Tai Chi you can practise without leaving your chair
Seven mornings. Ten minutes each. Slow, traditional Tai Chi forms adapted for a seated body so you can build steadiness and ease without kneeling, balancing, or standing at all.
Why seated
Standing workouts ask the wrong thing first
Most gentle exercise programmes still start on your feet: stand up, balance, lower yourself down, get back up. If that first step is the hard part, the rest of the programme never happens.
Tai Chi is unusually well suited to being done sitting down. Its power lives in the upper body slow arcs of the arms, rotation through the waist, weight shifting from one sit bone to the other. Take away the footwork and the practice is still the practice.
Steadiness
Slow, controlled weight-shifting from side to side is the core of Tai Chi. Seated, you train that same sense of centre without any risk of a stumble.
Room to move
Shoulders, neck, hips and wrists get taken gently through their range every morning the joints that stiffen first when the day is mostly spent sitting.
A quiet ten minutes
Each routine is paced by the breath four counts in, six counts out. Most people find that, more than the movement, is what they come back for.
Your seven days
Real Tai Chi forms, adapted to the chair
These are not invented "chair exercises". Each day takes a classical movement from the Yang-style short form and teaches the seated version of it, one at a time, in order.
-
Day 1
Settling & the breath
无极Wújí How to sit, and the four in six out rhythm everything else runs on. 6 min -
Day 2
Cloud Hands
云手Yún Shǒu The waist turn that carries both arms across the body. 8 min -
Day 3
White Crane Spreads Its Wings
白鹤亮翅Bái Hè Liàng Chì One arm rises, one settles opening right across the chest. 8 min -
Day 4
Brush Knee & Push
搂膝拗步Lǒu Xī Ào Bù Sweep across the knee, then press forward with an open palm. 9 min -
Day 5
Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane
野马分鬃Yě Mǎ Fēn Zōng The hands separate along a diagonal as the waist turns. 9 min -
Day 6
Grasp the Sparrow’s Tail
揽雀尾Lǎn Què Wěi Four movements in one: ward off, roll back, press, push. 10 min -
Day 7
Gathering & closing
收势Shōu Shì The six days joined into a single flow, then a slow close. 10 min
What's inside
A booklet built to sit open on a table
- The full 7 day planOne page per day no flipping back and forth mid routine
- 16 illustrated movementsEach drawn from the side and the front, with the count written beneath
- Large-print typesettingSet at 14pt with high contrast readable at arm's length on a table
- A printable tracking sheetTick off the mornings pin it where you'll see it
A full 7 day plan
One routine for every morning of the week seven in all, and ten minutes is the longest any of them takes.
If a morning gets away from you, the plan doesn't reset. Pick up on the day you left.
Who it's for
Written for real bodies and ordinary mornings
Anyone who’d rather keep moving
A short, dependable daily habit that doesn’t ask anything of the knees, hips or back.
Limited mobility
Every movement is done sitting. Nothing in the plan requires standing up, even once.
Easing back after a rough stretch
Gentle enough to restart with after illness, surgery or a long spell of doing very little.
Family and carers
Something printed you can put on the table and work through together, at the same pace.
Photographs are illustrative.
Plans
Start with the booklet, or take the whole practice
Every plan is a single payment. There is no subscription, nothing renews, and what you buy stays yours.
The Booklet
The 7 day plan on its own, to print and follow.
One time payment
- The 7 day seated plan, as a printable PDF
- 16 illustrated seated movements
- Breathing and warm up pages
- Printable tracking sheet
- Download link straight after checkout
Booklet + Guided
The booklet, plus follow-along sessions to move with.
One time payment
- Everything in The Booklet
- Seven guided sessions one filmed routine for each day
- Separate warm up and wind down videos
- Streams on a phone, tablet, laptop or TV
- Lifetime access nothing to cancel
The Full Practice
Everything, including the longer library beyond week one.
One-time payment
- Everything in Booklet + Guided
- The extended session library where to go after week one
- Longer seated flows that join the forms together
- Guided breathing and wind down audio tracks
- Printable month planner and practice journal
Every plan is covered by a 14 day money back guarantee write in and you'll be refunded in full.
Practising safely
A firm chair, and permission to stop
Use a level seat with a back and no wheels. Make any movement smaller rather than harder. Stop for the day if anything is sharp every movement in the plan has a smaller version, and none of them should be pushed through.
A note on health. StillCrane is a general wellness programme, not medical treatment, and nothing in it is a substitute for advice from your doctor. If you're living with a heart condition, recent surgery, joint replacement, vertigo, or anything else that affects how you move, please check with a medical professional before you begin.
Questions
Before you buy
What's the difference between the three plans?
The Booklet ($12) is the printable 7 day plan by itself. Booklet + Guided ($70) adds seven filmed sessions, one per day, so you can move along with someone instead of reading and following. The Full Practice ($120) adds the extended library for what comes after week one longer flows, audio tracks and a month planner.
Do I need any Tai Chi experience?
None. Day one assumes you have never done this before and starts with how to sit and how to breathe. The Chinese names are there because they're the real names of the forms, not because you need to learn them.
Is this safe with limited mobility?
Every movement is done seated and can be made smaller. That said, we can't know your situation if you have a condition that affects how you move, please check with your doctor before starting. See the safety notes above.
Will this renew or charge me again?
No. All three plans are a single payment. There is no subscription, no trial that turns into one, and no second charge of any kind.