Tai Chi Healthways and Master Jesse Tsao recently hosted a workshop in San Diego on December 8 and 9. The workshop was attended by Grand Master Chen Zheng Lui of Henan, China.

Highlights of the workshop included detailed explanation by the Grand Master on Chen philosophy and its application in health, longevity, and self-defense. Two special performances by the Grand Master’s daughter, Chen Yuan Yuan, drew applause and appreciation by participants and guests.

Click here to read the full article. On the Tai Chi Healthways site, there is a video of the workshop (it takes a little while to load, depending on your connection speed).

An article from ThirdAge.com expounds on the benefits that arthritis sufferers receive from practicing Tai Chi.

According to an Arthritis Foundation spokesperson, “Tai Chi is the basis for one of the Arthritis Foundation’s most popular exercise programs, known as the ROM (range of motion) dance…The result is often a feeling of stimulated relaxation and pain relief.”

Make sure to take their links to the second and third pages of the article and also to their Arthritis Guide.

For those in San Antonio, Texas who would like to attend the Tai Chi Class Christmas party, it will be held at Go Hyang Jib Korean BarBQ House, 4400 Rittiman Road, (San Antonio, TX 78218) on 12/22/07. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to yongso@sbcglobal.net by December 15.

An entertaining article just appeared in the Guardian Unlimited health section. Pete Doherty, a British musician who is probably best known for his decadent lifestyle involving heavy heroin usage and public misconduct, recently completed a tour with no cancellations and surprising onstage professionalism. Apparently, Doherty has become a practitioner of chi gung and tai chi.

Doherty has thus joined the ranks of veteran alt rockers Iggy Pop, who maintains his ripped-at-60 look via daily chi gung and swimming, and Lou Reed, who spends several hours each day practising tai chi with US master Ren Guang Yi. Reed released an ambient album, Hudson River Wind Meditations, in the summer, specifically designed to accompany workouts, and refers to his impressive biceps and triceps as his “Tai Chi muscles”.

The article goes on to discuss exercise addiction: could Doherty be simply trading one addiction for another? They conclude that chi gung and tai chi work differently than other “addictive exercises”:

With an addiction, it’s all about the sympathetic nervous system; you’re stuck in it 24-7, all stress, all agitation. Chi gung does the opposite: it helps you move into the parasympathetic nervous system, it brings about relaxation and real calm.

Good news for drug rehabilitation programs then, should they choose to take note!