16/03/2026
Fact not fiction
Over the last few years online fitness marketers have discovered through keywording that certain words dramatically increase click-through rates and Tai Chi is one of them
After all it infers gentle exercise, longevity, and Eastern wisdom. So when advertisers combine Tai Chi and walking, they hit the perfect demographic: people over 50 looking for a low-impact exercise. Because this group spends more time on Facebook, they click more health-related content and they have a higher disposable income.
But despite all of these adverts when you look at what's behind them, Tai Chi walking turns out to be completely unrelated to Tai Chi - for what is offered is nothing more than slow marching, knee lifts, light callisthenics, and simple balance exercises. These are all good exercises but they are not Tai Chi - and while Im on the subject - these exercises are everywhere and freely available by searching Youtube for fitness exercises for the over 50s.
Such poor marketing is a shame because it misses out all the real skills that Tai Chi does train. Not muscle gain, not weight loss, not “your spouse won’t recognise you in 2 weeks” nonsense, but excellent skills in balance control, coordination, joint strength, breathing, energy boosts, concentration and that elusive state of “flow”.
So is Tai Chi walking a thing? Well, its is a bit like selling “Mozart breathing.”
Breathing is real. Mozart is real.
But putting the two together doesn’t make a new musical technique.
