Book: The Tai Chi Book—Refining and Enjoying a Lifetime of Practice by Robert Chuckrow

How to Get the Most from Your Tai Chi Practice

The Tai Chi Book is a detailed guide for students who've learned a Tai Chi form and want to know more. It also introduces beginners to the principles behind great Tai Chi, and answers common questions that all of us have.

The Tai Chi Book shows you how to use Tai Chi to gain strength in your bones, muscles and vital organs, how to improve your balance and flexibility, and how to achieve remarkable vitality.

The author also introduces complex elements of Tai Chi, including ways to develop the relaxed strength known as sung, how to cultivate and feel Chi, how to train mindfulness, and a helpful chapter on being a student.

In addition, the author explores the debate over Tai Chi breathing patterns, explains in detail proper body alignment, and tells why Pushing Hands is more important than you might think.

The Tai Chi Book is your guide to the fullest health benefits of Tai Chi and to higher levels of skill and ability.

• Like two books in one, basic and advanced Tai Chi training.
• Find out how to choose and relate to a teacher.
• Develop remarkable vitality and longevity.
• Includes the Cheng Man-ch'ing short form.
• More than one hundred photos and illustrations.

B647

Book: Tai Chi Walking—A Low-Impact Approach to Better Health by Robert Chuckrow

Walking should be one of the most natural things we do.

Most of us have been walking almost all of our lives. However, many have learned walking in a haphazard way. Wearing improper shoes, modeling ourselves after others whose walking is inefficient, and wrong ideas about how our body works are all factors that take their toll on us over time.

Because walking is natural, it is not hard to improve it to the point where it becomes meditation and improves our health at the same time.

For Tai Chi practitioners, walking provides an excellent opportunity to augment, refine, and reinforce Tai Chi principles and bridge the gap between formal practice and everyday life.

For non-practitioners, Tai Chi Walking trains us in walking concepts for improving health, balance, peace-of-mind and safety.

• If you hurt after a long day on your feet, this book is for you.
• Learn how to walk properly and naturally.
• Discover why poor walking posture can damage your health.
• Understand how proper walking can increase longevity and vitality.

B23X

Book: Tai Chi Dynamics—Principles of Natural Movement, Health, and Self-Development by Robert Chuckrow

Tai Chi Dynamics is intended for intermediate and advanced Taiji players. The author has been a Taiji practitioner for thirty-seven years and with a Ph.D. in experimental physics. He applies logic and basic scientific principles of anatomy, physiology, and physics to muscular action, breathing, and alignment in Taiji movement and push-hands. He clarifies, in depth, many perplexing concepts such as "correct force" by utilizing detailed explanations, illustrations, and photographs. Sayings from the Taiji Classics are quoted throughout, and exercises are provided to give readers a chance to confirm their understanding.

Over a dozen self-defense applications of the basic Taiji movements are illustrated, and the effectiveness and completeness of Taiji as a martial art today is candidly analyzed. Suggestions for many aspects of teaching Taiji are provided, which stem from over three decades of practical experience. A chapter on Zheng Manqing (Cheng Man-ch'ing), with whom the author studied for five years in the early 1970s, sheds light on Zheng and his students.

One chapter deals extensively with aspects of self development from a personal perspective, discusses how doing Taiji correctly is a precursor to spiritual growth, and compares religion, science, and spiritual teachings. A detailed chapter on health, self-massage, and healing discusses fasting (including the author's own experience with a twenty-eight-day fast), differences between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine, and provides exercises and methods of self-massage for head, legs, feet, and back. There is even a section on how to make your own footwear suitable for practicing Taiji. The book includes personal anecdotes and stories and has over one hundred photographs and illustrations drawn by the author.

B1163