Abstract
People are living longer, and with that comes a growing need to stay active so we don't lose our physical and mental health as we age. Yet where Tai Ji Quan fits among other kinds of exercise is still an open question. Most studies so far simply haven't paid enough attention to how an active exercise stacks up against Tai Ji Quan. We ran a systematic literature search built around combinations of Tai Chi, comparison exercise, older population, and health outcomes. The Scopus database gave us 403 articles. Papers were eligible only if they were written in English, appeared between 2022 and 2026, and either reported results or laid out the procedure in detail, meaning they described what the researchers planned to do. On top of that, each one had to compare Tai Chi with some form of active traditional exercise in people aged 50 or over. After we dropped the duplicates, 388 papers remained. We scanned all of them against our inclusion criteria, read 72 full texts, and in the end only 18 studies made it in. Tai Chi came out with clear effects on balance, flexibility, fall risk and related outcomes, plus certain aspects of brain function. Strength and endurance, on the other hand, improved more with walking and resistance training. So the evidence doesn't point decisively to one winner. It points instead to this: the right exercise depends on what you're trying to achieve. Going forward, researchers need to agree on how to measure and report the dose or frequency of Tai Chi their participants actually do. They also need to follow up on the effects of Tai Qi over a longer period, and the samples themselves should draw from a wider range of people.
Keywords
Tai Chi, Traditional exercise, Older adults, Physical function, Cognitive health