So many styles to choose from

There is a major hurdle to attending a yoga class, not all yoga is the same. The main styles of yoga I have seen offered are: Hatha yoga, vinyasa/flow/ashtanga, kundalini, and beginner classes by many names like fundamentals, stretch and condition, or open to all.

• Hatha yoga: Hatha literal means sun and moon, yoga is actually the word for the joining together or yoking. So hatha is the joining of sun and moon or masculine and feminine energies. It is yoga in its purest form.(1) It involves moving from pose to pose, stopping in each pose for a certain number of breaths. According to Peter Marchand in his article Hatha Yoga: The Essential Techniques "Hatha yoga has two essential objectives. The first is that to practice any real meditation, one needs at the least one posture in which one can be perfectly comfortable".  The use of yoga as a meditation and to assist in meditation seems to be a practice no matter the style

• Ashtanga: This covers all flow classes since they all originated from Ashtanga which came out from Sri K. Pattabhi Jois teaching in  Mysore India after studying under Sri Tirumala Krishnamacharya.(2) Jois started using breath to guide movements. (1) This was changed or expanded by different teachers forming all the forms of vinyasa which translates to breath-sychronized movement. (2) 

• Iyengar: Developed  by B.K.S. Iyengar who also studied under Sri Tirumala Krishnamacharya in Mysore.(3) Iyengar had lived his young years being sickly, it was only until he began doing yoga that he began to gain health. He used his experience to teach a practice that was more accommodation to peoples limitations, introducing the use of props and removing some of the more esoteric Hindu practices. His style focuses more on proper physical alignment of asanas for the safety of the body as well as to achieve better results from the energies generated by each asana.(4) Iyengar can be good for beginners because of the focus on alignment so that they can learn the poses correctly the first time and avoid repetitive stress injuries.

• Beginning classes: These classes are usually amalgamations, with some short serieses of gentle vinyasa with mostly hatha for the rest of the class. The teachers usually offer variations for different levels of flexibility and strength.

Work Cited

1. Granger, Clyde. "The Origin Of Vinyasa Yoga". The Yoga Circle. 20 Mar. 2011. Web. 8 Sept. 2013

2. Lululemon. Vinyasa - yoga. Lululemon. 2013. Web. 8 Sept. 2013

3. Lululemon. Iyengar - yoga. Lululemon. 2013. Web. 8 Sept. 2013

4. B.K.S Iyengar Yoga. B.K.S Iyengar. n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2013