In Tai Chi, the journey begins with release. The Five Loosening Exercises are designed to gently unlock the body’s potential. They promote softness in the joints, help release habitual tension, and encourage the practitioner to move with less effort and more awareness.

In our recent class, we worked through all five exercises carefully, paying attention not just to form but to feeling. Loosening isn't about going limp — it's about developing sensitivity and allowing movement to pass freely through the body.

This process creates the foundation for integrated motion, where the arms, legs, torso, and mind begin to communicate as one.

Welcome back to our ongoing journey through the subtle and profound world of Tai Chi. In each class and blog post, we take time to quietly investigate aspects of the art that often pass unnoticed. These subtle refinements, though easy to overlook, offer the key to developing true connection and natural movement. Tai Chi is not about collecting techniques, but about deepening presence and understanding in every gesture and transition.

In our most recent session, we began by immersing ourselves once again in the foundational Up-Down (Open-Close) exercise. This exercise, though simple on the surface, contains essential lessons about how the body aligns and releases. Our focus this time was on the relationship between the ankle, knee, and hip joints, and how harmonising them opens a clear pathway through the body’s central axis. As we carefully adjusted and tuned each joint, we allowed energy to move smoothly along this line — from the crown of the head down to the perineum. When these areas are balanced and released, the result is not effort but clarity. The energy no longer deviates or becomes stuck, but travels naturally through the body.

In this session, we began by revisiting the Open and Close exercise, establishing the important relationship between sinking, releasing and how the body naturally expands and contracts. Once this foundation was refreshed, we followed immediately with Loosening Exercise 1, using hands-on guidance to help students better understand how to release tension without collapsing. Through gentle adjustment and direct touch, the process of sinking while maintaining structure became more apparent. This tactile approach often reveals subtleties that verbal instruction alone cannot, and helped participants to sense how relaxation and release are not passive, but dynamic and lively.

We then shifted into form practice, working up to Ward Off Left with detailed attention on the transitions — particularly from Opening to Ward Off Right. This sequence is often underestimated in its complexity. We clarified how moving and squaring into position for Ward Off Right mirrors the downward phase of the Open and Close exercise. The difference here lies in the fact that now we are turning. While turning, the back knee drops only slightly — roughly an inch — and the right foot is positioned shoulder-width apart, which gives space for smooth forward movement and prevents the stance from becoming tight or unstable.

In our recent class, we began by revisiting the three breaths practice before beginning the form. This seemingly simple preparation exercise serves an important role. Although the historical origins and deeper meanings will be explored further in future discussions, the immediate purpose is clear. These breaths offer a way to connect through the whole body, to gather attention and intention, and to quieten the mind before movement begins. They centre us not only mentally but physically, tuning us in to the internal landscape that Tai Chi demands.

With that settled, we returned to one of the most essential elements of internal Tai Chi — the cultivation of Peng force. Through careful explanation and exploration, we clarified how the standing exercise teaches this fundamental quality. Peng is often described as expansive, but it is more than just outwardness. It represents the balanced and resilient quality of internal force, where the body feels full yet soft, connected yet unstressed. It arises naturally through the relationship of sinking and releasing. The mind’s intention supports this expansion, but it is never generated through tension or muscular force.

Following our experience of the sinking and releasing process in the Open and Close exercise, we continued by revisiting and refining the Loosening Exercise. This practice is more than simple movement — it is a clear embodiment of the core Tai Chi principles in action. Through it, we train the integration of sinking, releasing, and transferring weight while maintaining an ongoing relationship with the central equilibrium.

The Loosening Exercise teaches us how to turn the hips while adjusting the centre. Sinking from the crown, the body releases naturally into position. Importantly, as we move from posture to posture, the return or release phase of the movement generates a quiet but distinct force that travels through the body. This relaxed force extends out to the fingertips, revealing how even simple actions can carry internal power when correctly aligned. Without forcing or pushing, the energy arrives and expresses itself fully, carried by the release of tension and the connection through the whole body.

In our recent class, we began by returning to the fundamentals — specifically, the practice of the up-and-down movement, which lies at the heart of many Tai Chi principles. Although this movement may appear simple, its internal refinement offers a deep well of learning.

