Fitness
The ancient practice of tai chi is more popular than ever. Why?
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While workouts like high-intensity interval training (HIIT) have only been popular since the early 2000s, many other types of exercise have been around much longer. Pilates, for instance, began nearly a century ago as a method of rehabilitation for injured soldiers and dancers. Yoga’s origins can be traced back more than 5,000 years before that. And we know that wrestling is older still – as famous cave paintings of the sport date back to more than 15,000 years ago.
Tai chi began more recently than that, but is still considered to be an ancient practice because it was started by a Taoist monk who lived around 1300 AD. It’s also something still many practice today – and for good reason.
What is tai chi?
Tai chi is a yoga-like practice that involves a series of slow, gentle movements and physical postures, a meditative state of mind and controlled breathing, per the U.S. National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).
While we know that tai chi originated anciently from martial arts in China, over the years the exercise has become more focused on health promotion and rehabilitation. This is because tai chi has been at the center of more than 500 published medical studies. It’s a body of “credible medical research that has catalyzed tai chi’s popularity in the West,” notes Peter Wayne, director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts.
Indeed, today “tai chi is a practice that millions of people around the world participate in,” says Dr. Paul Lam, a family medicine physician from Sydney, Australia, who has been participating in tai chi since 1974 and is now a tai chi instructor. It’s practiced by following specific movements and physical postures in a similar fashion to yoga. In fact, because both tai chi and yoga are low-intensity ancient exercises that have been shown to have similar health benefits and be particularly beneficial for the elderly, the two practices are considered to have more in common than they are different.
What are the health benefits of tai chi?
There are numerous health benefits of practicing tai chi with the most well-studied and known benefits being associated with improved symptoms related to “arthritis, Parkinson’s disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),” says Dong-Yun Wang, a physical therapist based in Flushing, New York, who recommends tai chi as a way of helping her physical therapy patients.
It’s also known to improve posture and sleep, and to “relieve stress, improve immunity and lower blood pressure,” says Lam.
Wayne adds that the exercise also “improves balance, mobility and reduces falls in older adults;” and that there is evidence “supporting its ability to reduce neck, back and knee pain,” and even to “improve cognitive function and mood.”
Tai chi can improve both lower-body strength and upper-body strength. “When practiced regularly, tai chi can be comparable to resistance training and brisk walking, which can enhance aerobic fitness in the elderly,” says Wang.
Are there any downsides to tai chi?
Despite such benefits, tai chi isn’t for everyone. “Like all activities and exercises, there is a risk of injury when participating in tai chi,” says Lam. Still, 2019 research indicates that tai chi injuries are far fewer than from other forms of exercise, and NCCIH research concludes that “tai chi appears to be safe” for most everyone to do.
At the same time, because tai chi is so different from other Western exercises with its emphasis on slow movements and mindfulness, “it can take a few weeks to get used to before it becomes enjoyable and beneficial,” explains Lam. To get started, Wang recommends going online to see where tai chi classes are being taught in your area or reaching out to someone who engages in the exercise to experience it alongside them.
If you live in a bigger city, “you may be able to find a group of people who already practice it in the park or other public place,” Wang says. She explains you’ll see an instructor leading the group and that you can simply request to join them before “following the movements of the group as you try to imitate the whole form.”
To make it more enjoyable and easier to commit to the practice longer term, advises Wayne, “ask an interested friend or family member to start with you.”
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — 8News got a visit from two special guests Friday to learn about the benefits of Pilates and try out some beginner moves.
8News anchors Autumn Childress and Delaney Hall were joined by Laura Mae Harper and Angie Madison with Point and Flex Pilates. The studio, which opened on Sept. 3 last year, offers a variety of classes, ranging from beginner to intermediate and advanced.
“We went through years of teaching at other places and developed this beautiful studio for them and this community, and we’re super excited about it,” Harper said.
For more information, visit Point and Flex Pilates.
Like every piece of gear you wear on your body day in and day out, fitness trackers are incredibly personal. The right tracker for you should be comfortable, accurate, and tailored to your lifestyle, including your preferred workouts and health goals. Do you bike, row, or strength train? Do you run on trails for hours at a time, or do you just want a reminder to stand up every hour? Do you want to wear it on your wrist or your finger, or tuck it into your sports bra?
No matter what your needs are, there’s never been a better time to find a powerful, sophisticated tool to help optimize your workouts or jump-start your routine. We test dozens of fitness trackers every year while running, climbing, hiking, or just doing workout videos on our iPads at night, to bring you these picks.
Our top choice for most people is the Garmin Vivoactive 6 ($300), which works well with Android and iOS, but we also vouch for the latest Oura Ring 5 ($399) and the budget-friendly Google Fitbit Air ($100). For more wearables, check out our guides to the Best Smartwatches, Best Smart Rings, and Best Sleep Trackers.
