The Beginning

Stand with separated feet pointing straight ahead parallel to each other. Distance between them more or less like the distance between your shoulders. Sink down a little by bending your knees, tuck in your bottom, let shoulders hang and straighten your neck upwards. Feel as if you were a puppet suspended on a string from the sky and with a weight attached to the tailbone pulling you down towards the ground. In this way your spine becomes long and straight, and you can feel, at the same time, in close contact with the ground base beneath you and rising upwards. Your weight goes forward on your feet, as if you were to push somebody in front of you. This basic standing position, at the ready, is in itself an important part of the exercise.

​Then start raising your arms in front of you and simultaneously push off from the ground - just a little - so the entire body follows and supports the rising movements of the arms - typical for tai chi that the body with its greater strength supports the movements of the arms. At shoulder height you turn fingertips on your right and left hand towards each other, thumbs up and pull the hands to your chest.

Here you let elbows sink to the sides of your chest, fingertips pointing up you push hands out again. Without totally stretching your arms you let your fingertips continue outgoing as far as possible, palms turning down.

Keeping the hands with palms down you pull them back to your shoulders. At this point you lower your arms, while the whole body is sinking a little, following your arms, breathing out.

In tai chi it is a tradition to let breathing happen naturally without counting and forcing the breath. It is however a clear principle that you breathe out when force is going out in a push or a kick. When you retreat and prepare another outgoing force you naturally breathe in. It is the same principle used in other martial arts.

You could compare with a jellyfish which pulls in water and then uses the water as a kind of jet to propel it along when it forces the water out again. In many martial arts breathing out when you strike is enhanced by letting out a "ha" or a "hu", a kind of "war scream".

Some people like to combine the 5-element exercise with conscious, controlled breathing from the start, and it is indeed possible to do so in a meaningful way. When you sink down a little in the beginning, you breathe in.

When you raise your arms, you breathe out. It may seem a bit counterintuitive to breathe out when you move up, but think of it as a way of breaking free when somebody holds your arms down. Supported by your whole body you go against the thumbs of your opponent, his weak point. 

When you then draw hands towards your shoulders you breathe in. When you push out again, you breathe out. 

When you pull back your hands to your shoulders, you breathe in, and when you finally lower your hands, you breathe out. It sounds complicated when you read it!

The Elements 

The Element Metal

Your weight (about 80 %) is on your left foot, your arms are stretched out in front of you (but not locking elbow joints). Now you begin to draw one big circle clockwise in front of you: to the right, then cross near your heart, to the left, and then back to the initial position with arms stretched out. In the beginning hands are palms up in a receiving gesture, near the heart they turn, fingers drop and continue like this to initial position. While your arms and hands are moving like this, your body follows by turning first right and then left so that the hands are always in front of your centre line. In the first part turning right you transfer weight back on your right foot and when turning left you push your weight forward on your left foot again.

​In this way the circle becomes bigger than if you didn't move your body. One way of training this element is to imagine that you stir a very big pot of heavy porridge with both hands on the ladle, using your whole body for power. No doubt this element is the most difficult for the beginner, but it makes a lot of tai chi sense: Body and arms are coordinated in a circular retreat and advance sequence, a "revolving door" technique, very much like the yin-yang "fish-symbol" in which the culmination of one force is the beginning of the complementary force.

The Element Water

This is an easy one. After metal your arms are stretched out in front of you. You then retreat by letting your arms swing down by your side, back of hands leading the way. Behind your hips you turn the hands and swing them back again with back of hands leading the way. It is like swinging your arms in a relaxed way through water. When you swing back you transfer weight back on the right foot, and when you swing forward you transfer weight to your left foot again. This is a very soft yin energy.

The Element Wood

Almost the same, but moving back and forward your hands are turned with palms leading. A bit more forceful than the water movement. Like "shovelling" or pressing a plank of wood instead of just gliding through the water.

The Element Fire

Here you pull your hands, fingertips almost touching each other, toward your breast, almost there you turn elbows down and fingertips point upwards while you push forward.

The Element Earth

Again a somewhat complicated movement. While you retreat your hands draw the shape of a globe: separating left and right hand going to each side and crossing each other in front of your pelvis, left hand below the right because the left leg is in front. At the end of the retreat you turn your crossed hands and push forward and out separating hands as if you were levelling a surface. It is very important that the movements of hands and body are synchronized so that you don't begin "levelling" with your hands before the body pushes forward.

The First Turn

With arms relaxedly down by your sides you transfer weight back on the right foot, turn your left foot approx. 45 degrees to the right, turn hips and the whole body 90 degrees to the right, make the "big sun" lifting your arms over your head and make a small step forward with your right foot pointing straight ahead, moving body forward as you lower your arms to level of shoulders. A very easy and simple change of direction to the right, now your right foot is in front and the left behind. Your weight is mainly on the right foot and you are ready to start the metal element again, this time drawing the circle to the left and then continuing through the elements. In the earth element you move the right hand forward under the left as the right leg is in front.

The Second Turn

Not as easy as the first because you have to put your right foot somewhere behind the left, toes touching first, and then turning right 90 degrees, a bit like a ballet dancer, transfer weight to the right foot and put the left foot in front. If you have difficulty getting all the way around to the right in the beginning, you adjust your stance (your right foot) as needed after turning.

In the second turn you also simultaneously move your arms over your head and down to the beginning of the element metal. In the element earth your left hand is now under the right because the left foot is in front.

The Third Turn

Again the easy turn 45 degrees to the right, like in the first turn.

The Fourth Turn

A repeat of the difficult second turn. This time you aim to get to a position with parallel feet like in the opening stance, so you do not transfer most of the weight to the right foot, but just turn the left foot on the heel to get to the position.. It also takes a little practice to place the right foot so that it will fit.

The Ending

Turning you have moved your arms above your head. Now you simply let them come down in front of you. You can imagine that they come down on each side of the centreline of your body. When they have come down you bring them up again back of "limp" hands close towards each other. Again imagine they "draw" the centreline together. Level with your head you separate hands and they draw sideways a big "globe" on the way down. They cross at the level of your pelvis, right hand under the left. Here you turn hands and push them palms forward to the sides, and you are again right where you started. Now put your right foot close to the left and stand tall, feeling your body as one.

In China when you have performed the tai chi form and your master is present you usually make a deep bow as a salute of respect. Anyway it is a good practice to finish your exercise by bowing down

Time

The 5 element exercise will typically take about 5 minutes to go through. It is a tradition and a very good practice to do tai chi exercises in the morning before you eat and drink, and preferably in nature. It is also a good idea to do exercises before you go to bed as this helps you to recover well after a busy day and sleep well. For some it is a help to create a certain routine. But don't feel confined to such traditions. Do the exercises when you can and when it suits you. It can be a beginning, a time out during the day or a closure. It It is important to do the exercises every day so that they become "second nature". You will get better and better by just doing it again and again over the years and by awareness of what you are doing.