Customer Reviews

Tai Chi in a Chair

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
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This book was introduced to me by my Tai Chi Instructor as I was beginning my own journey as an Instructor. While teaching either standing or in a chair, I have been able to blend Cynthia's information into the class. Introducing/recommending this book to others is a must!! The simplified way it is written and explained will definitely help others in their journey, no matter what level of ability. Cynthia makes it easy to work the program into your day and life. I encourage anyone, instructor or student, to add this book to their health library!

Tammy Cropp
Tai Chi Instructor

If you are fitness professional and teach chair base classes this book will open a whole new world for you. If you teach tai chi or yoga and are looking for a way to create the tai chi or yoga practice in a chair, this book is your road map. If you are experiencing frailty as a result of chronic illness or injury, or from a sedentary life style, you will find Cynthia Quarta's 15 minute practices very healing. I am a raving fan of Tai Chi in a Chair! I have incorporated Cynthia's 15 minutes practice in my tai chi classes and into my own personal practice with excellent results. I have been recommending this book to other tai chi instructors and my students.

Denise Murray
ACSM HFS, Yoga Alliance RYT
Tai Chi Instructor

Out Of Balance? Be a Bounce Back Person
"I loved Cynthia's book on Healing T'ai Chi. In the way of most coincidences, my physical therapist had suggested I start doing T'ai Chi to gain flexibility and endurance. Looking locally, I could not find a class that was convenient and then I found the exact book that taught how to do the moves. Cynthia explains every move and meaning so that the average person can readily understand and do the exercises. If you are looking for a manual and motivation to learn this life-extending skill, this is it. You will be so glad you bought the book and followed the instructions."

Judy H. Wright, Empowerment Coach
[...]

Fourteen years ago, I taught myself Taijiquan (over 3 years) from multiple books of exercise, theory, poems, and whatnot. I used Taiji in daily life, working out for 2 hours 5-7x/week. Then I got married and had kids. Needless to say, I fell out of practice like a bird that stops flapping falls out of the sky.

Recently I have been looking for a "primer" to get me back in the swing of Taiji, since I miss it and its effects (I'm 36 now). I saw this, and for $4 it was a good bargain.

This is excellent. The author discusses an appropriate amount of theory, conceptualization, visualization, and practice, with examples and proof of Taiji's effectiveness.

What you get:
1) Intro to concepts, yin/yang and energy theory, and how Seated T'ai Chi began,
2) The complete set of Taiji,
3) The set broken up into 15-minute "workouts",
4) Centering exercises,
5) Breathing exercises,
6) Healing accupressure points on the body's major energy streams (meridians).

She also includes suggested readings and music at the end of the book.

I rated this book ***** because, if I had had access to this book 14 years ago, I would have been able to cut short my study time by at least a year and a half, for she is American who translated these concepts to an older American culture, one I am more ready to identify with than a Chinese native translating into English (by which my previous collection of Taiji books are authored).

CAVEAT: she uses the traditional language words for the various energy pathways, and does not include pictures for these; also, she strings them together in her introductory explanations. Because I am strangely familiar with the terms, I was able to put together what she meant easily, but a new-comer to Taiji (T'ai Chi) might be dazzled by the onslaught of terminology.

Other than that, the book was excellent. I am using it to relearn what I have forgotten! If you are interested in Taiji (Tai Chi) at all, get this. If anything, it will help you put the pieces together.