Which is better, yoga or tai chi?

There is no standard answer to "who is better" between the two. The one that suits your current needs and physical condition is the best.

I had a colleague who worked in the field at my previous company and had a second degree of meniscus wear in his knee. He started practicing flow yoga, but every time he did the warrior pose, his knees hurt. He gritted his teeth for half a month and the pain made him unable to walk. Later, he followed me to the park and played Tai Chi for three months. The slow-motion weight shifting quietly strengthened his quadriceps. Now he can climb six floors without losing any strength. He now says to everyone that Tai Chi is a hundred times better than yoga. But I have a junior sister who works in design. She has rounded shoulders and hunched back all the time, and is prone to anxiety and insomnia. She started to practice Tai Chi, but she always felt that the rhythm was too slow and she could not sit still. Then she took a yin yoga class, and her shoulders and neck were stretched so fast every time. In the end, she added ten minutes of meditation, and even the insomnia she had endured for several years was mostly cured. Now she is giving me experience classes at the yoga studio every day.

Speaking of which, the cores of the two are actually quite similar. They both pay attention to the matching of breathing and movements. They require you to calm down and feel the boundaries of your body, and don't force yourself to compare with others. It’s just that yoga originated from the ancient Indian practice system, and the postures are divided into thinner parts. If you want to open your shoulders, stretch your hamstrings, or practice some core strength, you can always find the right intensity from restorative yoga to Ashtanga. When I had an acute attack of lumbar protrusion last year, I recovered much faster by doing restorative yoga twice a week than simply lying down and resting. Tai Chi is derived from our local martial arts. It emphasizes the transmission of overall force and does not put extra pressure on a single joint. There is an old man in my boxing gym who has had meniscus surgery. He has built up the muscle strength of his thighs by slowly practicing stances and simplifying the twenty-four poses. Now he doesn’t need crutches when he goes hiking with us.

Of course, I have also heard a lot of negative opinions. Some people say that yoga is a gimmick, and it is easy to injure ligaments and joints. Some people say that Tai Chi is done by the elderly to waste time, and it has no effect at all if it is done slowly. In fact, it’s really all prejudice. I’ve seen yoga enthusiasts who strained their ligaments and tore their ligaments just to show off on social media, and I’ve also seen novices who twisted their waists and twisted their lumbar vertebrae while doing Tai Chi. In the final analysis, it’s not a problem with the project. Either they didn’t find the right reliable teacher, or they were eager for quick success and didn’t understand their own body’s bottom line.

If you really have to decide which one to choose, you don’t need to read reviews and comparisons online for a long time. Take a week off, first go to a yoga studio near your home to take two trial classes, and then get up two days early to go to the park to join in the fun with the Tai Chi team. Whichever one you feel relaxed and comfortable after practicing will be the best for you. After all, in this kind of exercise, it is you who will benefit in the end, and you cannot compete with other people’s standards.