Welcome to White Willow

"Movements of Peace"

World Tai Chi Day 2006 Eden Park

 

Since 1991: White Willow has been providing the tools to reeducate, rejuvenate and regenerate, the body, mind, and brain - to live a better, healthier life.

 

 

3/9/24 There will be no more begining Level One Classes until further notice due to the sale of our building.

 

 

 

Click here for Entry Level Schedule and Pricing 

 

 

 

"Click here to see how every health and fitness benefit you have read about is achieved through the Entry Program program"

 

Principles of Teaching Tai Chi to Beginning Students

a new article by Vincent J. Lasorso, Jr

This program is designed to provide the normal American, with a modern western mind, the knowledge and skills of the ancient Tai Chi Masters. Since 1991, thousands of Cincinnatians have positively improved their mind's, body's, health, performance and even their spiritual awareness through our Level One program.

So why not you?

In seven sessions we will teach you how to:

• Physically and mentally relax in any enviornment
• Manage and neutralize stress
• Meditate while you work and play
• Elongate and release muscles in a natural manner
• Attain strength and fitness without hurting yourself
• Activate natural mind/body mechanisms to improve health and performance
• Use natural body mechanics to move effortlessly

 

If you are looking to:

Make major changes in your health
Manage and eliminate stress from your life and body
Calm and focus your mind
Improve your level of fitness

...then you need to consider enrolling in the White Willow program.

 

At White Willow we break all the stereotypes of what you "think" Tai Chi and Qigong should be.

In fact the number one comment of new students is "I had no idea ..." The reason is: we teach material that is simply not available anywhere else. So if you've done Tai Chi in the past, think you "know" that it isn't what you want, or are even doing it now, take a chance with our program. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

Qigong and Tai Chi forms were designed to maintain and transform the human organism to achieve its highest physical, mental, and metaphysical potential. The movements, breathing, awareness and meditation techniques activate indigenous organic mechanisms within us that improve our physical body, brain, mental processing, and spiritual perceptions.

With targeted, detailed training, devoid of myth but rooted in tradition, our indigenous mechanisms can be immediately activated to begin the body's natural regeneration/rejuvenation process.

The White Willow system and curriculum of training provides consistent, repeatable results in hours, which only randomly occur from years of trial and error, follow the leader, teaching styles. Quick and targeted results are especially important when a person is faced with a degenerative process or disease. There is little time to gamble or waste hoping something will work.

Master Teacher Lasorso answers some common questions:

What is White Willow Tai Chi?
White Willow Tai Chi is a system of movement technology using traditional Tai Chi and Qigong  to create fitness and healing of the body that’s accessible to just about everyone.

Will White Willow Tai Chi and qigong help me with stress?
In our Entry Program we teach students how to manage stress; neurologically, physically and cognitively all in the first seven lessons. The material presented in our first class gives the student five easy techniques to induce relaxation that neutralizes and eventually prevents stress responses.

What is the difference between Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong?
In movement principles there should be no difference between qigong and Tai Chi Chuan. The difference is in origin and application of the movements.

Qigong, is a system of medicine which originates from the healing arts of China, India and Greece. From a practical point of view I consider it very much like  physical therapy designed to condition and integrate the mind/body to prevent disease and create healing. Qigong, as we teach it, truly transforms your physical condition with relatively little effort while it increases your relaxation, awareness, and peace of mind. Our Level One program is exclusively qigong.

Traditional Tai Chi Chuan movements are derived from combat fighting arts which were practiced with the same movement principles as qigong. The systems created before 1900 were designed to fight and kill multiple combatants on the battlefield. After 1900 systems were designed and marketed more for health, fitness and personal self-defense. The Communist cultural revolution modified Tai Chi for fitness, aesthetics and competition. Ironically, the older, battlefield arts are more conducive to healing than the newer variations. The specific physics of movement required for the battlefield actions are the same which activate the body’s indigenous healing mechanisms.

