The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi: 12 Weeks to a Healthy Body, Strong Heart, and Sharp Mind (Harvard Health Publications)

The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi This book may not be the right book for everyone, but it is exactly what I was looking for. I have been practicing traditional Chinese martial arts (Kung Fu) for the past 30 years. For the past several years, I had been practicing solely Tai Chi Chuan (Chen style), and made an enormous effort to find out why it was call the "Grand Ultimate" by practicing daily and studying many books on the subject written in Chinese. Recently, a few of my friends (mostly middle-aged professionals) asked me to teach them Tai Chi. First I was very skeptical that I would be able to teach such a complicated and esoteric art. Although many people practice and I think only rarely one understands the principles of the Tai Chi classics written by Wong Zungyue, Wu Yuxiang, Chen Xin, and etc. Also, not only difficult to understand, Tai Chi is also risky if one does not practice correctly. From experience, errors in training would lead to bad habits and injury in various parts of the body. At first, I politely refused them and told them I did not have enough knowledge to be a teacher. Around the same time, one of my colleagues, a rheumatologist, told me some of his patients asked him about Tai Chi as a means of rehabilitation. He also showed me an Arthritis Foundation Pamphlet that offers Tai Chi classes. This aroused my interest in finding out more about Tai Chi for health and wellness. Search into the internet first yielded information from the NIH, along with many studies published in Western medical journals; an Australian family doctor with a large enterprise on Tai Chi for health and various different disease conditions, who gives world wide work shops, certifications, and sells books and DVDs. At last, I found this book, "Harvard Medical Guide to Tai Chi" by Dr. Peter Wayne. This ancient fighting art has coming a long way and started to connect with the Western culture. This book may be just what I needed to connect my profession (Western medicine) and my life time passion (Chinese martial arts). I envision teaching a Tai Chi class at work and in the community where I live in. I ordered the book immediately. I was hopeful that this would be the book that would show me the rope. At the same time, I was also very skeptical. Once I received the book, I wrote down the following questions before I started reading: Does it: 1. live up to the big names (Harvard Medical School) and the big promise (12 weeks to a healthy body strong heart and sharp mind)? 2. correlate the ancient martial art to modern science? 3. interpret Tai Chi with the classic Tai Chi principles? 4. describe a safe, easy to learn, and effective program for beginners or patients? First, this must be the first time ever that someone (Dr. Wayne) exhaustively compiled and reviewed the scientific research on the subject of Tai Chi and related mind-body topics. There are over fifty pages of references at the end of the book. This feat alone deserves the big names. This is the most extensive review on the topic of Tai Chi health effects to date. Second, Tai Chi Chuan is a martial art. Understanding of this original intention leads to correct practice. Dr. Wayne uses the Western reductionist approach to boil the art down to the modern day emphasis on health and exercise. Although this book did not discuss martial meaning of the movements, sinking of "Kwah' was mentioned many times in his book. To me, this "sinking of kwah" is the most import point in all movements. If this is not done correctly, all other effort would be pointless. Third, I would like to correlate the eight active ingredients with the classic Tai Chi writings. Since these classics were written in simplistic but archaic language (old style Chinese), they are difficult to understand. Fortunately, there are many books written by contemporary masters who had made commentaries. From my experience, a point in the classics is not easy to understand until one experience it physically. Then it confirms my understanding of that point. The following is the correlation of the eight ingredients with the classic Tai Chi terminologies (in Chinese): 1) Awareness, mindfulness, focused attention - 心靜 a calm, concentrated mind is needed to perform the complicated moves, paying attention to every part of the body, in movements and breathing. 2) Intention, belief, expectation - 意 this is the work of the mind (heart) that governs the action. Tai Chi is not like other exercises that simply move the limps without purpose. 