Yoga and Tai Chi

The two are "body philosophies" originating from the soil of different civilizations. Ordinary people will not lose any money in either exercise. Basic combined exercises can make up for their respective shortcomings. There is no chain of contempt of "who is more advanced than the other".

Speaking of which, I myself practiced at the same time. Last year, my old knee injury recurred and I stopped playing irons. In the morning, I followed Uncle Chen, who has been practicing Chen-style Tai Chi for 20 years in the community, to do 24 poses. In the evening, I did 40 minutes of yin yoga in an online class. During that period, I had the best sleep quality in the past three years. I didn’t even suffer from the stiffness and pain in my shoulders and neck that had been bothering me for a long time.

The two opinions that are currently quarreling on the Internet are actually quite representative: Many boxers in the old-school Tai Chi circle think that yoga is just stretching the muscles, only focusing on the pursuit of range of motion, injuring the waist and knees at every turn, and it is all a show-off; while many teachers in yoga studios feel that Tai Chi is too slow, standing for half a day without consuming any calories, core activation is far inferior to yoga, and the results are too slow. To put it bluntly, both sides are using their own strengths to benchmark each other's misunderstandings - many people just squat down and do the squats when they first learn Tai Chi, and they still hurt their knees; they just do the splits when they are new to yoga, and they will also stretch their ligaments. The problem is never the exercise itself.

I met a girl who had been practicing Ashtanga for ten years in a yoga studio. She could do wheel poses and horseback postures at will, and her muscle lines were so beautiful. However, the last time she followed us to stand on the Hunyuan Zhuang, she became unsteady in less than three minutes. She said that her "whole body was stiff. I usually rely solely on my muscles to carry my strength. When the cold wind blows in winter, my shoulders and neck hurt so much that I couldn't lift them up." Later, she started doing Sanyue Tai Chi. When we met last week, she said that for the first time, she felt that she could stand firm without exerting any force. Now her waist no longer feels inexplicable pain when doing supporting poses. There is also Uncle Chen. In the past, he could push the young man two meters away when he punched hard, but it was difficult to bend down to reach the top of his feet. His hips were so tight that he was a bit out of shape when he walked. Later, he listened to our advice and added hip-opening yoga twice a week. Now, the lower body of the bird's tail is so stable that I can't push it, and the frequency of Lao Han's leg faults has been reduced by half.

If you really want to dig into the core, the difference between the two is actually the difference in the underlying cultural logic: yoga originated from the ancient Indian practice system. No matter which school, the ultimate focus is "connection" - the connection between the body and the breath, the connection between the individual and the surroundings, the action logic is from the ends to the core, you do downward dog pose The first thing you need to look for is the force of palms pushing the ground and heels sinking, and then slowly returning the tension to the core; while Tai Chi was born out of Chinese Taoist culture, which emphasizes "using the mind to guide the Qi, and using the Qi to control the form." The logic of the movements is to move from the core to the ends. The first thing to do when starting the posture is to relax the shoulders and sink the elbows, sink the Qi in the Dantian, and then slowly send the force to the fingertips.

But what is interesting is that the core requirements of the two are surprisingly consistent: they both pay attention to the same frequency of breathing and movement, and they are both anti-competition and anti-limit. They never ask you to "grit your teeth and persist a little longer". Instead, they constantly remind you to "stop if it hurts, and retreat to your comfort zone if you feel uncomfortable." In essence, they are practicing awareness of the body, rather than practicing movements for others to see.

Nowadays, many people are doing a fusion of the two. There are already many "Tai Chi yoga" courses on the market, which combine the stances and cloud hands of Tai Chi with the hip opening and stretching movements of yoga, and there is still a large audience. Of course, there are always voices of opposition. Many senior practitioners feel that the logic of exerting force between the two is completely opposite: after practicing yoga for a long time, you are accustomed to straightening your chest and stretching your shoulders. When doing Tai Chi, it is difficult to find the relaxation of "bringing your chest and straightening your back", and it is easy to hold your breath; when doing Tai Chi, you are used to relaxing your whole body. When practicing yoga support postures, you cannot tighten your core, but it is easy to hurt your waist. There is nothing wrong with any of these statements. In the final analysis, it all depends on what you want: if you are just an ordinary person who wants to move your body and get a good night's sleep, you can just practice whatever you feel comfortable with. There is absolutely no need to be mentally burdened; if you want to take a professional route, such as competing in Tai Chi competitions or taking the yoga instructor certification exam, it is best to understand one system thoroughly before trying another, so that it is less likely to go astray.

I saw a particularly interesting scene on the lawn of the community last Saturday: Under the shade of a tree, Uncle Chen led a group of old men and women to play Tai Chi while playing "Mountains and Flowing Water". Five meters away, a few girls spread yoga mats and played light jazz to practice flow yoga. Both sides were doing slow and leisurely. When the wind blew through the leaves of the camphor trees, the shadows fell on them. No one was in the way, and it was very comfortable to watch. In fact, there is no difference between exercise and exercise. Anything that makes your body comfortable and your mind relaxed is a good exercise.