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Benefits of Bonsai Chi

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 red as a tomato.

Gentle exercise works our whole body, improving balance, posture and flexibility.  As the saying goes ‘if you can’t do the movement slow you can’t do it fast’, not all exercise has to be high-intensity, we gain many benefits from low-intensity exercise, and they often complement each other. 

Bonsai Chi is gentle, low-impact, whole body exercise, designed for you to listen to your body and not challenge it.  Providing many benefits such as improved balance, posture, flexibility and hand-eye co-ordination.

The gentle flowing exercise encourages you to move parts of your body you wouldn’t normally.  We tend to we use the same muscle groups during our daily activities, often neglecting others without realising it.  When we then do use those muscles we find they yell at us and ache, which often prompts us to stop using them, however we should at that point try to keep them moving as it will help improve their flexibility and agility.

Bonsai Chi sessions are designed so you move all parts of your body, standing still, moving forwards and sideways.  It encourages us to open our chest, breathing deeply, inhaling and exhaling in time to the movements.

Different exercises are performed each session, built up slowly, allowing us to calm our mind, moving without conscious thought, whilst also keeping our mind alert and engaged with the varying moves.  It improves our hand-eye co-ordination as we’re moving our arms and legs simultaneously.  The exercise drills are designed so that we work both sides of the body, left and right, whilst kata combines the two introducing various angles and movements.

It’ll help develop good posture, by maintaining a straight back, feeling our feet connect with the floor, and consciously moving our weight from one leg to the other, we’re centering our core and developing good balance.

All the movements can be done sitting on a chair.  This encourages good posture when sitting still, and by gently lifting our legs or moving them forward we can increase our flexibility without having the concern of maintaining our balance for a longer period.

By keep moving we improve the functionality of joints, have better sleep, improve our physical and mental health and sharpen our memory.  Gentle exercise can make a big impact on our overall health.

It’s never too late to start exercising, try several to find out what you like and you’ll gain overall wellbeing benefits.

If you've enjoyed reading this blog please click here to read - 'Bonsai Chi Daily Exercise Tips 2'