Tai Chi exercises for home
Qigong lets you discover the master within yourself. Join in with these videos for free, alongside the classes or to find out whether it suits you.
Tai Chi
Five Seasons of Dao
A simple Five Elements exercise following the seasons of winter, spring, summer, late summer and autumn. Easy for anyone to follow and deeply relaxing.
Tai Chi
The Harmony
A simple yet powerful Five Elements exercise with a harmonising effect on the deeper layers within you.
Qigong
Six Directions
A connecting exercise built on rising and sinking, front and back, left and right. From your own centre, you connect with everything around you.
Tai Chi
The Unfolding
A Five Elements exercise covering water, wood, fire, earth and metal, drawn from the turning of the seasons.
Tai Chi
Return to the Source (front view)
Water is low, wood rising, fire spreading, earth contracting and metal withdrawing. An exercise to land in.
Tai Chi
Return to the Source (side view)
The same exercise from the side. This way you can see more clearly when to step out or step in, and how your weight is spread across your legs.
Qigong
The Sun Salutation
The exercise to start your day with. You open the front, back and sides of your body and let the energy flow through the turning of your torso.
Qigong
The Sun Salutation (side view)
The Sun Salutation from the side, so you can follow the rotation and the breath closely.
Qigong
Open the Source
A meditative yin exercise for relaxation and vitality. All the movements are done on the spot, so it works well in a small space too.
Qigong
Yin and Yang
The exercise for feeling where you stand. Do you stay in your centre as you step forward, and as you step back?
Qigong
Scooping the Butterfly from the Water
A meditative walking exercise from Five Seasons of Dao. A wood movement: rising energy.
Impression
World Tai Chi and Qigong Day
Every year on the last Saturday of April, people in more than 80 countries practise Tai Chi and Qigong together. An impression at Fort Abcoude.
Tips for practising at home
Choose a regular moment, for example in the morning after getting up or in the evening once the day is done. A few minutes a day does more than an hour once a month.
Make sure you have some space around you and stand firmly, with soft knees. Breathe calmly through your nose and move without forcing. If something hurts, make the movement smaller.
And above all: there’s no right or wrong. You can’t get it wrong, only differently.
Prefer to practise together, with guidance?
Videos are a lovely start. But practising together, with explanation and attention to your posture, takes you further. In the live online classes you join in every week, and I give you pointers.
Questions about the exercises
Yes. Start with Five Seasons of Dao or Open the Source, for example: simple and easy to follow.
A few minutes every day is better than a long session now and then. That way you get your energy moving and feel the benefits every day.
Yes. More exercises are added all the time, and later on complete online courses and practice programmes too.
Many of the movements can be done seated. Do what feels good and make the movement smaller if you need to.
Ready to land in yourself?
Join a live online class, wherever you live. Or come and try a free class in person in Abcoude or Amsterdam Zuidoost first.
You don’t need to be able to do anything. You can’t get it wrong, only differently.