Let's Move with Tai Chi

I wish I could, but I looked up some of the standard moves for Tai Chi and realised there was no way my hip would let me do most of them. So frustrating, I’d love to try it.

Something else that I cannot do!

I listened to Fiona and was impressed with her common sense attitude and delivery.

I won’t be joining the classes as, right now, I have exercises which I really must do keep various bits of me from wandering even further off the straight and narrow and they take up time which, to some extent, I begrudge because I have other stuff to do.. I like the idea of Tai Chi and working on the whole body and I hope that one day I can find time but right now I can’t.

I used to use the Rosemary Conley All Body Workout DVD. It came with a section for those, like me, who needed chair exercises and I could do most albeit badly. Now I have several sheets of exercises, for various bits of me, made out by my local physio. As Fiona recommends, I also use housework as a workout but I do find that, if I’ve overdone one bit (usually the ancient TKR) I really have to do the ‘counter exercises’ to help it recover. Like Fiona I tend to find that the less I feel like exercising the more benefit I seem to get. But I have learned, over many years, to listen to my body. There’s no point in ignoring it. It’s not going to go away. So I have learnt when it’s OK to press on and when that would be just storing up problems for the next day. My body and I are a team. Not like an Olympic synchronised diving or ice-dancing team. More like the Under 5s 3-legged egg and spoon race team. We muddle along together for better or worse.

Arthritis affects so many people in so many different ways and to greater and lesser extents so that not all exercises will be useful to everyone. I think the point is that exercise is generally beneficial and we must all do it as we can, not as we can’t. But I really don't want to think about where I'd be without it.