Tai Chi instructor helps get out the kinks

It may seem like it doesn’t make sense to teach adults how to walk. But to a Tai Chi instructor, it makes perfect sense.

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LEE GILES III/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Tai Chi instructor Roger Cloutier works with his pupils last Thursday morning. Harbor Wellbeing is offering classes at its location on Wagner Way in Gig Harbor.

 It may seem like it doesn’t make sense to teach adults how to walk. But to a Tai Chi instructor, it makes perfect sense.

Roger Cloutier, a Tai Ji/Qigong instructor, teaches Tai Ji Quan, or Tai Chi Chuan, at Harbor Wellbeing in Gig Harbor. He said that, as people grow into adulthood, their bodies begin to lose the natural flexibility they had as a child.

Over time, bad habits, like sitting at a desk all day and leading sedentary lifestyles, takes its toll. Plus, tension and stress that builds up and isn’t released can lead to health problems like arthritis.

“We need to move,” Cloutier said. “When we get tense, compression starts acting on the body if you don’t have fluid motion. It’s a big step to start changing. If your body is free, your mind is free, and your stress level is lessened.”

Cloutier said most people don’t move their head along with their body when they walk, and then they’re off-balance.

“Tai Chi means balance,” he said. “Most people freeze their head when they walk. This causes a lot of tension in the neck. This decreases blood flow to the head, and it leads to dementia.”

The slow, graceful movements of Tai Chi help one attain balance, release stress and get in touch with their bodies, Cloutier said.

His students say the benefits extend beyond the class itself.

“Roger teaches you how the muscles move, and you walk away with an understanding of how not to injure yourself,” Judy Wayenberg said.

Student Lynn Rodgers said she had balance issues before she took the class and had experienced some scary falls. She no longer has that issue.

“Roger’s depth of knowledge in appropriate movement is so extreme, we keep coming back,” she said. “It’s phenomenal. It’s like lighting the spirit.”

Susan Engen has been taking the class for about 12 years. She said she spent a whole weekend helping a friend rebuild a deck.

“Everyone was moaning and groaning,” she said. “I kept waiting for my shoulders to start aching. I’m still waiting.”

Engen said Tai Chi’s simple philosophy of moving with intent helps to keep the body fit.

“You keep doing it until your body finally ‘gets it,’ and your mind moves out of the way,” student Robin Wilson said.

“It all sounds so deadly serious, but we have a lot of fun,” Engen added.

The group utilized a wooden sword during their exercises last Thursday. Cloutier said adding an object, or a tool, adds another dimension to the workout, since people are always dealing with loads that force their body to adjust.

Sometimes when people lift weight, they tense up their muscles rather than distribute the weight naturally throughout their body, he said.

“The sword (helps people to) learn how to use tools efficiently,” Cloutier said. “Any tool that you use adds weight to the body, and you have to learn how to share the weight. If you can move and balance the body instead of compressing it, you’re actually massaging yourself.”

Massage is something Cloutier knows a little bit about. He is a licensed massage practitioner, and that gives him an extra element to teaching Tai Chi.

“With massage therapy, you understand the systems in the body and how the muscles work,” he said.

Cloutier teaches beginning to advanced classes at Harbor Wellbeing and instructs at the Warrior Life Martial Arts School through Tacoma Community College. Class audits are welcome.

Lifestyles coordinator and reporter Susan Schell can be reached at 253-853-9240 or by email at susan.schell@gateline.com. Follow her on Twitter, @gateway_susan