What’s Your Yoga Style?

Hatha, Iyengar, Ashtanga – an easy guide to figuring out which class is the best for you.
There’s a reason yoga has become so popular: It creates long, lean muscles, promotes serious flexibility and works wonders on stress. But finding the right style can be tricky-as yoga’s appeal has grown, so have the classes being offered.

Ashtanga, for example, uses a fast pace to build stamina; iyengar focuses on alignment; and kundalini uses chanting and breathing to help you find your spiritual center. Read on to find which style suits you best, and get a taste of each with a move to try on your own.

1. HATHA
Who it’s for:
Beginners who want to learn the fundamentals of yoga.

Mind-body benefits:
With its pure, no-frills approach, hatha is the most popular yoga style. The moves flow from standing to seated poses and combine exercises with breath work to enhance the mind-body connection.

Take home move:
Tree pose. Stand with hands in prayer position (palms pressed together) and feet firmly planted on the floor. Slowly bring right heel up to left inner thigh, or as high as you can on the inside part of the leg. Extend hands overhead, pressing palms together, and try to align inside of right leg with pelvis. Hold for five to 15 seconds.

Works:
Legs and hips; balance

Continued On What’s Your Yoga Style? – Kundalini

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Posted by Women Diary on Nov 24 2007. Filed under Women Health, Women Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry