Summary: Know in detail about the most popular yoga styles today and consider them according to your own liking before choosing your yoga training institute
The 5000-year-old discipline of mind-body wellness and spiritual awareness still has not gone out of date. From fitness freaks to movie stars to spiritual seekers, everybody is drawn in by this discipline which molds them into their best form.
However, in yoga, the beginning step is the hardest. Sometimes it takes ages to find the motivation and will to take out your mat get started. Availability of several interconnecting styles only confuses the making of that crucial choice—which yoga to go for?
Will it be the vigorous Ashtanga Yoga and vinyasa that gets every practitioner hot and sweaty, the basic Hatha Yoga of simple movements, or Kundalini- the yoga or awakening the chakra powers?
Let us find out with a few sought-after yoga styles in consideration:
Hatha Yoga
Hatha refers to the “sun” and the “moon” of being in existence. It is the coming together of two strands of energies through physical and mental exercise. Yoga or “unity” is all about harmonizing the different channels of your existence through mindful practices.
Though the Hatha style is recognized more with simple physical yoga exercises fit for beginners, you must not miss out the mental implications of the asanas brought about through synchronized pranayamic breathing and meditative approach.
Today, the most reputed schools are also offering in-depth Hatha learning in combination with Ashtanga or other yoga styles in 200-hour yoga teacher training courses.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga
Ashtanga or the eight-limbed path of yoga encapsulates a corpus of moral and ethical behavior prescribed for attaining the yogic mind. A rigorous physical exercise regime forms a big chunk of it. Ashtanga asanas are recognizably challenging and need to get used to, simply not a beginner’s cup of tea.
However, in certification courses of Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training, it’s a different story. These month-long in-depth programs are suitable even for beginning yoga enthusiasts with gently advancing lessons with a careful emphasis on vinyasa or flow.
At the end of the day, you are expected to flow from one asana to the next seamlessly without any stop, thus generating heat in the body.
Power Yoga
This dynamic yoga style is innovated from traditional Ashtanga. By incorporating non-traditional postures like pushups and handstands, power yoga has given the discipline a whole new dimension. You must opt for this to build more power, endurance, and flexibility in your yoga style with all the benefits of aerobics.
To immerse in this dynamic, non-stop flowing style of transforming from one challenging posture to the next, you can attend any Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training which has a subsidiary course centering on power yoga.
Iyengar Yoga
Iyengar is the great master of yoga in our modern times. A propagator of the dynamic essence of Ashtanga, Iyengar formulated his own style which today is widely popular.
The defining characteristic of this style is a slow rhythm, more time dedicated to holding the poses, and great emphasis on breath intensity. You will be led into the style of Iyengar in any standard Yoga Teacher Training.
Kundalini Yoga
This style has a deeper bend towards spirituality than any other. Accompanied my breath regulation and meditative focus invigorated with mantra chanting, Kundalini is meant to awaken the Chakras. Kundalini exercises bring in a surge of power by unblocking the channels from suppressed emotions and energies.
Besides knowing these different styles, you need to assess the factors of your level of physical fitness, your intentions, and whether your thought process is on par with the teachers of the yoga training institute you have in mind.
