Types of yoga, do you know all of them?
1. Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga Yoga is the oldest and most popular practice style of Hatha Yoga in the world. It was founded by Krishnamacharya, who is respected as the father of modern Hatha Yoga. It inherited Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga at the beginning of the last century. It was introduced to the West after 1940 and became one of the yoga systems that swept the world.
Pattabhi Jois is a disciple of Krishnamacharya. He created and improved it according to the teaching of his teacher Krishnamacharya. The original creation of Ashtanga Yoga was to meet the needs of students. At that time, most students were young people with the status of athletes, so the asana content was quite challenging and required a certain physical fitness to complete.
Ashtanga Yoga is a rigorous practice, divided into three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. The action arrangement of each level is fixed, starting with 5 rounds of Sun Prayer A and B, with a lot of posture exercises in the middle, and finally ending with inversion and rest. The purpose of such continuous action exercises is to consume a lot of calories to cleanse the body and expel toxins.
Ashtanga Yoga exercises the body's strength, flexibility and endurance in a balanced manner. Many fitness enthusiasts in Europe and the United States are keen on it. In the West, this kind of yoga is also called "power yoga". This type of yoga has high physical fitness requirements for practitioners. The postures in each level are fixed, so practitioners are required to be healthy and patient.
2. Meditation Yoga
The Yoga Sutras propose that yoga has "eight limbs", namely abstinence, observance, sitting, breathing, control, control, concentration, meditation, and samadhi. The ultimate meaning of yoga is "meditation". Concentrate wishes, love, and hope under the same law and conduct deep meditation. A yogi can subdue the mind and transcend material desires through yoga meditation. The true meaning of yoga meditation is to focus the heart, mind and spirit completely on the original beginning.
Meditation yoga is a form of yoga that pursues inner spiritual experience, so you only need to breathe deeply, meditate and observe your heart to achieve the purpose of physical and mental purification and spiritual growth. If you are an impatient person, meditation yoga may be more suitable because it can help you improve your spiritual cultivation, reduce stress and find your heart.
Meditation yoga can also be divided into walking meditation, candlelight meditation, and voice meditation. Choose a special place and a fixed time to practice, put on a comfortable and relaxed posture, keep your back, neck and head in the same straight line, face north or east, keep regular breathing, and don't force yourself to settle down. This can help you find a sense of peace and easily enter the state of yoga meditation.
You can also loop a piece of soft music to help concentrate and exercise your attention. Please remember that you must not rush for success and do not expect to achieve your expected results in a very short time.
3. Hatha Yoga
Hatha Yoga, also known as traditional yoga, is one of the earliest schools of yoga. In the word Hatha, "ha" means sun and "ta" means moon. This type of yoga represents the balance of male and female, day and night, yin and yang, cold and hot, and any other two opposites that complement each other.
In yoga, breathing through the right nostril is called the sun's breath, while breathing through the left nostril is called the moon's breath. So in Hatha Yoga, it is extremely important to keep the breath smooth in some way.
So after a deep understanding of this concept and applying it, Hatha Yoga means to bring the two poles of the body into a state of balance by exercising their equal flexibility and strength. It also means to bring the left and right brains into a state of balance, so that the logical and arithmetic left brain and the creative and intuitive right brain can get along harmoniously and play a balanced role.
The Hatha Yoga system starts with the basic postures, which is different from the traditional "eight limbs", so it is also called "six limbs yoga". Hatha Yoga mainly practices how to control the body and breathing. The deeper effect is to make the body's functions run in an orderly manner, so that the mind can be calm and peaceful. Most yoga studios and gyms teach this system. Therefore, the practice of Hatha Yoga is relatively basic and more suitable for beginners.
4. Iyengar Yoga
Iyengar Yoga was founded and taught by Indian yoga master B.K.S Iyengar, and named after him. It pays great attention to the correct placement of the human body, physiological structure, and the function of bones and muscles. It emphasizes the accuracy and position of the body movements, and pays attention to the mind and body.
This type of yoga emphasizes the accuracy of the body movements, which has the effect of correcting and restoring the body. Sometimes tools are needed to complete the corresponding body position exercises during the practice process, giving people a sense of security. It is more suitable for beginners and people with stiff bodies. Seek the meaning of the body position through actual practice, personal practice and regular self-study.
There is also a sun salutation in the Iyengar Yoga course. Even the most basic body position may be more difficult when the posture is still.
