Tai Chi for Health

Why Tai Chi is Different From Other Forms of Exercise and Offers Such Health Benefits

Most forms of exercise dissipate your energy, leaving you tired and hyper at the same time! The slow, gentle, dance-like movements of Tai Chi accumulates energy while calming you down, allowing you to feel refreshed when you finish. Tai Chi creates an awareness of and influences dimensions of our being that are not part of traditional exercise programs. Most exercises do not involve the meridian system used in acupuncture nor do they emphasize the importance of adding mind intent and breathing techniques to physical movements. When these dimensions are added, the benefits of exercise increase exponentially. If you are mostly interested in learning how to relax, gather more energy and reduce stress in your life, then Tai chi is right for you.

As for Tai Chi's health benefits, many studies have shown Tai Chi to be extremely effective with slowing the effects of aging, increasing balance and reducing falls, reducing stress, minimizing the effects of diabetes and increasing the potential for preventing strokes and extending life. The fact that it is now encouraged by HMO's and Kaiser Permanente (mostly due to public demand) shows its effectiveness. Another thing to consider is the fact that Tai Chi is practiced by over 80 million people daily! This makes Tai Chi is the most popular form of exercise on Earth! It is part of the 4,000 year-old system of Traditional Chinese Medicine practiced in China and now recognized by the U.S. National Institute of Health's Office of Alternative Medicine as an important method of Alternative Health Care. Thirty-four medical schools have included Complimentary Alternative Medicine programs in their basic curriculum and some have set up departments to incorporate Tai Chi into their research. The main conclusion from many studies is: Tai Chi helps the body heal itself. Another advantage is that Tai Chi is available to everyone, regardless of ability, age, belief system or life circumstances. Imagine this: 21st century- school children learning the health enhancement and self-healing techniques of Tai Chi as part of their PE class; office workers taking Tai Chi breaks, just as they do in China and Japan; seniors participating in gentle movement with breathing exercises to enhance balance and quality of life; care givers embracing a personal practice and finding renewal in their service to others; spiritual aspirants using Tai Chi to enhance their meditations and Tai Chi practice being instituted into prisons as a means to reconnect with life. Remember, society also benefits when an individual or a group of individuals assumes responsibility and takes action for their own health and healing.

"The exercises for pain and stiffness were especially helpful, we use them everyday." "We are 66 and 71 years old and found Tai Chi for Seniors [video] a wonderful exercise aide. The exercises for pain and stiffness were especially helpful, we use them everyday. Delivery was quick, we also liked your healing video. Thank you for your videos they are worth much more that the price paid. " Chuck and Pat Fleene Shopping.com Review March 25, 2005 (5 star overall rating given)

Why Are There So Many Different Styles of Tai Chi and Do Some Styles Offer More Health Benefits than Other Styles?

There are five major Tai Chi schools and hundreds of offshoots of those original five. The style and video that is best for you is determined by the reasons you want to do Tai Chi. Many Tai Chi styles and videos emphasize the martial art aspect, and so these styles can emphasize more difficult body positions (lower stances, etc.) and longer forms (A Tai Chi form is the "dance" you learn made out of combining different individual movements. Many Tai Chi systems taught on video based on martial Tai Chi have 20 or 30 movements to learn even in their "short" form.) These longer, more physically exacting forms can be difficult to learn and are one of the reasons many people start then give up on Tai Chi.

In contrast, there was a more smaller school of Tai Chi that developed that emphasized the health aspects of Tai Chi rather than the martial aspects. This is the style of Chi Kung/Tai Chi that I have spent many years learning - and in fact I was the first Western person allowed to study with the world's leading Master in this health style of Tai Chi. I quickly realized that one of the benefits of this "Chi Kung/Tai Chi" style was that its movements weren't strenuous and didn't require any special flexibility or physical strength to perform. That is why we've found the Chi Kung/Tai Chi style to work so well for our students - it is an easy to learn style that lets students quickly access the health benefits of Tai Chi.

