Which one is easier to learn, yoga or tai chi?

I have been practicing yoga and Tai Chi for almost four years, and I have a lot of fans of both disciplines around me. To be honest, there is no absolute "better" method. It all depends on which one is more suitable for your own conditions.

Many young people with basic sports backgrounds find it easy to get started with yoga. After all, the basic Hatha yoga poses are all visual, such as Cat-Cow, Mountain Pose, and Baby Pose. You can adjust the joint positions according to the teacher's instructions and you can get most of the force-generating logic in two or three classes. People who have been sedentary can immediately loosen most of their shoulders and necks after practicing, and positive feedback comes quickly. There was a 99-year-old girl in the yoga studio I used to go to who loved to dance jazz. She had good coordination. After taking three basic classes, she was able to practice basic sequences at home by following short videos. The effect of adjusting her rounded shoulders was particularly obvious. She had also tried Tai Chi before, and her legs shook like electricity after standing for ten minutes. After three classes, she couldn't figure out what "qi sinking in the Dantian" felt like. Naturally, she found Tai Chi to be ridiculously difficult.

But if you say this to middle-aged and elderly people who have old knee injuries and seldom exercise, they will most likely be refuted. Many people have poor joint flexibility and weak muscle strength. When they first took a yoga class, their hamstrings hurt and they couldn't walk for three days. They couldn't step on their heels in the downward dog pose, and they could easily get injured if they pushed hard. Instead, they simplified the 24-style Tai Chi movements slowly, without the need to forcefully stretch the muscles to open the hips, and the pressure on the joints is also small. Follow the teacher's instructions to raise your arms and move, and you can complete the whole set in half a month, and it doesn't take much effort to warm your whole body. The 58-year-old Aunt Zhang downstairs in my house is a typical example. She was dragged by her daughter to experience yoga. After one class, her knees hurt for a week, so she went to the Tai Chi team in the community. Now she has been practicing for half a year, doing two sets every morning. Even the morning stiffness she often suffered before has improved a lot. Everyone she meets says that Tai Chi is ten times easier to learn than yoga.

If you really want to practice more deeply, there is actually nothing to say that the two projects are "easy to learn". Don't think that being easy to get started means that the whole process is easy. Later in yoga, you need to cooperate with breathing and bandha, as well as concentration and meditation. It is no longer just a matter of pretending to be like a cat or a tiger. ； Not to mention Tai Chi. When you reach the stage of understanding and touching Jin, you need to work on the logic of force exertion and body perception no less than in yoga. I know a Chen-style Tai Chi teacher who has been practicing for almost 20 years. He is still working on the details of the weight shift of each cloud hand, just like a yoga teacher holding the student's pelvis in the correct position for three hours.

If you are really confused about which one to choose, it is better to take a trial class each. Your physical feeling is more accurate than any guide - after all, "easy to learn" always depends on who learns, not the project itself.