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Is Taichi better than Yoga? i’m asking you because i would like to choose the best technique.?
3 Responses to Is Taichi better than Yoga? i’m asking you because i would like to choose the best technique.?
It depends on what you’re expecting from it. I find that Yoga is more ‘strengthening your muscles & toning while relaxing’…and Tai Chi is like meditation for the mind. I like both. Both involve a lot of focus!
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Tai Chi vs. Yoga
The postures of hathe yoga provide many of the same health benefits as tai chi chuan. Unfortunately, most of the yoga positions are held for three minutes or longer, which can be very taxing on the body. Brief rest periods are therefore needed. Tai chi practice, on the other hand, does not require any rest period because the postures change too quickly to tire the body.
Yogic inverted postures, such as the headstand and shoulderstand, offer two advantages not found in tai chi chuan. First, they relieve the gravitational pressure on the internal organs and glands. And second, they ease the strain on the heart caused by having to pump blood against the force of gravity. Yoga exercises, however, do little to promote cardiovascular endurance.
Moreover, many people cannot perform certain yoga exercises because of health problems. Tai chi chuan, in contrast, may be practiced in virtually any state of health.
The yoga breathing techniques, known as pranayama, have many health benefits. They increase energy levels within the body, strengthen the immune system as well as the internal organs and glands, reduce stress, purify the body and improve memory. They also enhance the cellular expulsion of carbon dioxide, increase arterial circulation to the brain, reduce levels of lactic acid in the muscles, and stimulate intestinal peristalsis.
Unfortunately, if these exercises are practiced incorrectly, they can cause serious mental disturbances. Tai chi chuan does not present these problems. In tai chi, deep breathing is never imposed on the student; it is developed step by step. The student learns to gradually coordinate his breathing with the movements. This is perhaps the greatest advantage tai chi has over yoga.
One final advantage of tai chi is that it can also be used for self-defense.
http://www.utah.edu/stc/tai-chi/articles.html
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Hello. I’ve trained and taught in Tai Chi Chuan since 1993. Tai Chi and yoga are two completely different things. Because some people use and teach tai chi as a ‘moving meditation’ people think its the same as yoga.
actually yoga is not a meditation per se. yoga was used to keep the body stretngthened because of long periods of meditation.
You ‘can’ use meditation in movement but its very different than deeper meditation used in sitting.
Yoga is very good for opening the joints and stretching muscles and tendons and ligaments.
Tai Chi Chuan is actually a martial art. if you find a good teacher you can gain a lot from tai chi. though many teachers will give a very watered down version of what tai chi is.
its a martial art. period. but tai chi is often taught as a ‘new age’ exercise. it would be like taking western boxing slowing it down and saying its good for you.
sure it is but the benefits are not the same as boxing.
so too real tai chi chuan and ‘new age’ tai chi are very different.
i could go on and on but in short it depends on what you want to achieve. in closing i could tell you that you could do both tai chi and yoga. they are very good for different things. in both though you will learn balance and lower leg strength…and calming the mind.
but thats about it.
http://www.utah.edu/stc/tai-chi/articles.html
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