Taoist Tai Chi - Foundation Exercises

Foundation Exercises

In addition to the full 108 Taoist Tai Chi set, students are taught a unique group of cyclical foundation exercises that focus on the joints, called "the jongs". Most of these exercises, either in their form or execution, are completely unique to Taoist Tai Chi. These exercises are not only used as preliminaries to the form, they are espoused as being the basic elements that provide health benefit in the varying movements of Taoist Tai Chi. Instructors often explain postures by referring to a foundation exercise. The 108 forms shown below were originally developed by Yang Chengfu, published in 1931 and 1934 and are commonly referred to as traditional Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan.

The main foundations include:

• A basic forearm rotation: the forearms are held up and forward and rotate in and out. The hands are located in front of the left and right meridian. The elbows are stationary.
• A rotation of the arms in front of the body: making a circular motion with the hands: where one pushes away the other pulls in. The thumbs move from the central axis of the body. It is mainly an upper body stretch in which the arms move outward from the center and then back.
• "Dan Yu" (spine stretching). A squatting exercise meant to work primarily the pelvic region, the legs and the lower back. Fifty or more repetitions may be performed in advanced classes. The feet are placed in a stance wider than the shoulders. When squatting the knees move in the direction of the feet.
• "Tor Yu" (spine turning). The feet are at the typical "Straight/45" position, minding the "in-stepping/out-stepping". The pelvis alternates between weight over the front "Straight" and the back "45" foot. Thus the trunk moves following the pelvis. The hands follow the body and cross in front of the lower dantian when the body moves backward to the '45 back" position, and then uncross and push away towards the "Straight front" position leading the trunk. For the outside observer it seems that the hands make a circular motion, however they don't for the practitioner. In addition to its purported health benefits this exercise is particularly similar to the Silk reeling of other styles in that it helps develop the theory of movement present in all of Taoist Tai Chi.
• An arm separation such as in kicks: the arms start crossed in front of the body, move sideways, backward and down, and forward up again with the hands crossed on the centerline in front of the chest.
• A variant of the "Wave Hands like Clouds" move.
• Stationary stance versions of the posture "Snake Creeps Low", in which the practitioner may come to a full standing position in between left and right sides of the posture.
• Sometimes repetitions of various other movements (e.g., Brush Knee, Go Back to Ward Off Monkey, or Flying at a Slant) but usually movements that lend themselves to repetition.