Can Tai Chi help train leg strength? Why do I feel weak in my legs after doing Tai Chi?

There are many schools of Tai Chi. Common schools of Tai Chi include Chen, Yang, Wu, Wu, Sun, and He. Each school has a heritage relationship and mutual learning. Each school has its own characteristics, showing a state of letting a hundred flowers bloom. Since Tai Chi is a modern martial art, it has many schools and a broad mass base, so it is a very vital branch of Chinese martial arts. So, can Tai Chi train leg strength? What is the reason for weak legs when practicing Tai Chi? Let's take a look at the introduction of Encyclopedia Knowledge Network to answer these questions!

Contents of this article

1. Can Tai Chi improve leg strength?

2. Why do my legs feel weak when I do Tai Chi?

3. How to practice Tai Chi leg strength

Can Tai Chi improve leg strength?

Chinese martial arts require the lower body to be stable. As the saying goes, "Before learning martial arts, you must squat for three years." If the feet are not strong, the steps will be unstable, and unstable steps will lead to failure. This shows the importance of martial arts to foot training. As the largest school of Chinese martial arts, Tai Chi naturally attaches great importance to leg training. The core of Tai Chi is to train the waist and legs. Practice starts with the legs. All movements are based on horse stance. There are many leg movements in Tai Chi, which can naturally train leg strength.

Why do I feel weak in my legs when doing Tai Chi?

If Tai Chi movements, especially standing postures, are not performed correctly, the knees will be subjected to too much force, the knee joints will be worn out for a long time, knee joint injuries will occur, the fat pads will become congested, hypertrophic, or inflamed, which will restrict the movement of the knee joints and cause weakness in the legs.

People who lack exercise have less leg strength, and Tai Chi places high demands on the waist and legs. The leg muscles cannot bear it for a long time and will become weak and soft.

Tai Chi beginners who have not exercised for a long time will not be able to adapt their bodies to the intensity of exercise when practicing Tai Chi, which can easily cause lactic acid to accumulate in the body. The legs are the most practiced part, and thus become the area where lactic acid accumulates most seriously, which can easily cause weakness in the legs.

1. Cerebrovascular disease may cause hemiplegia. If one limb is weak and accompanied by pain, this may be a risk.

2. Lumbar spine disease may compress the spinal cord and nerves, leading to weakness of both lower limbs.

3. Liver and kidney yin deficiency or spleen and stomach weakness. Liver and kidney yin deficiency can cause weakness in the legs, and the spleen governs the limbs, so spleen and stomach weakness can also cause weakness in the limbs and lack of energy.

If you do Tai Chi incorrectly, it is very easy to hurt your knees. If you experience knee pain or weakness in your legs, you should stop practicing and ask a Tai Chi master or someone familiar with Tai Chi to correct you to avoid worsening the symptoms.

If the muscle soreness and leg fatigue are caused by lactic acid accumulation, then you only need to rest for a day and then continue to exercise. This kind of soreness is normal and will disappear on its own after a few days of exercise.

If you have weak physique and lack of exercise for a long time, which leads to lack of leg strength and causes leg weakness, you need to strengthen your leg muscle training to increase leg strength.

If you have eliminated the above conditions and still have leg weakness or obvious pain, it is likely caused by disease. You should go to the hospital for examination in time, especially the elderly who are at greater risk of disease and should pay more attention.

How to practice Tai Chi leg strength

The basic skills of Tai Chi are in the legs. Standing is essential and is the most important way to practice leg skills. The difficulty of standing should not be underestimated. When standing, you need to sink your shoulders and elbows, hold your chest and stretch your back, and sink your qi into your dantian. These three points are important factors for practicing leg skills. When standing firmly, your leg strength will also be trained. Practicing standing can be controlled within 20 minutes, not too long.

Stand firmly on the ground with your legs, and feel the force transmitted from the ground to your legs. This force is the source of your legs' stability, and it is transmitted from the meridians at the soles of your feet to all parts of your body. You can try to feel its direction, so that your legs can be naturally coordinated and steady.

Leg skills require stability and strength, but also flexibility and naturalness. At this time, you need to step firmly and steadily, and your lower body is stable. However, Tai Chi emphasizes flexibility. If you are stable but stiff and sluggish, you will not achieve good results. You also need to relax your body and mind, and your legs should be flexible, so that you can move forward and backward as you wish without dragging your feet.