Tai Chi meditation will help you to cleanse stress and badness from your inner energy's circulation. Detailed instructions are given in English, with the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) approach for potential instructors to use. This is a easy to follow practice. Master Jesse Tsao shares with you his many years professional teaching experience for Cigna HealthCare as an expert in disease prevention. There are four major parts: guided meditation; Tai Chi's open and close hands; detoxification; and waking-up. It is a good reference for home study, or a resource for instructor's teaching preparation. Suggest 30 class hours. (Difficulty: Beginner Level)

 According to the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine (Huangdi Neijing), the essence of the autumn season is gathering and harvesting.  Therefore, Tai Chi practice refrain from excess emotion, remaining calm and gathering energy through breathing exercise to enhance lung function.  This will prevent lung illness and benefit the conservation process of the winter season.  Suggest for beginners and middle-age people.  Master Tsao teaches in English with front and back views.  Suggested 25 class hours. (Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate Levels)

It requires a partner to practice with you, but Master Tsao teaches you a unique way to start with yourself.  This is a new approach to teaching Push Hands and is a good reference for Tai Chi instructors.  Learn the basic moves at home to practice the postures and understand the energy flow, then match with another person to develop sensitivity and react with peng, lu, ji, an (ward off, roll back, press, push). Tai chi push hands can build strength and flexibility of your Core muscles, form the central link between your upper and lower body. A strong core underpins almost everything you do. It is key to improving performance in almost any sport by extending your range of motion. Your slimmer waistline and better defined ab muscles will be hard to ignore. Push Hands will keep you motivated and continue to challenge you as you make progress.  Master Tsao teaches in precise detail in English and demonstrates with Alain Mellan. Suggest 30 class hours.  (Difficulty: Beginner to Advanced Levels). DVD-R, (63 minutes)

Four-Season Tai Chi I - Spring This is part of a series of Tai Chi forms following the change of seasons for a healthy life. According to the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine (Huangdi Neijing), the essence of spring is birth and spread. Therefore, tai chi practice in springtime should be like young deer prancing in the meadow, vivid and agile. This routine is flavored with Wu style fast form. It exercises the tendons and stimulate bone growth, and will also release stress to prevent liver problems. Master Tsao teaches in English with front and back views. It is a good reference for home study, or a resource for instructor's teaching preparation. Suggested 30 class hours. (Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate Levels)  (Difficulty: Beginner Level)

Four-Season Tai Chi IV - Winter This is part of a series of Tai Chi forms following the change of seasons for a healthy life.  According to the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine (Huangdi Neijing), the essence of the winter season is conservation and storage.  Therefore, Tai Chi practice should refrain from overusing the yang energy, keeping moves quiet and subdued in the winter months.  This will prevent kidney illness and benefit revitalization in spring.  Suggest for beginners and senior people.  Master Tsao teaches in English with front and back views.  Suggested 25 class hours. (Difficulty: Beginner to Intermediate Levels). DVD, (63 minutes)

Tai Chi staff in Yang Style Form 24 is totally based on the popular Simplified Tai Chi in Form 24.  It is easy to learn for people who know the barehand form.  The purpose is to use the staff to train your neigong and neijing, your internal power.  Strike with the staff to create vibration force, kicking back to your body to improve your structural alignment and balance.  This is created for Tai Chi Healthways' instructor program and continuing training curriculum, and is also made to honor Professor Li Deyin who is the icon of Tai Chi Form 24.  Dr. Tsao trained under him for 10 years in Beijing, China. Demonstrations are given in front and back views, and Master Tsao gives a detailed description of each posture's martial application, and showed where it comes from the original barehand form.   (Difficulty: Beginner through advanced Levels).  (60 minutes).

Tai Chi Staff/Pole in Chen Style Form 36 is a combination of staff and spear methods and pole shaking to develop your internal strength and whole-body connection.  Dr. Jesse Tsao is carrying forward the teaching of his Sifu Chen Zhenglei's, Pole Shaking 13 Forms.  This routine was developed for Tai Chi Healthways' instructor certification curriculum.  The staff is under 8' long, so it can be carried inside a car for outdoor practice, but it is just long enough to practice the pole-shaking mechanics.  (Difficulty: Beginner through advanced Levels) (60 minutes)

Designed by Dr. Jesse Tsao, practice is designed to effectively stimulate the body’s energy meridians in a safe and gentle manner. Based on 16 simple and popular tai chi postures, the repetitive slow relaxed movements and abdominal breathing will help you relieve suffering due to anxiety, asthma, arthritis, cardiovascular disease, chronic fatigue, muscle strain and pain, osteoarthritis, scoliosis, osteoporosis, and many other ailments.  It will also strengthen your core muscles and help develop your balance and leg strength. This practice can be used as preventive therapy for everyone who wishes to reap the benefits of an improved quality of life

This is a therapy (or preventive practice) for people with carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, or Parkinson's Disease.  The stick provides you with a focal point to help  with hand-eye coordination.  The twisting moves can stimulate energy circulation in your fingers and wrists, prevent frozen shoulders, and improve the elasticity of the tendons around your elbows.  Combined with various tai chi postures, it stretches and tones your muscles, activates the hip and knee joints, improves the flexibility and strength of your spine, and  prevents lower back pain. The practice is adapted from the tai chi joint locking techniques of qin-na, a traditional  secret training approach for developing spiral inner energy.  Therefore, this routine can also be used as a martial arts drill.

Compact Tai Chi Sword in Mixed Styles blends Tai Chi with various sword techniques, including Wudang sword, Ming Dynasty General Qi Jiguang's (1528-1588) long saber (Miao-dao), Yu Chenghui’s two-handed longsword, and Medieval long-sword methods. Both Qi and Yu hailed from Penglai, China, my hometown, where the historical use of longswords in martial arts training is abundant. This routine serves as my homage to this tradition. Its core focus is utilizing the sword as a tool for body conditioning and harnessing inner energy, emphasizing dragon and tiger strength, while also integrating practical sword defensive and offensive techniques. Notably, there's a seamless connection between weapons and tai chi bare hand routines. While a standard-sized sword suffices, a heavier longsword facilitates training the back, waist, and hips for blade movement, minimizing reliance on arm muscles.

Practical Stretching Anywhere in the Qigong Way

Stretching is an excellent thing you can do for your health. Without the need of a floor mat, these simple yet effective moves can help you limber up for tai chi and Qigong practice or any sports, improve your balance and prevent falls, increase your flexibility, and even help relieve arthritis, back, and knee pain. Dr. Jesse Tsao put together this stretching routine based on traditional Chinese tai chi and Qigong practices. They are easy and practical to use anywhere, each posture has Qigong energy circulation benefits, and they can be customized to your ability anywhere from easy to challenging. You’ll find these moves can boost overall flexibility and loosen up tight muscles, including specific stretches to ease back pain, stiff hamstrings, and the neck and shoulder pain that comes from spending too much time sitting at a desk staring at a computer!