Why Young People Should Consider Doing Tai Chi

It's spring. You see an elderly person doing tai chi in the park. They move in a hypnotic way, their body completely fluid like water flowing down a stream, never stopping, never speeding up. They move with such grace that you can't help but admire them for a minute before you go on your way.

"I'd like to try that!" you tell yourself, "but I have that personal training appointment next week, and the dance class with X, padel with Y, spin class with Z."

You tell yourself you have plenty of time. Why not just do it when you're older?

Here's what nobody tells you: that elderly person in the park didn't start last year. They've been practicing for thirty, forty, maybe fifty years. What you're watching isn't "gentle exercise for seniors." You're watching decades of practice. That fluidity, that presence. It can't be rushed. It can only be cultivated slowly.

For decades, tai chi has been marketed as gentle exercise for older people. Low impact, easy on the joints, good for balance. Health practitioners recommend it like physical therapy. Sure, tai chi does help with all that. But this marketing has made young people think tai chi is remedial. Something you do when you're broken down and can't do "real" exercise anymore.

But tai chi is a martial art. A decades-long journey into mastery. The earlier you start, the further you can go.

After a few months of daily practice, strange things start happening. Your body turns to jelly in a good way. Tension just melts. You feel weightless sometimes. Your posture straightens without you trying. Not by force, just quietly over time. You stop getting sick as much. Something starts flowing inside you. You can't quite name it but you can feel it building.

After a year or two, you start reading rooms differently. You notice weight shifts before people speak or stand. Dogs in parks are drawn to you. Or they back off depending on what you project. Time feels different. Twenty minutes can feel like an hour or pass in a blink.

Your body becomes like an eagle preying on a rabbit. Your spirit like a cat about to pounce on a mouse. Whether in movement or stillness, your intention is always present. You gain this steady stamina that doesn't crash. You glide instead of walk. Words cannot fully describe what it feels like to be completely embodied like this. Tai chi is one path to get you there.

You could try it now for six weeks. If it's not for you, that's fine. The best exercise is the one you enjoy I always say. But what if you do enjoy tai chi? What if you discover this is your practice? Then you have decades to go deeper. To reach levels that someone starting at 70 will simply never have time to access. Not because they're too old to practice, but because there isn't enough runway left.

Imagine discovering in your seventies that you love tai chi. That it speaks to something fundamental in you. But not having the time left to see where it goes. If only you had a time machine. Well, here's your time machine.

Tai chi isn't for everyone of course. It isn't flashy. It has the stigma of just old people doing it. It's slow and the gains are slow too. You can't force yourself to go do tai chi. You won't get a fit beach body doing it. But you do gain something else. An aura. A presence. Something people pick up on. It can't be bought, only farmed slowly.

What if you're stiff and uncoordinated? That's alright. Natural talent in tai chi is just perseverance. Sure some people can move their body better when they start. But the number one trait you need is staying with it long enough. There's no perfect. There's only better. You get better each time you do it. Well, you aspire for this. Some days are better than others. But if you zoom out, you see a graph that keeps climbing. The tai chi peak is hidden in the clouds.

It's spring. You're the elderly person doing tai chi in the park. You move in that hypnotic way, your body completely fluid like water flowing down a stream. Someone young stops and watches you for a minute, admiring, before they go on their way. Time moves both very quickly and very slowly. You're glad you started early. You're glad you stuck with it for so long. You hear the birds chirp. You project your intention to say hello.

Written 24th November 2025