Continuing the discussion from Type 1 and a Low Carb-High Fat Diet:
I’d be interested in seeing this - I wonder if there’s an online free video?
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Marie, it is Dr. Paul Lam’s Tai Chi for Back Pain http://www.taichiproductions.com/ This is the Australian page so you will have to go to his home page and get the USA one. I see he also has Seated Tai Chi for Arthritis too. Several of my class do the seated arthritis form, which is great for helping you keep flexibility. . There are small clips available on You Tube, but not the full thing.
I’d definitely want to try the Tai Chi and Arthritis one. Thanks for the info Richard, Marie and Pastel. My Daughter bought me the standing Tai Chi dvd for me but it’s such slow movements that I almost fall over sometimes.
Improves your balance, Terrie. You need to keep at it! But seated is a very good option if you think you need it. Warning, still slow; the whole point of tai chi is that it does not hurt you.
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Here’s a link to some seated Tai Chi movements:
http://www.taichivillage.org/exercises/seated-exercises-for-tai-chi/
We are learning staff form this summer now that we can meet outdoors–fun!
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Thank you for your comment Maureen. Yes certainly, balance improvement is one of the main benefits of Tai Chi. My Daughter gave me the video for relaxation and easier exercise to help strengthen my muscles and improve my flexiblity. My balance has normally been good except when I do standing Tai Chi. Go figure! I’ve always been a fast mover like my Mom was(except when my RA is bad). More practice later for sure with the standing Tai Chi. For now, I will try the sitting technique.
Thank you for the link CatLady with the warm up and seated Tai Chi instructions. Great stuff!
I have been doing tai chi with a Chinese visitor to the village, and am finding the kicks very difficult. Never used to be a problem to me, but now I have osteo-arthritis in my knees it is quite difficult. Oh, the joys of getting old!
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I have to do a low kick in “turn and kick with heel” or I’m really wobbly.
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Kick height or the speed giving you the bigger .problem(s)
My lovely Chinese lady has gone back to China. No more tai chi lessons for me 
I used to find turn and kick with heel easy, but the low kicks the Chinese lady was teaching me were just too much for knees that don’t support me.
Hmm, good question, @Stuart. Maybe the speed and then not feeling stable on my right leg due to the knee. I definitely balance better on the left foot than the right.
I was re-learning a Yang style with the Chinese lady, it was slightly different from how I used to do it, but she was a martinet for the correct hand position, way the fingers and feet were. She could also speak no English so it was difficult at times. We used to laugh our way through speech problems.
I do tai chi with a group of ladies in my retirement village, we do the Paul Lam health forms.
I’m sorry you are having problems, since the arthritis in my knees kicked in there is a real weakness in them
and stand on one leg is definitely not always possible on both legs, sometimes one leg, sometimes the other - grrr. Still, I do tai chi for health and not as a martial art so I consider flexibility my main objective, plus keeping my mind active.
May your chi keep well,
Maureen
Hello Pastelpainter:
The funny part of any teacher-student practice(s), if we continue it must at some point be without “them”: Music, Tai-Chi, Pottery, something very dynamic…all the same IMHV.
Speed and balance are the same type of creatures. We must have both. Too fast and both the intent and any pretext of self-control simply disappears. Too slow and the effort becomes excessive initially at least…
Particular structure, anatomical principles must be followed. Remove them… (cringing) and its only an exotic dance (sic. literally) and badly done. One of the foundational, fundamental intents behind the slow motion idea I believe. Done too fast you cannot focus or pin down most details -gentle shrug-
Heel kick, yikes…means raising the toes up toward my nose, as I understand the concept at least. regardless of height a thrust/push quality of the heel and parts attached to it.
Ever borrowed a copy of the “Idiot’s Guide to Tai Chi?” Cant remember if that was the book Im thinking of, but believe it addressed pain.discomfort particularly in the knees, as I recall anyway. See if I can recall for sure,
Neijia, “internal practice” isn’t supposed to be painful… “discomfort”. ohhhh yeah. But outright pain not that i’ve heard of. SOrry to hear you’re in pain.
You could contact one of the more senior Paul Lam teachers and ask if/how to modify their form(s) to produce manageable levels because of knee pains…
Feel better…
Muscular imbalance? Shin splints? Solely a knee thing…?
Hi Stuart, I have carefully read your post, thank you for taking the time to carefully enunciate some of the principles behind tai chi. I have come toi believe that slow exercises the muscles more than the fast of something like Zumba. It is certainly more possible for us oldies, many in my group are ‘refugees’ from fast paced exercise. I am also in awe of how tai chi fits together, rather like a jigsaw puzzle, do it correctly and you are on the right leg, the right hand is in position for the next move. And so I appreciate what you say about the necessity to do heel kicks, or any kick.
The problem with arthritis is not only pain but weakness. I am not actually in much arthritic pain , for which I credit both tai chi and walking my energetic dog. The weakness is sooo frustrating. We do Paul Lam’s Tai Chi for Arthritis in which the only one leg work is when you are stepping forward or sideways, when done slowly stepping in any direction produces a Stand on One Leg format LOL I daren’t tell my group this! In Tai Chi for Diabetes there is Stand on One Leg which I can do with one leg but not the other, there are no turns and kicks in his health forms that I have come across. They are based on Yang and Sun styles, but very much easier.
This has turned into a screed and I never intended to bore you. Look after your chi during the cooler autumn months.
Maureen
No cartilage, knee twists inward a bit, inflamed spot on the IT band. Working on turning the knee outward but then having trouble staying rooted. Need to schedule with the orthopod for a Synvisc shot, too. Sigh…
Hello Maureen,
No harm for either of us. never intended to be offline this long…
For the record, I am not a Tai Chi practitioner.
Never studied long enough I would dare claim meaningful knowledge. Have gained hints, glimpses from the study of the art which I practice(d).
Regardless of the flavor good mechanics equal good tai chi, hatha yoga, karate, whatever the practice, bad mechanics, ugggh.
Relaxed weight, uninhibited power… fun.
Stuart, yes I agree, relax into the form and it is great and gives so much, so very much.
You would laugh if you could see my class. I nag them narrow about moving slowly, breathing as they move, being careful how they use their feet, etc, etc, I am a real shrew, and I carefully watch from under lowered eyelids to see people doing the fastest tai chi I have ever seen, they can’t possibly be ‘breathing’ properly. Apart from a few stalwarts, the group is a disaster and some of them have been doing it with me for 8 years! I guess my consolation is in the few who do work at it, and the fact that I get some of them away from the tv for half an hour once a week! I love them all. LOL Who knows when dementia will get me and stop me in my tracks too.