How to Choose Your Yoga Style

What’s your favorite yoga style? Maybe you’ve never tried yoga, and you aren’t really sure what type would be best for you. Yoga is an awesome way to stretch, breath, and in some cases, build strength. There are many different types of yoga style, each with its own unique focus. Here are a few of them:

Hatha

The Hatha yoga style incorporates body postures, breathing, and meditation. The movements are slower-paced and often include exercises that focus on breathing and meditation. This is a good yoga style for beginners.

Vinyasa

The focus of the Vinyasa practice is fluid movements between poses. Breathing should keep in time with each movement. Routines are often different, so you typically won’t be doing the same exact thing with each class. This yoga style can vary in difficulty, but it’s good for those who want to get a regular workout in through yoga.

Bikram

Warning: you will get SWEATY if you do Bikram, as it is a form of hot yoga. The room for this yoga style is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and with 40% humidity. This is a great practice for healthy people who would like to detoxify or lose weight. Just make sure to check in with a doctor first, since it is an intense form of yoga that should only be done by people without heart problems or who don’t react adversely to extreme heat.

Iyengar

Props like blocks, straps, chairs, boards, and walls are used in Iyengar yoga. The focus is on correct alignment with this yoga style. This slow, balanced practice is great for those who might have an injury or chronic condition, which causes their body misalignment. Advanced yogis can do this practice to work on strength and alignment, and beginners can use it to help understand basic poses.

Ashtanga

This type of yoga is a bit more vigorous and focuses on synchronizing movement with your breath, as you go through size pose sequences. Ashtanga is more demanding because of its fast-paced nature, so only try this if you are beyond the beginner stage.

Yin

This yoga style focuses more on the meditation. The poses are held for a very long time, sometimes even up to 20 minutes. Postures in this practice target the connective tissues in the body. This is a good yoga style for those are looking for inner peace or who need to release tension.

PiYo

PiYo is an amazing Beachbody program that brings the benefits of pilates and yoga together into one great workout. These workouts are customizable, so they are perfect for the beginner or more advanced yogi who wants to work out consistently. The best part? You can do these workouts from the comfort of your home.

I hope this look into the various types of yoga practices out there has helped you decide which yoga style is best for you. Let me know if you have any questions about yoga style or fitness routines, as I am happy to help you out!