How to Choose the Best Yoga Style that Suits You?

How to Choose the Best Yoga Style that Suits You?

Yoga is one of the most ancient forms of exercising meant to keep the human mind and body healthy. With its spread across the world and popularity, people are now trying out different Yoga styles and forms and exploring what suits them best. Joining Yoga classes near you is the best way to explore Yoga as a discipline for staying healthy.

With that said, there are many different Yoga styles that people around the world practice. All these styles have their own benefits and limitations. Based on what you are looking for, you should choose the best Yoga style that will suit you.

Today’s blog will discuss these different types of Yoga and how to choose the one that fits you the best. But before that, you need to understand why it is necessary to choose the right Yoga style.

Keep reading!

Why do you need to choose the best Yoga style for you?

Different people have different goals for exercising. Some may want to lose weight, some want to manage their pain, some would want to gain strength, while others may simply want to relax their muscles and joints.

As you may practice different exercises for different goals, you also have to choose different Yoga styles based on what you want to achieve. Moreover, certain Yoga types are more effective for your goal as compared to other Yoga types.

Hence, there are two things that you need to keep in mind while choosing the best Yoga class for you.

1. Understand your intention as to why you need to join the Yoga class and what do you expect to achieve from it

2. Based on your goal, find a Yoga class that matches your needs and provides you the right guidance.

When you are sure about these two things, you can be assured that you have found the best Yoga style and the right Yoga class that suits you well. To understand these two points better, you need to first understand the popular different styles of Yoga that are practiced regularly.

1. Hatha Yoga

One of the most popular styles of Yoga, Hatha Yoga is a combination of various physical asanas that lead to controlled breathing and finally to medication.

You will see many Yoga studios practicing Hatha Yoga as it is one of the more general and most popular Yoga types. The word “Hatha” literally translates to force and so Hatha Yoga is the practice of Yoga using body force or strength.

It helps you strengthen your muscles and reduces physical and mental stress.

2. Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga

Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga incorporates your body movement and synchronizes them with your breathing. The movements are more fluid, transitioning from one stance to another without stopping in between.

Controlled breathing synced with your body movements is an important part of this Yoga style. The Yoga style is fairly demanding and may need some more experience with Yoga before starting to practice it.

Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga is great to cultivate strength, tone muscles, increase flexibility, burn off fat, and improve heart health.

3. Iyengar Yoga

Unlike Hatha or Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga, Iyengar Yoga focuses more on precise postures and alignment of your body to provide you better benefits with low-intensity movements.

The practice often uses props like chairs and blocks to achieve that perfect alignment. Since the focus is on postures, you are not expected to move around a lot, instead, you need to hold the poses from 1 to at least 10 minutes.

Iyengar Yoga is great to reduce body pain and muscle pain. It also helps you to tone your muscles and increases muscle strength.

4. Power Yoga

Are you unsure of the benefits that other Yoga styles provide you but still want to try it out? Then Power Yoga is the style for you. The Yoga style is based on Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga and uses various strength training moves.

The Yoga style is created for fitness enthusiasts and Yoga skeptics that also want to practice Yoga.

The benefits of Power Yoga include cardiovascular health and strength, maintaining blood pressure, and helping you control your blood sugar.

5. Hot Yoga

Hot Yoga is a practice of Yoga asanas in high-temperature sauna-like rooms. The temperature may vary from 35-40 degrees celsius. The yoga style is created to give your body the time to detox and improve blood circulation.

There are a few cautions that everyone needs to take while practicing hot Yoga safely. Keep a bottle of water near you to avoid dehydration or dizziness due to it. If you feel like your body is heating up too much, you must remove yourself from the class for the time being and go cool down in a regular room or outdoors.

Pregnant women and people with heart disease are not advised to practice this Yoga style.

Hot Yoga is known to increase your bone density and burns off calories faster. The improved blood circulation also improves your skin health.

There are popular yoga styles that you will find in Yoga studios near you. Based on what you are comfortable with, you can choose the Yoga style that suits you the best.

Remember to ask yourself these questions if you are still unsure:

1. What do I want to achieve?

2. Am I comfortable with fast-paced styles or prefer slow and precise movements?

3. Will I be comfortable holding a pose for several minutes consecutively or will I rather sweat it out in a hot room.

These questions will help you choose which style of Yoga suits you the best.

FAQs

Which type of Yoga is best for beginners?

If you are new to the practice of Yoga, then starting with Hatha Yoga is a good choice. The exercises are easy to perform while also challenging enough to let you gain the benefits of the practice.

However, if you like slow-paced Yoga, you can choose Iyengar Yoga. You can start by holding the poses for 1 minute and slowly work your way up from there.

Is Yoga actually a good workout?

Yes. Practicing Yoga regularly has so many health benefits. It not only works on your muscles to tone them and increase your overall strength but also relaxes your body and mind so you feel energetic all day long.

It improves your blood circulation allowing nutrition to reach every corner of your body, controls blood sugar, and also improves heart health.

Yoga is an exercise that works on multiple parts of your body and mind.

Does Yoga build muscle?

Yes. Power yoga is a great way to strengthen and build muscles as it uses components of strength training along with parts of the Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga.

Over to you…

Understanding the nature of each Yoga style is important for you to choose which style suits you the best. The 5 most popular Yoga styles include:

1. Hatha Yoga

2. Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga

3. Iyengar Yoga

4. Power Yoga

5. Hot Yoga

Find out what you are comfortable with and what you expect to achieve by joining a Yoga class. You can choose the best Yoga style for you based on that.

To manage health, you have Yoga studios, but to manage Yoga studios use gym management software.

If you are a Yoga class owner and you still haven’t implemented it then you can start a trial of gym management software for free. There are many benefits that the gym software offers to your Yoga studio.

Let us know which Yoga style you prefer the most? Share your thoughts in the comments field below. And if you find this article useful, then consider sharing it with your friends and peers.