Fitness Friday: Motivation Required

Some days you're the dinosaur, some days you're the human.

(Courtesy Hoist Fitness Systems.)

Gentle, Lifelong Exercise For Every Age

Health professionals around the world call Tai Chi a "gentle" and "lifelong" exercise — including Harvard Medical School.

For some people, "lifelong" is code for "older." Don't be that person: Tai Chi is beneficial for people of all ages, health levels and athletic abilities.

The benefits you will experience right away include:

• Muscle strength
• Flexibility
• Balance

Think of how those benefits can be an advantage in your current exercise and sports activities.

Find a class or instructor this week and start reaping the benefits of this low-impact exercise.

Find Me at the Whole Health Festival 9/23

When thinking about your own health, you have to take in to account the entire person, not just the part that isn't healthy or you want to improve.

If you're in Fairfax today, you have a chance to do that very thing at the Whole Health Festival — and to stop by, say hello to me and watch my Tai Chi demonstration.

The festival will be from 1-4 pm at the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center, 2740 Old Lee Highway. My demonstration is scheduled for 2:40 pm — click here for the program schedule.

Hope to see you there!

Make Social Media Work for You

Most of us find ourselves on the Internet at some time during the day. Often it's for work, but sometimes it's for ourselves. How many of us spend hours on social media, with little to show for it?

Make your time of social media work for you: find resources that will help you with your fitness goals.

A good place to start is with Get In Shape With David, which is on the following social media sites:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GetInShapeWithDavid
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/getinshapewithd
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/getinshapewithd/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/GetInShapeWithDavid

Blogger: http://www.getinshapewithdavid.com

Put Get In Shape With David into the feed on your social media sites and it will be right there whenever you look for it.

Be sure to share the information you like and offer suggestions for posts, videos, articles and more.

See you on the Web.

Fitness Friday: Time is On Your Side

Time will pass, no matter what you do — so why not use it the way you want, the way you know is best for you?

And if you're not sure how to start, ask an expert: make an appointment with a personal trainer. What have you got to lose, except doubt and confusion?

Grandmaster Defies Age, Expectations

Here is video of Grandmaster Lu Zijian demonstrating the  Enei form of Tai Chi (from the Szechuan Province).

In this video, he is 93 years old.

Lu Zijian was born in 1893. Read more about his long, amazing life here.

No, Really: What's Your Excuse?

Not that you need it now, but visit my Pinterest Motivation board for other excuse-busters.

Why It's Better to Eat Small Meals

The human body takes anywhere from 12 hours to 72 hours to process food. The bigger the meal, the longer it takes to break down.

What does that mean for you?

After a few large meals in a week, the body is burdened with the burning of all the extra calories that it does not immediately break down.  Because all available blood is used to transport broken-down food, the body's metabolism actually can slow down.

Even those who consume the proper calorie amount each day may gain weight. 

Therefore, eating many smaller meals during the day helps boost the body's metabolism and keeps the body running more smoothly.

Tai Chi Tuesday: Sharing Information

Finding a valuable resource is important. Sharing it is important, too.

I met Shifu Loretta Wollering at the Tai Chi Gala in Albany this summer. She is the organizer as well as a presenter.

Her knowledge of Qi Gong and Tai Chi is extensive and thorough, and her instruction methods are easy to follow and interesting. She runs Internal Gardens Tai Chi, which offers excellent instruction both in person and through its resources.

Check out this video of her studio classes:

I hope to continue to learn from Shifu Loretta, and I hope to see her again at next summer's Tai Chi Gala.

Have you found an excellent teacher? What do you like most about her or him?

Tai Chi Tuesday: Relaxation is the Key

Welcome back to Tai Chi Tuesday.

Here is a tip I have been sharing with my advanced students: it's the meditative relaxation of Tai Chi that makes it a formidable martial art.

Even if you have not reached  the stage of being able to produce Jin, you still gain more power by being relaxed than by being tense.

Also, with Chi, awareness comes the ability of feeling your opponent's intentions before they happen. This makes it much easier to guide an opponent off his /her center in order to counter-attack.

Tai Chi classics say, "Move a thousand pound with four ounces." If we tense our bodies, we already have exceeded the four ounces.