Are yoga and Tai Chi similar? Why

Of course, I have practiced Ashtanga yoga for six years, and studied Zhanzhuang and Laojiayi with the successor of Chen Style Tai Chi for three years. There are really many similarities in body sense. However, this issue is quite controversial in the practice circle. There are also many senior practitioners who think that the two are completely two sets of logic and have no relationship at all.

At first I thought the two were incompatible. It wasn’t until our gym held a cross-school experience event last year that a dozen old boxers who had been practicing Tai Chi for more than ten years came. We all got together to experience Tai Chi stances for half an hour, and then practiced yoga and yin stretching for half an hour. Only then did we realize that many core things actually collide. During the stance, the teacher repeatedly said, "Looseness does not mean collapse. Don't slump down like a deflated rubber ball. Don't tense up and stretch out your belly and shoulders. Just look for that feeling where all the muscles in the body are relieved, but the skeleton is still firmly supported." Isn't this what is often called "relaxation in the right position" in yoga? In the past, when I practiced yoga in the Angle Pose, I always had to press down hard, and my crotch was not stretched, which caused pain in my groin. Later, I brought in the "loose and unremitting" feeling of Zhan Zhan, and did not deliberately pursue contact with the ground. Instead, I slowly sank down, and my crotch no longer hurt.

Also, both of them regard "coordination of breathing and movement" as the core requirement. In yoga, Ujjayi breathing must be at the same frequency as the flow of postures. Old Tai Chi boxing friends often say that "the form follows the breath", and the punching and closing posture must follow the rhythm of the breath. Even the logic of requiring "don't wander" It's all like - yoga says to anchor your concentration on the stretch of the muscles and the ups and downs of the breath, don't think about yesterday's work and tomorrow's appointment, Tai Chi says "the mind should not wander outside", and when boxing, the mind should not drift outside. In essence, they are all practicing the concentration of "living in the moment".

But it’s no wonder that many people don’t agree that the two are connected. My Tai Chi teacher always said that Tai Chi evolved from traditional martial arts. Every move and style has the logic of offense and defense. It follows the path of meridian qi and blood in traditional Chinese medicine, and yoga originated from the ancient Indian practice system. The cultural logic of the two levels is inherently different. Many senior yoga teachers will also say that there is a clear difference between the large number of static postures, cleansing methods, and chakra-related exercises in yoga and the dynamic movement of Tai Chi, such as walking arcs and circles, and the logic of guiding Qi with the mind. There is really no need to combine the two into the same thing.

In fact, to put it bluntly, both are traditional physical and mental exercises that have been passed down for thousands of years. The ultimate goal is to make people's bodies more relaxed and their minds more peaceful. They are like two rivers originating from different mountains and flowing through different paths. They happen to meet at the place of "body and mind synchronization". It is normal to have similarities. It is a bit too extreme to say that they are exactly the same or have nothing to do with each other.