We explored why, in dedicated energy training exercises, we use approximately three inches of vertical movement in this practice, whereas during the form itself, the visible rise and fall is usually far subtler — often around an inch or less. The reason for exaggerating the range in training is to develop sensitivity and awareness. By working with a larger movement in standing or preparatory exercises, we can more clearly feel the process of sinking and releasing, as well as the effect this has on the whole body.

A key focus in our recent class was on maintaining the openness of the lower back. This is a subtle but essential aspect of Tai Chi practice. As we sink, and equally as we release upwards in the up-and-down movement, the lower back must remain softly expanded — never collapsing or tightening.

In Tai Chi, when we speak of sinking, it is not merely dropping weight into the legs or down towards the feet. True sinking happens when the spine and torso release downward while maintaining structural integrity. The low back (mingmen area) must remain open to allow energy to pass through freely. If the lower back closes or locks, the pathway for force and intention is obstructed. Instead of internal connection, we create local tension.

In the upward phase of the movement, the same principle applies. As we release and rise, there is no pushing upwards or tightening to generate lift. Rather, we allow the released energy to rise naturally through the body, supported by the openness we maintained while sinking. This up-and-down movement — sinking and releasing — forms the basis of relaxed force in Tai Chi. It is not simply physical, but energetic, and was a key theme as we explored how this internal process translates directly into both the slow push and the form itself.

In our recent Tai Chi class, we divided our time carefully between two essential sections of the form. The first part of the class focused on Section Two — specifically up to and including Shoulder Stroke, a powerful movement that demands clear internal connection and integration. The second part of the session was dedicated to working through the form up to and including Cloud Hands, where the body must remain open and fluid as the energy spirals and shifts direction.

By splitting the class this way, we were able to give more time and focus to each area, and more importantly, to the underlying principles that unify them. While the movements themselves may differ outwardly, what binds them internally is the continuous relationship of rising and sinking, expanding and condensing — what might be described simply as the up-and-down movement.

In Tai Chi, releasing into and out of postures is not simply about moving from one shape to another. It involves carefully managing how force passes through the body. This allows movements to remain soft yet powerful, clear yet subtle.

How this release is managed varies between systems. Understanding these differences brings clarity to why our approach in the Huang system works the way it does — and how it offers a valuable framework for internal training.

Tai Chi, when approached deeply, offers the practitioner subtle yet profound experiences of force and release. This is particularly apparent when focusing on the slow push — a method not of exerting effort, but of cultivating internal connection and allowing relaxed power to express itself naturally.

The slow push offers the chance to observe, in minute detail, the process of sinking into position. In Tai Chi, “sinking” is not simply dropping weight downwards. It is a conscious release into the earth, stabilising the base and creating a rooted platform. From here, the body can truly connect upwards. The legs and feet establish this rooted foundation, which links through the waist and spine, rising quietly into the arms. This pathway must be integrated, otherwise force becomes localised and disconnected. Without connection, the push becomes an effort of the arms alone — which in Tai Chi, is no push at all.

In our recent session, we began with a focus on the double push — a simple yet profound exercise that reveals much about connection, release, and force transmission. This partnered practice offers a valuable chance to explore how we meet another while maintaining integrity within ourselves.

To begin, both partners established themselves in 55:45 bow stances, a position fundamental to our approach. This distribution allows us to remain rooted without becoming stuck. From here, we sank softly into position, allowing the arms to rise naturally, carried not by muscular tension but by the release of the lower body and the stabilising effect of the ground. The key is that the arms should not be lifted — they should arrive into position as a result of the body sinking and settling beneath them.

It may be, in some respects, almost pointless to compare different systems of producing relaxed force. Not because such comparison lacks value entirely, but because real understanding of these subtleties can only emerge through long-term cultivation and practice. Without experience in a particular system — in this case, I-Quan — any commentary remains necessarily limited. Still, for the sake of reflection and to record the question for the future, it may be useful to explore this topic with care.

Among those who practice I-Quan, a common criticism of the style of Tai Chi that I both practice and teach is that our method of releasing force is "too slow." The argument, from their perspective, is quite logical. They suggest that in Tai Chi, the method of sinking force to the ground and then rebounding upwards — issuing power through both feet — is inherently slower than their approach. In I-Quan, as I understand it, release comes from the low dantian. Since this area is closer to the centre of the body, and presumably requires less travel distance for force to emerge, they believe it offers a quicker path to issuing energy.