I’ve heard of hula hoop yoga, board yoga, beer yoga and even chicken yoga! With so many types of yoga out there, you might be wondering if you’ve picked the right one for you. Or perhaps, you are yet to choose one? Let’s see which are the most widespread types of yoga and their benefits.
The following are most popular types of yoga and their benefits:
- Vinyasa yoga – also known as flow yoga is the movement of the body with the breath. It is reminiscent to a dance and helps build strength and flexibility.
- Hatha yoga – is a slower type of yoga and is an umbrella term for many types of yoga. It is about balancing strength-flexibility, physical energy-mental energy, breath-body etc.
- Iyengar yoga – often uses props like chairs, blocks, walls, benches. It‘s about proper detailed alignment and longer holds and it’s great for slow and methodical work.
- Bikram yoga – practitioners do it in a hot room with high humidity. It involves excessive sweating which helps in flexibility of body, and mind-body connection .
- Jivamukti yoga – similar to Vinyasa, this type of yoga offers spiritual and physical exercise.
- Power yoga – is one of the most active, intensive and fastest types of yoga. It includes upbeat music. Gyms are often the place where people practice this type of yoga.
- Prenatal yoga – ideal for moms-to-be in all trimesters. It helps in relieving pregnancy pain (back pain, or sore thighs) and mental stress and excessive anxiety. It also acts as a good breathing exercise which later helps immensely during labor and delivery.
- Yin yoga – slow-paced style of yoga with long holds. While other types of yoga focus on muscles, Yin Yoga focuses on the body’s connective tissues. It usually uses props. It is quite meditative and helps in finding inner peace.
Introduction
Yoga is basically the connection with our own body that includes stretching techniques, inhaling and exhaling, balance in the body, mind and spirit, practicing meditation etc. This practice has been in existence since thousands of years and has become quite popular today. Yoga consists of different types of poses or asanas that has various benefits. There are various kinds of yogas. Each type of yoga has different interpretation and benefits. Which yoga is suitable depends on the individual. But whichever yoga one chooses, it has a lot of benefits. It increases flexibility, strength, muscle tones, energy levels and also improves circulatory and cardio health, athletic performance, posture, chronic pain, depression and anxiety.
And if anxiety is your struggle, see here how scientifically yoga and meditation change your brainwaves to help you calm down.
Let’s look into each of the types of yoga, and their individual benefits in more detail.
Vinyasa yoga
Vinyasa is a body-breath type of movement. It is a continuous flow from one yoga posture to another. Vinyasa yoga is very popular in gyms and studios as it moves according to the rhythm. It is almost like a dance, a moving meditation. There are various poses and sequences in this type of yoga. Vinyasa yoga helps in building strength and flexibility. It has proved quite beneficial especially for athletic folks. This style of yoga is quite popular as it comes from music and sensual movements in a dark room or candlelight.
Hatha yoga
Hatha yoga comes from the Sanskrit name for sun and moon. It’s about uniting the male and female energies in the body and thus achieving integration. It covers all the physical postures of yoga. Compared to other yoga styles, hatha yoga is paced slower. It is an umbrella term for many different poses and styles of yoga while using the body for self inquiry. Hatha yoga aims to balance many factors such as strength-flexibility, physical energy-mental energy, breath-body etc. Since it is a physical based yoga, it is the most popular one.
Iyengar yoga
B.K.S Iyengar founded this type of yoga. Here, varieties of postures are performed while controlling the breath. This type of yoga depends on props like chairs, blocks, walls, benches and many more.
We discussed in another article why props are great for your yoga practice. In short, they enable you to adapt the poses to your unique anatomy, and go deeper and more accurately into them.
Iyengar comprises proper detailed alignment and great hold for positions which is much longer than other schools of yoga. It is helpful for people who want to work slowly and methodically. Iyengar yoga being the classical form of yoga is quite popular. In 1970s, this yoga has been quite popular in the US too.
Bikram yoga
Bikram Choudhary founded it in the 1970s. He brought this practice from India to California. And of course, just like with many other types of yoga, he adapted it to the Western folks.
See here the difference between the Indian and Western yoga and which is best for you.
Bikram is a type of hot yoga. It is a sequence of set poses which takes place in a 105 degrees Fahrenheit and 40% humidity. People who perform this type of yoga experience excessive sweating which helps in flexibility of body, mind and body connection and effective communication skills that helps in all types of relationships in life. Having great physical benefits, a fun and interactive environment, this type of yoga is one of the most popular types of yoga. It is now referred as a “hot yoga” in various studios across the world.
Jivamukti yoga
Sharon Gannon and David Life introduced Jivamukti yoga in 1984.The term “Jivamukti” means a liberated soul. This kind of Yoga is a good combination of spiritual and physical exercise. This yoga goes with the movement of asanas and theme for each class. Jivamukti yoga is infused with spiritual teachings and follows vinyasa flow style. Usually this yoga class starts with warm-up sequence; weekly themes, meditation, chanting etc. are part of these yoga classes.
Power yoga
Power yoga is more of an active yoga. It is similar to ashtanga yoga but is more advanced as it is performed quickly and has more core exercises and upper body work. Power yoga has been quite popular as it includes the upbeat music and is done at gyms and studios. Power yoga do not go with the set or series in yoga; rather it depends on the instructors to teach whatever they want. The popularity of Power yoga has spread across the globe and has become quite common in studios.
Prenatal yoga
Prenatal yoga is designed for moms-to-be and is done in all trimesters.
We wrote an entire article about its benefits.
This type of yoga helps in relieving pain due to pregnancy like back pain, sore thighs etc. Prenatal yoga is also beneficial for relieving mental stress and excessive anxiety that commonly occurs during pregnancy due to hormonal changes and other fluctuations in body. It also acts as a good breathing exercise which later helps immensely during labor and delivery. It is designed in such a way that it is very safe for pregnant women. The poses in prenatal yoga are more stable than flexible. This yoga has a lot of benefits for expected mothers as it prepares them for a normal delivery by including various exercises like squat and pelvic floor work and bonding with the growing baby. Hence it is quite popular.
Yin yoga
Yin yoga is a slow-paced style of yoga. Here the poses are held for five minutes or longer. It has roots with both martial arts and yoga. Compared to other yoga forms that concentrates on muscle groups, yin yoga focuses on the body’s connective tissues. It helps in increasing circulation in the joints and improving flexibility. Yin yoga concentrates on hips, thighs, lower back and props like bolsters; blocks etc. are used to help relax the body. It also helps from recovering from extreme workouts. It is basically a slower style of practice which is quite meditative and helps in finding inner peace. Yin yoga being the muscle form yoga is one of the most popular yogas.
Conclusion
These are the 8 most popular types of yoga which are practiced all over the world due to their varied unique benefits. Sometimes a mix of one or more types of yoga are also done. These types of yoga not only are beneficial for the physical health and strength of the body; but also, for the mental health and dealing with diseases and other problems on a regular basis. Other benefits this ancient yet modern form of exercise includes are exploring mind-body connection, developing effective communication skills -here’s how, and stability in many aspects in life etc.
References
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/vinyasa-yoga
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/hot-yoga-hurt/story?id=20981907
Shanti Arunkumar, Senior Contributor At L’Aquila Active
Learn more about Shanti by reading her bio below.
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