Tai Chi is Exercise: Metabolism and Fitness Effects
Tai Chi kick
Tai Chi uses the body and can be thought of as exercise
Twenty-minute read. Tai Chi has positive metabolic and fitness effects that benefit your mind and body.
Health Benefits Backed by Science
Tai Chi has been studied scientifically as a fitness and health exercise for over forty years and has been shown to be a safe low-impact, mind-body exercise that gives you a training effect over time (You, Y, 2021). However, unlike traditional cardiovascular and resistance training, the training effects of Tai Chi come about in a way that involves the body in a unique way: Doing Tai Chi involves using your whole nervous system (brain and spinal cord, nerves), which makes Tai Chi a neuromotor exercise. Neuromotor exercise involves balance, agility, and coordination, which are ways to use the body both for functional movement in daily living (like carrying groceries while walking) and doing sports. You can think of activities like sports and functional movement as involving a special physical sort of intelligence that not only makes you a better athlete, but also helps you do ordinary things well in the process of daily living. In Tai Chi, you simultaneously engage your muscles as you focus mentally on what you are doing. Weightlifting and resistance training are similar to Tai Chi when you focus your mind on what you are doing. You call it lifting with good form. But in Tai Chi, unlike weightlifting, you are not working muscles to their limit. Instead, you are using your muscles in an alert and relaxed way while you steadily observe the effort. The American College of Sports Medicine specifically mentions Tai Chi in its position statement about weekly exercise requirements as an exercise you can do to obtain neuromotor training, and their guidance is to pursue neuromotor training 2-3 days per week (Garber, 2011). Moving well, safely and efficiently, is the result of neuromotor training.
NOTE: From a practical standpoint, Tai Chi and Qigong are related practices. In certain research and practice circles, Tai Chi is a form of Qigong. The health and fitness benefits of both Tai Chi and Qigong have been studied by institutions like Harvard Medical School and Stanford University. For the rest of this blog post, I focus on Tai Chi in particular, because it has appeared in the scientific research more frequently in the last 40+ years. Lastly and importantly, the information here, while related to health matters, does not constitute medical advice. Please seek out medical professionals for diagnosis and treatment.
“Watching the Line”
I believe that developing your neuromotor skills is a way of moving safely and intelligently whatever your circumstances are—whether you are an athlete or an ordinary person who wants to avoid injury and stay safe when you engage in physical activity of any kind. Athletes training systematically in their sport experience marginal gains in their performance, which can make a difference between first and second place in an Olympic level competition. For the rest of us, training such motor skills can help us move in a way that encourages balanced muscle engagement and less stress and unnecessary tension in the mind and muscles. Moving in this way can also help you monitor personal effort levels and it can also help you “watch the line” that signals overexertion versus discomfort. This is especially important if you are starting out or restarting an exercise regimen or managing your energy in a particular health situation. “Watching the line” is a way of watching your levels of exertion and trusting those signals of ease, discomfort, enjoyment, challenge and strain in physical activity.
What happens in the course of getting that training effect is what I call “watching the line,” which is having skills of being able to watch your own energy and reactions as you engage in an activity. This is not just a way of being cautious, but it is a way of cultivating intelligence about your own body, so that you can monitor the effect that exercise/activity is having on your system. This becomes a way to become thoughtful about your body and how it moves and the way it feels when it moves. This is important for athletes, and I believe it really is important for everyone—anyone with a body. Exercise will be more beneficial if you can find activities where you can watch the line in a relaxed way and not stress that you might do too much or not enough. Since everyone is different, watching the line is a useful thing that can change and evolve over time, as you get stronger and as you change. Discovering what works best for you is not just about style preferences but about finding what activities build your fitness and which activities restore your health and help balance your life.
