Yoga Poses – Types of Yoga

salsabilahanun — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:22:20 +0000

Yoga is a perfect practical system of self-culture. It is a science, which aims at the harmonious development of the body, the mind and the soul. Yoga aims at controlling the mind and its modifications. It is consists of ancient theories,Halasana observations and principles about the mind and body connection, which is now being proven by modern Science.

Yoga Pose: Cat/Cow

Tell your kids to get on the floor on all fours. Have your kids arch their backs upward. This is cat pose. Then instruct them to go into a backbend. This is cow pose.

Yoga Pose: Eagle

The kids should stand with feet flat on the floor. Then they should wrap their arms around each other so that the fingers of the right hand touch the palm of the left. To complete the pose, they should wrap the right leg around the left, tucking the toes around the ankle. Repeat on the other side. Look at this picture of eagle pose to see how to do this yoga pose properly. If they experience difficulty, simply have the kids flap their wings and squawk for a few seconds to release tension.

Forward Bends

This type of yoga basic position helps stretch your lower back and hamstrings. Forward bends also release tension in your back, neck, shoulders, and increase the flexibility in your spine. They often promote a sense of calmness. I find forward bends particularly challenging since I have a considerable amount of stiffness in my neck due to an old gymnastics injury. This is the type of yoga basic position where I often use a prop such as a strap or block.

Back Bends

They open your chest, rib cage, and hips. They strengthen your arms and shoulders, while simultaneously increasing flexibility in your shoulders. They help relieve tension from the front of your body and hips and they also increase spinal stability. You should always do back bends as a complement to forward bends in order to maintain balance in your body

Hatha Yoga Poses

Hatha yoga poses have remained in practice since their development in 15th century India. Hatha yoga poses are designed to support relaxation and the “contemplation of one reality.” When used effectively alongside proper breath control and meditation, the postures are believed to lead to superior mental and physical health, as well as vitality. Classic Hatha yoga poses such as the shooting bow posture, salutation posture, and half moon posture are still used regularly in yoga classes of all kinds.

Twists – You can perform twists to stretch and strengthen your back and abdominal muscles, increase the flexibility of your spine and improve your circulation. Twists improve the functioning of your internal organs by providing them with a fresh supply of blood as you twist and release your body.

Standing poses – Standing poses are often used as warm up or as a starting point for other poses. Standing poses are beneficial for strengthening your legs, opening your hips and improving your sense of balance.

Inversions – Inversions are excellent poses to perform to improve your blood circulation, quiet your mind and improve your overall health. Inversions are also believed to reverse the ageing process and reduce the effect of the gravity on your body.

Relaxation and restorative poses – It is important to take time to perform relaxation or restorative poses at the end of each yoga practice. You can use this time to relax your body and mind and allow energy released by the poses in your practice to move freely throughout your body.

Yoga Styles | Various Styles of Yoga | Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga

hanun — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:20:40 +0000

Yoga Styles to Balance the Body, Mind and Spirit

Yoga is all about poses, breathing exercises and meditation. Yoga can be practiced in with a variety of styles. Thus, there are many yoga styles and you, as a yoga practitioner needs to select the one that best suits the requirements of your body.

Various Yoga Styles

Here are some of the yoga styles and the information about each style

Hatha Yoga

Hatha is a general “catch-all” term for many physical yoga styles. If the yoga class you are going for describes hatha style of yoga, then it will be a gentle, slow-paced class. It will offer you a fundamental instruction on yoga poses.

The different styles of yoga are embedded from hatha yoga. All these styles provide a balance to the mind, the body, and the spirit through the yoga poses. However, the prominence differs. Some focuses on strict alignment of the body while some on the coordination of breath and movement.

Hatha yoga is suggested for yoga beginners. It’s best to gain knowledge of yoga fundamentals before moving to other styles of yoga.

Vinyasa Yoga

Vinyasa is an explanation of many types of yoga classes. These yoga classes cope with breath-synchronized activities. It is somewhat more vigorous than the hatha yoga and is more powerful.

Ashtanga Yoga

Ashtanga is an interesting one among all yoga styles, which is a series of yoga poses that always practiced in the same order. This style is physically demanding as in this style you are moving from one pose to another.

It is also called as power yoga. Being one of the popular styles of yoga, it needs to be practiced everything in an order. Without any break, you naturally move from one pose to another.

Iyengar Yoga

Iyengar is also among popular yoga styles, which needs to practice with the body alignment. It is a moderate intensity style. There is very little focus on breathing exercises and meditation for starting levels.

The importance is on proper alignment, mainly for the spine and core of the body. That is the exact way that your body should place in the yoga pose in order to obtain the best results and to avoid damages.

In this style of yoga, the yoga poses will focus on holding the poses for longer periods of time rather than flowing from one pose to another. In addition, this style of yoga makes use of some supports such as yoga blankets, yoga blocks, and yoga straps in order to bring your body into a proper alignment.

Integral, one of the good yoga styles for beginners, which are a gentle form of yoga practice and the concentration of this style, is to integrate body, mind, and spirit with the combination of yoga poses, breathing exercises and meditation.

Hot Yoga

Hot yoga, is among the intense styles of yoga. This yoga style is practiced in a very hot room with temperatures between 90 and 100 degrees. The heat or the hot air makes the muscle relax and causes heavy sweating. This sweating is treated as cleansing to the body.

Bikram Yoga

Bikram is the most popular among yoga styles. It is a style with 26 poses. It is a vigorous physical style of yoga created by bikram choudhoury. This style is designed to bring the body to maximum health and fitness. An intense session of vigorous poses to reinforce the body, liberates pent-up emotions, and purifies your body.

It also helps in healing the body by releasing the pain. This yoga style is a concentrated exercise using abdominal intensification and deep, relaxing breathing.

Sivananda Yoga

Sivananda is also among the yoga styles that have been practiced since 1957. This style is based on five principles.

* Proper exercise

* Proper breathing

* Proper relaxation

* Vegetarian diet

* Positive thinking and meditation.

People about eighty locations all around the world practice this style of yoga. Many of them sponsor retreats for the dedicated yoga enthusiast.

There are many different yoga styles. These are the most popular styles of yoga and are just a sample of yoga styles offered in yoga classes. By getting an idea about a few of these yoga styles, it will become easy and you can safely select a yoga class as well as yoga styles that are best for you.

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Yoga Poses – Types of Yoga

Yoga Styles | Various Styles of Yoga | Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga