Let's talk about yoga

Yoga is a general name for several spiritual wisdom traditions that originated in India.

In the West today, yoga is mostly a form of physical training, with the spiritual side pushed to the margins.

Yoga practice has a few main goals – synchronising breath and movement, quieting the mind, and balancing strength and flexibility.

These goals and others can be reached in several different ways, which is why there are several methods of physical yoga practice.

This time we'll introduce a few of the methods you can practise at our studio: Hatha, Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Power Vinyasa.

Hatha (sun – ha; moon – tha).

The oldest method developed in India, which influenced all the others. Hatha practice has a slower pace, especially suited to the morning, with the emphasis on holding each pose while breathing. The aim is to balance the moon and the sun – hence the name.

Karin is a Hatha instructor, and her classes are influenced by this method.

Full Hatha classes will open later on, according to demand.

Ashtanga

The method originated in Mysore in southern India and developed in the early 1920s.

It consists of 6 different series, and it's common to practise the first 3 repeatedly in a fixed order. Each series focuses on a different theme:

The first – Yoga Chikitsa, meaning yoga therapy. Forward bends.

The second – Nadi Shodhana – backbends and heart openers.

The third – focuses on presence in the hands and arm balances.

In Ashtanga practice the teacher usually counts throughout the practice in Sanskrit (ancient Indian).

The counting acts as a mantra that helps the practitioner focus only on what's happening on the mat.

Ashtanga classes at the studio take place on Sundays at 20:00 and Fridays at 11:00.

All the instructors at the studio are certified to teach Ashtanga.

Vinyasa –

Vinyasa is characterised by a dynamic flow between poses, matched to the breath.

The inhale lets us open into a pose, and the exhale lets us twist and deepen into it.

In Vinyasa we work on balancing strengthening and warming the body with flexibility and lengthening our range of motion.

Vinyasa has two principles:

1. All the asanas are linked in a sequence.

2. There's a precise number of synchronised breath-and-movement transitions into and out of each asana.

Vinyasa is influenced by the other yoga methods – Hatha, Ashtanga and Iyengar – balancing softness of movement with precision in the poses.

The big difference between Vinyasa and the other methods is that the instructor has a lot of influence on the class plan. She can choose a motif to guide the class, or a specific theme to focus on.

Every instructor takes the method into her own personal style.

Vinyasa classes at our studio are on Wednesdays at 10:30 with Karin, and at 16:00 a teen girls' class with Ofir.

Power Vinyasa

As we wrote, Vinyasa is strongly influenced by the instructor's character and personal style.

At our studio there are also Power Vinyasa classes with Ofir.

In these classes she combines elements from dance, movement and acrobatics, aiming to progress and improve technically while listening to the body and developing awareness and connection to it – in a way that also affects everyday life.

In these classes we practise more challenging poses and learn them from the basics, step by step.

The poses that in other classes we can't reach, or only get to practise at the end of class, take centre stage here.

Power Vinyasa classes with Ofir are on Wednesdays at 20:00.

Our recommendation is to try classes with all the different instructors at the studio. You can learn different things from every method and every instructor. That way you'll discover which yoga practice you connect with most – and maybe you'll connect with all of them.

We're always here for any question or advice.

Looking forward to seeing you on the mat.