Young people learn Tai Chi under the guidance of a teacher in Wen County, Henan Province.[XU HONGXING/FOR CHINA DAILY]
Two years ago, Song Fei’s scoliosis and back pain were getting worse despite years of working out at the gym. But a month after starting his tai chi, his longstanding postural problems and pain disappeared.
Shanghai-based fitness vlogger Song, 29, shares her body and mind transformation after learning Tai Chi on lifestyle sharing platform Xiaohongshu. Not only does he practice every morning, but he also incorporates elements of Chinese martial arts into his fitness courses.
Chinese Tai Chi is becoming increasingly popular, especially among young people, as a form of mind-body exercise, meditation, and stress reduction.
Also, more and more people are inheriting and developing ways to incorporate martial arts into different lifestyles, such as design and fitness training.
Song is a former female champion of a fitness modeling competition in Beijing, winning in 2018 and becoming a fitness vlogger a year later.
I started having pain in my lower back and knees so I thought it was time to look for corrective treatment and Tai Chi came up in the search results. She decided to undergo formal training in martial arts.
Standing exercise is Song’s first lesson. “When you stand and work out more, you feel something completely different than when you’re working out at the gym. You can feel the heat flowing between your hands and in your abdominal cavity,” Song recalls.
“At first it was very monotonous and I had to practice the same set of movements for almost two years. But it is a process of reconnecting each part of my body.”
Gradually Song began to feel calm. She explains that at the gym, she listened to music and thought about other things while working out because each exercise was so repetitive and steady. But in tai chi, every movement is flowing, and she has to stay focused all the time.
