by Frances Stanford

Created on: February 10, 2010

There are nine basic different styles of yoga. You can experiment with each one to find the one style that best suits you or your instructor may recommend that you use a specific style depending on your needs and the reasons for engaging in Yoga. This article will provide a brief guide to each of these styles so that you have a basic understanding of what each one entails.

Hatha Yoga

The word “Hatha” means “union of the mind, body and spirit”. Basically all styles of yoga have elements of Hatha in the different movements. The physical postures of Hatha yoga help you to develop a sense of calmness in both your mind and body. It teaches you how to respond in a much better way to the challenges of your daily life.

Viniyoga

Viniyoga focuses on making a connection between breath, movement and posture. This approach to yoga adapts various methods to meet the individual needs of the practitioner in order to work towards self-discovery and transformation. Assessment and therapeutic applications are a very important part of Viniyoga.

Ashtanga Yoga

The ashtanga style of yoga uses a series of poses that you have to complete in a specific order. You have to complete each series before you can progress to the next step. This style is not for the beginner because it is physically challenging and very intense giving you an outstanding work out.

Vinyasa Flow Yoga

In the vinyasa flow style of yoga, breathing is tied closely to the movements in order to teach you how to breathe without breaking the rhythm. Like ashtanga, it is very challenging and acts in helping to cleanse the body of built up toxins. This style of yoga appeals to those who like a fast-paced workout.

Svaroopa Yoga

This style of yoga concentrates on helping you to explore your own transformation by targeting the inner core of your body. It does help to cleanse the body, but in a more gentle way than the physically demanding styles. It helps you to unwind your inner mind and this provides you with a greater range of motion in the outer extremities of the body.

Bikram Yoga

This style of yoga is often called Hot Yoga because you need to have the room very hot – the recommended temperature is 105°F. This causes the humidity to be quite high and therefore you will sweat a lot. It is important to dress appropriately. There are 26 poses, each of which you perform twice in  a typical 50-minute session.

Kundalini Yoga

The kundalini style of yoga focuses on awakening the energy and moving it throughout the body, starting at the base of the spine and moving upwards to the top of your head. The action is fast paced and you repeat the poses 1 to 3 times very quickly.

Anusara Yoga

The focus of anusara yoga is to align the inner and outer parts of the body. It is a deeper physical workout that any of the other styles that attempts to blend body, mind and spirit into one unified practice.

Ana Forrest Yoga

The Ana Forrest style of yoga is extremely strenuous and focuses on strengthening your abdominal muscles. It requires a heated room and you do have to hold the poses for long periods of time.

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