Which is better, yoga or tai chi?

In fact, there is no absolute "better" at all. The choice depends entirely on your physical condition, practice needs and even personality and temperament. If you choose the right one, you will be able to practice in good condition. If you choose the wrong one, even if it is a popular event, you will easily get injured.

The yoga class at the gym downstairs in my home was very popular in the past two years. My aunt Zhang, who is retired from the same neighborhood, signed up for it because she had nothing to do. I originally wanted to practice some temperament, but every time I finished doing exercises that required squatting, such as Warrior II and Goddess pose, my knees started to ache. I went to a personal trainer to adjust my posture and angle many times, but it still didn't work. Well, I simply gave up and went to the Tai Chi team at the entrance of the community. At first, I thought the movements were slow and boring, but then I started practicing the basic exercises of loosening the hips and sinking the shoulders for three months. Not only did my knees no longer hurt, but my previous problem of being out of breath when climbing the third floor was much better. Now everyone I meet says that Tai Chi is much more practical than yoga.

But when this came to the ears of Zhou, a post-95s operation manager I worked with before, she was the first to disagree. Xiao Zhou has been sitting in an office all year round to catch up on projects. She has rounded shoulders and a hunched back, and is always suffering from anxiety and insomnia. She was dragged by her father to practice Tai Chi for half a month. After standing for five minutes, she felt itchy and couldn't sit still.

In fact, these two sports are essentially slow sports that emphasize the coordination of body and mind, but their origins and training focus are completely different. Tai Chi is a branch of our traditional Chinese Daoyin art. The core of Tai Chi is to guide the energy with the mind and connect the whole body. Even if it is the most basic twenty-four postures, all the joints and muscles of the whole body will move together. Existing sports medicine research has also confirmed that long-term practice of Tai Chi can significantly improve the strength and balance of the lower limbs of middle-aged and elderly people, and can reduce the risk of falling by about 30%. This is why many communities prioritize the promotion of Tai Chi. The yoga we often come into contact with now is actually a school that has been improved by modern fitness. It is broken down into Ashtanga and flow yoga that focus on strength improvement, Yin yoga that focuses on stretching and relaxation, and physiotherapy yoga for shoulder, neck and lumbar spine problems. It will be more targeted in regulating specific postural problems and emotional anxiety. Now many rehabilitation departments will also integrate yoga movements into postoperative rehabilitation training.

As for the quarrels on the Internet about "yoga can easily hurt the waist and knees" and "Tai Chi is useless for the elderly", in fact, most of them are not choosing the right suitable practice method. For people with poor muscle strength and old joint injuries, it would be strange if they do difficult yoga handstands and splits without getting hurt. ； Young people find teachers who only teach showmanship and fail to teach the key points of relaxation and core strength. Naturally, they feel that Tai Chi is slow and ineffective. To put it bluntly, these two are like salty soy milk and iced American style in the morning. Some people like the warm soy milk to make their stomach feel comfortable, while others like the bitter aroma of coffee to wake them up. There is no difference between them. The one that makes you feel comfortable and can persist for a long time is the best.