Ashtanga Yoga is is a highly structured vinyasa-style class. There are five Ashtanga asana series and each student must master every pose of the first series before moving onto the second series. Ashtanga Yoga came to the west through students of Sri Pattabi Jois, who passed away in 2009 after establishing his yoga center in Mysore, India.
The first series begins with ten sun salutations (five A and five B), continues with a series of standing poses done on each side, and finishes with a set of inversions and seated poses, which are linked by a vinyasa sequence.
Beginners beware! This is a tough class. You may want to try some other asana classes in order to learn the basic poses before jumping into an Ashtanga practice.
Ashtanga comes with all the benefits of a regular yoga practice–strength, flexibility, stress management, and inner peace. Because the series is so demanding (and in traditional practice you’re expected to practice most days) you will get really strong really fast. There is no part of the body that doesn’t work hard in this practice.

Is Ashtanga Yoga For Me?

Ashtanga yoga is for you if you want a challenge and you love structure. The practice is identical from day to day, and it takes most people years to move up a level. If you have sensitive muscles or joints, this may not be the practice for you. There is a strong emphasis on “getting” each pose, even if your body is not necessarily ready to move there in a graceful way.

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Haṭha yoga is associated in popular tradition with the Yogis of the Natha Sampradaya through its traditional founder Matsyendranath, who is celebrated as a saint in both Hindu and Buddhist tantric and haṭha yoga schools. Almost all hathayogic texts belong to the Nath siddhas, and the important ones are credited to Matsyendranath’s disciple, Gorakhnath or Gorakshanath.Hatha yoga is about balancing the body and mind. ‘Ha’ represents the esoteric sun, and ‘tha’ the moon. The practice of Hatha yoga aims to join, yoke, or balance these two energies.
A yoga class described as ‘Hatha’ will typically involve a set of physical postures (yoga poses) and breathing techniques. These are typically practised more slowly and with more static posture holds.

Literally however, Hatha means ‘force’ and is more traditionally defined as ‘the yoga of force’, or ‘the means of attaining a state of yoga through force’. So Hatha yoga can be considered as anything you might do with

asana – yoga postures (practised in any style of ‘yoga’)
pranayama – breathing techniques
mantra – chanting or reciting
mudra – hand gestures
shatkriyas and shatkarmas – cleansing techniques
types of visualisation.





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Vinyasa is an approach to yoga in which you move from one pose directly into the next. There’s a flow to a Vinyasa yoga session, though the specific poses and the pace of the flow vary from one instructor to the next. You may also hear the term Ashtanga yoga used interchangeably with Vinyasa.Vinyasa yoga increases blood flow and works the cardiovascular system to create heat, making it more intense.

The vinyasa forms of yoga used as exercise, including Pattabhi Jois’s 1948 Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and its spin-off schools such as Beryl Bender Birch’s 1995 Power Yoga and others like Baptiste Yoga, Jivamukti Yoga, Vinyasa Flow Yoga, Power Vinyasa Yoga, and Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga, derive from Krishnamacharya’s development of a flowing aerobic style of yoga in the Mysore Palace in the early 20th century.

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Iyengar yoga is a form of yoga as exercise that has an emphasis on detail, precision and alignment in the performance of yoga postures (asanas). … The style often makes use of props, such as belts, blocks, and blankets, as aids in performing the asanas.
Through its focus on alignment, Iyengar yoga helps you strengthen the muscles of the body responsible for posture, like the legs, back and core. With minor adjustments to improve alignment, the small muscles that are often ignored become stronger.
Iyengar Yoga is a purist style of yoga developed by and named after B.K.S Iyengar in the 1960s. Iyengar Yoga is a very meticulous style of yoga, placing the emphasis on precision and alignment. The practice is all about the details of your breath control (pranayama) and posture (asana) and is excellent for building strength and flexibility. Iyengar yoga is great for learning the subtleties of correct alignment for all ages and abilities.

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Yin Yoga is a slow-paced style of yoga as exercise, incorporating principles of traditional Chinese medicine, with asanas (postures) that are held for longer periods of time than in other styles. For beginners, asanas may be held from 45 seconds to two minutes; more advanced practitioners may stay in one asana for five minutes or more. The sequences of postures are meant to stimulate the channels of the subtle body known as meridians in Chinese medicine and as nadis in Hatha yoga.Yin Yoga poses apply moderate stress to the connective tissues of the body—the tendons, fasciae, and ligaments—with the aim of increasing circulation in the joints and improving flexibility. A more meditative approach to yoga, its goals are awareness of inner silence, and bringing to light a universal, interconnecting quality.
Yin Yoga was founded in the late 1970s by martial arts expert and yoga teacher Paulie Zink Taoist yoga (Tao Yin). Yin Yoga is taught across North America and Europe.
Yin Yoga is based on the Taoist concepts of yin and yang, opposite and complementary principles in nature. Yin could be described as stable, immobile, feminine, passive, cold, and downward moving. Yang is understood to be changing, mobile, masculine, active, hot, and upward moving. The sun is considered yang, the moon yin. In the body, the relatively stiff connective tissues (tendons, ligaments, fascia) are considered yin, while the more mobile and pliable muscles and blood are called yang. More passive asanas in yoga are considered yin, whereas the more active, dynamic asanas are described as yang.

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Bikram Yoga is a system of hot yoga, but the difference Bikram yoga refers to a specific set of 26 postures while hot yoga is normal yoga. Bikram yoga aim to provide relaxation of the mind and improve physical fitness. A heated environment can make the practice of yoga more challenging, but some of the benefits may be worth it, especially if you’re looking to make progress in one of the areas outlined below.
1. Improves flexibility You may already know that stretching after you warm up your muscles is safer than stretching cold muscles. So, it follows that an environment like a hot yoga studio can make yoga poses easier and more effective. The heat allows you to stretch a little further and achieve a greater range of motion.
2. Burns more caloriesA 160-pound person can burn around 183 calories an hour with traditional yoga. Turning up the heat can help you burn even more calories. According to researchers at Colorado State University, the calorie burn can be as high as 460 for men and 330 for women during a 90-minute Bikram yoga session.
3. Builds bone density
Supporting your weight during a yoga pose can help build bone density. This is especially important for older adults and premenopausal women, as bone density declines as you age.
4. Provides a cardiovascular boost
Striking different yoga poses in high heat can give your heart, lungs, and muscles a more challenging workout than doing the same poses in a lower temperature.
According to a 2014 study, just one session of hot yoga is enough to get your heart pumping at the same rate as a brisk walk (3.5 miles per hour).

Bikram yoga a type of as exercise devised by Bikram Choudhury and based on the writings of B. C. Ghosh, that became popular in the early 1970s. Classes consist of a fixed sequence of 26 postures, practised in a room heated to 105 °F (41 °C) with a humidity of 40%,intended to replicate the climate of India. The room is fitted with carpets and the walls are covered in mirrors. The instructor may adjust the students’ yoga postures.

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