Throughout the 20th century, the recognition of yoga has grown beyond the borders of India, and it has become popular around the world as a system for improving well-being and health. While modern yoga often focuses on physical postures and is conceived as a type of exercise, its practice often incorporates one or more spiritual practices. Discuss here to understand a little more about the types of yoga and how to choose the line that best suits your profile.

Types of Yoga:

Did you know that there are types of yoga that follow different lines, be it in the way of doing the practice or in the way of inserting yoga in daily life?

1. Hatha Yoga

Regarded as classic yoga, Hatha Yoga has become one of the most popular types in the West because the practice is focused on physical conditioning, strengthening the body, and increasing flexibility. During classes, not many postures are performed and they are not as intense. It is indicated for those people who intend to start venturing into yoga and get to know the practice and its benefits better.

2. Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga’s practices involve six series of fixed postures that are developed by the practitioner over time and according to the body’s ability to perform each position. Ashtanga is a practice for those who seek more stimulating and more intense physical activities and its main benefits are associated with strength gain,  flexibility, balance, body awareness, and alignment.

3. Vinyasa Yoga

It is one of the so-called contemporary styles. Vinyasa Yoga is one of the most graceful yoga types of all. This is because its practice is based on the execution of postures in flow, that is, following a sequence of movements that come together almost as in choreography, establishing a continuous flow of positions. The execution of the postures is synchronized with the breathing.

4. Raja Yoga

Raja is not for nothing, it is also called Real Yoga, because it turns to the interior, for the personal development of the person and not for the physical effort. They are focused on the emotional part of the practitioner, especially the one who is already in the habit of meditating.

5. Iyengar Yoga

The Iyengar is focused on permanence during the execution of the postures and the alignment of each movement. Since the practitioner starts to focus more on himself and his practice. In addition, it is believed that alignment is responsible for arousing feelings and emotions in the practitioner, which helps to purify the body and increase individual awareness.

It’s slow and leisurely – It is a slow, leisurely, and smooth style, very focused on postures, similar in this sense to Hatha. The traditional school named after its creator, BKS Iyengar, can be considered a yoga more focused on the practical part – body alignment – and on deepening the practice of asanas and breathing technique.

6. Vinyasa Yoga

Balance, one of the things that yoga works. The fun discipline seeks maximum coordination between movements and breathing. It is, to look for the characteristic that most differentiates him from the rest of the types, very dynamic and very demanding physically since aerobic work is more intense as well. It can be combined with Ashtanga as it is also very dynamic.

7. JivamuktiYoga

The Jivamukti, another modality. Along with Rocket Yoga, they are two of the new disciplines developed in the United States recently. Specifically, the Jivamukti dates from 1986. It is, literally, the ” liberation in life .” Part of the Ashtanga but combines its concept with spiritual teachings, so it is more aimed at the mental and emotional part.

Practicing Yoga at Night:

The mind and body do not have a minute of rest during the day. By practicing the proper yoga postures, you can release tension in the body and relax the mind, so that the body and spirit are ready to enjoy a good night’s rest.

Yoga in the Morning:

If you want to practice yoga in the morning, but don’t have much time before you go to work or start your day, don’t worry. With 10 minutes of yoga in the morning, you will begin to notice benefits.

In my book Yoga for my well-being, I talk about a series of asanas that you can do from bed, right after waking up. Here you can see the complementary class to this chapter, yoga postures to stretch the body in bed. Another option is to do this 10 minute Hatha flow class to wake up the body.