Do you need to learn a lot of separate movements to get the health benefits of Tai Chi?

Tai Chi Forms traditionally had 50 or more separate movements that were strung together to make up the "Form". Even "short" forms can have 20 - 30 movements to learn. And while these Forms can be beautiful to watch and fun to do, they just take a long time to learn - anywhere form 6 months to a year to learn just the basic movements.

I've found, though, that if your interest is just getting the health benefits from Tai Chi, you don't need to learn these long forms. After many years of experimenting I came up with a Form that is just 10 movements - and I've concentrated on the easiest movements to learn as well. In my experience, these movements are simple enough that even students in their 80's are able to learn them in a fairly short time (weeks, not months). My goal was to simplify the Tai Chi Form - but keep its essence so that people would still get the health benefits. And after

Why is it important for the Tai Chi video to offer instruction with the instructor both facing both toward and away from the viewer?

One of the things I quickly learned when I began teaching Tai Chi over 20 years ago was that my students learned more easily when I demonstrated the movements facing them and then practiced the movements with me facing in away from them (so that they could then just follow along with my movements - now in the same direction that they were moving). And I've incorporated this into my video - I have a full demonstration of the Tai Chi Form both from the front and behind so you can clearly see the movements and easily be able to follow along with the demonstration as shot from behind.

Strangely, most Tai Chi videos don't seem to understand how important this is and only show the instructor teaching facing the camera. This just makes learning these Tai Chi forms more difficult than necessary - especially if you are just learning Tai Chi.

Why Should You Buy My Tai Chi Video Instead of One of the Others Available?

• My Video Emphasizes Self Healing and Focuses on Helping You Get the Health Benefits From Your Tai Chi Practice

  As I discussed above, most Tai Chi videos emphasize the martial art aspect, but my video focuses on self healing. I've been fortunate to study with some of the world's experts on healing Tai Chi and I've brought all aspects of this practice (the gentle, yet powerful, Tai Chi Form, warm-up exercises, accupressure and self massage techniques) to the video. Our video is the only one in the market that covers the breadth of health practices that Tai Chi and Chi Kung have to offer: techniques for detoxifying your body, better balance, and even exercises for longevity. To find all these practices from other sources you would need to buy a number of videos - but I've put them all together in one tape so you can get the most out of your Tai Chi practice.

• Easy to Learn Movements that Anyone Can Learn

  Unfortunately, many Tai Chi videos just aren't that easy to learn from - they have too many movements to learn and require postures that can be difficult for people.

  Our video takes a different approach - it has only 10 movements to learn, and each movement was picked to make sure that anyone could easily do them. We've taught this form to students of all ages, even in their 80's. Our goal was to take the mystery and difficulty out of learning Tai Chi and make it easy for everyone to do and get the health benefits.

• Our Video Offers Special Exercises For Arthritis, Strengthening the Immune system, High Blood pressure, and Osteoporosis. Accupressure Points Also Taught For Headaches, Stress, Upset Stomach & More

• Don't Let the "Senior" in Our Name Fool You - This Video is Designed for Anyone Interested in Learning Tai Chi for its Health Benefits

  When I first conceived of doing a video focusing on Tai Chi for health, Tai Chi was a fairly esoteric form of exercise that attracted interest primarily from seniors. So while the video's content was designed to work for anyone interested in learning the healing aspects of Tai Chi, we decided to call it "Tai Chi for Seniors" since that was our primary market.

  Since then interest in Tai Chi has skyrocketed - especially with the Baby Boomers getting interested in Tai Chi due to its growing list of health benefits. In truth we should go back and reedit the tape and rename it "Tai Chi for Everyone" since we've taught it with great success to people of all ages: we've had great success teaching our Chi Kung/Tai Chi to students that were teenagers as well as Boomers and seniors in their 80's. So don't be fooled by the "Senior" in our name - our video's unique focus on the healing aspects of Tai Chi make it a great beginning video for anyone interested in more energy, better balance, more core and trunk strength, and overall wellness that Tai Chi has to offer.

