8 Common Yoga Styles
WHICH YOGA IS FOR YOU?
Have you ever been online or at a yoga studio and seen lots of different types of yoga with unusual names? Bikram, Vinyasa, Iyengar, Yin, Hatha, Ashtanga and so on?
Get a little confusing? Well, let’s break it down with 8 common practices!
HATHA YOGA Hatha yoga classes are best for beginners since they are usually paced slower than other yoga styles. Hatha classes today are a classic approach to breathing and exercises. If you are brand-new to yoga, Hatha yoga is a great entry point to the practice.
IYENGAR YOGA Iyengar focuses on alignment and precise movements.
Students perform a variety of postures while controlling the breath. These are postures are held for a long time usually with the aid of props to support the body.
KUNDALINI YOGA This is both a spiritual and physical practice. This style is all about releasing energy in your body. Classes tend to work your core & breathing with fast-moving postures. Kundalini usually involves chanting, mantra, and meditation.
ASHTANGA YOGA Ashtanga yoga involves a physically demanding sequence of postures. These postures can create great degrees of strength and flexibility in the body. Usually not for beginners, this pracitce you will go through a specific series of movements come to be known as “Sun Salutations”.
VINYASA YOGA Vinyasa is are more athletic yoga style. Movement in this style of yoga are coordinated with your breath and flow from one pose to another. Vinyasa styles can vary greatly depending on the teacher, and there can be many different types of poses in different sequences.
BIKRAM YOGA Bikram features a sequence of 26 postures (performed twice) in a very heated room. Typically set to 40 degrees Celsius and increased humidity. The heated room helps you move deeper into postures. This style of yoga challenges the body's endurance both physically and mentally.
YIN YOGA A slow-paced style of yoga with grounded postures that are held for longer periods of time. Sometimes, props such as blocks & cushions help you with deepening a pose, supporting your body or simply for more comfort. Yin can also be a very meditative yoga practice, focusing on the mind and soul/
STRALA YOGA This type of yoga is more about movement and freedom. Strala encourages the yoga to fit the body, not fit the body to the yoga. This means poses are adapted and modified when needed to make it feel better and cater for lots of body types.
There are many more styles out there!
Each style of yoga is also affected by your yoga teacher. They will bring in their own elements to the class, different energy and with that, a different coaching style with different goals.
This means you might need to shop around a little! Give things a go, if it doesn’t work, move onto the next!
You might find you don’t like one style, but when another teacher is taking the class you might find you LOVE it!
In my own practice, and in my own classes, I like to take working elements from many styles. I bring pieces together that might not usually be combined and try to create an experience that caters for modern lifestyles.
Many instructors are torchbearers of their respective yoga styles.
For me, I'm not worried about what it is called, more about how it works and how it feels. I like to make sure my classes stay up-to-date and relevant to my participants and their life circumstances.
For now, until I think of a better name, let’s just call it Yoga 2.0!