3) Dynamic structural integration - 貫串 the strength is transferred from bone to bone, joint to joint smoothly without any wasted energy. Training in Tai Chi will teach one to move in the most energy efficient way. 4) Active relaxation of mind and body - 鬆 the purpose of relaxation is to deliver strength smoothly with out obstacle and stiffness. This requires coordination between agonist (contraction) and antagonist muscle (relaxation). 5) Aerobic exercise musculoskeletal strengthening and flexibility - 勁 True strength is not contraction of a single muscle or movement of a single joint. One moves and all moves synchronously. Core muscle strength will develop from Tai Chi postures. Flexibility will develop from the Tai Chi circular movements which stretch the joints. 6) Natural, freer breathing - 氣 the abdominal breathing is a key feature of meditation, and Tai chi. As we grow up, we pick up bad habits even in basic things such as walking, posture and breathing. Practicing the deep abdominal breathing will rejuvenate us back to infancy (that is, breathe like the infant). 7) Social interaction and community - 師友 this point can be found in the book by Chen Xin, which described to gain knowledge and understanding in Tai Chi, one may seek a teacher or practice with a friend. From my own experience, I learned the basics from my teacher (sifu), and then I practiced push hand with a friend. 8) Spirituality, philosophy and ritual - 神 usually, Chinese philosophy includes references of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. In Tai Chi Chuan is organized according to I Ching and Chinese Medicine. Jin (essence extracted from food and air) converts to Chi (life force that gives function and support of organs), and Chi creates Shen, the liveliness or spirit of the person. 3, 4, 5 and 6 are physical (external yang) and 1, 2, 7, and 8 are psychological (internal ying). Fourth, the program described in the book appears promising. It does not contain the traditional choreographed form but included five Tai Chi movements from the form. To do Tai Chi movement is to move in circles. It is more important for a student to know the circles than to be able to remember set and forms. Too often I've seen people learning forms after forms (24, 48, 64, 108, Chen, Yang, Wu, Wu, Sun, big frame, small frame, slow frame, fast frame and different weapons, etc), without knowing the circles inside. Therefore, I believe knowing the circles will be able one to experience the health effects of Tai Chi. However, reading the book does not replace going to a class and learn from a qualified teacher. A teacher will point out mistakes, where as one may misunderstand a message from a book. My thoughts after reading the book are that this book indeed answered all of my initial questions. Since I practice Chen Style, I have designed a slightly modified program based on this book. I hope to use it in a class for our doctors/hospital employees, a beginning class for the community, and rehabilitation program for patients. I will follow up with the results.

The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi: 12 Weeks to a Healthy Body, Strong Heart, and Sharp Mind (Harvard Health Publications) If you've ever been curious about Tai Chi and its amazing health benefits, this book from Harvard Medical School is a fantastic place to start. What I really appreciate about it is how credible and well-researched it feels – you know you're getting information you can trust. It's structured as a 12-week program, which is super helpful because it gives you a clear, manageable path to learning the movements and understanding the principles. It really breaks down how Tai Chi can contribute to a healthy body, a stronger heart, and even a sharper mind, which are all incredible benefits. The language is easy to understand, not overly complicated, making it perfect for beginners who might feel intimidated by starting something new. If you're looking for a practical, step-by-step guide to incorporating Tai Chi into your life for better well-being, this book is definitely worth picking up!

This book has it all - history, medical studies, application of tai chi principles, etc. If you ever needed scientific references to convince yourself why tai chi is good for you, this book will fulfill that need. Although movements are shown in the book, it's not the best way to LEARN tai chi movements. You can't really learn how to practice tai chi in three months without an instructor and even then, that is pushing it. Online classes are good if you find the right program. Solid, in-person training can never be replaced by a book and that is why I give the book 4 stars instead of 5. Otherwise, it is worth reading from start to finish. The movements in the book are a good supplement to classroom training. Tai chi is the hardest-easy exercise you will ever do. The benefits are amazing and the author provides solid research to make his point. Buy this book and read it in order. I learned a lot.

