Tai Chi exercises for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - 2

3. Swinging

This simple warm up exercise begins just about every tai-chi class in the world. It can open up the lower back and hips and free up energy through the spine.

Stand with the feet at shoulder width, knees slightly bent, toes and pointing forwards, arms at your sides. Keeping the spine upright, push from the right foot so the body turns to the left, the momentum working its way up the leg, through the hips into the back, twisting slightly through the spine, and finally into the shoulders so the arms swing freely. The spine should only go through one axis of rotation as it twists along its length, so don't bend forwards or backwards as such compound rotations are bad for the back.

At the end of the turn 70% of the weight is on the left leg and the body is facing from 45 to 90 degrees to the left. (pic 1 above)Once the arms slap against the body, push off immediately from the left foot and you'll swing back the other way to do the mirror image on the right side. The head should remain facing at 90 degrees to the shoulders throughout, so you are not twisting the neck, although innevitably it will move a little. The arms stay straight but are not making any effort.

Carry on for as long as you like, up to say 5 minutes.

Concentrate on staying loose but keeping the back upright and not tensing the shoulders so your arms swing freely, developing a steady rhythym as the arms swing higher and higher. You may find the side to side movement too much if you are particularly sensitive to movement. Otherwise this is a useful way to loosen general stiffness.

Follow this link for a video clip of this exercise:



4. Frog swimming

This simple exercise gently pulls on the neck and thyroid area and so may help with swollen neck glands.

Stand with feet together and back straight. Now bend the knees slightly (knees no further forward than the line of the toes), and bring the hands up to chest height, palms facing up, just in front of the armpits. At the same time bend the neck down as if trying to tuck the chin into the collar bone and lean forwards slightly. This is the most compact part of the movement. (pic 1).

1. 2.

Now push the hands forward to begin forming two circles at chest height, letting them turn over and straighten up the legs and body, coming up onto your toes. At the furthest stretch of this exercise your hands should be about 2 feet from the sides of the body, as you stand on your toes and the head is tilted about 45 degrees upwards, which gives the pull on the front of the neck (pic 2). Come back down, dropping the head back down, continuing the outward circles behind your body (the hands will turn palm upwards by the time they pass under the armpits). You also drop back onto your heels before starting to bend the legs again.

Come back to the compact position described above and that is one repetition.

This is a slow paced exercise with each part synchronised. You can synchronise this with deep breathing to help control the pace, breathing in as you come up and out as you come down. Around 10 to 20 repetitions should be enough, at about 8 repetitions per minute.

The movement in the neck involves more than simply tilting the head at the top of the spine. When looking down you should feel the neck vertebrae stretching upwards, forming a convex shape from the base of the neck to the back of the head. When looking upwards you deliberately allow the back of the neck to go slightly concave, rather than trying to stretch the neck vertebrae all the way up. But remember to relax the throat as you move and keep the shoulders relaxed.

This helped ease some of my throat swelling, but doing too much could inflame your throat further. Try a few repetitions and see how you react in the following days.

Follow this link for a video clip of this exercise:


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