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Originally Posted by Tiggerwit  How many different yogas are there? I had no idea. My gym offers Flow Yoga but someone said I should try a more basic one first. Any thoughts? |
All forms of yoga are based on the Hatha branch of yoga. The "different" types of yoga have all evolved from exactly the same place and really are not that different in the poses used - just the way they are put together and executed.
The names you will hear most are Bikram, Anusara, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Power and Vinyasa Flow.
All yoga is intended to be done in a warm room. Bikram just takes this to the extreme with temps intended to be 115-120 degrees with 98-100% humidity. The theory is the intense heat/humidity helps loosen you up even more.
I would not recommend starting yoga in a flowing class as you need to learn the poses before you can flow with them. In this form, it is usually one breath to each movement.
Whatever form of yoga you are doing, the most important thing to keep in mind is your breath. Yoga is all about the quality of your breath, keeping it long, steady and under control (and always in and out through the NOSE). If you are doing any kind of yoga with an out of control breath, you are raising your heart rate and blood pressure to dangerous levels. If your breath gets out of control, you need to rest in child pose until you feel like you can breath with control again. Keep resting as much as you need.
Many folks think that slower moving yoga is too simple, but holding poses for many breaths is actually very intense.
You also do not need to be flexible to do yoga. Your flexibility will increase if you keep at it. Some poses require a very open bone structure - which has nothing to do with flexibility. You shouldn't see these in a normal yoga class, though as they are extreme.
Any yoga is good yoga!!!!!!!!!