I'm an avid Tai Chi practitioner (nine years in, still have a lot to learn) who is loving this book. It was recommended by my Tai Chi teacher who, like Peter Wayne, teaches integrative medicine at the college level. Wayne is an excellent writer. He presents Tai Chi from all angles in his Eight Active Ingredients of Tai Chi model. Seems right on to me. I enjoy Tai Chi for many reasons, physical, mental, social, spiritual (using that term in a non-supernatural sense). I'm open to the farther-out Chinese medicine side of Tai Chi, filled with talk of qi, meridians, subtle energy flows, and such, but don't find that a belief in all this is necessary to enjoy my practice. So I really like how Wayne looks at Tai Chi from both a scientific, rational, research-based point of view, and also from an experiential, intuitive, practice-based point of view. Like Tai Chi and the Taoist philosophy to which it is strongly related, this book harmonizes seeming yin-yang opposites appealingly. I'm only several chapters into the book, but wanted to share a review ASAP because I'm enjoying it so much. I've read quite a few books about Tai Chi, most of which are much more traditional in style and substance. "The Harvard Medical School to Tai Chi" is unique. It will be enjoyed by Tai Chi beginners and old-timers alike, including those who aren't interested in taking a class but still want to explore what Tai Chi has to offer. Wayne presents old concepts and practices in fresh ways. I heartily agree that introducing people to Tai Chi by having them learn a lengthy form (standard sequence of movements) can be intimidating for many. When I started learning Tai Chi, I'd already had about a dozen years of intensive training in karate and another hard style martial art, where I learned many lengthy kata (forms). Yet initially I was baffled by the Tai Chi "24" form, one of the most basic. The moves and transitions are tricky, whether or not someone has done other sorts of movement training before. Thus Wayne's presentation of a Simplified Tai Chi Program, with a focus on simple stand-alone movements, is a great idea. Tai Chi needs to be part of a person's daily life, not just something to be practiced a few times a week in a class. Wayne says that Tai Chi will change the way we pick up heavy objects, walk along a sidewalk, engage in conversation (or an argument) with somebody, and so much else. Absolutely. I've taken up longboarding (on a elongated skateboard) at the age of 64. Reading Wayne's description of "pouring" from one side of the body to the other made me better realize how akin moving on a longboard/skateboard is to Tai Chi movements. Continuously carving in an "S" fashion down an asphalt trail with linked turns on my longboard bears a lot of resemblance to what Wayne calls "pouring." The more fluid we can be, the more like water, the better our Tai Chi becomes. Also, the better our life becomes. Read this book. You will benefit from it.

This is a revision of my initial review, 3 weeks after the original, once I tried to use the exercises to start my 12 weeks to a healthy body, as the title proclaims. I considered revising downward to 2 stars on the basis that its main purpose is not sufficiently met. I ordered this book because I am not very satisfied with a 3-month course I am currently taking, which I feel gives inadequate emphasis to performing the exercises to derive the most benefit from them. Instead we concentrate on memorizing the order for the sequence of hundreds of movements which appear to be randomly repeated. This sort of regimentation probably derives from the martial arts which tai chi comes from, but is tedious and not necessary for the health benefit. My course also gives no attention to breathing, and in my mind is not sufficiently bilateral in regard to the body. Maybe these defects would be addressed in a later course, but I don't want to wait. As this book says, there are many types of Tai Chi and one of the virtues of this book is that it breaks from the mind-set of apprenticeship in which the rewards come only after years of training with a guru. I was also interested in reading the scientific basis for the benefits of Tai Chi, which I have read often and believed, but was interested in how the claims were substantiated, and I was not disappointed. For example, the discussion of balance gives a good explanation of how balance is achieved normally and how Tai Chi helps maintain or restore balance. The discussion of integration tai chi with western medicine was very good, too. Furthermore, we are told how each exercise specifically addresses different physical functions, including relaxing and stress prevention or reduction. This knowledge and the helpful tips and reminders increase the benefit of each exercise. In addtion, the exercises