Which Styles of Yoga Should You Try?

:: by Gaiam Staff

Whether you’re looking for a way to cross-train and boost athletic performance — or just want to reintroduce your fingers to your toes — yoga offers something for all. But not every style of yoga is for everyone.

Although most physical forms of yoga practice share similarities, knowing the nuances can help you get started on the right foot, fit your practice to your priorities and physical condition, expand your awareness and make your yoga practice more rewarding.

A few yoga basics

The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word ‘yug’ meaning union. It signifies both the path to discovery of the soul and the union with it. A spiritual and physical art, yoga unites the mind, body and soul in its aim to reach a perfect state in which the mind is clear, the soul turns inward and the body is pure and strong.

Yoga offers a myriad of benefits. On the physical level, yoga gives relief from countless ailments of the body and is an excellent form of cross-training, building flexibility, balance and strength, and body awareness than can help with reaction time and agility. For the mind and spirit, yoga can help improve focus, concentration, confidence and your ability to handle stressful, challenging situations with calm and presence of mind. Many find that it can also steady the emotions and encourage compassion and kindness.

A primer on yoga styles

Kripalu, Kundalini, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Sivananda, Bikram; which is for you? Although the names may cast more confusion than light on this ancient practice, a beginner can find the best yoga path with a little information and some knowledge of their own physical goals.

Most of the yoga practiced in the West falls under the broad classification of Hatha yoga. When people say they are taking a yoga class, they usually mean they are learning the poses (or asanas) and breathing techniques of Hatha yoga. Each of the following yoga practices shares roots in Hatha yoga and a common focus on awareness, relaxation and conscious breathing — yet each follows its own unique yoga path.

Iyengar Yoga

The Path: Yogi B.K.S. Iyengar developed a style of yoga emphasizing body placement and alignment. The style incorporates “props” to support postures and accommodates students of varying degrees of fitness and flexibility. Items such as yoga blocks or bricks (which “raise” the floor) or cotton yoga straps (which aid in stretching) are helpful to students with injuries, weakness or inflexibility. Iyengar instructors pay close attention to the details of body alignment which leads to precise, dynamic asanas. Classes are slower due to the concentration given to each pose and the focus necessary to perform them correctly.

Who it’s best for: Iyengar yoga is ideal for newcomers who may enjoy assistance with more challenging poses.

Ashtanga Yoga

The Path: The most dynamic and vigorous form of yoga, Ashtanga approaches yoga with a continuous flow of movement. Top athletes who seek a more intense workout enjoy this form of yoga, sometimes called vinyasa or power yoga. Ashtanga creates heat in the body to purge it of toxins. Students perform a variety of asanas interspersed with Sun Salutations (set sequence of poses executed rapidly). The emphasis in Ashtanga yoga is flexibility, strength and endurance.

Who it’s best for: Ashtanga classes are best for those seeking physical and spiritual gains from yoga and for those fit and flexible enough to link poses in rapid succession.

Kundalini Yoga

The Path: Kundalini is derived from the Indian word kundal, which means, “lock of hair from the beloved.” The uncoiling of this “hair” (often referred to as a serpent) is the awakening of the kundalini, the creative energy stored in the base of the spine in all humans. Kundalini yoga practice aims to activate this energy through breath, poses, chanting and meditation. Several forms of breathing techniques are used to clear the system and allow energy to flow into the chakras, or energy centers located in the body.

Who it’s best for: Practitioners embrace Kundalini as a holistic form of yoga that applies to all aspects of life and does not focus exclusively on fitness.

Sivananda Yoga

The Path: Sivananda yoga integrates many forms of yoga, including a traditional Hatha approach. More than just a set of poses, Sivananda weaves a five-point philosophy into every class, including principles of relaxation, exercise, breathing, diet and positive thinking. Classes follow a sequence of breathing exercises, a routine of postures and deep relaxation and meditation.

Who it’s best for: Newcomers seeking a familiar series of poses and a spiritual boost through meditation and chanting will enjoy the supportive atmosphere of Sivananda classes.

Bikram Yoga

The Path: Rising in popularity, Bikram yoga, developed by Bikram Choudhury, uses rooms heated above 105 degrees with about 40% humidity and repeated postures in the workouts. Classes are demanding, even in beginning practice, employing the same 26 postures and two pranayama breathing techniques. Bikram shuns the use of props and avoids demonstration of the asanas in class: students are expected to learn poses by watching and listening to the instructor. Students swear by the results of the disciplined, highly-focused classes.

Who it’s best for: Enthusiasts of action-oriented, high-endurance fitness routines are most likely to gain satisfaction from this challenging form of yoga.

