<story><title>Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/14/1231232197/tai-chi-aerobics-exercise-blood-pressure-hypertension-mindfulness</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>corysama</author><text>Long ago, maybe before the consumer internet, I saw a video claiming to showcase people who studied tai chi as a fighting art instead of just exercise. It was a lot of being able to follow the other person&amp;#x27;s movements to the point that &amp;quot;Fighting a tai chi master is like wrestling with an empty jacket&amp;quot;. There was also a demonstration where a master pushed a student&amp;#x27;s middle finger back using an open palm. No matter how the student spun around and whipped his hand around, he couldn&amp;#x27;t get his finger away from the pressure of the palm that was following him around.&lt;p&gt;No idea how legit it was. I&amp;#x27;ve never seen tai chi presented primarily as self-defense since.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bunderbunder</author><text>Alarm bells go off in my head whenever the demonstration of an extraordinary martial arts skill is being done by a master and his student. Maybe the most egregious example of how this sort of dynamic can work out is George Dillman and his &amp;quot;no touch knockouts&amp;quot;. It&amp;#x27;s easy enough to find amusing YouTube videos showing how that worked out when someone roped him into trying to demonstrate the technique on someone who &lt;i&gt;wasn&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt; a student of his.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, it&amp;#x27;s usually not nearly that spectacular, but the same basic dynamic has historically pervaded many martial arts. Participants in one style typically only practice and spar with each other, and the &amp;quot;more advanced&amp;quot; techniques might only be demonstrated using advanced students who wouldn&amp;#x27;t get to be that advanced in the first place without being heavily bought into the whole thing, so you can get some almost cult-like dynamics coming into play.</text></comment>
<story><title>Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/14/1231232197/tai-chi-aerobics-exercise-blood-pressure-hypertension-mindfulness</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>corysama</author><text>Long ago, maybe before the consumer internet, I saw a video claiming to showcase people who studied tai chi as a fighting art instead of just exercise. It was a lot of being able to follow the other person&amp;#x27;s movements to the point that &amp;quot;Fighting a tai chi master is like wrestling with an empty jacket&amp;quot;. There was also a demonstration where a master pushed a student&amp;#x27;s middle finger back using an open palm. No matter how the student spun around and whipped his hand around, he couldn&amp;#x27;t get his finger away from the pressure of the palm that was following him around.&lt;p&gt;No idea how legit it was. I&amp;#x27;ve never seen tai chi presented primarily as self-defense since.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nandkeypull</author><text>If you can find a competent instructor from a lineage that preserved the fighting applications of tai chi, you can see some pretty interesting grappling and joint-locking techniques. It&amp;#x27;s not all snake oil.&lt;p&gt;One example (Yang-style tai chi): &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=kp2jWeaKrqI&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=kp2jWeaKrqI&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>