Which is better, yoga or tai chi?

In fact, there is no standard answer at all. The so-called "good" is always linked to the matching of your needs. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

A while ago, my programmer colleague who suffered from lumbar protrusion was still talking to me, saying that he first heard people say that Tai Chi is gentle and does not hurt the waist. After standing for half a month following the video, he couldn't calm down. He couldn't open his hips and had to sit down, which made his waist more painful. Later, he found a yoga teacher who does sports rehabilitation and practiced basic cat-cow and baby poses for two weeks. As a result, Aunt Zhang, who had been doing Tai Chi for four years, heard this last week in the community fitness area and argued with him on the spot. Aunt Zhang suffered from severe menopausal insomnia a few years ago and also suffered from degenerative lesions in her knees. Her daughter enrolled in an internet celebrity yoga class. The teacher always used her hands to do downward dog and warrior poses. During one class, her whole body was tight and painful, and she couldn't sleep even more when she got home. Later, I learned Tai Chi from a master in the community. I didn’t have to do the right movements, but just followed my own strength. After two months, my sleep was much better, and the frequency of knee pain was also reduced. She always said that Tai Chi is a health-care exercise suitable for us ordinary people.

In fact, if we really want to break it down, the exercise logic of the two is different. Yoga is more focused on active muscle activation, stretching and core stabilization. There are many schools. If you want to sweat quickly, there are flow yoga and Ashtanga. If you want to slow down, there is Yin yoga and restorative yoga. If you have clear needs for muscle strain recovery, or usually like exercises with immediate feedback, find a reliable teacher, and the results of yoga will indeed be faster. Tai Chi pays more attention to "leading the Qi with the mind." All movements follow the movement trajectory of the human body's joints, and there is no need to deliberately exert force and compete. If you are usually prone to anxiety and can't calm down, or are older and have poor joint tolerance, and can't stand the pain of deliberate stretching, you can practice Tai Chi slowly. It can not only move your body, but also exercise your temper, which will make it more comfortable.

Nowadays, there are always people on the Internet arguing that one injures the knee and the other injures the waist. In fact, most of them are not the problem of the exercise itself, but the problem of not choosing the right version to suit them. If your knees are not good, you have to do high-intensity flow yoga, or do Tai Chi and squat in a low horse stance to compete with others. It’s weird that you don’t get hurt. I practice both now. I work overtime on weekdays until I get home at 8 o'clock, so I take 20 minutes to do a few yin yoga poses to loosen the stiff shoulders, neck and hips. On weekends, I get up early, and go to the park with a cup of water to practice two sets of 24 poses with the master. One helps me quickly relieve fatigue, and the other allows me to calm down and sort out the chores of the week. Both are good for me, so there is no need to distinguish between them.