Adapative Tai Chi for Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis and senioritis draw me to the health recovery aspects of tai chi. I’ve had training as a tai chi instructor for health recovery and offer tai chi to a variety of people with special needs. There is a growing movement in Adaptive Tai Chi: TC for MS, TC for Arthritis, TC for Diabetes; TC for Back Pain, TC for the Blind…. The adaptations are not necessarily Tai Chi Lite; instead, the bio-mechanical adjustments often involve breaking down movements into components and further breaking down each component into increasingly more elementary moves until the challenged student is able to perform the movement. However, I find with myself and with teaching others, that adaptive tai chi also incorporates an aspect of one-size-fits-all. Yet, not all MSers have the same difficulties and each has his or her own strengths.

I am working with a husband and wife, both of whom have MS. His MS affects vision and balance in a minor way. He has been athletic all of his life. She is not exercise-oriented, has balance difficulties and loss of feeling in her legs, but her joints turn extremely well. The adaptations for each are very different. In some areas, pelvic alignment for example, she is far more open and her alignment is very good. Development is paced to the strengthening of her legs. In teaching Brush Knee with a Twist Step, we are experimenting with a series of toe props to enable her to control her balance. His development is paced to opening of the pelvis; he already has leg strength. He muscles through movements, something we all know a lot about, so more attention is focused on using the toe prop to soften his drop.

My current thinking on adaptive tai chi is moving in the direction of a Personal Trainer for Tai Chi. For my own development, I need someone who can adapt my tai chi, making corrections that I can build upon at my current level of disability. The emphasis would be on individualizing the training. I think I might benefit most from either an advanced tai chi master or a tai chi personal trainer skilled in adapting movements to me. Although, I have always learned something important from generalized instruction, I believe a variation of the 80-20 rule applies to those with chronic conditions such as MS: 80% individualized instruction and 20% generalized or group instruction.