The study found Tai Chi was a surprisingly effective way to spill stomach fat

The practice of internal Chinese martial arts commonly called Tai Chi may be as good as aerobic exercise and ordinary weight training when it comes to spilling abdominal fat, according to a new study from UCLA and various other international universities. This study involves middle-aged and older adults who have central obesity, great risk factors when it comes to metabolic syndrome.

While conventional exercise generally involves things such as lifting the burden or carrying out aerobic activities such as jogging, Tai Chi is a movement-based martial arts involving different posture assumptions. These activities are mostly considered as low impact exercise activities for possible people, for example, having joint pain or other problems that make risk-based or painful impact activities.

This new study comes from UCLA Health Sciences, as well as Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The researchers looked at Tai Chi and the potential impact on central obesity, which is often considered a major risk factor for other health problems such as type-2 diabetes and heart disease.

The Tai Chi group joined the participants assigned to conduct conventional exercises, as well as the control group that did not exercise. Participants assigned to the sports group were given the same duration of exercise to be carried out for 12 weeks.

At the end of the three-month period, the researchers found that Tai Chi offered the same benefit as general practice in adults when it comes to reducing central obesity. That’s good news because the center obesity is one of the biggest risk factors that come with metabolic syndrome, which can include other things such as high blood pressure, ‘bad’ high-level cholesterol, high blood sugar, and more.