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The Benefits of Yoga

A primer for beginning yoga students, plus the benefits of more advanced exercise

:: by Ashley Dodson

The benefits of yoga provide both instant gratification and lasting transformation. In the fitness world, both are extremely important. Too much time with too few results can be incredibly discouraging, and monotonous routines week after week can lead to stagnation. Yoga can change your physical and mental capacity quickly, while preparing the mind and body for long-term health.

Yoga is for everyone

Most yoga studios and local gyms offer yoga classes that are open to all generations and fitness levels. It’s exciting to enter a room full of young teens, athletes, middle-aged moms, older gentlemen and even fitness buffs and body builders. Everyone can feel accepted and included and, unlike other sports or classes that focus on niche clients, yoga tends to have open arms. Whether you like to say "Om" or you can’t stand the word “yogi;” whether you are 92, 53, or even 12, yoga can help you.

Yoga encourages overall health and wellness

Yoga is not just about working out, it’s about a healthy lifestyle. The practice of yoga allows students to be still in a world consumed with chaos. Peace and tranquility achieved through focused training appeals to everyone.
Yoga’s deep breathing and meditation practices help foster an inner shift from to-do lists, kids and spouse’s needs, financial concerns and relational struggles to something a little bit bigger than the issues you face. Yoga helps relieve stress and unclutter the mind, and helps you get more focused.

Yoga has many faces

One of the benefis of yoga is that you can choose a yoga style or practice that is tailored to your lifestyle, such as hot yoga, power yoga, relaxation yoga, prenatal yoga, etc. Whether you prefer you're at home, in a private session, watching a DVD or at a studio or gym, there are a huge variety of options available to suit your goals and needs.
If you are a yoga beginner, Hatha yoga, which focuses on basic postures at a comfortable pace, would be great for you. If you want to increase strength through using more of your own body’s resistance, power yoga may be right for you.
If you are ready for a deeper practice, Advanced Yoga, or Bikram, also called “hot yoga,” may be just what you are looking for. In Bikram yoga, the room temperature is set to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, resulting in greater elimination of toxins from the body through the increased production of sweat. No matter your fitness level, fat percentage, or health history, yoga has a place for you.

Strength training and flexibility

Yoga’s focus on strength training and flexibility is an incredible benefit to your body. The postures are meant to strengthen your body from the inside-out, so you don’t just look good, you feel good too. Each of the yoga poses is built to reinforce the muscles around the spine, the very center of your body, which is the core from which everything else operates. When the core is working properly, posture is improved, thus alleviating back, shoulder and neck pain.
The digestive system gets back on track when the stretching in yoga is coupled with a healthy, organic diet, which can relieve constipation, irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) and acid reflux. Another one of the benefits of yoga is that stretching and holding of postures also causes muscles to lengthen, which gives the body a longer, leaner look.

How does power yoga build muscle?

A more advanced form of yoga can amplify these effects. Adapted from the basic Ashtanga yoga, power yoga requires increased amounts of energy, focus and strength. Although power yoga is an evolvement of the basics, it certainly is not a basic course.
But how does it help build muscle? Deeper, more focused participation is required, because most poses are held for five full breaths versus the usual one to three breaths. Muscles are challenged as the mind and body have to work together simultaneously to hold a position or continue a succession without giving up. Breathing, posing, moving and increasing flexibility happen all together at one time, which solicits a new level of discipline in your mind and body.

Power yoga and the core

Isometric exercises are one of the best ways to build core strength. Isometric, stemming from the words “same” and “length,” simply translates to holding one position without moving. Power yoga uses isometric exercises along with other postures that are designed to make the core and back stronger. Flexibility and balance stem from your core, so it is very important to train this area of the body. In turn, you can increase the strangth and health of your entire body. Generally a higher-temperature room is used in this practice to help keep the muscles warm and release additional toxins from the body.

Power yoga’s effect on the total body

Here's a list of some of the most beneficial aspects of power yoga:

• It increases endurance, strength and flexibility.

• Mental endurance and physical stamina are tested through holding postures for extended breaths.

• Arm and shoulder strength is multiplied as you use your own body weight for resistance.

• Lats and other back muscles begin to support the spine better than before.

• Abdominals and obliques are refined and sharpened through building core muscles.

• Poor and average posture begins to correct itself over time.

• Hip flexors are stretched and rebuilt.

• Glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves are tightened and lengthened where they need to be.

No matter what ails your aching body, or if you would like to take your fitness to a higher level, power yoga's ability to build muscles has an undeniably commendable effect on the total body.

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Perfecting Your Posture to Relieve Chronic Pain

:: by Katy Santiago, M.S.

