DMCI Homes’ Mandaluyong condo residents embrace numerous benefits of tai chi

Gone are the days when tai chi exercises were quietly held in parks in the metro like in Luneta Park in Manila and in Quezon Memorial Park in Quezon City.

Nowadays, the 13th century Chinese martial art is slowly gaining popularity as a mind and body exercise in condominium communities along with yoga.

At DMCI Homes’ Tivoli Garden Residences in Barangay Hulo, Mandaluyong City for instance, a group of residents meet every Thursday to do tai chi exercises at the roofdeck of the Iris Tower, one of the buildings in the 2.7-hectare resort-inspired condominium community.

With the guidance of their coach Ton Delgado, the group has been enjoying and having fun learning the different techniques of the slow and low impact exercise since 2017.

“Tai chi is a Chinese internal martial arts although it has been identified with the elderly because of the slowness of movement. But technically, it’s a form of martial arts,” said Delgado.

“When we started, we were promoting tai chi for health. This was created by Dr. Paul Lam who is a popular tai chi practitioner based in Australia. We’ve had tai chi for arthritis and tai chi for diabetes,” he shared.

Health benefits

One of the group’s founders, Nonie Llanes found tai chi to be a good alternative to basketball after leg and knee injuries slowed him down from playing his favorite sport.

“I was looking for a low-impact sport that would give me additional strength, balance and also to relieve stress. So when I learned the sport from my sister, who attends a tai chi class in Meralco where she works, I said it’s a good sport, why don’t I bring tai chi to Tivoli,” said Llanes who formed the group with his wife Glenda.

“What I did was to advertise by creating posters and put it up on the bulletin boards of all the buildings and also on the community Facebook Page. Fortunately, a number of residents responded. So that’s how we started,” he explained.

Living in a place surrounded by greenery further inspired him to form a tai chi group in the community.

“Tai chi promotes being one with nature so being in a very nice environment really helps you with the goals of tai chi. What is good here in Tivoli is there are many places where you can actually practice it, where you are surrounded with greenery,” he explained.

Living in a place surrounded with greenery further inspired him to form a tai chi group in the community.

“Tai chi promotes being one with nature so being in a very nice environment really helps you with the goals of tai chi. What is good here in Tivoli is there are many places where you can actually practice it, where you are surrounded with greenery,” he explained.

Puy Talde, a member of the group said he got smitten with tai chi because it can be done anywhere, whether he is at home or in the office.

“At least for me, what made me really like tai chi is that it’s like a pocket exercise. You can do it anywhere. We have a chat group where we post videos doing tai chi routines, whether we are here or abroad,” Talde said.

“And also in the office, I really do some routines there since it’s really handy and it gets you moving even if you don’t have any equipment. You can do it by yourself,” he added.

Mercy Lagua, on the other hand, turned to tai chi to cope with osteoporosis.

“When I read a Harvard study that doing tai chi would help improve your posture, your balance, and bone density, I became really serious in doing it. I’ve been doing it for the past eight years already though it took me some time, like two years, to really get to know the routines,” Lagua related.

Adrian Mark Kuan, meanwhile, became fascinated with tai chi because of his love for kung fu movies.

“I found tai chi to be an effective way to relax and de-stress apart from playing my favorite sport of badminton,” Kuan said.

Added benefit

Aside from its health benefits, tai chi has also become an instrument in promoting interaction among residents.

Best of all, their weekly sessions have helped form a deep bond among the group’s members, which is another perk of practicing tai chi according to another group member, Richard Dumlao.

“It is also a channel for social interaction. Aside from sharing tai chi’s health benefits with one another, you can also come up with a social group and that is what tai chi is all about,” Dumlao noted.

This added benefit motivated Llanes to open the group this year to more residents.

“We started as people that has common interest in tai chi that blossomed to becoming good friends in the community,” he said.

Tivoli Garden Residences is one of the developments of DMCI Homes, the country’s first Quadruple A real estate developer known for building quality resort-inspired communities in Mega Manila, Baguio, Boracay and Davao City. Each of its properties is built with world-standard craftsmanship borne from D.M. Consunji Inc.'s over 60 years of expertise in the construction and development industry.

To learn more about Tivoli Garden Residences and other DMCI Homes projects, call (632) 5324-8888.  News and other updates are also posted on the company's official social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.