I have been in contact with yoga for a long time. Can you really tell these familiar yoga schools apart?
As an old yoga driver, can you explain the difference between the two to your friends?
It's really easy for us to be silly and not know what yoga we are practicing with our teachers. Here, I try to straighten out several common yoga schools with you.
After we understand the characteristics and key differences of these common yoga schools, we can better combine our preferences and physique and practice yoga that suits us, so that our yoga road will be more stable and farther.
The word yoga is actually a Sanskrit word, which means the combination of self and primitive beginning. The ultimate goal of various yoga systems is to help people achieve such a yoga realm. Different yoga systems only use slightly different practice methods to achieve the same yoga realm.
Traditional yoga can be divided into six categories: professional yoga, intellectual yoga, hatha yoga, raja yoga, faith yoga and Kundalini yoga. Compared with several traditional types of yoga, hatha yoga is more popular at present. Here is a detailed introduction to Hatha Yoga, Eight Branches Yoga, Mobile Yoga, Yin Yoga and Iyengar Yoga. Of course, pregnant yoga, slimming yoga, vitality yoga, parent-child yoga, aerial yoga, high-temperature yoga and so on are also extended according to the exercise object, purpose and environment.
1. hatha yoga
Hatha yoga takes the practice of body pose as the main practice method. In fact, several schools of yoga that we mainly talk about here are basically based on the basic poses in hatha yoga. Krishnamacharya, the father of modern yoga, carried forward hatha yoga and passed on eight yogis.
Function: Practice how to control the body and breathe. The deeper function is to make the body function run in an orderly way, so that the mind can get peace and become peaceful.
Difficulty: It can be one or four stars.
Suitable for the crowd: suitable for all yoga practitioners who are interested in, want to practice and are practicing yoga?
2. Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga Yoga is an ancient yoga system, which is famous for its preciseness and science. Ashtanga was inherited, improved and carried forward by the disciples of the above-mentioned father of yoga.
Features: there is a fixed posture order, which cannot be changed and innovated at will. Breathing is the core of the eight poses, and each pose is connected in a fixed and accurate order. Practitioners must master the front posture before they can get the teacher's permission to continue the back posture practice.
Function: It can improve human circulatory system, regulate body and mind, and make people refreshed. Practitioners can also achieve a balance between strength and flexibility, improve cardiovascular function, make the body lighter, more flexible and stronger, and achieve the effect of detoxifying the body.
Difficulty: four stars
Suitable for people: intermediate yoga practitioners with a certain physical fitness/yoga foundation, and junior yoga practitioners who want to try short-term practice.
3. Iyengar Yoga
Iyengar Yoga is a hatha yoga course founded and taught by Indian yoga master Iyengar (also a disciple of the father of yoga mentioned above) and named after him.
Features: Pay great attention to the correct posture, the physiological structure of human body and the function of skeletal muscle. And emphasize the accuracy of posture and action, which has the function of correcting and restoring the body. In the process of practice, it is sometimes necessary to use tools to complete the corresponding posture exercises.
Difficulty: three stars
Suitable for people: people with hard bodies, patients, people recovering after surgery, and beginners of yoga.
4. Mobile Yoga
Heart yoga is a derivative of Eight Yoga, which is not as strict as Eight Yoga, and the posture order is very flexible.
Features: It consists of asana, meditation and breathing, but there is no strict requirement on the order of asana, which is more like an open practice method. Any yoga pose can be arranged in the order of flowing yoga. This openness not only facilitates practitioners to get all-round exercise, but also increases the variability and interest of practice.
Difficulty: three stars
Suitable for the crowd: suitable for people who are active and pursue novelty.
5. Yin Yoga
Ying Yoga combines the viewpoint of human body structure, the theory of Yin and Yang of China Taoism, the essence of martial arts, and the concept of meridians in traditional Chinese medicine.
Features: Generally speaking, the poses in Yin Yoga are not difficult. Each movement stays still for a period of time and needs to stay for 3-5 minutes. In the process of static stretching, connective tissue located in deep muscles can be nourished.
Function: dredge meridians, regulate qi and blood, and regulate nervous system.
Difficulty: two stars
Suitable for people: people who want to relieve stress, relax and improve the quality of sleep.
Now, with the gradual popularization of yoga, some people focus on the formation and arrangement of basic yoga poses according to the characteristics of yoga poses and the needs of customers in market segments, and many new yoga names have been derived. They have not made a systematic contribution to the development of yoga, nor can they be called yoga schools, such as pregnancy yoga, slimming yoga, vitality yoga, parent-child yoga, aerial yoga, postpartum repair yoga, high temperature yoga and so on. Frankly speaking, many of them are to meet the needs of the market. Of course, they are always the same. Just understand them, and we won't discuss them here.
For yoga, I am also constantly learning. Welcome friends to correct and discuss, and join hands to go deeper and deeper on the road of yoga.