The White Willow System is derived from the Old Yang Small Frame System.
It has very small stances, steps and movements which make it very friendly for your knees and hips. The smaller movement also strengthens and elongates the core of the body much like Pilates.

We are not a martial arts school. The process we use teaches you how to learn to control and master your body’s movement. When you progress to an Instructor level then you will begin to learn the unique physics of our fighting system to better understand the vectors of the movements and how to heal.

Does White Willow teach Qigong?
Yes, Our Qigong is easy to learn and yields great benefit and positive change for the beginning student. The system moves you through Levels which makes more advanced  body mechanics, breath work and healing principles available. We can take our qigong into the deepest level of cultivation.

Will the White Willow Tai Chi program help me lose weight?
The White Willow program can help you with your weight loss program. First the relaxation, breathing and meditation skills can help tame the stress which causes emotional eating. Secondly the exercise burns as much calories as walking. An advanced Tai Chi student will probably burn 360 calories an hour which is the same as casual walking. A beginner student should burn over 400 calories because of their inefficient movement. Tai Chi is like going for a walk with your knees bent while waving your arms doing waist rotations. Its more exercise than it appears to be.

I can’t do the things I used to do. Can White Willow Tai Chi help me reverse this process? Can it really get me back in shape?
Over time because of muscular imbalances, physical and emotional stressors and ergonomic challenges, the muscle skeletal system starts to shorten and misalign. It does not take very long to reverse this process through our relaxation and movement training. While the body is starting to realign, the exercises start to strengthen the muscles supporting the frame. Unlike “jock exercise” Tai Chi and Qigong strengthen the body in a non-destructive manner, thus, building real strength without much exertion and recovery time.
Jock exercise requires straining and stressing the muscle fibers and vascular system to a point of controlled injury. The injured tissues and cells start an immediate healing process, actually producing more cells than were originally damaged. The continued process of injury and regrowth builds muscles, tissue and new vessels. The fuel for this is growth hormones. Growth hormones decrease each year after thirty. By age sixty the average person has 50% less growth hormone than at thirty. To compound this process a sixty year old’s immune system is only half as effective as when they were thirty. Thus, recovery time from any simple extra activity becomes longer and longer each passing year, eventually making jock exercise ineffective and dangerous. Tai Chi and Qigong utilizes a natural principle of cellular reproduction creating new cells and cell density by extension combined with torsion. The gently stretched and turned fibers send out reproduction messages, producing new cells in a healthy environment rather than the injured, acidic environment created by jock exercise.

With Tai Chi and Qigong no pain is the gain.

I have problems with my knees and back will the White Willow program help me?
In most cases, chronic back, hip and knee pain are the result of muscles that have become shortened, misaligned or weak from lifestyle or ergonomic challenges. Our Level One program begins the process of lengthening and strengthening all the muscles in the body through our qigong. We also teach body mechanic principles that re-educates the student how to go upstairs without pain and strain. How to lift and support the back and how to elongate and strengthen the spine.

Our Anatomy and Movement workshop explains in detail how the body works, how it begins to fail and how to reverse  dysfunction through movement. We also can provide assessments and referrals to health care professionals that will actually help you.

Will White Willow Tai Chi help my arthritis?
I believe that the White Willow approach to arthritis is perhaps the best available. The relaxation, pain management and body mechanics that we teach in our Level One program give those suffering from arthritis tools that they can use all day long to manage and prevent pain. These techniques are similar to those tested which demonstrated improved immune response and mitigation fibromyalgia symptoms.

 

Core Program

The Core program of White Willow School of Tai Chi is designed to teach a student how to master and apply the mind/body connection through the forms and movements of Tai Chi and Qigong, and achieve a fit and healthy body. The program is designed to teach the most advanced Tai Chi principles to the average everyday person making it relevant and applicable to their lives.You need no experience in Tai Chi or any movement art to excel in this program.

Although designed for normal people, the program includes in-depth instruction in relaxation, meditation, body alignment and mechanics, integrated movement, functional anatomy, and hands-on healing.