Find a class at your local community center or gym and spend a few hours a week practicing to decrease pain and increase balance.

Practicing tai chi can improve balance and reduce pain and stress.

04-24-09 RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If you have a parent or friend who recently has had a stroke and is now in rehab, consider taking him or her to a park this Saturday at 10 a.m. to participate in World Tai Chi Day. If not, consider going yourself anyway: This traditional martial art continues to gain attention as a way to ease arthritis and back pain, lower blood pressure and stress, improve balance, and prevent falls.

The slow, steady movements of tai chi “demand a lot of balance control that you don’t see in normal exercise,” says Christina Hui-Chan, MSc, PhD, professor and head of the department of physical therapy at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Applied Health Sciences, and the lead author of a new study on tai chi’s benefits for stroke patients. “It requires a lot of shifting of weight from the back leg to the front leg and often standing on one leg,” she says, in addition to a lot of side-to-side movement. “The sequences are very smooth,” she adds, “and often you’re not consciously aware of the balance shifts.”

THE DETAILS: Hui-Chan and her colleagues recruited 136 men and women who’d had a stroke more than 6 months prior to the beginning of the study, a stroke that had resulted in partial paralysis. None of the participants had any prior experience with tai chi or were involved in another rehabilitation program. Half the adults were trained in tai chi for 12 weeks, participating in weekly hour-long sessions with a tai chi instructor and practicing for 3 hours a week on their own with the help of videotapes. The other half of the group was taught standard stretching and breathing exercises on a similar schedule. Before the training began and then at 6, 12, and 18 weeks afterward, the participants were put through various tests that measured balance and equilibrium.

Stroke patients who studied tai chi demonstrated faster reaction times and were better able to maintain their center of gravity after 12 weeks of training, while the control group showed very little improvement in either case. When it came to maintaining their equilibrium, the tai chi group again showed significant improvements, as much as 50 percent in some cases, while the control group showed only small improvements.

WHAT IT MEANS: The great thing about tai chi is that not only does it work, but it’s low-impact—no breaking bricks or kicking anything but the air—and can be performed by anyone. Plus it requires no equipment and can be practiced just about anywhere.

Interested in adding tai chi to your daily exercise plan? Here are a few resources to get you started.

• TaiChiProductions.com provides a list of instructors specially trained to work with seniors, people with arthritis, or other people who want to incorporate it into their treatment.

• WorldTaiChiDay.org will connect you to World Tai Chi Day events in your area. The site also provides a list of DVDs and books to help you master the moves as well as a free online lesson.

• Check with your local community center or gym for classes; stroke patients can ask a physical therapist for referrals.