The Effects Of Tai Chi Chuan On The Functional Fitness And Physical Index Of Old Women

Population aging has currently become a worldwide issue not only for society but also for family. A statistics from Nation in 2005 shows that ,China's population, which is above 60 ,has reached 144 million, accounting for 11% of the population, which indicates that China has entered the aging society. It is estimated that by 2025 there will be 1.2 billion people over 60 worldwide.The physiological function of the growth will gradually decline with age. A variety of acute and chronic disease Hypertension, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other chronic non-communicable diseases that affect quality of life of old people, are the main killer for old adult. The progress of modern science and technology has caused the so called'sedentary lifestyle', which is now a big problem. Overweight, obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, back pain and other chronic diseases increases. These diseases have become threats to human particularly to the old adults. But these diseases can be by reasonable exercise prevent or in some extent relievd in advance.Tai Chi Chuan as a very popular traditional fitness programs in China, with the character of aerobic, non-competitive, rhythmic, and low intensity, has long been loved by the elderly. It also attract the interest of lots of scholars in recent years. Numerous studies have showed that those who do Tai Chi exercise can strengthen the heart and lung function, balance, etc., but it is still lacking of theoretical basis from a comprehensive functional fitness point .This study was to investigate the effect of Tai Chi on Funtional Fitness of old women. 60 old women (age range of 55-70year) are randomly selected in living quarters within the campus in Chong qing. Subjects (Tai chi group of 32 people, age 64.19±3.48 years, weight 61.46±3.95 kg, height 157.78±3.03cm; no exercise group of 28 people, age 64.00±3.01 years, weight 66.43±4.36 kg, height 157.00±3.97cm). Test subjects were cardiopulmonary fitness, muscular strength, flexibility and balance and so on, differences between the two groups with independent samples T-test to test its significance,α=0.05 for the significance level. The results showed that: Tai Chi group do besser in cardiores piratory endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, balance and BMI than the no exercise group , especially in cardiore spiratory fitness, lower-body muscle strength and balance, the three indicators between the two groups are significant.