One is Western and the other is Eastern.

Western exercise tends to be running or jogging, tennis, squash all fast moving and designed to work the heart and body building, designed to work the muscles. The idea of all of these is to keep the body slim and trim and the muscles taught. They can also be quite hard on the body as we get older tearing it down to some degree. There is really no attention given to the internal condition of the body.

Eastern exercise is Tai Chi, Yoga, Chi Gung and some other forms of martial arts which are also fast moving and over time can be quite hard on the body.

The slow arts or Yoga and Tai Chi are designed quite differently from western athletics.

The idea of both of these arts is to work the internal organs and strengthen them as well as to build and tone muscle strength. My tai chi teacher taught me that it was far more important for my kidneys to be strong than for my tummy to be tight. However, I believe that there needs to be a happy medium between the inside and the outside.

Some westerners laugh at the idea that a slow moving exercise can build metabolism however, it is entirely possible performing both Tai chi and Yoga to break quite a sweat. As well each movement, twist and turn of both Yoga and Tai Chi are designed to work on your internal organ groups.

So grab a yoga video or if in a big city go to a class and stick with it for a few months. You will start to see results. You can get a free yoga guide right here at  http://www.starlightyoga.com. Please don’t perform yoga without a sticky mat. You could cause yourself substantial damage if your feet were to slide out from under you. You can find some sticky mats right here ( link) sticky mats.

Over time you will see your energy go up and your tummy will start to flatten, you will walk more erect and feel great.