Which one is better, yoga or tai chi?

As a sports enthusiast who has been exposed to yoga for 7 years and Tai Chi for 4 years, my friends who practice both range from 20 to 70 years old. I really can’t say which one is definitely easier to learn. The one that suits your physical foundation and learning goals will make you learn faster.

For example, I have several young girls who have just graduated. They usually sit in the office and stare at the computer every day, and their shoulders and necks are as stiff as rocks. When they first started to learn the basic sequences of yoga, they are simple movements such as cat-cow, child pose, and mountain pose. After practicing three or four times with reliable introductory classes, they can clearly feel the refreshing feeling of stretching their shoulders and necks. They generally feel that yoga is too user-friendly for beginners. They do not need to memorize complex movements, and individual movements can be broken down to achieve results.

But I don’t dare to tell Aunt Zhang from the community’s Tai Chi team. She is 62 years old and has an old knee injury. She was pulled by a little sister to practice yoga. She couldn’t step on her heels properly in the downward dog pose, and her hips hurt from the pressure in the seated angle pose. After practicing for half a month, her knees almost relapsed. She turned around and signed up for an introductory Tai Chi class in the community. The instructor knew that her knees were bad, so he specifically asked her to row slowly without squatting down. After more than a month of learning, she was able to complete all 24 poses. Now everyone she meets says that Tai Chi is 10,000 times easier to learn than yoga.

That being said, but if you really go deeper, neither project has a fuel-efficient lamp. Don't think that yoga is just about stretching your legs and stretching your muscles. If you really need to practice it to a professional level, breathing control, core binding, meditation and concentration, etc., you can't get into it after three to five years of practice. When I was taking the yoga teaching training, it took me more than two months to practice Ujjayi breathing alone before I could find the right feeling of strength, let alone advanced handstands and backbends. Without solid basic skills, it is easy to get injured. Not to mention Tai Chi, the 24 postures seem slow at first, but you really need to pay attention to looseness, understanding of strength, and the coordination of internal and external. My Tai Chi master has been practicing for almost 20 years, and he said that he is still learning the ropes. Many people who have been practicing Tai Chi for ten years are still "showy" and have not touched the core at all.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there is no need to worry about which one is easier to learn. If you like to be alone, you can usually find time to practice at home. Find a reliable introductory yoga class and follow it, and you will definitely get started quickly.； If you like fun, there is a Tai Chi team downstairs at home. If you practice with the uncles and aunts for half an hour every day, you may make much faster progress than if you just figure out yoga at home. The one that suits you is the best to learn.