Chi Me up!
24 April 2025
Versus Arthritis delivers online Chi Me sessions to people living with arthritis and chronic pain.
What is Chi Me?
Chi Me is a modified version of Tai Chi which helps to improve posture, balance, breathing and flexibility. It is an ideal exercise to recommend to your patients.
Our sessions take place online during the morning, afternoon and evening via Microsoft Teams which means that your patients can participate in gentle movement from the comfort of their own home. Each session lasts approximately 30 minutes and can be done seated or standing, depending on the participant’s mobility and capability.
Get moving, safely
Chi Me is a fantastic place to start for people who want to get moving more but are afraid of hurting themselves or adding to their pain.
Chi Me is not strenuous and can really improve a person's range of movement and flexibility in a short period of time. Our past participants have expressed increased levels of confidence after taking part.
“I've enjoyed the VA Chi Me and it's helped me back into exercise after a long break. I've now joined a leisure centre and am doing Tai Chi classes there, so I can give up my space in the VA classes to someone else who needs them. Thanks very much to you and the teachers. I would never have tried Tai Chi if it weren’t for VA, and I now love it!”
We have been delivering classes weekly since Lockdown in 2020 in Northern Ireland and this year we advertised and delivered classes online to the whole of the UK. After opening our sessions to include England, Scotland and Wales we have had a huge influx of registrations, especially over a sunny weekend period.
This really highlights that people want gentle movement and just need to know about what's available to them.
The feedback from the sessions has been great and has made delivering the classes really rewarding, especially for our wonderful volunteers, who take the time to train, practice and then deliver them, whilst also living with chronic pain themselves.
“I’ve really enjoyed Chi Me. I haven’t been able to attend for a few weeks because of my work pattern but I intend to resume as soon as I can. I can really feel the difference without it. I love that it’s online - I know I would be too embarrassed to go to a class. The instructors are great leaders, really encouraging. I was amazed to see that the gentle exercise was enough to raise my heart rate, and it has helped my back’s flexibility.”
How you can sign up for Chi Me
You can Chi Me Up! and tell your patients about our free, arthritis friendly exercise sessions that could really be the best next step they make to improving their health and fitness.
If your patients would like to try a taster session or hear more information on our Chi Me classes, as well as how you can register or refer a patient, then contact Lisa Carlisle via e-mail.
Email Lisa to find out more about Chi Me