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Tai Chi Is Physics in Action: What "Kinetic Energy" Actually Means in Tai Chi

Nov 11 / Fernando Bernall
"Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature."
Tesla, N. (1892). Experiments with alternate currents of high potential and high frequency. Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, 21(97), 51–162. (Lecture delivered February 3, 1892).

If you have taken a class with me—either at my studio or here online at Virtual Tai—you have heard me say that proper body alignment is conducive to kinetic energy rising from the floor.
Whenever the word "energy" comes up in a Tai Chi class, it is completely normal for people to picture mystical, invisible forces or "woo-woo" concepts. So, let's clear the air right away: when I use the term kinetic energy in class, I am not talking about mysticism. I am talking about everyday physics in action.

Understanding the simple science behind how your body interacts with the floor will transform the way you stand, step, and move through every Tai Chi posture.

Breaking Down the Physics: Kinetic, Energy, and Work

To understand how power moves effortlessly through your body without straining your shoulders or lower back, it helps to look at three basic definitions from high school physics:
Physics Term
Simple Definition
Tai Chi Application
Kinetic
Relating to or resulting from motion.
Tai Chi is meditation in motion. Even in seemingly still postures, subtle weight shifts and micro-adjustments keep the body dynamically alive rather than frozen.
Energy
The capacity or ability to do work.
Instead of manufacturing effort locally in your arms or shoulders, you borrow energy from gravity and your connection to the earth.
Work
Applying a force to move an object over a certain distance.
Whether you are shifting your own body weight smoothly from one leg to the other or gently redirecting pressure in Push Hands, aligned force makes the "work" feel effortless.

Newton’s Third Law: How the Floor Powers Your Hands

So, how does energy actually travel from the floor to your fingertips? It comes down to Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When you sink your weight properly into your feet and press gently downward into the floor, the earth does not give way. Instead, the ground pushes straight back upward with an equal and opposite force—what biomechanists call Ground Reaction Force.

Here, lets go back and revisit this famous quote: "Its root is in the feet, it is issued through the legs, controlled by the waist, and expressed in the fingers. From the feet, through the legs, to the waist, all must act as one unified whole."
— Wang Zongyue, The Taijiquan Treatise (《太極拳論》)"

  1. The Root (Feet & Legs): Your feet press down into the floor, and the floor pushes back up through your legs.
  2. The Steering Wheel (Waist & Hips): As that upward force reaches your center, the turning of your waist redirects and guides it.
  3. The Expression (Arms & Hands): Finally, that ground force travels smoothly out through your relaxed shoulders, elbows, and fingers.

You aren't lifting your arms with isolated shoulder muscle; you are letting the floor lift and move them for you.

The Garden Hose Analogy: Why Alignment Matters

If the ground gives us free upward force every time we step, why do beginners still feel tired in their shoulders or stiff in their lower back? Because of structural misalignment.

Imagine a garden hose lying across your yard with water flowing smoothly from the faucet to the nozzle. Now, imagine stepping on the middle of that hose or bending it sharply in half. Two things happen immediately:
  • The flow gets choked off at the kink, so very little water reaches the nozzle.
  • Pressure builds up behind the kink, straining the hose where it is bent.


Your skeletal alignment works the exact same way. When your joints are stacked, your spine is upright, and your shoulders are relaxed, the kinetic energy from the floor flows cleanly from your feet all the way to your hands with zero wasted effort.

However, the moment you lean too far forward, lock a knee, hike up a shoulder, or twist your spine out of alignment, you create a kink in the hose. The upward force from the floor hits that point of misalignment and dissipates—causing tension, joint strain, or a loss of balance—before it ever reaches your hands.

The Pendulum Effect: Passing Force Through Aligned Joints

If you have ever seen a Newton’s Cradle—that classic desk toy with five metal spheres suspended in a row—you have seen internal body mechanics in action.


Interestingly, while the device carries Sir Isaac Newton’s name, the underlying experiment actually predates him. Around 1670, the French physicist Edme Mariotte pioneered the collision experiments using suspended pendulum balls to demonstrate how momentum transfers cleanly from one body to another. Newton later credited Mariotte’s work in his famous Principia (1687).

When you pull back the first sphere and let it go, it strikes the row. The three spheres in the middle barely appear to move, yet the kinetic energy passes straight through them and launches the final sphere at the opposite end outward.

Your skeletal structure works the exact same way:
• The First Sphere is your foot pressing into the floor.
• The Middle Spheres are your stacked joints—ankles, knees, hips, spine, and shoulders.
• The Last Sphere is your hand expressing the movement.

When your joints are properly aligned and relaxed, kinetic energy passes straight through your body without wasted motion. However, if one of those "middle spheres" is knocked out of alignment—or if tight muscles act like a sponge between the joints—the chain reaction breaks down, and the energy never reaches your hands.
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