What is the difference between yoga and tai chi

The most essential difference between the two is actually that the origin of the culture and the underlying cultivation logic are completely different. A cultivation system was born out of ancient India, and a traditional philosophy rooted in Chinese Taoism. Even now, they are classified as slow-paced physical and mental exercises, and the somatosensory and directionality of deep training are completely different.

This is really obvious to me. I practiced Ashtanga Yoga for three years in the past few years. Then by chance, I learned it from a master of Chen-style Tai Chi in the park for almost two years. I could tell the difference once I got started. When practicing yoga, whether it is fast-paced flow yoga or long-lasting Yin yoga, the core is to first open the joints and fascia of the body through postures, and then cooperate with Ujjayi breathing to anchor self-perception. Many traditional schools ultimately point to the transcendence of the individual spiritual level. When I took the last improvement class, the teacher guided the meditation and said at the end, "Observe the thoughts floating in your mind, don't attach to them, let them flow away naturally." This is actually an extension of the ancient Indian practice of "Brahma and I are one".

Practicing Tai Chi is a completely different approach. The master didn’t teach any movements in the first class. He first told me, “Tai Chi starts with looseness, then smoothness, and finally harmony.” This harmony is not just about your body and breathing coming together. It requires you to be in harmony with the surrounding aura and the laws of heaven and earth. Only after practicing Yun Shou did I understand the meaning of this sentence. It’s not just about swinging your arms. You have to move your waist and hips with your upper body, and you have to shift the center of gravity under your feet to catch the reaction force from the ground. The whole set of movements is done smoothly, not forcedly. The essence is the foundation of Taoism’s "Unity of Nature and Man".

Of course, there are also many new friends who feel that what I talk about is too mysterious. Aren’t they all slow and can stretch and relax to improve the shoulders and neck? In the public fitness scene, if one only pursues moving the muscles and relieving back discomfort caused by sitting for a long time, the two can indeed achieve similar effects. Many fitness bloggers even mix and choreograph the movements of the two, and the sales of the zero-based courses they create are quite high. There is nothing wrong with this perception. After all, the current popular versions of yoga and Tai Chi have long weakened the core practice part, and focus on fitness attributes.

But if you really concentrate on practicing for three months, you will be able to spot the difference in details. Even if it is a static standing action, the mountain pose of yoga requires you to use your muscles to adjust the alignment. Your ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders are on the same line of force. The whole person is stuck on the ground like a nail. What is required is stability and upward extension.； On the contrary, Tai Chi's stance requires you to relax your muscles as much as possible and sink your energy into the seams of your bones. After you stand, you will feel the soles of your feet are hot, and your whole person is in a state of "empty spirit holding strength", as if there is a thread gently lifting the top of your head, and you can't use even half of your strength. I had finished a full set of high-intensity Ashtanga before, and I was sweating profusely. I felt like my whole body was translucent. It felt like the body's shackles had been released. ； But after practicing an old routine all the way, I didn't sweat much, but I felt that the hard lumps that had been blocked in my shoulders and neck for a long time were dissipated, and even my breathing was a few points heavier than usual. The two kinds of comfort were completely different.

Now there is no need to distinguish the two too clearly. Many senior practitioners are crossing over to learn from each other. There are yoga teachers around me who use the abdominal breathing of Tai Chi into the deep relaxation of Yin Yoga. There are also Tai Chi enthusiasts who use the fascial relaxation of yoga to correct the knee stress problem in the stance. As long as it suits you, do whatever is comfortable for you.