Which one is more effective, yoga or tai chi?

There is actually no standard answer to this question. There is no absolute superiority in the effectiveness of the two. The people and needs they are suitable for are completely different. Only by choosing the right one can the effect be good.

I have been practicing both sports for almost five years. At the beginning, I had an old knee injury after falling while skiing. The orthopedic doctor suggested that I choose low-weight-bearing conditioning exercises. I first signed up for a Tai Chi class near my home. Don't tell me that I couldn't even stand steady for 3 minutes when I stood on the Hunyuan Zhuang, and my waist kept collapsing unconsciously. After following the teacher for half a year, I adjusted the posture of standing upright, with shoulders and elbows lowered, and the knees were required to never go beyond the toes. Uncle Zhang, who boxed with us in the community, has a history of high blood pressure for more than 20 years. He used to get dizzy when the seasons changed, and he continued to do Chen-style Tai Chi for three years. Now he has reduced the amount of antihypertensive drugs by half. When he meets people, he says that Tai Chi is much better than yoga. He was dragged by his daughter to try yoga once before. His old arms and legs couldn't do many leg-stretching movements, and his waist almost trembled when he held on.

After my knees were almost healed, I wanted to adjust my rounded shoulders and hunched back that I had suffered from sitting at my desk all year round, so I signed up for a yoga class. Only then did I understand why Uncle Zhang rejected yoga so much—yoga focuses more on the stretching of muscle fascia and the activation of core strength. Many postures do require higher mobility of the shoulders, hips, and spine. The little girl in my company had mild scoliosis. The doctor asked her to do more stretching exercises. She practiced vinyasa flow for a year. Last year, the scoliosis was corrected by two degrees during the physical examination. She felt that yoga was much more useful than Tai Chi. I went to the park with my grandma to do Tai Chi twice before. She felt that the pace was too slow. After sitting in the office for a day, she felt stiff all over. She still had to stretch her arms and sweat a little to feel comfortable.

In fact, if you really want to be more serious, if you are older, have basic diseases such as high blood pressure and coronary heart disease, or have old joint injuries, and are pursuing slow-paced overall conditioning, Tai Chi's characteristics of low weight and heavy Qi and blood circulation are definitely more suitable.； If you are a young office worker who wants to improve your posture, increase flexibility, or release stress through exercise, the targeted training effects of yoga may be more to your liking. There are many friends around me who practice both. They wake up in the morning and do a set of 24 Tai Chi exercises in the park to wake up, and at night they go home and do Yin yoga for half an hour to relax their stiff shoulders and back during the day. They say the effect is 1+1>2, and I have never struggled with which one is better.

To put it bluntly, there is no absolute good or bad about exercise. The one that you can stick to and feel comfortable after practicing is the one with the best effect for you.