Yoga and Tai Chi are the best combination

Yoga and Tai Chi are indeed the best combination of physical and mental coordination that meet the needs of most ordinary people at the moment - whether you want to improve shoulder, neck and waist problems caused by sitting for a long time, or want to relieve anxiety and have a peaceful sleep, or want to explore a deeper connection between body and mind, the effect of the two combined is far better than practicing either alone.

When I first came into contact with these two, I completely regarded them as two things that could not be compared with each other. In the past few years, I was pursuing Flow Yoga and Ashtanga. In order to do the splits and bend my waist, fluid accumulated on the inner meniscus of my knee. The doctor said I could no longer do strenuous flexion and extension, so I stopped high-intensity yoga classes and went to the park every morning and evening to take Tai Chi classes with my grandparents. At first, I thought Tai Chi was slow and slow, like stretching to catch a fish. After doing it for two months, I went back to take basic yoga classes. I had been stuck in the half-lotus position for almost a year, but I could sit in the lotus position without much effort. The teacher touched my hip and said, "How come your fascia is so evenly loosened? All the adhesions that I couldn't open with deadlifts are now gone."

Don't tell me, one of these two seems to be an imported "fashion movement", and the other is an "elderly activity" passed down by the ancestors. One extends outwards to open up, and the other converges inward to settle down. In fact, the core is connected, and the complementarity is ridiculously strong. Let’s talk about the most basic standing. The mountain pose of yoga requires you to press your heels on the ground, lift your thighs, sink your shoulders, and look up to the sky with your head. It’s all about the alignment of muscles and bones. Many novices tense up their whole body when they practice it. After standing for five minutes, they can get out of their body. Sweat; Tai Chi's stance is just the opposite. It requires you to relax your shoulders, drop your elbows, and let your energy settle in your Dantian. Don't compete with your own muscles. Standing, you will naturally find the feeling of your center of gravity falling on the soles of your feet, and you won't be so stiff in order to "stand up straight" that your waist will be sore. When they practice together, you won't be like those who just practice yoga, always focusing on whether the postures are "standard" or not, hurting yourself because of the concave shape, nor will you be so relaxed and hunched that your posture doesn't improve after practicing Tai Chi for a long time.

The matching of breathing is even more clever. Yoga's Ujjayi breathing requires you to contract your throat slightly, and your breathing is as even and long as ocean waves. It exercises your control over your breathing; Tai Chi's movement and breath combination requires you to inhale when you rise and exhale when you fall. You don't need to deliberately control it, just follow the movement of your breath. If you practice them more often, when you usually get angry when you are rushing to catch up on a project, your breathing will automatically calm down, you will not pant like a bellows, and your mood will not collapse easily. I used to suffer from insomnia the week before I handed in my plan. Now, even if I work overtime until ten o'clock, I can fall asleep after going home and doing 5 minutes of abdominal yoga and breathing exercises, then standing in a round position for 10 minutes, and touching the pillow for 10 minutes.

Interestingly, in professional advanced training circles, it is quite controversial whether the two can go together. I attended a summit on physical and mental cultivation last year. A direct descendant of Ashtanga from India made it clear that the ultimate path of yoga is to reach the state of "Samadhi" through postures and breath control. Adding other systems of practice will interfere with the stability of consciousness. A young Taoist priest from Wudang also said that the foundation of Tai Chi is the Taoist idea of ​​the unity of man and nature, which is different from the core of Brahmin culture from which yoga originated. It is best for those who practice deeply not to mix it up. This is actually true, but how can we ordinary people strive for the ultimate pursuit? Isn’t it that most people practice this just to stop having shoulder and neck pain after get off work, or to stop lying in bed and turning over for two hours without being able to fall asleep? There is no "conflict" at all for this requirement.

My current practice rhythm is very casual, and there is no fixed structure. If you worked overtime the day before and stayed up late the day before, do 10 minutes of cat-cow pose to activate your spine when you wake up in the morning, and then do half a set of 24 Tai Chi poses. Your mind will be restored quickly and you won't be in a daze all day long. If you went hiking for 20,000 steps on the weekend and your legs are so sore that you can't lift them, do 20 minutes of yin yoga in the evening to stretch your legs and hips, and then stand for 10 minutes, and you won't have any muscle soreness at all the next day. My colleague who practiced with me before had grade 3 breast nodules. After practicing for more than half a year, the nodules were reduced by half. The doctor said that it had a lot to do with her emotional stability. You see, the stretching of yoga helped her relieve the blockage in her chest and ribs, and the slow movement of Tai Chi helped her relax the nerves that had been tense for several years. The combined effect of the two is really much better than getting a massage or practicing Tai Chi alone.

Seriously, is there any absolute "best combination"? What suits you is the best. But if you are like me, you are an ordinary person who wants to have less pain and more comfort, and you don’t want to spend too much time on fitness. You can really try to practice these two together, and you may get unexpected surprises.