Yoga vs Tai Chi

[ChromAzonyx108]

The two are different but complimentary exercises. Tai Chi is very graceful and smooth whereas Yoga can be thought of as a series of ‘holds’. In Tai Chi you are continuously moving – in Yoga you tend to pause and hold a pose. However, a Vinyasa style is similar to Tai Chi, continuously flowing, except that you move quicker.

Yoga is good for flexibility and strength, moreso flexibility unless you practice a style such as Ashtanga. Tai Chi is good for your joints and perhaps smoother on your joints than Yoga. Tai Chi, however, won’t do as much for your strength.

Tai Chi helps you coordinate your movements better than Yoga. For example, as you move your right arm you have you ask yourself what your right leg is doing. As one limb moves you have to monitor how the other limbs move too. For this reason, I feel that Tai Chi promotes greater body awareness than Yoga which tends to focus more on alignment. This also requires some body awareness but when you are ‘seated’ in a pose your mind tends to drift. Tai Chi prevents a wandering mind because when you are continuously moving your mind has to continuously monitor what each limb is doing. Therefore, Tai Chi also promotes more focus and concentration (dharana) than Yoga.

Another difference is that Tai Chi is dynamic whereas Yoga tends to be static (except for a Vinyasa style). What I mean is that you tend to move more in Tai Chi, albeit more slowly, whereas in Yoga you tend to hold a pose and remain static for some time. You would think that a dynamic exercise would be more difficult but that is not the case here as Tai Chi emphasizes gentle and easy motions.

Which brings me to my next point: Tai Chi gets you to be easy on yourself, relax, and move naturally. This can be helpful in removing stress and tension. Yoga, on the other hand, gets you to relax into difficult positions; it teaches you how to stay strong in the face of adversity because sometimes you can’t get rid of what’s causing you stress and you have to face up to it. Yoga may be uncomfortable at times but it helps you deal with that discomfort and expand your ‘comfort zone’. To reiterate, Tai Chi helps you to relax in the absence of stressors and Yoga helps you to relax in the presence of stressors; Tai Chi helps to remove stress build-up and Yoga helps to prevent stress build-up, which makes them two complimentary practices.

To summarize:

[Phoenix98]

Unlike Yoga, Tai Chi is an actual martial arts and quite a dangerous one at that most people only know the healing, slow moving part of it, but I would say Tai Chi is better simply because I know both sides of it and what it is capable of compared to Yoga. This is of course coming from a fighter/martial artist so I am looking at both of it's aspects.

[Anonymous]

Very interesting Take! I actually enjoy doing both (and Pilates as well).

[Anpu23]

I enjoy both, for many of the same reasons. I read this tiny little book on tai chi and it opened my eyes to a whole different perspective on movement, on the other hand I've been doing yoga almost as long as I've been in martial arts (this was encouraged by both my mother and one of my martial arts sensei's who both said that they lead down the same path) Great my take

[ChromAzonyx108]

Thanks. What was the name of the book you read?

[Anpu23]

It's in my library at home. I'll let you know later (I'm at work now) when I can find it (we just moved and my library is still in boxes in the garage)

[genericname85]

tai chi is about managing stressful situations in the presence of the stressor too... after all it is also uses as a fighting technique. i would love to see a person self defending with yoga xD

[GreatnessPersonified]

I like Tai Chi. It's also has decent combat applications in dynamic body alignment to push your opponent back.
Yoga is good too, but i never got into it.

[ChromAzonyx108]

Back in highschool I think I accidentally used tai chi on someone. This guy went to push me into a snow bank but as I was falling I managed to grab onto his arm, pull myself up, and pretty much switched positions with him so that he went into the snow bank instead, lol

[GreatnessPersonified]

Nice. That's redirection.