, sink the body exhaling as you sink. Turn the palms inhale rising. And this one you can do for as long as it feels comfortable, two, three, five minutes even, and you might find that you really have much benefit from this."