Live data from Hacker News

Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

npr.org

111–120 of 147 posts

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#111
post #110
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is chai tea used differently in America then? If I ask for it in a coffee shop, I usually get chai (tea) with steamed milk, which is exactly what the original usage is.

Looking at the Starbucks app right now for example on their menu: Chai tea is black tea with clove, cardamom, cinamon, and ginger and no milk by default, Chai Tea Latte is that black tea and spices with steamed milk. You'll also see Chai sometimes to refer to the spice mix sold without any tea.

In my local coffee shop, I get black tea with steamed milk (called chai tea).

They also sell masala chai, which is the above + spices added.

Starbucks uses chai tea and chai tea latte to mean something else.

Some grocery stores (Trader Joe's?) sell chai as just a spice mix.

So Americans aren't really using it "differently" as much as they're using it wildly inconsistently. That's not really the same as cappuccino vs latte, is it? Latte is at least used to mean the same thing across the country.

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#112
post #86
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's surprisingly trivial for newborns! More seriously, I can't think of a single reason as to why it could not be at least trained; there must be ways. Not that I disagree with you, far from it.

> it's surprisingly trivial for newborns! how do you know?

I was half-joking (hence the "more seriously").

Nonetheless, the serious half is to be understood with a contextually reasonable definition of "thinking": "the thoughts running through the mind of an adult [when he tries to relax]". It seems fair to argue that such thoughts require a prolonged, sophisticated interaction with human society, which newborns lack.

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#113

Long ago, maybe before the consumer internet, I saw a video claiming to showcase people who studied tai chi as a fighting art instead of just exercise. It was a lot of being able to follow the other person's movements to the point that "Fighting a tai chi master is like wrestling with an empty jacket". There was also a demonstration where a master pushed a student's middle finger back using an open palm. No matter ho…

If you can find a competent instructor from a lineage that preserved the fighting applications of tai chi, you can see some pretty interesting grappling and joint-locking techniques. It's not all snake oil. One example (Yang-style tai chi): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp2jWeaKrqI

My Tai Chi teacher (Yang Family) is also an Aikido teacher and he teaches Tai Chi as a martial art, interpreting the form in terms of blocks, grappling moves, joint locks, etc. He learned at least some of that from earlier Tai Chi teachers who treated it as a cryptic martial art.

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can find a competent instructor from a lineage that preserved the fighting applications of tai chi, you can see some pretty interesting grappling and joint-locking techniques. It's not all snake oil. One example (Yang-style tai chi): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp2jWeaKrqI

Honestly, it still looks like it could only defend against an opponent that moves in slow motion.

The purpose is to practice slowly with care to learn the moves thoroughly so that when it's time to perform them quickly you'll know the form and can flow quickly - the teacher was showing slow demonstrations.

I've never fought anyone, but as I've been taught the moves in Tai Chi's martial technique are generally intended to put people down quickly and hard by doing things like breaking elbows, eye gouges, and other grappling intended to severely injure the other party, essentially breaking every MMA rule that would get you disqualified.

This all varies significantly depending on the teacher, my teacher studied Chinese grappling, Mongolian wrestling, Aikido, and other arts that I'm sure he brought elements in from.

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the only thing that helps me longer term with shoulder issues as well. I work on the computer, play the guitar and am a rock climber. All those activities have the same tendency of rotating the shoulder forward. As you can imagine, RSI runs big, especially on my right shoulder. I've had many injuries over the years, tried all sorts of treatments - massages, yoga, physiotherapy, accupuncture, you name it. They al…

For computer work, I use a split keyboard. It allows me avoid internally rotating my shoulder. I highly recommend it. Split keyboards can be kinda expensive. It can be tested out cheaply by using a laptop and external keyboard -- left hand on the laptop right hand on the external keyboard. If you have a mac, I had to install karabiner to get keys from both keyboards to work in concert (e.g. to enable left shift and r…

Yup, I used to have a split. I looked around and decided to get a Moonlander. Couldn't get used to it, felt overly awkward and terrible for my fairly small hands.

I'm building one now using the wonderful Cosmos Keyboard Configurator [0], from the same author of the older Dactyl generator [1].

[0] https://ryanis.cool/cosmos/

[1] https://ryanis.cool/dactyl/#manuform

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#116

Long ago, maybe before the consumer internet, I saw a video claiming to showcase people who studied tai chi as a fighting art instead of just exercise. It was a lot of being able to follow the other person's movements to the point that "Fighting a tai chi master is like wrestling with an empty jacket". There was also a demonstration where a master pushed a student's middle finger back using an open palm. No matter ho…

Yeah, here are some more videos. Some of them barely need to breathe in the direction to drop a fully grown man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8uZVyq4NIc There are some ancient arts that are unbelievably powerful. We have forgotten breath techniques that allow you to survive in space and travel backwards through time. It is said that some of the great warriors of the past practised these techniques. How could Davi…

[deleted]

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#117
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, here are some more videos. Some of them barely need to breathe in the direction to drop a fully grown man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8uZVyq4NIc There are some ancient arts that are unbelievably powerful. We have forgotten breath techniques that allow you to survive in space and travel backwards through time. It is said that some of the great warriors of the past practised these techniques. How could Davi…

Poe's law is strong with this one. The Superman bit makes me inclined to believe this is just a joke, but I know there's real believers out there.

It wasn't the "forgotten breath techniques that allow you to survive in space and travel backwards through time"?

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#118
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pedants* like you. Everyone knows what chai tea is referring to. In the same way they understand what naan bread is.

Doesn’t mean it’s correct!

English is a descriptive language; if enough people say something, it automatically becomes correct!

Re: Tai chi reduces blood pressure better than aerobic exercise

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or yoga or zoomba

Zoomba counts as aerobic, Yoga might have a point tho

Can we assume all aerobic exercises yield the same results? I mean maybe I guess I just assumed it would be different.
Post reply on HN