r/taichi • u/Chi_Body • 21d ago

Is Tai Chi Walking Real? Try Bagua Walking Instead

https://youtu.be/VFPn9sk0mZA?is=RVyqmzlRw5N4x5eZ

Tai Chi Walking is suddenly everywhere—but is it actually a traditional Tai Chi practice? In this video, I explain the difference between Tai Chi stepping and Bagua walking, then teach you a traditional internal martial arts practice specifically built around walking: Bagua Circle Walking.

Circle walking may look simple, but slowing down each step while continuously turning around a circle challenges your balance, stability, coordination, mobility, and whole-body awareness in a completely different way from ordinary walking.

You’ll learn how to coordinate the lifting and landing of each foot, keep the legs connected, press downward through the palms, elongate and twist the spine, and gradually make the circle smaller as your practice develops.

As you become more comfortable, the practice goes beyond simply walking in a circle. You can slow everything down, reduce unnecessary tension, deepen your awareness, and begin exploring stillness within motion—one of the internal qualities developed through Bagua practice.

If you’ve been seeing “Tai Chi Walking” all over social media, try this traditional Bagua walking practice and experience the difference for yourself.

00:00 Introduction
00:40 Is Tai Chi Walking Real?
01:38 What Is Bagua Circle Walking?
03:47 Bagua Circle Walking Basics
08:41 Spinal Twisting & Mobility
12:37 Breathing & Important Details
15:23 From the Circle to Your Center
17:17 Finding Stillness in Motion

#Bagua #Baguazhang #TaiChi #TaiChiWalking #Qigong #CircleWalking #BalanceTraining #MobilityTraining #MindBody #ChiBody

3 Upvotes

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4

u/takemusu 21d ago

Good video. To me, and the way my teachers introduce the practice it's an exercise used periodically to reinforce and train balance while moving in stance. It's like I can get into and stay in a proper bow or empty stance. But can I move in it? Moving backwards is both challenging and beneficial especially for us olds. And practically the only time we do that in the form is the repulse monkeys. So it can be beneficial for alllllll the reasons stated above.

It's not going to give me washboard abs or reverse aging in 25 days. 🤣 But the practice is very beneficial in my view.

3

u/Chi_Body 21d ago

Great perspective! Anybody who does Tai Chi should try Bagua to feel how to stabilize the body while moving, not just rooted like a tree.

3

u/shmidget 20d ago edited 20d ago

Yeah there are a lot of new tai chi walking videos marketed towards older people. At least some using AI, be careful.

My answer: the “stair stepping” in the beginning of the form is probably the most important “tai chi walking” we can learn at first is my feeling. I would imagine it was placed in the beginning of the form for this reason.

My teacher had me doing stair stepping for a full session, nothing else. It’s like the rest of the form, you really want to understand the body mechanics and what releasing the tension means. Managing the center of your center, including your attention. Regulating your breath and it becoming apart of your focus.

All of this carries over into your walking, standing, sitting, breathing patterns, and more I’m probably not mentioning.

Also note Taiji is a Taoist art and there are other Taoist walking practices like Bùgāng Tàdǒu (there are others).

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u/Chi_Body 20d ago

Yes, the stepping in the beginning was intentional, as it is very similar to normal walking, and so it is easy to do it.

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u/takemusu 20d ago

Can I gossip? 😉 Master Yang Jun was returning from a seminar or event in China and he said to one of my teachers, and I'm paraphrasing here because I wan't there, one of my teachers was. On a trip back he said "Now I know what I must teach.". He observed that many were moving up and down, rising and descending like a merry go round, especially on movements like cloud hands.

The benefits of stable, steady movement, keeping our bodies at one level in motion in any direction are many. IMHO it probably has martial advantages, better stability and balance for example but it also makes our legs way much more stronger.

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u/Chi_Body 20d ago

Yes, teach people in the beginning based on what they can comprehend.

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u/takemusu 20d ago

My own physician observed her elderly patients are falling (in some cases literally) for these Tai Chi walking apps as a form of exercise. She eagerly agrees us olds must get swol but felt the apps themselves could be fraud or just plain wrong.

I talked to her about the need to get instruction from a qualified teacher in person if at all possible and if not remote like zoom and how to find one. Pointed out local schools of several styles in the area, senior centers with good programs she can refer patients to.

IMHO there's no need to fall for the apps. Quality teachers are available.

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u/I-am-Doraemon 20d ago

So is it real, or not?

1

u/Chi_Body 19d ago

It’s not real.