Blog

Bonsai Chi is gentle, low-impact, whole body exercises, designed to improve your balance, flexibility and overall wellness.  The movements are designed to develop an understanding of how to control your body movements. Understanding where our body weight is, apportioning it correctly whilst we...

Most of us would be able to answer the question ‘why being active is good for us?’  The benefits are promoted often, “strengthen bones and muscles, improve our brain health, weight management, relaxation, improve sleep quality” to name a few.  Being able to name the...

Hand-eye co-ordination is an everyday life skill, knowing where our limbs are without having to look at them.  We don’t look at our feet as we’re walking, or our hands as we pick something up.  It’s know as Proprioception, our hidden sixth sense, and there are steps we ca...

Hand-eye co-ordination is the process of controlling our eye movement with our hand movements.  A skill we start learning from as young as 4 months, which is when babies tend to start bringing objects to their mouth so they can determine what it is.   A normal part of child developmen...

Posture and Core Strength What is posture?  It’s how we hold our body, there’s two types.  Dynamic posture is how we hold ourselves when we’re moving, for example, walking, running or bending over to pick something up.  Static posture is when we’re not moving,...

What does flexibility mean? It can refer to events, such as having ‘flexibility in modifying the date’, a willingness to change or compromise ‘they showed flexibility in adapting the rules’, and it refers to physical movements ‘the quality of bending easily’. Fle...

Wheatpieces Community CentreColumbine RoadTewkesburyGL20 7SP Wednesday 11:10 - 11:55

St Michael's CentreSchool RoadBishops CleeveCheltenhamGL52 8LL Tuesday 14:30 - 15:30

Walking is a skill we learn, normally as a toddler, as we grow and develop it happens without conscious thought.  The problem with this is we start to take short-cuts and develop bad habits.  We find that ‘walking’ is actually our momentum driving us forward, not a conscious t...

Feel more energised A short gentle, low-impact exercise routine, which will re-energise your body.  You don’t require much room, it can be done standing on the spot or sitting on a chair. Pop some relaxing music on and allow your mind to relax and calm, enjoying the feeling of moving me...

Kata is a term used in martial arts which refers to a structured routine consisting of different techniques and stances.  It’s a methodology that uses repeated and consistent practice, teaching us how to perform movements by creating habits, allowing us to move without conscious thought. ...

Join us for our Bonsai Chi ‘Get Active’ campaign, learning and following different exercise drills during the month.  Every Bonsai Chi drill focuses on one benefit, however often improves several of them simultaneously.  Performing it several times throughout the day improves o...

The word balance has so many meanings, it’s a noun, a verb, and is applicable within so many contexts e.g. balancing the cash book, balanced diet, balancing time demands.  It also refers to physical balance, the act of managing our body weight to allow us to move efficiently, unconsciousl...

I worked in an office environment for over 30 years, even though I felt like I was forever up and down out of my chair it wasn’t until I wore a step tracker that I realised this movement didn’t result in me taking many steps during the day!  There have been many studies done which ...

How often do you think about your posture?  It affects our overall wellbeing in so many ways, however we unconsciously do things which results in bad posture. The increase in technology means we don’t have to move as much, who remembers having to get up out of the chair to turn the telly...

Improve hand-eye co-ordination A short gentle, low-impact exercise routine, improving hand-eye co-ordination and flexibility of your hands.  You don’t require much room, it can be done standing on the spot or sitting on a chair. Pop some relaxing music on and allow your mind to relax an...

If someone asked you what stances you adopt in a day you’d probably answer ‘none’.  It’s not a formal term we tend to think of in our everyday movement, however we’re using them all the time. One of the first words you’ll hear when training karate or Bonsai ...

Gently flex your body A short gentle whole body, low-impact exercise routine, refreshing and re-energising yourself.  You don’t require much room, it can be done standing on the spot or sitting on a chair. Pop some relaxing music on and allow your mind to relax and calm, enjoying the fe...

Do I need to be sporty and fit? No.  You go at your own pace and the exercises can be varied to suit you.  For example, we put our arms forward at head height, if this causes discomfort in your shoulders then you lower it and put them forward at chest height.  You’ll soon find ...

We all know exercise is good for us, finding the right one for what we’re trying to achieve can be difficult.  Each exercise offers different benefits, we often put pressure on ourselves and think that we’re not benefiting if we don’t finish a session all sweaty and face as a ...

Having been karate training since I was 13 I often spoke of a dream of leaving my ‘day job’ and setting up a martial arts school.  What shape and what it would be I could never define, however I always wanted to be able to provide the enjoyment and benefits I’ve gained to othe...