Yoga and Tai Chi

Both are essentially physical and mental exercises based on "the body leads the mind, and the mind controls the body." There is no absolute superiority or inferiority. It just depends on which one is more suitable for your current physical condition and practice needs. Most of those who insist on criticizing one another and distinguishing orthodox heretics are laymen who have never experienced either method.

Speaking of which, when I first came into contact with Tai Chi, I was really injured by practicing yoga. I have been practicing Ashtanga for five years. Last year, I failed to control my center of gravity while doing four-poster jumps, which caused an old injury on my left knee. The doctor asked me to stop all running, jumping, and excessive stretching. I was so busy at home that I followed Master Chen, who practices Chen-style Tai Chi in the community downstairs, for two weeks. Needless to say, my legs were shaking like sieves after standing for 10 minutes at the beginning. Later, I gradually found the feeling of loosening my hips and sinking my shoulders. Not only did my knees not hurt, but my lower back, which was always stiff during yoga before, felt much better.

There are always people on the Internet arguing, saying that yoga is a foreign "foreign exercise" and that excessive stretching can easily harm the body. Tai Chi is passed down from our ancestors and is the real health-preserving exercise.； On the other hand, some people say that Tai Chi is an "old man's exercise", slow and ineffective, while yoga is fashionable for fat burning and body shaping, so young people should practice yoga. In fact, both opinions are too one-sided. Very few of the practitioners I have come into contact with stick to one discipline and not the other.

Take yoga as an example. Not all schools require you to stretch your legs and lower your waist. Iyengar yoga emphasizes alignment and uses yoga bricks, stretching belts and other assistive devices to help you adjust your posture. Rehabilitation departments in many hospitals use it to perform recovery training for patients with lumbar protrusion and shoulder and neck diseases. It is similar to the soothing power of Tai Chi.； And Tai Chi is not all slow and leisurely. The vigorous and jumping movements in Chen-style Tai Chi can make you sweat all over after one set, and the physical energy consumption is no less than that of flow yoga. Oh, by the way, I met a 70-year-old Aunt Wang when I was doing Tai Chi. She had been practicing Yang Style Tai Chi for 10 years, and now she also attends two yin yoga sessions every week. She said that stretching the tendons on the back of the thighs will make the lower posture of Tai Chi more stable. If you practice the two together, the effect will be doubled.

I talked about this topic with a senior instructor at a yoga studio before. He said that the core of yoga is "controlling the mind". By controlling the stretching of the body and the rhythm of breathing, the spirit that has been dispersed is taken back. It is essentially the same thing as the Tai Chi saying of "guiding the air with the mind and controlling the shape with the air." The difference is that the power of yoga extends outwards, while the power of Tai Chi sinks inward. One helps you open up the body's stiffness, and the other helps you sink the floating air. They are completely complementary and there is no conflict at all.

Of course, this does not mean that everyone is suitable for practicing the two together. I have seen friends with acute lumbar protrusion who did not find the right point of exertion when practicing Tai Chi stances, but instead aggravated the condition. They switched to Iyengar's Supine Angle Pose and Wall Inverted Arrow Pose, and they recovered after practicing for a month.； There are also friends who usually have a fast heart rate and are prone to anxiety. They cannot keep up with the rhythm of flow yoga and become more and more panicked the more they practice. After practicing Tai Chi for half a month, their sleep quality has improved a lot. There is really no "perfect exercise for everyone", the key is to find the right rhythm that suits you.

Don’t believe what those Internet celebrities say, “The harder you do Yoga Lajin, the longer you will live” and “You need to stand for 3 hours in Tai Chi to get started.” They are just selling anxiety. I have seen people who have practiced yoga for 12 years and their lumbar spine slipped, and I have also seen people who have worn out their meniscus due to incorrect posture. The problem is never the exercise itself, but the mentality of quick success and wrong practice methods.

My daily practice now is very casual. When I get up in the morning on weekdays and I’m in a hurry, I practice Sun Salutation A for 20 minutes. Once I start it, my shoulders and neck are stiff after sleeping all night, and I wake up quickly.； After dinner in the evening, I had nothing to do, so I went downstairs to do Tai Chi with Master Chen for 40 minutes. I didn’t think about any chores at work. After the exercise, I felt relaxed and relaxed. Then I went home and fell asleep with my pillow. Occasionally when I have free time on weekends, I will go to the park with the Tai Chi team to do a full set of exercises. After the exercise, I can eat the newly bought candy cakes with my uncle and aunt. It is much more interesting than scrolling through my mobile phone at home.

If you are really confused about which one to choose, I will give you the most practical advice: Find a yoga studio near your home and try a trial class, then go to a park near your home to find a Tai Chi team and follow it for half an hour. Whichever practice makes you feel relaxed and relaxed after the practice, whichever one is best for you. To put it bluntly, whether it is yoga or Tai Chi, they are essentially just tools for you to talk to your body. If it works well, keep it; if it doesn’t work, change it. There are so many either-or considerations.