I have friends who do a ten minute yoga routine every morning before breakfast. I applaud the notion, and from time to time I have had my own press ups/exercise type routines early in the morning but, let’s face it- who’s got the time?
Now we all know this is nonsense. We have loads of time, we just waste it etc etc. But the outer brain, the public brain, the social brain REALLY DOES THINK that it has no time. That’s why we always kind of perk up and agree when people suggest we have no time. Like you are now. And why WE LOVE anything that ‘saves’ time. Like ONE MINUTE TAI CHI. Yes, you’re loving it already aren’t you?
One minute Tai chi starts with doing the slow up and down sweep movements – watch a tai chi basics video on youtube to get the picture. You do this routine – do the legs bit as well if you can- until you get bored. Then segue into all the exercise and warm up bits you can remember- but do them only once, twice or thrice- one sit up, one press up, one weird yoga dog posture, one touch the toes etc etc. Pretty soon one of these will get your fancy. Hey that feels good you’ll think- then go with it- do five or ten. But no pushing. This is one minute tai chi. If you only want to- spend only one minute on the whole routine. I just did and I feel FANTASTIC!
The main benefit is that you go through a massive RANGE of movement in a very short time. In Japan old people don’t have bad knees, neither do men in the middle east- why because they get on their knees every day (in Japan to use a squat loo and to generally squat and sit, in the middle east to pray- women aren't required to do the knee bending public prayer ritual so they have terrible knees often) - if you don't use it you lose it. The second benefit is that you’ll be tempted to go for a bit longer from time to time and that will actually improve fitness. The third benefit is that you can claim to be a one minute tai chi master.