When you take his courses you will:

• Warm up.
• Learn a short form of Tai Chi, aimed to exercise your body and refresh your energy.
• Practise this short form with observation and help from your teacher.
• Improve and inform the way you move every day.
• Strengthen your body.
• Improve your flexibility and balance.
• Improve your breathing.

Why Tai Chi?

• Gentle and easily attainable for virtually anyone.
• It is a low-impact, highly effective exercise.
• Feel results within 15 minutes of starting. Truly.
• No need of special clothing or accessories. Just loose comfortable clothing.
• All you need is your body and a bit of space. You can even do it while standing in a queue.
• Regular practice improves your flexibility, posture, breathing and strength.
• Regular practice increases calmness and reduces stress.
• Regular practice boosts your immune system and general health.
• Regular practice improves balance and, according to some studies, reduces risk of falls.

Proprioception — the ability to sense the position of one’s body in space — declines with age. Tai chi helps train this sense, which is a function of sensory neurons in the inner ear and stretch receptors in the muscles and ligaments. Improved muscle strength and flexibility make it easier to recover from a stumble. Fear of falling can make you more likely to fall; some studies have found that tai chi training helps reduce that fear.

You don’t need to subscribe to or learn much about tai chi’s roots in Chinese philosophy to enjoy its health benefits, but these concepts can help make sense of its approach:

• Qi — an energy force thought to flow through the body; tai chi is said to unblock and encourage the proper flow of qi.
• Yin and yang — opposing elements thought to make up the universe that need to be kept in harmony. Tai chi is said to promote this balance.