Guided Tai Chi

What’s the best exercise for people with Parkinson’s? If your goal is to improve your motor symptoms, researchers believe that mind-body exercises, such as yoga, Tai chi, Qigong, dance, and walking meditation, are superior to strength training and aerobic exercises. That’s according to a 2023 meta-analysis of 42 clinical trials assessing motor symptom severity as considered by the Movement Disorder Society

Can you use VR to capitalize on these findings? Maybe. In this post, I discuss a Tai chi app, Guided Tai Chi (GTC), available for Oculus Meta Quest systems. (In future posts, I’ll review yoga and dance options for Meta Quest.)

The promise. In her book, “Reboot and Rejoice,” Bianca Molle details her reversal of Parkinson’s symptoms through the practice of Qigong (pronounced “chee-gong”). Qigong is similar to and commonly grouped with Tai chi. Both use repetitive moves, breathing exercises, and a meditative mindset, and both are grouped together in many health studies (including in the meta-analysis cited above). Qigong is considered less complicated than Tai chi and with less footwork. Molle practiced Qigong for 2-3 hours daily to achieve her reversal.

Traditional Tai chi instruction. Tai chi and QIgong are good for the aging Parkinson’s demographic. The slow movements, low-impact exercises, and concentration on breath and flow make them ideal healing tools for releasing anxiety, improving breath control, refining balance, enhancing physical dexterity, and strengthening your core. Tai chi is usually taught in group classes in which students repeat movements (or “forms”) and eventually assemble these movements into performed patterns while instructors offer advice.

Guided Tai Chi’s approach. GTC takes a radically different approach to learning Tai chi. You don’t learn forms or individual movements. And you don’t incrementally assemble them into a pattern. Instead, you choose a 3 or 5-minute set of movements and you track the hand movements by following virtual balls suspended in your virtual space. Your feet follow the changing position of footprints as shown on a floor graphic. Occasionally a woman’s soft voice (similar to that popular in meditation apps) offers congratulations and encouragement. (You can see it in the clip at the end of this post.)

After trying Guided Tai Chi for a couple of weeks, I decided it wasn’t for me. Here’s why:

• The process is more like puppetry than mind-body exercise. GTC’s paint-by-numbers approach might work if learning individual movements repetitively. In that sense, it’s like language mimicry, learning phrase by phrase. But tracking a complete 5-minute set of movements in this manner is like performing a speech in a foreign language in which you sound fluent, but you have no idea what you’re saying. The GTC developers could improve the app by breaking down the flows into repetitive practice modules.
• The breath component is missing. Whether studying Qigong or Tai chi, the emphasis is always on the breath, and except for an occasional aside, that type of instruction is missing in GTC. GTC would be better served if breathing instructions were similar to those used by Tai chi and Qigong instructors.
• Feets, don’t fail me. For people with Parkinson’s, especially those with balance and multi-tasking issues, looking down (or looking up) to check foot movement is challenging and confusing. Because QIgong uses far less foot movement than Tai chi, it might be helpful for people with Parkinson’s to wait for a Qigong app or a GTC QIgong add-on.

The proven benefits of Tai chi and Qigong make these disciplines worth exploring for people with Parkinson’s. Until suitable VR apps appear, I’d recommend two instructors from whom I’ve benefitted, Mingtong Gu (Molle’s instructor) and Lee Holden. Both offer online teaching systems.