• Our Unmatched 365 Day Money Back Guarantee

  We believe in our Tai Chi video so much that we offer an industry best, unconditional 365 day money back guarantee. We think it's important for you to be able to see for yourself, at no risk, whether our video helps you to feel stronger, more energized, with better balance and less aches and pains. My guarantee makes buying close to pain free - if you don't love the video just return within 365 days for a full refund, no questions asked.

• Serious Committment to Customer Service

  We want to make your shopping exerpience as pleasant and hassle free as possible. If you have any questions about the video you can just give us a call at our toll free number 800-497-4244 and we'll be happy to answer them. When you are ready to order we offer both safe and secure online ordering or you can also call us at our toll free number 800-497-4244 to place your order as well. All videos ship out within 1 - 2 days of your order, and we stand behind all our videos with our 365 day money back guarantee.

"[I] couldn't believe the response and the service I received." "Hi, couldn't believe the response and the service I received. I asked my current Tai Chi instructor to look at the DVD and she said it was very good." Shopping.com Review November 11, 2005 (5 star overall rating given)

• Free Shipping on All Orders Within the Continental U.S.

  We offer Free Shipping on all orders within the Continental U.S., so you won't have any surprises when during checkout. And there is no sales tax added unless you live in California.

• Rock Solid Business Reputation and Secure Online Ordering

  We aren't a newcomer to the Tai Chi business - I've been studying Tai Chi for 35 years and teaching for over 20 years. And this video is the distillation of all my experience and made explicitly to help people get started with Tai Chi and easily enjoy its health benefits. With over 500,000 sold over the last few years, my Tai Chi video is the most popular Tai Chi video ever.

  We've offered our video online since 2000, and we feel strongly that online businesses need to be held accountable for their products and service, and that is why we signed up for the Shopping.com Store Review Program (which is powered by Epinions.com). We wanted to be part of the Shopping.com Store Review Program since this is an independent review program where customers can post their feedback (both positive and negative). Since we signed up, we have over 20 reviews posted on Shopping.com with a 4 star rating (out of 5).

  We do take your shopping security very seriously and have taken numerous extra precautions to make sure that our sites' online shopping is safe and secure.

  1. First we subscribe to the Hacker Safe program, which checks our secure server daily. The Hacker Safe seal we display means that "This site is tested and certified daily to pass the FBI/SANS Internet Security Test. The "live" HACKER SAFE mark appears only when a web site's security meets the highest security scanning standards of the U.S. government, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB."
  2. Secondly, we use a shopping cart that both uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security and also automatically encrypts the all credit card numbers in our database. This means that when you place your order through our online store, the transaction is happening on a secure socket layer connection that encrypts the information being sent to and from your browser to our store. In addition, though, our secure store also takes the further step to encrypt all credit card information in the store's database. You would be surprised how many online shopping carts don't do this and simply store credit card numbers without any encryption precautions.
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  As a result of these security measures, we've never had any report of any security issues or any customers' credit card number ever being compromised.

"I am very pleased with the exceptional service this site provides." "This is a well run site, I am very pleased with the exceptional service this site provides. I talked to the owner and he was very helpful and I received a lot of knowledge about this video and possible other purchases. He also explained how to become certified to instruct this program." Shopping.com Review August 17, 2005 (5 star overall rating given)

How to Order Your Tai Chi Video

Below, you will find our pricing for our Tai Chi Video. To order online, just click on the "Buy Now" button below. Or you can order by phone by calling our toll free number - 800-497-4244.

Tai Chi for Seniors (And Beginners of All Ages) Video/DVD $25 - Free Shipping Video Tape DVD Your order is secure - our store uses SSL encryption security.