DISCOVER THE MARTIAL ESSENCE OF TAI CHI CHUAN Here's your chance to take the next step in your tai chi journey. Martial applications found within tai chi chuan are a direct link to your tai chi as a form of self-defense. When you study the martial side of tai chi, you can become proficient in a variety of high-level skills, including sensing, neutralizing, yielding, striking, chin na, and even throwing. If you know a tai chi form, you are going to discover the essence of your movements by becoming aware of their martial applications. If you are practicing tai chi pushing hands, you will greatly improve your skills with this understanding of martial applications. If you are ready, you are going to love the amazing tai chi fighting set. This fully choreographed set (requires a partner) will combine all your tai chi skills into one 5-minute routine. It's like having three books in one. Includes: Martial applications for the Yang-style long form Martial applications for Yang-style tai chi pushing hands The complete Yang-style tai chi fighting set For any style of tai chi chuan, this book will be important for practitioners who wish to develop a deeper understanding and advanced skills. Learn how to analyze the forms and defense applications in your tai chi, gaining higher-level knowledge of your style. Discover the martial applications of Yang style. These insights will give you greater understanding of your own art. Find inspiration. Master Yang's writing will inspire you to investigate the martial applications of your tai chi style. This edition includes an easy-to-follow layout. Each technique is presented in four to six large photographs with detailed instructions on how to perform the movements. Motion arrows are used on the photographs to help you execute the movements correctly.

This book is an in-depth guide for learning Tai Chi Chuan. Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan) is a both a relaxed moving meditation and a sophisticated martial arts system. Unique to any other form of exercise, it trains the body (movement), the mind (meditation) and the spirit (confidence). Through practicing Tai Chi Chuan, you are able to calm down the mind, locate your spiritual center, and consequently find your entire being. From these relaxed moving exercise, you can bring your physical body into an ultimate level of relaxation and natural ease, resulting in smooth Qi (inner energy) and blood circulation. This is a key to maintaining health and recovering from sickness. This book is an in-depth guide to learn Tai Chi Chuan properly. It offers a general plan for practicing, and goes into great depth, presenting enough content for many years proper learning: You will learn: What Tai Chi Chuan is How to practice The history of Tai Chi Chuan Tai Chi Chuan postures About Qi, Qigong, and man Fundamental stances Categories of Qigong Warm-up and get loose exercises Tai Chi Qigong Qigong training theory Qigong and Tai Chi Chuan Tai Chi Chuan thirteen postures (eight doors and five stepping) The traditional Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan Long Form step-by-step

Tai chi ball qigong training is an important component of proper tai chi chuan practice Once kept secret in martial arts societies, Tai Chi Ball training has the potential to help develop internal strength, whole body connections, yielding and neutralizing skills, and promotes abundant qi flow. For decades, this training was widely unknown. Dr. Yang has taken the original 24 patterns and extended them to 48 patterns in order to expand the health benefits and to target the needs of martial artists. For martial artists, tai chi ball qigong training can strengthen the torso, condition the muscles, and increase physical power by using the mind to lead the qi. It can be a major training tool to enhance pushing hands ability. As a health exercise, tai chi ball qigong training will improve movement of the spine, increase energy through various breathing techniques, and aid in moving many joints of your body properly, and at different angles. "In all my years of teaching, I believe that Tai Chi Ball Qigong is one of the most powerful exercises I have ever seen to rebuild the entire body's health."-Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming This book includes History of tai chi ball Theory of tai chi ball qigong Tai chi ball warm-ups Tai chi ball fundamentals Tai chi ball breathing Tai chi ball exercises Tai chi ball partner exercises Tai chi ball advanced practice

A unique vocabulary exists that ascribes a variety of emotions to the belly: "my guts are in a knot," "I knew it in my gut," "gut-wrenching," and "no guts, no glory." Yet too often, more emphasis is placed on the way the abdomen looks than how it feels and functions - a sterling six-pack can mask true abdominal trouble. Yoga Abs outlines a series of exercises, yoga poses (asana), and breathing practices designed to achieve optimal health for this crucial area, which houses the organs of both digestion and procreation. Drawing on her experience as a yoga instructor and physical therapist, Judith Hanson Lasater discusses the anatomy and philosophical aspects of the abdomen and offers a set of movements that create awareness of important muscles while developing and maintaining abdominal strength. Each exercise and asana lists the props or supports needed, safety guidelines, and practice instructions, and the book includes practical guidelines for moving mindfully through everyday tasks.

In The Breathing Book, internationally renowned yoga instructor Donna Farhi presents a refreshingly simple and practical guide to reestablishing proper breathing techniques that will dramatically improve your physical and mental health. During infancy most of us breathed with complete ease. Since then, however, we have unconsciously altered our breathing in response to stress and other demands in our lives. Now, rediscover the wonders and freedom of unrestricted breathing. In this accessible and comprehensive manual you will learn how to get in touch with your own lost natural breathing so that you can develop effective strategies for using your breathing to relax your body in stressful situations and calm your mind during trying times; learn how to enhance your sexual pleasure, develop your concentration, and cultivate inner peace; use safe and easily learned techniques to treat asthma, depression, eating disorders, insomnia, pain, fatigue, headaches, and to quit smoking and a wide variety of other debilitating conditions; and improve athletic performance. Complete with more than 75 photos and illustrations to illuminate concepts and exercises, The Breathing Book presents a thorough and inspiring program that you can tailor to your specific needs. Whether you are hoping to increase your energy levels or looking for a better way to handle everyday pressures, you will find this an invaluable guide to promoting physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.

