Breathe a little easier with taichi and qigong

By BRAD WONG
P-I REPORTER

As the sun filtered through Embrace the Moon's windows one weekday, a dozen students stood with their feet apart inside the Ballard taichi and qigong studio.

They slowly raised their arms in unison. Then they twisted, pivoted and stretched during a 20-minute exercise. Only their exhaled breaths broke the silence.


		Mike Urban / P-I
	Embrace the Moon's Kim Ivy leads a class through qigong.

To outsiders, the exercise might look odd. But the students were practicing a Chinese breathing and physical exercise known as qigong, which forms the basis for martial arts and focuses on fluid body movements, meditation, awareness and proper posture.

On Saturday, qigong and taichi, a Chinese martial art involving faster physical moves, will receive increased attention as people celebrate World Taichi & Qigong Day.

Embrace the Moon owner Kim Ivy describes the day as: "One world, one breath."

A Kansas couple started the event in 1999 to raise global awareness. Taichi (pronounced tai-chee) and qigong (pronounced chee-gong) events will be held in several U.S. cities, including Seattle, Los Angeles and New York.

The event also honors Bodhidharma, the Indian monk who introduced the movements to the Shaolin area of China in A.D. 527. Shaolin is one of the most famous birthplaces of Chinese martial arts, which have developed for centuries. When they weren't meditating, Chinese monks imitated animal movements and gave rise to the art forms.

When Ivy started her school in 1995 with 12 students, she heard jokes that she had joined a cult. Today, her school has about 200 pupils.

"People are turning to more movement meditation as a response to a more stressful world," she said. "It's also about developing a more overall awareness in life. This transcends the choreographed movements."

At the International Yang Family Tai Chi Chuan Association, a taichi studio now in Redmond, enrollment jumped from 10 students in 1999 to about 70 students today.

Many students are Microsoft Corp. employees who want to relax, said Nancy Lucero, an assistant instructor.

Seattle teacher Yijiao Hong said the emphasis on slow, deep breathing attracts people.

"Once we relax, we can focus longer," said Hong, founder of the Chinese Wushu and Taichi Academy. "When you train properly, that will help you slow down, and then you can get your energy back."

This weekend, Master Su Zifang, a former member of China's national martial-arts team, will give demonstrations at Seattle Kajukenbo, a martial-arts school. Registration for the paid classes is required.

"It's health. It's medicine," said Debbie Leung, an Olympia instructor who helped arrange her visit.

Doctors have recommended classes to people suffering from chronic pain, backaches and arthritis, instructors agree, adding that seniors find the exercises help with maintaining physical balance.

A study in the April issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society showed taichi significantly boosted the immune levels in adults over the age of 60 and those who suffered from shingles.

Michael Irwin, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and the study's lead author, said taichi is appealing in this case because it is easy for older adults to learn and practice.

But he said more studies about overall health benefits are needed. "There's a bias that this is a bunch of hand-waving."

And Eastern and Western doctors approach medicine differently, said Donald Abrams, a University of California-San Francisco professor of medicine.

Abrams, clinical director of the school's Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, points out that qigong and taichi can decrease stress, which can boost a person's immune system.

"That is how most of the mind-body interventions have their benefits," he said.

In Western medicine, he added, doctors are likely to look at a specific treatment and ask why it works. "For the Chinese, it's a system. You don't isolate the parts," he said, referring to herbs, acupuncture and traditional exercises.

Seattle resident Shelby Swanson, 37, just knows that her qigong class at Embrace the Moon lets her relax.

An attorney, she applies qigong's focus on calmness to her daily life.

"It's that mental breath and that physical breath," she said. "I might not get to a place right away. But I'll still get there."