tai chi

梅雨がなかなか明けませんね。ここのところ冷温な天気が続いています。

ランニングをする立場から言わせてもらうと、梅雨が明けて猛暑日が連続するのは勘弁してほしいというところで、冷温な気候はむしろ走り易いのです。

ランやジョギングの最中にウォーキングをしている人によく出会います。老化の予防にウォーキングは最適と言われています。私の親世代もそうですが、ウォーキングを日課にしている高齢者は多いでしょう。

高齢者が転倒して寝たきりになってしまうリスクを軽減する為にもウォーキングは効果的なエクササイズですが、ウォーキングよりも”tai chi”が推奨されているそうです。

ところで、“tai chi”って一体何のことでしょうか？


As we age, the risk of falling increases and becomes increasingly perilous. A fall can be a real health setback for a frail, elderly person.

But the risk of falling can be minimized, says Dr. Elizabeth Eckstrom, professor and chief of geriatrics at Oregon Health & Science University. "A lot of older adults and a lot of physicians think that falling is inevitable as you age, but in reality it's not."

（中略）

You can do so many things. First of all, I tell everybody you've got to do some balance training. Tai chi is probably the best exercise to prevent falls, but whatever works for you. And, interestingly, just walking does not reduce your risk for falling. So a lot of doctors will say, "Just get out and walk 20 minutes every day, and that'll keep you safe. That'll help you stay healthy." Walking is great for your heart; it's great for your brain; it's great for lots of it. But in order to really reduce your risk for falls, you've got to do something specific to balance.

Walking is kind of just keeping you in one plane moving forward, and it's not doing any kind of postural training. What tai chi does is it gives you an increased area of postural stability, [which is] kind of your being able to remain upright in space. When you do tai chi, you do stepping moves to the front, to the side; you move your arms out, you reach, you bend. And basically that increases the size of your postural stability so that you can catch yourself and not have the fall. You can be a little bit off kilter and right yourself.
(Simple Ways To Prevent Falls In Older Adults. NPR. July 14, 2019.)


“Tai chi”が何のことか知らなかったのですが、これは太極拳のことです。

正確に言うと、“tai chi”が指すのは「太極拳」の「太極」までです。“tai chi chuan”が「太極拳」という中国語の字音を英語に転写したものになりますが、なぜか“tai chi”で定着しているようです。

太極拳の優れている点はスローモーションで様々なポーズを取ることで身体全体のバランス感覚を維持するところにあるようです。