are mostly taught in components so you can learn the movements of arms, torso and feet in stages to put them together so that benefit is maximized. Thus it is painful to say I have a major disappointment with the book which has only increased as I have tried to actually use it: the way the exercises are formatted and even given short shrift in proportion to related topics. Also, while most of the text is interesting, such as the background and types of tai chi, some is too much like proselytizing and centered around the author's experiences. I think the history of the gradual integration of tai chi into the mainstream did not need to be so thoroughly documented. To me Tai Chi doesn't exist without the exercises, yet the exercises comprise less than 40 pages buried in 277 pages of text. One must dig hard to extract the physical actions required to perform the exercises from a ruminating narrative in paragraph form. This is rather cumbersome and obscures the exercises--why not use list form for the components of the actions, and even for the benefits and the tips as well? Also, there are photos only for a few exercises--the most complicated ones--for which the attempt to portray the actions in stills is mostly a lost cause. I even wondered if it would have been better to use stick figures to capture the action. Most, but not all the exercises are clearly described. I was mystified by the instruction to 'simultaneously drum the navel and lower back, and then simultaneously drum the lower abdomen and sacrum.' Even the dictionary did not clear my confusion about the difference between the lower back and the sacrum, so I just assumed 'back' meant behind the navel area and carried on. But far worse was the exercise for Lift Hands Standing Meditation, which barely into the beginning of the description gives senseless and incomprehensible instructions about 'having the weight on the back foot'--when one's feet are parallel, only the toes of one foot moved to point at an angle--so neither foot is 'back.' Also, does one 'have' weight on a foot, or does one 'keep' it on that foot, or 'shift' it to that foot??? I don't know what it means here. The next exercise, about shaking one's body bit by bit travelling down the body is also problematical. The use of the the word 'shake' is unclear when it comes to, for example, the chest. And does one shake one's leg freely as one does one's arms if one is standing on both feet or is this a different kind of shake? At this point, I became so frustrated I put the book away for a week. Space that could have been used for better presentation of the exercises was also given over to ruminations on spirituality and social networking, things of value, but addressed elsewhere all the time. I began to feel like I was reading a tiresome religious tract at some points. Yet, the discussion of Qi was inadequate considering it is referred to often later in regard to the exercises. Editing seems to have been hasty: There is a lazy habit of using special terms, such as kwah, and acronyms such as TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) as though the reader committed them to memory after encountering them the first time a few days earlier, but not including them in the index so one can refresh one's memory, not to mention that saying 'traditional Chinese medicine' would be even clearer. There is some sloppy punctuation which gives the book an unprofessional feel and raises a reliability issue. The writing style as a whole is sometimes overly academic--long sentences that take a while to get to their point due to ruminating or reasoning supplied along the way. This is what academics are used to and so they perpetuate it, but it is not necessary any more than legalese is necessary to achieve its intended effect. For the general reader, they would do well to emulate Hemingway or at least serious journalism. I began to wonder if parts of the text were transcriptions of dictations or lectures. The structure of the writing could be much improved. After writing this review in its initial form, I came across other reviews, which for some reason did not appear when I was considering the purchase. All those glowing reviews seem to be made by members of the tai chi subculture whose 5 stars derive from the pleasure they feel because this book documents that tai chi has been recognized mainstream medicine. I wonder if any of them actually tried to follow the instructions for the exercises or if they were so familiar with them that they couldn't see the inadequacies. Overall, this book is worth buying, depending on your purpose. It does a decent job at filling the void for those for whom a spiritual quest is not the main reason for exploring Tai Chi, and I hope to benefit from the exercises it provides,if I can figure them out.