Pole Dance Fitness is a guide to performing the best pole dance exercises to create one intense workout. The book contains specific information, practical descriptions, and full-color photos designed to help the reader understand the best approach for each exercise, movement, trick, or spin. Included also are detailed exercise sets to create your own best workout as well as information on stretching before and after performing the pole dance tricks. The workouts are designed to progress as your conditioning and fitness progresses, lowering the risk of injury. Technical notes for each pole figure and spin relate to its level of difficulty so you won`t find yourself performing an exercise that is beyond your ability. Not just a workout, the unique composition of the pole dance transitions combine to create different dance and acrobatic routines so not only will you improve your body posture and alignment and your overall fitness, you will also have a great time doing it

The most acclaimed, comprehensive guide for Pilates is back with all-new photos and more variations, modifications, and progressions than ever before. In Pilates, Third Edition, world-renowned Pilates expert Rael Isacowitz draws on over four decades of experience to offer you a path to total health and well-being through the Pilates method. Whether you are a beginner, a teacher using Pilates in a therapeutic setting, or a veteran instructor working with athletes, this resource will help you tap into the potential of the mind-body connection to gain the elusive edge in training. Pilates starts with the foundation for all the exercises by presenting an in-depth treatment of mat work, including photos, imagery, and detailed instruction on breathing to help you perform the movements correctly. After the mat work, Pilates goes on to apply the same depth of instruction and photos to the full range of Pilates apparatus: Reformer Cadillac Wunda chair Ladder barrel, also known as the high barrel Step barrel, also known as the spine corrector Ped-a-pul Arm chair (F2 chair) Magic circle There are more than 200 exercises, categorized by body region. The exercises include difficulty ratings, recommended resistance ranges, and explanations of not only how to perform the movements but also how practitioners will benefit from them. New variations, modifications, and progressions for many of those exercises offer additional options for tailoring the exercises based on ability, skill, or preference. The book includes a purposeful grouping of exercises into programs that work all regions of the body and progress from the fundamental level through the intermediate and advanced levels to challenge you at all stages of Pilates practice. Pilates is a holistic approach to well-being that offers a bridge between mind and body, between everyday life and optimal performance, and between rehabilitation and healthy movement. When used to its full potential, it can enhance every aspect of life. So whether you are young or old, are able-bodied or live with restricted mobility, Pilates can improve your balance, concentration, coordination, posture, muscle tone, core strength, flexibility, and overall well-being. CE exam available! For certified professionals, a companion continuing education exam can be completed after reading this book. Pilates, Third Edition Online CE Exam, may be purchased separately or as part of the Pilates, Third Edition With CE Exam, package that includes both the book and the exam.

Sod Sitting, Get Moving! is the must-have guide to keeping fit and healthy in your sixties, seventies and beyond. Specifically designed for older adults the exercises, stretches and strengthening movements will help keep you fit, strong and supple for the years ahead. You will feel better, look better and younger and reduce your risk of disability and dementia. As we get older too many of us spend our time sitting and not exercising. This is a call to arms - a bonfire of the slippers! Walk more, get moving, get exercising, get fitter, and feel better! This handy book shows you how. With easy exercise ideas created by Green Goddess and health and fitness expert Diana Moran, with text from Sir Muir Gray, author of the bestselling Sod Seventy!, this is the perfect present for yourself, or for anybody turning sixty, seventy or eighty!

Fun and fact-filled eater's digest with the manifesto: "liberation from the tyranny of fat." Everyday nutrition imaginatively designed using fat assets, supreme proteins, and carb addictions and additions. Nutrition is difficult but eating isn't. You are what you eat, sleep, secrete and excrete. Multiple primary causes for fat-gain and primal solutions for fat-loss made intelligible. Recreational calories manifested in three prize-winning dessert recipes prepared in minutes. Promise of permanent fat-loss occurring with small deficits of calorie consumption and small increments of calorie expenditure over time. Good news for fitness-averse eaters. Great news for fitness warriors. Taking advantage of enormous benefits of intense exercise and the equally beneficial period of rest and recovery that follows. The N.E.A.T way to exercise. Nutritional superstars already in your kitchen. Sabotaging nutritional and exercise progress with chronic stress. Harnessing the hormones for fat-loss is powerful strategy. Simple (painless) and effective strategies that target fat-loss. Ease in getting nutritional allotment of vegetables and fruits in your daily feedbag. How to gain muscle and lose fat What blood sugar and the stock market have in common. Nutritional myths busted. Some of your favorite foods exonerated. Giving your body an oil change. Change of content of calories automatically reduces calories. Cooperate rather than compete with deep biological urges. Human blood and chlorophyll are the same except for one molecule. Become a salad king/queen. Humor and physical transformation are not mutually exclusive.