If you are a book lover, you might as well buy a copy of "Iyengar Yoga" (taught by Iyengar himself). Its content reflects every detail of Iyengar Yoga. The detailed explanation and clear illustrations of the auxiliary methods of each important posture can enable a person who has never been exposed to Iyengar Yoga to quickly find the help that suits him. The book also contains many kinds of physical therapy sequences, which are arranged and designed in the form of auxiliary yoga, so even beginners without any yoga skills can easily complete the entire repair process.
5. Vinyasa Yoga
Vinyasa Yoga, also known as flow yoga, is a very popular type of yoga nowadays because the connection between the postures gives people a sense of seamlessness. It is a school that was born and established in Europe and the United States after yoga spread to the West.
In the process of practice, Vinyasa Yoga focuses on strengthening the body with a combination of movements as smooth as flowing water, focusing on stretching, strength, flexibility, endurance, balance, and concentration. It is suitable for people who like to challenge themselves and pursue high-intensity training. Common yoga schools include hot yoga and Ashtanga yoga.
Although yoga postures are gentle and simple, they are also challenging, but their biggest feature is that they are flexible and can be adjusted to suit different groups of people, from beginners to advanced practitioners who have practiced for ten years, from the weak and stiff to the strong. However, it consumes more energy than traditional Hatha practice, and will make practitioners sweat continuously. By constantly awakening the inner energy, rhythmic breathing and body movements are coordinated and synchronized to cause a continuous flow of energy inside the body, thereby heating the body, bringing oxygen to the blood, nourishing glands and internal organs, cleaning and purifying the nervous system, and excreting unnecessary toxins through sweat.
6. Yin Yoga
Yin Yoga is a school founded by American yoga instructor Paul Grilley in 1979, with many practitioners. Yin Yoga is a new school formed by combining the advantages of medicine on the basis and experience of yoga practice, and blending the essence of Chinese Taoism and martial arts. Yin yoga emphasizes the relaxation of the whole body, clearing all distractions and combining slow and natural breathing. Therefore, Yin yoga helps relieve stress, improve sleep quality and enhance joint stability. It is suitable for people who work for a long time and have high pressure in life.
From the perspective of the human body, blood and muscles are yang, and bones and internal organs are yin, but this understanding is relative. Yin and yang cannot be developed at the same time and in the same way. The two must cooperate with each other to achieve balance.
Therefore, Yin yoga emphasizes stretching the connective tissue of the body bones, ligaments, lubricants and periosteum between bones. Using yoga postures, each movement is static for a period of time to exercise the pelvis and lower back; pay attention to slow and slender breathing, and the static time of the movement is long, so that the body's muscles are completely relaxed, so as to stretch the connective tissue of the bones; it is necessary to let the feeling go inward and pay attention to one's own experience; exercise people's endurance and lay a good meditation foundation for the practice of yoga.
Ordinary men, women, old and young can practice Yin yoga.
7. Power Yoga
Power Yoga is a form of yoga practice aimed at strengthening physical strength and flexibility, similar to the daily fitness we pay attention to now. Through a series of movements and postures, it helps us strengthen our muscles and improve our coordination and balance. For example, if you want to improve your core strength, you can choose to focus on exercises that focus on your abdominal and back muscles; if you are seeking relaxation and relief, you can choose softer stretching movements.
As a branch of yoga, dynamic yoga emphasizes not only physical fitness tips, but also inner peace and concentration, as well as achieving a state of harmony between body and mind. Dynamic yoga practice usually includes various postures, which are designed to activate various parts of the body, including muscles, joints and internal organs. Through correct posture practice, you can enhance muscle strength and improve your body's flexibility and balance.
Dynamic yoga is suitable for people of all ages to practice. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced yoga enthusiast, you can choose a suitable posture to practice according to your physical condition and ability. It should be noted that during the practice, you should maintain the correct posture of your body and the rhythm of your breathing, and avoid excessive force or impatience to avoid physical injury.
Similarly, dynamic yoga is not limited by time and place. It can be performed at home, outdoors or in a yoga studio. It can also be performed in the morning, noon or evening. We can flexibly arrange the practice according to our own time and space conditions.
Yoga is a very diverse and inclusive practice. Each school has its own unique charm and focus, which meets the needs and pursuits of different practitioners. In addition to the above 7 types of yoga, what other types do you know? Welcome to leave a message to tell me and introduce it to everyone~!