Let me begin with a disclaimer, or sorts, I returned to the practice of Tai Chi four years ago after a break of too many years. I had read many interesting accounts of people who experienced greater energy or a recovery from a wide variety of medical conditions as a result of Tai Chi. But all these accounts are anecdotal with no objective evidence to support the claims. Part of my personal bias includes the fact that in the six years I have been retired, I have lost forty pounds and lowered my blood pressure 20 points. Now for the completely different part of this book by Dr. Peter Wayne. He wears two hats in this book, first he is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Second he is Sifu Wayne with more than 35 years of training experience in Tai Chi and Qigong and is internationally recognized teacher of these disciplines. It is the first hat which makes this Tai Chi book different. As the Director of Research for the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital he brings a scientific research based approach to the benefits of Tai Chi whic has been lacking in any other book on the subject to date. At the end of the book there are 52 pages of citations of peer reviewed studies in multiple disciplines showing the positive health results from the practice of Tai Chi. But before anyone would dismiss this as a dry scientific study, Dr. Wayne includes a 12 week simplified program which gradually increases your time to about 35 minutes per session. He includes photographs to supplement the written description of the movements and what makes this book a real treat is that you do not need a gym or any special clothing or equipment to perform the program. Tai Chi has already been recommended by AARP, the National Arthritis Association, Harvard Medical School (hence the title of the book) and many hospitals across the U.S. When someone asks me what Tai Chi is like I explain that it is like a form of slow motion yoga, but this description only scratches the surface. This is a great book for some one with a chronic health condition who is looking to improve their quality of life, but it is also a wonderful resource book for health care providers who want to have some research based information to share with patients who may be skeptical about a new modality of treatment. I give The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi my highest recommendation and thank Dr Peter Wayne for bringing this ancient practice into the twent first century with an evidence based approach to the study of Tai Chi.

I've studied Tai Chi for about 5-6 years. I started learning Tai Chi late in life, and I'm not going to get to be very good at it. But, it's a process, and I'm cool about that. This book is a fine introduction to the practice and a support for continued development. It actually spends its time making a case for taking up Tai Chi. Much of its case is based on the very limited system that it presents with the notion that this is a kind of quick but solid intro. So, the book is a medical argument (with evidence) for the value of Tai Chi combined with an easy way to get started. That makes a lot of sense. If you got 1000 random people and asked "How many of you have wanted to take up Tai Chi?" you'd probably get 800 hands held up. If you asked, "How many of you have actually made the effort to try to learn?" you might get 2 hands held up. Tai Chi might be the most wished for, least tried "exercise." For me, Tai Chi had an immediate positive influence on balance and movement in daily activities. I do a lot of ordinary things in a smoother way than I used to without thinking about how I'm doing them. In many physical activities, I use less energy to get the same results. Oh, and the book does not present Tai Chi as a quasi-mystical, borderline religious system. That wisdom from the Far East approach is a turn off for me, and I think gets in the way for a smart, well-educated Westerner. It's maybe one of the reasons why so many people wish to try it, but so few actually do. I hear that some Western Tai Chi teachers adapt a kind of Chinglish form of address to their students. Yuk! And, the book does recognize Tai Chi as a martial art. I understand that you can use it for self-defense if you practice it faithfully for about 10-20 years. Not real practical, but that's the underlying premise and the inside of the system. If your teacher can't show you the martial application for every move, find another teacher. In the meantime, read the book.

I have been practicing Tai Chi for 30 years and use it with some of my patients as an occupational therapist. This book has a lot of good information on existing research to validate the use of Tai Chi for health. There is also a routine in the book of a Tai Chi form for those who might want to follow the pictures and figure it out. Going to a reputable teacher of Tai Chi has always been the best for me after years of learning from videos as I was never near an instructor and the internet was not yet invented. In my experience videos and personal instruction surpass books for learning the actual moves and how they flow as well as understanding the underlying principles of flow, waist rotation, and breathing. Of course, one must understand that there are many variations on the way Tai Chi can be done so my advice is to explore and find the form and instructor that fits your goals. My sifus (teachers) are: Sefu Anthony Korohais, Flowing Zen Studios Gainesville Florida and Segung Richard Clear, Clear's Tai Chi in Merryville Tennessee. Both are fine instructors.