Quality of Life and Few Adverse Events
While more research is warranted, early findings show that movement and exercise also benefit even people in pain situations: “The available evidence suggests physical activity and exercise is an intervention with few adverse events that may improve pain severity and physical function, and consequent quality of life.” (Geneen, 2017). Exercise may be of significant benefit for those undergoing health conditions that involve chronic pain or any health condition where your body needs gentleness and good care and conscious and compassionate energy management. This can build on the quality of life, which is often a hidden factor when it comes to building health.
Tai Chi is Exercise
In all exercise, posture is important, physical form in exercise is important, and breathing is important. Good form usually means you are engaging the correct muscles while doing a movement. Breathing, however hard or evenly you do it, can indicate levels of exertion and stress. Doing Tai Chi requires the mind to focus and the body to move gracefully in patterns of movement that engage the body’s muscles from head-to-toe, and the breathing is even and deep, not rapid and shallow, as you do it. The calm and mindful muscle engagement and conscious movement Tai Chi engage your neuromotor abilities. In a way, as you learn the movements and bring your best efforts to the practice, you can use many of your muscles, and also feel the effort is a lot of work! But, as you get stronger, you get more confident, and you may also find Tai Chi is relaxing and a lot of fun. In Tai Chi, we say everything is connected, and you cannot change one thing without affecting everything. With consistency and regularity, adding elements of Tai Chi practice into your daily life engages your nervous system and can have training effects that include lowering blood sugar and blood pressure and relaxing your mind as a result. These metabolic health effects of Tai Chi have been confirmed in clinical trials. (Hamasaki, 2016)
Tai Chi Metabolic Equivalent
Many students I teach are surprised to be tired at the end of class. “I didn’t do anything in your class! How could I be tired?” They wonder. Tai Chi can be an education about movement and muscle engagement. In order to do Tai Chi movement, you use your whole body, your whole self, to move slowly and mindfully. As you make the Tai Chi movements, you are engaging the muscles and the awareness as you move the whole time you are moving. You make in-the-moment decisions to shift weight or move your limbs in a smooth and fluid manner at an even and consistent slow pace. Imagery helps: imagine you are moving under water and moving your limbs against a gentle resistance.
It is helpful to use a measurement for quantifying an activity level, and exercise science has the MET score, which stands for “metabolic equivalent” score for an activity. A MET score stands for the amount of energy used while doing an activity, which indicates the intensity of an activity. The MET scores for activities are calculated based on the amount of oxygen consumed during an activity, with higher scores being associated with vigorous activity and lower scores associated with gentle or restful activity. To give you an idea, sitting quietly is a MET score of 1. Doing dishes or cooking have a MET score of 2-3. In the scientific research, Tai Chi has a MET score of between 2 to 4 (Ainsworth, B.E, 2011 and Smith, 2015). This means Tai Chi can be compared to doing a light activity (like doing dishes) or doing a moderate activity that compares to brisk walking. When you walk briskly, the level of activity still allows you to talk and think, but your body is fully engaged and breaking a mild sweat. In another study that tracked people doing Tai Chi exercises by taking measurements of heart rate and the use of oxygen showed that: “The results demonstrate that [Tai Chi Chuan] is an exercise with moderate intensity and is aerobic in nature.” (Lan, C, 2001) That Tai Chi is an aerobic exercise is surprising to people, because slow movement is not usually associated with fitness. In Tai Chi, there is a saying: “In order to go fast, go slow.”
