There are many styles of Tai Chi, all having significant health and healing qualities.

All Tai Chi moves and forms should be learned from a Tai Chi Master in order to get the most benefit from Tai Chi and Shamanic Qigong.

The main styles practiced today are Chen, Sun, Yang, Woo and Wu.

The Art of Qigong is for strengthening body, mind and spirit. Qigong incorporates movement, meditation and breathing as the means to improve the body as a whole.

The focus is on one’s natural, internal energies as a whole and not as a series of separate functions.

Qigong is approximately 5000 years old and uses stationary position.
Chen Tai Chi has evolved from this ancient art.

Tai Chi comes from Chinese martial arts training going back as far as 3500 years.
Today it is a nonviolent form of slow, balanced movements, interspersed with sudden, explosive effort.

Chen style Tai Chi is possibly the oldest form and extremely popular the world over.

Lower body stance is the form feature of Chen tai Chi with its characteristic Silk Reeling movements, jumps and leaps of strength and slow circular motions.

Old Frame and New Frame are the two methods.
The ancient form is Old Frame and when intermixed with more modern form becomes new Frame.

The gentle, flowing movements have developed from strong, powerful martial art techniques, and although becoming a Tai Chi master can take many years, there are benefits to one’s body right from the commencing to practice.

Practioners of the Tai Chi art believe the main benefits are:

Stress Relief: The slow breathing combined with the concentration required to perform movements, will remove the strain and pressures of daily life.

Balance and Strength: controlled movement through slow, deliberate sweeps of the arms and legs, strengthen core body muscles, increase flexibility and improve balance. Abdominal muscles and leg muscles become toned and improve posture.

Respiratory functions: breathing control has to be done in accordance with each move and this increases lung function and heart conditioning. . The aerobic qualities of tai Chi improve oxygen intake and body stamina.

Digestive system: controlled muscle and body movement through slow, circular sweeps assists in moving food stuffs through the digestive system

Blood Pressure: slow, controlled breathing and gentle, sweeping movements have been proven to lower blood pressure.

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Learn the techniques of this ancient Chinese practice now used as a health maintenance exercise.

The "qi" in qigong means air in Chinese, and, by extension, life force.

"Gong" means work applied to a discipline or the resultant level of skill.

So qigong is breathing and energy working together.

Master Zhongxian Wu was born on China’s eastern shore in the city of Wenling in Zhejiang Province. In China, Master Wu served as Director of the Shanxi Province Association for Somatic Science and the Shaanxi Association for the Research of Daoist Nourishing Life Practices.

In this capacity, he conducted many investigations into the clinical efficacy of Qigong and authored numerous works on the philosophical and historical foundations of China’s ancient life sciences. Since he began teaching in 1988, Master Wu has instructed thousands of Qigong students, eastern and western.

In 2001, Master Wu left his job as an aerospace engineer in Xi’an, China, to come to the United States to teach.

For four years he served as Senior Instructor and Resident Expert of Qigong and Taiji in the Classical Chinese Medicine Department at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM) in Portland, Oregon

 Chen Style Tai Chi by Jose Figueroa.

The Chen family style is the oldest and parent form of the five main tai chi chuan styles. It is third in terms of world-wide popularity compared to the other main taijiquan styles.

Chen style is characterized by its lower stances, more explicit Silk Reeling (chan si jin).

These days Tai Chi Chuan is mainly practised for health, external/internal martial art skills, aesthetics, meditation and athletic/competition sport

Shih Fu Jose Figueroa received a B.S. in Physical Education from the City College of New York and has devoted over 20 years to martial arts. 

He is under the direct tutelage of Ren Guang Yi, a 20th generation Grandmaster, and is one of a few non-Asian students certified to teach Chen style Tai Chi in the U.S. 

Jose co-authored three books, founded the Holistic Network in 1992, and consulted at the VA Hospital, where he applied Tai Chi for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, drug & alcohol dependency and spinal cord injuries. 

As a competitor, Jose has won many local, regional, national and international tournaments.  

He has been awarded with over 40 gold medals, retired as Grand Champion, and was inducted to the 1999 USWKF Hall of Fame. (Bio from Well-Connect.com)

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