Move and be Free

OPEN 5 DAYS
7AM-5PM

1 ARMSTRONG ST
MIDDLE PARK

Tai Chi training fosters a calm and relaxed internal life, and in challenging days, when we wish to live our lives yet our activities are curtailed, we must find ways to participate that are meaningful to ourselves, and flexible by nature.

Timetabled classes are currently suspended, but we are offering outdoors training still, for individuals. Join in if you are the kind of person who enjoys quiet, inward-focused meditative exercise.

Tai Chi Zoom
TAI CHI
Zoom Class
Tai Chi Zoom
About Chris

For me, good training is about progression, but primarily enjoyment. Progression doesn’t necessarily mean it’s goal-oriented, I think it means progressing from things you enjoy to other things you enjoy, and really, genuinely enjoying the process, rather than the perceived goal. What makes you healthy is not the fact that you’re fit, but the fact that you exercise. It’s the process you go through, not the result, and the fact that you might once have been fit might or might not have much bearing on your health now. But it can be overwhelming when we think about how we ‘should’ be training for the rest of our lives. So what? So spend less time worrying about what you should be doing, and more time thinking about what you would find rewarding, here and now. The future is unwritten.

If I had started training in martial arts just for a goal or an idea, I’d have had a miserable time training for the last twenty years. But I fell in love with the actual training. And in the last four or five years, I’ve mostly freed myself from the propaganda of martial arts, and learned to enjoy fitness in more general way, for all the benefits different types of training have to offer.

When I was younger, I despised gyms. I thought the only reason to go to one was to preen in front of a mirror. But I also had self-worth issues, and I would have been uncomfortable publicly appreciating my appearance in a mirror, or being seen to be vain. I know better now. I now regard strength training as a very rewarding pursuit, in and of itself. I think to train for the sake of training is great. It’s pure and joyful. Sometimes joy is light, and sometimes it is more subtle and deep. Joy is a funny word.

I hope you enjoy your time here, and if you have any questions or if you find the posts helpful, please feel free to comment. I will not address too many questions about how to change the way you look, because that’s really not what this site is about. I hope you leave feeling encouraged to develop your health and fitness (as opposed to your thinness), and remember that doing what’s actually good for you means treating yourself with respect, being patient, honest and above all, kind.

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