Metabolic Benefits of Tai Chi
In terms of metabolism and blood sugar levels in particular, a scientific study of Tai Chi involving Type 2 Diabetes as test subjects who practiced Tai Chi over a 12-week trial for 1 hour each week, subjects experienced lower HbA1c (the protein in the blood that indicates long term blood sugar levels in humans) after 12 weeks (Li Xiaoyuan, 2020). I have observed this firsthand with patients/students who have diabetes and who practice “all day,” at a Tai Chi training, for example, where you can practice Tai Chi for 5 hours in a single day: they report having “great blood sugar numbers” or great control during that training day. One particular student said to me, partly joking: “What I need to do to manage my blood sugar is 5 hours of Tai Chi every day!” That is not literally true, but this student’s story shows that Tai Chi engages muscles, which burn fuel (that means using up readily available sugars in the blood) when in use. Consistent and daily practice of Tai Chi can have some incredibly positive effects and set good things in motion, including a sense of ease in your body. Finding more ease in moving your body might even lead to taking enjoyment in simple everyday movement. A newfound ease in your body can help you then manage your stress. Since stress hormones raise blood sugar, lowering stress as a rule leads to more balanced blood sugar levels, which is great for everyone, not just people with diabetes. Balanced blood sugar means balanced energy throughout the day.
NOTE: The “dose” of Tai Chi has been debated in scientific research. The rule is that twenty minutes of Tai Chi meditative movement activity is usually enough to create an observable physical shift (meaning slower heart rate, slower breathing, mental calm) right in the moment. Practicing several times a week is especially beneficial and builds momentum.
Tai Chi for Fun and Enjoyment
As you learn and practice Tai Chi, you discover there is a ritual in calming yourself down just before you do a Tai Chi form. This can be a deliberate slowing of the breath and then holding the intent to notice and feel each detail of each movement. Doing a little Tai Chi is a fantastic way to pause, think, slow down and tune in to what is happening around you and in you. In Tai Chi, you move slowly and have the sense of enough time to do something, anything, and everything. As exercise, Tai Chi can help you relax your mind and gently move your body, and as you experience the outcomes, you may find a quiet calmness and enjoyment in movement over time.
References
Ainsworth, B.E me.; Haskell, W.L.; Herrmann, S.D.; Meckes, N.; Bassett, D.R., Jr.; Tudor-Locke, C.; Greer, J.L.; Vezina, J.; Whitt-Glover, M.C.; Leon, A.S. 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities: A second update of codes and MET values. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2011, 43, 1575–1581. [PubMed]
Garber CE, Blissmer B, Deschenes MR, Franklin BA, Lamonte MJ, Lee IM, Nieman DC, Swain DP; American College of Sports Medicine. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: guidance for prescribing exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Jul;43(7):1334-59. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e318213fefb. PMID: 21694556.
Geneen LJ, Moore RA, Clarke C, Martin D, Colvin LA, Smith BH. Physical activity and exercise for chronic pain in adults: an overview of Cochrane Reviews. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;1(1):CD011279. Published 2017 Jan 14. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD011279.pub2
Hamasaki H. Martial Arts and Metabolic Diseases. Sports (Basel). 2016;4(2):28. Published 2016 May 9. doi:10.3390/sports4020028
Jetté M, Sidney K, Blümchen G. Metabolic equivalents (METS) in exercise testing, exercise prescription, and evaluation of functional capacity. Clin Cardiol. 1990 Aug;13(8):555-65. doi: 10.1002/clc.4960130809. PMID: 2204507.
Lan C, Chen SY, Lai JS, Wong MK. Heart rate responses and oxygen consumption during Tai Chi Chuan practice. Am J Chin Med. 2001;29(3-4):403-10. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X01000423. PMID: 11789583.
Li X, Si H, Chen Y, Li S, Yin N, Wang Z. Effects of fitness qigong and tai chi on middle-aged and elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. PLoS One. 2020 Dec 17;15(12):e0243989. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243989. PMID: 33332396; PMCID: PMC7746158.
Smith LL, Wherry SJ, Larkey LK, Ainsworth BE, Swan PD. Energy expenditure and cardiovascular responses to Tai Chi Easy. Complement Ther Med. 2015 Dec;23(6):802-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2015.09.004. Epub 2015 Sep 10. PMID: 26645519.
You, Y.; Min, L.; Tang, M.; Chen, Y.; Ma, X. Bibliometric Evaluation of Global Tai Chi Research from 1980–2020. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 6150. Published 7 June 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116150