If You Can Walk You Can Do Tai Chi

I practiced tai chi while hooked to an IV.

I was 61. A staph infection had gotten into my spinal column. Emergency surgery. Titanium pins in my fourth and fifth vertebrae. The surgeons weren't sure how much of my movement would come back. I was a blues/boogie-woogie pianist. My left hand was the one that couldn't move.

When physical therapy ended and my insurance stopped paying, I was about 70% of what I had been. I'd casually studied tai chi for several years before the infection so I knew what the practice could do.

I returned to it. Not as a martial art. As a way of healing.

I could only stand for a few minutes at a time. I started with my arm lifted three inches.

At that point in my recovery, it was physically difficult for me to travel (NYC subway) to the class I had been taking before, so I searched around and found another quality school closer to my home, and this was when I discovered Northern Wu style Tai Chi and within 3 years I had recovered almost everything, my movement, my balance, my piano playing too.

I've been teaching Northern Wu Tai Chi ever since, in person for over ten years, and online five classes a week for seven.

This article is for anyone who wonders whether tai chi is really possible for them. The short answer: if you can walk, or even just a little— it almost certainly is.

Four Things YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT TAI CHI

What tai chi actually does — and why it works

1. The benefits start before you learn a single move

In my Tai Chi classes we first learn standing and breathing — how to find your center of gravity, how to relax the hips while opening the back, how to shift your weight from foot to foot with control. Most students feel something change in their back and balance within the first few weeks. Not because they've learned tai chi — because they've started paying attention to how they stand and move.

2. Slow movement is harder than fast movement — and that's the point

Tai chi looks easy because it's slow, and it’s true that each little bit is easy. Slow, controlled movement requires your nervous system to stay fully engaged. It rebuilds the brain–body connection that years of sitting, or injury, or surgery can erode. That's why Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, and the American Heart Association all recommend it. Not because it's gentle (though it is), but because it's precise.

3. You cannot do it wrong if you move within your own range

The most common fears I hear are “I might fall” and "I'll do it wrong and hurt myself". Here's what I tell every new student: tai chi has no minimum range of motion requirement.

You adapt and work within whatever your body currently allows. You don’t try to do what you can’t do. That's not a compromise, that's the practice. Wu style in particular is known for its small, precise movements rather than wide, sweeping ones. It was designed for bodies that need care.

4. You are not too old. You may be exactly the right age.

Tai chi becomes more valuable as the body ages, not less. The research on balance, fall prevention, anxiety, and spinal health, is strongest in the 55–80 age group. The people who benefit most from slow, weight-bearing movement with full mental attention are not only the young and fit (though younger people are also increasingly experiencing back pain from sitting).

So, Tai Chi is great for people whose bodies have been through something. Surgery. Chronic pain, 10 hour days of sitting at a desk. The practice was designed for exactly where you are.

What Honest Progress Actually Looks Like

Nobody masters tai chi in a few weeks. Here's what you can expect.

I want to be honest with you about something most tai chi programs won't say: the movements and the coordination are relaxed but complicated and take time to learn. A famous Tai Chi master said that “you need to develop a taste for doing tai chi, because if you don’t like it, you won’t do it”.

Just take things one movement at a time and there’s no pressure to do more than you can. This is important, especially if you have pain or stiffness or other limitations.

If you can give Tai Chi just 15-20 minutes a day you’ll start to feel the good effects, and after a while it starts to feel like slow motion flying!

YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED!

You don’t have to be ready – just willing!

Tai chi has a way of surprising people.

Those who come in convinced they're too stiff, too skeptical, or just not the "tai chi type" find that within a few weeks something has quietly shifted — they're standing differently, moving with more ease, feeling steadier on their feet. Not because tai chi is magic, but because it asks your body to do something it's been missing: slow down, pay attention, and move with intention. That turns out to be exactly what a body that's been through something is hungry for.

And here's the part nobody tells you about — it's feels good, it’s fun, the smooth movement is genuinely enjoyable. There's something deeply satisfying about learning to move well again. People who come in skeptical, but give it some time, tend to stay.

In conclusion: if you’re looking for a fun, healthy, interesting, activity that you can do at any level of physical ability, with no equipment, at home or anywhere, give Tai Chi a try!

Toby Kasavan teaches Tai Chi live in Park Slope at Yogis and Yoginis 432 6th ave across from the library and online at Betterbalanceny.com. any questions? email betterbalanceny@gmail.com

Certifications:

-Northern Wu style tai chi by the WuTang Physical Culture Association NYC

-VA Community Care Provider of Tai Chi certified by TriWest and Optum NPI#1881232288

-American Tai Chi and Qigong Association (ATCQA) level 2 instructor

-The National Qigong Association

-5th Dan Aikido, US Aikido Federation