Jump To
Best Fitness Tracker Overall
Garmin makes some of the most accurate fitness trackers on the market, and the Vivoactive 6 is the best midrange option for most people. It strikes a solid balance between smartwatch features and fitness tracking, with support for both iPhone and Android users.
Why WIRED recommends: The Vivoactive 6 is accurate, comfortable, and packed with useful wellness features without feeling overwhelming. It uses Garmin’s proprietary algorithms to power features like Morning Report and Body Battery, which provide daily insights into your sleep, recovery, and readiness. It also has built-in satellite connectivity and GPS, so you can track outdoor workouts without bringing your phone along. There’s also incident detection, which alerts emergency contacts if it detects a serious fall.
Garmin’s biggest advantage remains its free Connect platform, which enables health and fitness tracking without requiring a subscription. The company also continues to add new software features through regular updates without putting them behind a paywall.
The trade-offs: Garmin launched Connect+, a $70-per-year subscription with extras like live tracking and access to Garmin’s AI-powered Active Intelligence. Former editor Adrienne So doesn’t think most people need it, but it’s worth noting if you’re looking for a completely subscription-free experience. The Vivoactive 6 may also feel like overkill for casual users who only want basic activity and sleep tracking.
Fitness
Why this unexpected exercise is most effective for building arm muscle in your 50s – and how to do it properly
When it comes to building strong, defined arms, traditional fitness advice will usually point you toward endless sets of bicep curls and tricep extensions. But according to Dr Stacy Sims, a leading women’s exercise physiologist specialising in perimenopause and menopause, isolation movements like these aren’t necessarily the most effective. Instead, she advocates for one functional compound movement: the farmer’s carry.
Speaking on podcast A Life of Greatness, when host Sarah Grynberg asks how to get arm muscles like Dr Sims, the 51-year-old explained: ‘In order to get shoulders like this, heavy farmer’s carries. I’ve been travelling so much this year, and I haven’t been in the gym being consistent with all the push presses and Olympic lifts that I love to do, but what I have been consistent in doing is heavy farmer’s carries.
‘It’s good for grip strength, learning how to walk properly, core strength, shoulders – so if there’s one move everyone should do, it’s heavy farmer’s carries.’
The magic of the move lies in its ability to engage your biceps, triceps, shoulders, forearms and hands all at once. And because your arms are working continuously to stabilise heavy loads against gravity, the exercise activates the deep muscle fibres that don’t fire up as efficiently in single-joint arm movements, like bicep curls. Here’s how to do it with proper form, plus how heavy to lift and a workout to try, straight from Dr Sims.
How to do a farmer’s carry
- Standing with feet hip-width apart and weights at the outside of the ankles, hinge your hips back and bend the knees, keeping your back flat.
- Tighten up your lower back and abdominals before reaching down to grab the weights.
- After gripping the weights, begin to stand tall by driving your heels into the ground, maintaining a tight form. Once you reach full standing position, tighten your armpits and make sure your shoulders are pulled back to activate the muscles in the rotator cuff area.
- Finally, begin to take small steps forward, maintaining a strong grip and form. If you’re returning in opposite direction, set the weights down, turn around, and then grab the weights again before walking in the opposite direction.
Set/reps for results: Aim for three sets. Try timing your farmer’s carry for 25 to 30 seconds or go for 10 steps forward and back.
Form tips: Start out with a light weight to ensure you don’t end up leaning too far forward or towards one side. Make sure to keep your back straight for safety. When it comes to moving, small strides will do. They’ll keep you balanced as you increase your weights.
How heavy to lift
As for what “heavy” means to Dr Sims, she says: ‘How many people have heard that you should be able to farmer carry 75% of your body weight for a minute? That is made up from bro science. It’s a good metric but there’s no science behind it. So, a heavy farmer’s carry is you have two very heavy dumbbells by your side and you’re walking back and forth.’
Here’s a weight guide to follow:
- Beginners: 2x 4-6kg
- Intermediate: 2x 8-12kg
- Advanced: 2x 12-20kg
Farmer’s carry workout
Dr Sims shares a descending ladder workout to try.
- 500m ski
- 500m heavy farmer’s carry
- 400m ski
- 400m heavy farmer’s carry
- 300m ski
- 300m heavy farmer’s carry
- 200m ski
- 200m heavy farmer’s carry
- 100m ski
- 100m heavy farmer’s carry
‘If you really have anything left in the tank after this workout, you go back up in 100m,’ she adds.
One of our most frequently asked questions here at Women’s Health? How to build muscle and burn fat at the same time. So, we asked superstar trainer Oyinda Okunowo exactly how to do it. In this 4-week plan – created exclusively for Women’s Health COLLECTIVE members – you’ll get the workouts and nutrition guidance needed to help you on your way to better body composition. Tap the link below to unlock 14 days of free access to Oyinda’s plan and start training today.
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As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
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