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Tai Chi, or Tai Chi Ch’uan, means “supreme fighting” or “ultimate fists” in Mandarin. It is basically a form of martial art originating in China sometime around the 16th century. It has five known forms in existence today, though all are connected to each other without any drastic difference. During the 1970s, it was introduced in America and has been growing in popularity ever since. There have been no known side effects or harm caused by practicing Tai Chi in long term or short term.

You can learn Tai Chi right in the comfort of your own home with various DVDs on Tai Chi. Learning in your home as opposed to joining a dojo has many benefits, especially if you are a busy person who would not be able to make it to the dojo on the required days and hours.

Tai Chi is safe for everyone, irrespective of age. The elderly in millions of homes across China perform Tai Chi because it improves balance and co-ordination between limb movements. Every year, hundreds of senior citizens suffer fractures and injuries due to fall caused by misbalance, Tai Chi is very helpful in such cases.

The sit-up has been ostracized by fitness professionals for some time now. These “experts” claim that sit-ups and their variations are dangerous to your spine. Was this opinion formed after millions of six pack abs hopefuls damaged their backs from performing sit-ups? The answer to this question is clearly no, so where did this opinion come from?

The “sit-ups are unsafe” chant that can be heard echoing throughout fitness centers all over the world was actually born in the lab. Studies have found that sit-ups stress the spine more than the crunch does. And? Taking a nap will stress the spine even less than crunched do. Is napping a better ab exercise than crunches? You can see how the stress argument is seriously flawed. Every exercise that you perform creates some stress on the body. It is that stress that encourages our body to adapt and get stronger. This is the very nature of exercise.

People who don’t want to spend over $1000 for a treadmill may want to check out the Smooth 5.45 from Smooth Fitness. This is an excellent machine that is an upgrade from the “best buy” Smooth 5.25 treadmill. The changes that were made to create this new model were based on consumer reviews and the result is a superb folding treadmill for the home.

I have people asking me all the time about the price of the Smooth Fitness machines and how the company can price treadmills like the 5.45 at such economical prices. The answer is in how the company does their business. They primarily sell their machines online. They essentially remove all the middlemen-including retailers. When you take away all the costs of operating brick and mortar stores, or selling to wholesalers, you can easily see how Smooth Fitness works. The money they save is filtered into bringing exceptional machines to the marketplace at affordable prices.