Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

Can You Lift Weights and Do Tai Chi, Xingyi or Bagua?

chen tai chi training chen taiji training internal arts training tai chi and weights weight training Jul 01, 2019

The photo shows a practice tip that is on my Bagua Basic Skills DVD and in the Bagua section of my website. It shows me walking the circle with dumbbells in my hands.

One of the traditional training methods for old school Bagua students was to do this with a brick or a stone in each hand. Now, we have dumbbells, so we can use those.

This not only helps develop circle-walking, but it is a weight-training exercise to help build your arm and shoulder strength, not to mention leg strength from circle-walking with the extra weight.

A Huge Fallacy in the Internal Arts

I have heard many people in the internal arts say that weight-training is a violation of internal principles. Even doing push-ups is a violation. They believe you should only do Taijiquan, for instance, and nothing more.

If you practice an internal art like Taiji, the argument goes, it is all the fitness training that you need.

One guy who claims to be a "master" instructor of Tai Chi told me that he wen...

Author - Instructor

Ken Gullette

I have practiced martial arts since 1973 and began studying the internal arts in 1987. My goal is to cut years off your development time by coaching you in the real skills for high-quality Tai Chi, Xingyi, Bagua. To see more about my bio, click the "About Ken" link on the menu at the top of this page.

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Can You Lift Weights and Do Tai Chi, Xingyi or Bagua?

Author - Instructor

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