Yoga and Tai Chi - A comparison
Old white folk doing yoga in the park because I felt weird photographone all the old ladies at the village hall - 2025
I tried Tai Chi on a bit of a whim yesterday. I’m currently undergoing my Yoga teacher training and I’m trying a lot of things to help draw useful comparisons. First of all, I will say that being there brought the average age of the room down by about 25 years. I LOVED hanging out with the old older generations, I’m 40 in a couple of years and honestly, ive never felt as young as I did yesterday morning in about 15 years. It’s not like I walk around feeling old, but surrounding yourself with people who are 80-plus, is a wonderful lens to see your own youth though. On another side note before we do a little reflection, these old women were amazing, I did some partnered exercise with a wonderful lady who was stood on one leg, eyes close,d following my movements with hers, she was 84 years old… 84! What a vision of health, beauty and serenity to aspire towards for future years. She also left me with a soundbite that will stick with me. I asked her how long she had been doing Tai Chi, and she said this:
“Me and my friend have been coming to Tai Chi for over 20 years, teachers come and go, but we are always here”
It was a lovely reminder that teaching a practice is not about the teacher, or your business or how you teach, it’s not even about any particular student, it’s just a superb and transient journey where everything changes all the time, some things are more constant than others, but nothing is forever.
Anyway, tangent aside, how did Tai Chi compare to Yoga on a historical level, how do the practices compare or where do we draw comparisons?
So, Yoga and Tai Chi might look kind of similar if you squint: slow movements, calm breathing, everyone looking like they’ve found inner peace on a Tuesday morning. But the roots of these two could not be more different.
Yoga’s been around for thousands of years, born out of India’s historical spiritual and philosophical melting pot. It’s tied deep into Hinduism and Buddhism, originally not about fitness or flexibility at all. It was about union — body, mind, and spirit. You had your ethics, your breathwork, your meditation, and yes, later, the physical postures — which were just one part of a whole system. Over time, especially once the West got hold of it, the physical side got pulled to the front, because let’s be honest, stretchy pants and vinyasa flows are much easier to sell than deep spiritual inquiry.
Tai Chi, on the other hand, comes out of China’s martial traditions. It’s younger than yoga, by a lot - more like 500 years old compared to yoga’s potentially 5,000. But it’s still layered with philosophy, especially Taoism. It started as a martial art, a way to defend yourself without brute force - think flowing with the opponent, using their energy against them. Over time, much like yoga, it shifted more toward health and longevity, but it never fully lost that martial DNA. Even now, the movements have names like “White Crane Spreads Wings” and “Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane,” (one that I started to learn yesterday), and they’re all rooted in real combat moves - just slowed down, internalised.
Culturally, they reflect where they came from. Yoga’s about transcending, reaching higher, drawing upward energy - classic Indian spirituality. Tai Chi’s all about balance, opposites, yin and yang, grounding yourself - pure Taoist flow. One’s trying to unite you with the cosmos, the other’s getting you to harmonise with the universe by not fighting it.
Even their structure shows the difference. Yoga’s got a clear system - you’ve got your asanas, your pranayama, your meditations. Tai Chi’s more fluid (pun intended). You learn a form, usually a sequence of movements, and it becomes a moving meditation. No downward dogs or headstands, just a steady stream of movement that never fully stops.
And here’s the twist — despite the different origins, they ended up being used in similar ways today. Stress relief, mobility, mental clarity, all the usual wellness buzzwords. But if you trace them back, yoga was about spiritual discipline. Tai Chi was about not getting punched in the face. Wild, right?
Different roads, same destination — just depends on whether you want to get there through stillness and stretch, or through flow and form.
I loved the comparison and will, without a doubt, be attending more Tai Chi classes, both for the martial art, and to hang out with a generation of inspiring older people who will help me attain what I want to be when I grow up – Alive, bendy and happy.