Tai Chi Postures

Tai chi is a fundamental practice for both health and spiritual benefits. Better yet, it is non-competitive, calm, and usually gradual.

In Tai chi, there’s no pausing; the moves transit from one to the other gradually. In short, Tai chi moves combine poses and stances, posture alignment, breathing techniques, and martial application.

As observed in [Tai Chi Massage], the styles of Tai Chi work differently for both beginners and advanced learners to suit their needs and preferences.
Because Tai Chi is also a combination of different postures, let’s get a profound understanding of these postures.

Basic Knowledge on the Postures

For starters, there are about 108 Tai Chi postures, but this depends on your preferred style. Though the 108 moves involve repeated poses therein but the total still stands at 108.

While performing Tai Chi postures, less is always effective. This doesn’t mean practicing a few times but rather the way you move. To be able to have more control and power, you need to make fewer moves. Besides, there’s no way you are going to finish all the 108 postures at once!

Looking at the solid sweeping poses and your instructor’s constant balanced arms and legs motions, you can’t help but wonder what you are doing wrong. Achieving what they do is not easy for most beginners because the secret lies in how much you do it.

Also, believe it or not, the power of Tai Chi postures lies in the waist. While it’s common for most people to acknowledge the arms because of their primary control role, the core carries all the power.

Therefore using all your energy is swinging your arms and punching will only wear you out and put you off-balance in the end. Hence, it would be best to do less with your arms.

In Tai Chi, your force/power comes from your waist. So, you will need to turn your waist correctly before throwing a punch. Else, you will be wasting your energy if you focus on speed rather than power.

What’s The Impact of Tai Chi Postures?

Surprisingly, every Tai Chi posture is different, and this tends to overwhelm the beginner. But, even with the high number of poses, they all work to improve three major things for a learner;

Health: The postures in Tai Chi enable adequate and continuous blood flow throughout the body. To achieve this, no joint should be less than 90 degrees. Better yet, a learner should imagine holding a softball in their armpit to properly strike the correct angle in the knees, elbows, and thigh to stomach.


Agility: In Tai Chi, you shouldn’t close down an arm or leg for supposed gain in power or strength. So, Tai Chi provides stability and agility when the learner engages a soft lower back and flexed knees pointed out.


Power: The secret to possessing the power of Tai Chi has a good posture. Therefore, if you need to create good power and speed, ensure your correct aligning of the head and tailbone, open joints, and adequate blood flow to the muscles.

Tai Chi Postures

The 13 common Tai Chi postures are as follows;

•    Brush Left Knee and Push
•    Closing Movement
•    Cloud Hands
•    Cross Hands
•    Fist Under Elbow
•    Grasp Bird’s Tail
•    Hand Strums the Lute
•    High Pat to Horse with Palm Thrust
•    Opening Movement
•    Single Whip
•    Step Forward, Parry Block, and Punch
•    Turn Body and Chop with Fist
•    White Crane Spreads Wings

Ultimately, the internet can be hard to understand the correct posture for beginners and advanced learners. That’s why it would be best to get physical training on Tai Chi by a qualified master.

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