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What Are the Types of Yoga?
How to choose a type of yoga for attaining profound advancements?
Yoga practice can be intense, rigorous, slow-paced or spiritual. If you are new to yoga, you will have a variety of options, because there are many types of yoga to choose from. There are studies showing that no matter what type of yoga you practice, it plays a positive role in reducing stress and anxiety, stabilizing emotions, relieving tension after a long day, boosting your balance and strength, increasing flexibility and improving overall health. However, if you want to get the most benefit of yoga exercise, you should choose a yoga style that meets your fitness goals as well as your physical condition.
Here is the list of different types of yoga for you to consider.
Acro yoga
Acro yoga is a quite intense yoga practice that contains yoga and acrobatics, and this exercise will be a great choice for anyone looking to improve their balance and boost their muscle endurance by practicing with another person.
Hatha yoga
Hatha is a type of yoga which requires the practitioners to pay more attention to the posture and body movements. The myriad of exercises in hatha yoga will give you the full control of your body, allowing you to move many parts of your body in a slow pace and enabling you to perform different postures or forms for the whole session. This practice is regarded as one of the beginner levels of yoga.
Vinyasa yoga
Vinyasa is another type of yoga that help you do some flexible movements in the form like dancing. This type of yoga requires similar movements as hatha yoga which will give you the agency of your body including how you adjust your breath, but those movements conducted during this practice are faster. Vinyasa is often performed with rhythmic music to help you follow the beats and adjust the various postures and movements you do accordingly.
Iyengar yoga
Iyengar yoga requires you to focus more on details. It is more about how perfect your postures are instead of how you stand, sit or lie down. And during this practice you also need to keep the similar position for a much longer time than hatha. And one thing you need to remember is that you may not be able to hold the same posture for a long time as it requires unless your position is perfectly performed. Even the slightest deviation in the form of your posture will make you struggle to keep that posture stable when you breathe in and out.
Ashtanga yoga
Ashtanga yoga consists of a series of postures that are similar to each other and should be repeated for several times. This is the exercise that needs you to practice in a daily basis, and you need to do the preset number of postures in certain times. This type of yoga focuses more on the form in order to increase the heat inside your body. It improves your blood circulation and helps pump up your heart rate in a healthy manner. Ashtanga yoga is relatively a high-demanding practice so we suggest you perform this with a trainer.
Bikram yoga
As a relatively modern type of yoga practice, bikram yoga has been gaining popularity among people who want to challenge themselves and who lead a busy life without much time for weight losing.
Bikram yoga has as many as twenty-six poses with two different breathing exercises. The entire session of this yoga practice may last more than an hour, and it’s better performed in the environment with some humidity and the temperature should be around 40 celsius degree.
Kundalini yoga
Kundalini yoga is one of the difficult types of yoga. It shot to popularity by the promotion of some celebrities such as Russell Brand. Kundalini yoga is quite a demanding exercise for many practitioners. If you think about starting this practice, you need to be aware of your physical condition, because it contains many daunting poses and it also requires you to be stringent with your breathing. But this yoga practice will help you increase your endurance and burn fat in a very short period of time. Though kundalini yoga is physically challenging, it is quite spiritually satisfying.
Anusara yoga
Anusara yoga is another modern type of hatha yoga. This yoga usually starts with a chant and ends up with meditation. It includes more than 250 poses which allows you to choose whatever the postures you would like to practice. You may practice this yoga postures mostly on the floor with the support of blankets or chairs. Besides, its slow-paced style makes it ideal for yoga beginners.
Prenatal yoga
There are also many yoga practices that are suitable for mothers-to-be and prenatal yoga is one of them. This yoga focuses on gentle stretching, poses, and breathing, which will help mothers to relieve their stress and anxiety and the mediation process will also act as a recipe for getting fit and relaxed. In addition, it also works wonders to eliminate the negative affects when you are pregnant such as nausea, lower back pain, and shortness of breath.
Yoga works on building your body’s strength, flexibility and vigor. However, with consistent meditation and practice, the practice will offer more than just physical benefits but also more profound positive influence on your mental health.
We hope this list may give you some ideas about the different styles of yoga and help you choose the right one that suits you. A custom yoga mat, a yoga practice, a healthy lifestyle.
