Tai Chi with the weight vest to strengthen your bones and add to your core strength and balance.

I've been wearing the weight vest for about four months now. It's proved a wonderful evolutionary tool--and an easy one, because I just put it on, and there I go.

For me, the vest has been a servant on an errand. I live in Northern Michigan, so walking outside for 5 months of the year is not what I like to do. I began wearing it around the house for an hour or so (I don't really measure the time) while I do my morning tasks. It took about two mornings to get used to it. I quickly discovered the vest helps me stay present. It works with me to release my tight shoulders and makes it far easier for me to remember myself in the process (no small task for students of meditation).

This grew into wearing the vest while doing t'ai chi/qi gong (@ 45 minutes), which grew into wearing it during my other standing stretch and relax program (@ 15 minutes). It helps deepen and strengthen my practice and my awareness. The vest is especially helpful in bending--a process where my upper body tends to collapse. The extra weight brings my attention to that area.

I don't imagine I am using the vest the way it was intended, but I find it's very adaptable, and I like that. These days basically I put the vest on and let it do its work for me whatever I'm doing. It's become very helpful ergonomically at the computer.

The vest seems to grow with me as I grow. I never tire of the sensation of taking it off because it's continually a surprise. I remember when I was a child and would push my arms outward into either side of the door frame and hold it for a bit...then I'd release and my arms would float upward as if they were balloons. Or that scene in Alice and Wonderland where she takes a pill and her neck grows quite long. That's what I feel like after I've taken the vest off--length and freedom coming into my upper body. Thank you, Pamela.

Jane, Tai Chi Instructor

©Pamela Free, NC 2004-2007 - Website design and content ©Pamela Free, NC 2004-2007 - design of weight vest for osteopenia and osteoporosis