Rss Feed
Tweeter button
Facebook button
Digg button
Stumbleupon button

Tai Cheng – Coming in 1Q12

August 3, 2011 –

Another great announcement from Day 2 of the 2011 Beachbody Summit was for a new workout program coming in the 1st Quarter of  2012. It was created by someone you may recognize from the “Shakeology – Doctors Don’t Lie” Video: Dr. Mark Cheng. He has also is wrote a glowing article of the benefits of Shakeology HERE.  This new program will be based on the art of Tai Chi.

I have been wanting to post my video from summit with Carl Daikeler and Mark Cheng talking about this new program. However, there were some “technical glitches” in the recording that I have been trying to work through. The good news is now I don’t have to! Read on…

Beachbody has opened up a website  on the new program (titled “Tai Cheng”) and it contains the whole video from summit! It looks alot better than mine does as well. This really gives you a great sense of what the program is about and who it is is targeted at.

The full Tai Cheng website is located HERE. I have also pasted the text below. However, you need to go to the website to see the great video from summit.


Tai Cheng Workout

Currently being tested and filmed, Tai Cheng is Beachbody’s newest and perhaps most comprehensive fitness program. Based on the movements, concepts, and theories of traditional Yang style Tai-Chi, the Beachbody Tai Cheng workout program is named after its creator, Dr. Mark Cheng. The Mandarin Chinese translation of Tai Cheng (as we’ve conceived of it here at Beachbody) is the “Supreme Accomplishment” in whole body health.

Look for more exciting details and the upcoming release date so you can experience Tai Cheng in your own home!

DR. MARK CHENG is a martial arts master trainer with three decades of experience in Tai-Chi. His background as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner (licensed acupuncturist; Ph.D. in Chinese medicine and acupuncture) and a physical therapy-based corrective exercise expert has allowed him to bring the ancient martial arts and wellness practices of Tai-Chi into the modern era for a modern audience living a modern lifestyle. The Tai Cheng program shows you how to customize a workout that feels good, challenges your body, gives you energy, improves circulation, straightens posture, opens your joints, reduces painful trigger points, and promotes balance and flexibility so that your health actually improves as you age.

The Tai Cheng workout is based on classical Tai-Chi techniques, ancient Chi Kung practices, and modern corrective exercise patterns that both rehab and prehab the body, improving the body’s metabolism, joint function, stress management, and athletic performance!

This 13 week regimen delivers tremendous benefits, whether you’re doing the first level moves and using the support of a wall or you’re an elite athlete who is looking to improve your athletic performance in safer, more holistic ways.

Every day, Tai Cheng takes you through a gentle energizing warm up and teaches you a new Tai-Chi move. These workouts are designed to improve balance, awaken dormant energy sources, tone and strengthen your muscles, soothe stiffness, and increase your range of motion.

Is Tai Cheng For You?

  • Are you ready to improve your metabolism and physical stamina?
  • Have you been trying to figure out how to begin exercising after a long layoff?
  • Do you want to improve your body’s ranges of motion, balance, and neuromuscular control?
  • Are you tired of doing workouts that leave you unable to function the next day due to pain or injury?
  • Are you interested in martial arts but not eager to show up to work with a black eye, busted lip, or twisted ankle?

Are You in Great Shape and Just Looking For a New Way to Exercise?

Tai-Chi and the other ancient modalities within the Tai Cheng program are made for EVERYONE. It is a health restoration, health improvement, and wellness system for you.

Experience energizing Chi Kung and gentle sequences that have been keeping people fit for centuries. Why wait for national health care reform when you can reform your health today with a total program that includes simple, delicious, and nutritious food?

Tai Chi and Qi Gong Benefits

A traditional Chinese martial art, Tai-Chi is known more formally as T’ai Chi Ch’uan or Taijiquan, the “Supreme Ultimate Fist.” As a system of internal martial arts, Tai-Chi revolves around the duality concept of balanced yin and yang energies. In the Western world, we understand this in manifestations such as positive-negative, light-dark, male-female, hot-cold, hard-soft, and external-internal. In terms of strategy and combat application, Tai-Chi employs both speed and power movements, similar to those seen in other self-defense systems like Shaolin kung-fu, modern wushu, karate, or taekwondo, as well as slow and smooth movements that resemble dance or yoga.

Now one of the most widely practiced exercises in the world, Tai-Chi has cognates in Korea (taegeuk kwon), Japan (taikyokuken), and many other countries around the world. It is often taught in conjunction with Qi Gong (which translates to “energy skills” or “breath exercises”), breathing and meditation exercises for health, and even injury rehabilitation. The Yang style of Tai-Chi is the most widely practiced version of this Chinese art form. Because of its zero-impact nature, it has become wildly popular among the elderly throughout China and increasingly around the globe. Younger athletes are discovering it for its unique ability to train the stabilizing musculature in addition to the larger muscles known as the prime movers.

While it is no secret that Tai-Chi practice has a plethora of benefits, it is still not well understood by mainstream medicine. Studies have been conducted at prestigious colleges and universities such as Harvard and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to determine how Tai-Chi lowers blood pressure, improves balance, and reduces injuries due to falls. Those studies have continued to yield positive data.

From elders to athletes . . . Something for everybody.

Dr. Cheng, a clinical pain specialist with training from experts like Cook and Tsatsouline and a Tai-Chi instructor with a lifetime of experience in the art, saw the potential for spreading Tai-Chi to a wider audience than ever before. Seeing the benefits of Tai-Chi from a highly trained perspective, he partnered with Beachbody to create a new spin on the ancient system. He combines the best of meditation, self-control, martial arts, balance training, and diaphragmatic breathing with modern physical therapy and strength and conditioning methods to create a unique product that, BEST OF ALL, provides people of all levels of experience a chance to improve their levels of wellness, fitness, and movement. The product of that partnership is the Tai Cheng Workout!

Dr. Mark Cheng

As a specialist in traditional Chinese medicine orthopedics, Dr. Mark Cheng provides his extensive knowledge to his students. Drawing on his years of martial arts study, he has developed Tai Cheng, an incredibly effective workout program that combines a progression of Chi Kung (QiGong), Tai-Chi, and functional movement training. Always looking to increase his knowledge and understanding of total body wellness, Dr. Cheng’s teaching method reflects passion for relevance, innovation, safety, and constant fun.

East-West Medicine & Modern Fitness

Mark Cheng became fascinated by Chinese martial arts early in childhood, gaining his first exposure to Tai-Chi from his father. He later went on to study acupuncture and other forms of Chinese medicine, specializing in orthopedics, eventually earning licensure to practice acupuncture in the State of California and a Ph.D. in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Through his involvement with Chinese medicine, he also became fascinated with strength and conditioning training, studying closely with Russian Kettlebell Challenge founder, Pavel Tsatsouline. Under Tsatsouline, Dr. Cheng met Functional Movement Systems founder and physical therapy guru, Gray Cook. While studying with Cook, Dr. Cheng became increasingly fascinated with Tai-Chi as a means of functional movement training and injury rehabilitation.

Few, if any, instructors bring together the rare mix of martial arts mastery, strength and conditioning authority, Chinese medicine knowledge, and functional movement training expertise to fitness like Dr. Cheng does.

Dr. Mark Cheng, L.Ac., Ph.D., RKC Team Leader, FMS faculty.

6 Responses to “Tai Cheng – Coming in 1Q12”

  1. Coach Indo says:

    I’m actaully as excited for this as I am for P90X2! Gotta go watch the video

Leave a Reply