How long does your body hurt after your feet first hit the floor in the morning? Ten minutes? Sixty minutes? All day? If you have forgotten what it feels like to move without pain, then this information is for you! Chronic pain has become so prevalent in our society that we are beginning to treat it as a normal phenomenon instead of the alert system that it is. Most degenerative changes that occur in the body are a result of how we move. Not just how often we move, but how we move specifically.
But my posture looks good!
Because I always begin an assessment with standing posture, most body-conscience people are startled to see that although their standing posture is aesthetically excellent, the alignment of the skeleton is not. That often reveals issues hidden deep within the musculature of the body. Because posture is subjective, guidelines are usually passed from teacher to student or mother to child. We know the basics—hunching over is bad and keeping the stomach in is good—but there are many other things that your mother didn’t know, especially when dealing with chronic injury issues. While biomechanical concepts are often linked to the movements of the arms and legs, the same universal laws apply to circulation, blood flow, lung inflation and bone density. Important physiological functions such as cardiovascular and organ health are also dependent on the mechanical environment created by skeletal position.
For a scientist, it is much easier to work with alignment than posture. Alignment is objective and easy to quantify. It is also easy to teach individuals where their body should be in space, and more importantly, why. The best alignment is chosen to place the bony levers in the position from which the muscular system has the best control. Alignment from the muscular point of view means less of many things: less inappropriate force in the joints; less stress on cartilage, tendons and ligaments; and less neurological confusion. It can also lead to more oxygen flow, more support for the organs in the body, and more motor skill, which is essential for healthy cognitive function. The two misalignments I see most often are tucked pelvises and rib thrusting. Both of these actions are compensatory mechanisms to enhance posture when muscular strength or motor skill is missing.
Tucking your pelvis?
Many women tuck their pelvis because it flattens the belly or because they were instructed from a young age not to stick out their bottoms. Yet this movement actually decreases the function of the muscles in that area. A tucked pelvis can change the position of the pelvic floor muscles, making them inefficient at holding the organs with strength equal to their weight. That can increase pressure on the prostate in men and can lead to organ prolapse in women. A backward tilt can also result in weak posterior muscles and excessive tension through the low back, which can decrease circulation and loading to the hips—critical to bone and cartilage generation.
Rib Thrusting
Rib thrusting is a common mechanism to disguise kyphosis, a forward curvature of the middle and upper back. Excessive sitting restricts the ability to mobilize the vertebrae individually. Standing up straight has simply become adjusting the upper back as a whole unit, not the individual articulation that the spine is capable of. The result is shoulders that are back where they should be, but ribs that are displaced forward. Because the placement and mobility of the rib cage are essential for optimal lung inflation, this bony repositioning can have an instant effect on how much air enters the body and how much oxygen enters the blood. The abdominal muscles attach to the lower ribs as well, so thrusting the ribs leads to weak stomach muscles, poor spinal stabilization and excessive disk compression.
Are You a Rib Thruster?
Stand against a wall with your heels three to four inches away. Press your thigh bones back toward the wall, letting your tailbone relax. Next, bring your shoulders, arms and the back of your head against the wall. You should have a small space underneath your waistband, but your middle back should be firmly touching.

Notice the ribs thrusting away from the wall. Good alignment! Head, ribs and hips on the wall without tucking the pelvis (waistband off).

If your middle back is not touching, peel your head and shoulders away until your mid-back touches. This is the curvature of the upper spine. Ideally your head, mid-back and pelvis should be touching the wall at the same time (but not your waistband). If you can’t keep them against the wall at the same time, then your upper spine doesn’t have the mobility it needs for the optimal health of the tissues that live there.

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Katy Santiago is a biomechanics expert, director of the Restorative Exercise Institute, and featured expert in Gaiam’s Restorative Exercise DVDs for Strong Bones, Spinal Alignment and Foot Pain.

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How to Relieve Indigestion with Yoga

6 step-by-step yoga poses for indigestion relief

:: by Amber Angelle

We have all been there: You eat a spicy meal, or maybe just too much, and suddenly you’re bloated from indigestion. Although it isn’t a serious health condition, indigestion can be extremely uncomfortable. Fortunately, some simple yoga poses will not only provide relief but will also help prevent indigestion in the future.

Step 1: Yogasana

Yogasana massages your abdominal muscles and improves digestion.

• Sit in the Lotus posture, legs crossed, with each foot resting on the opposite thigh.

• Inhale and exhale, then bend forward, lowering your forehead to the ground.

• While still bent, clasp your hands behind your back and stay in the pose for 20 seconds.

• Continue to breathe.

Step 2: Spinal twist

This pose aids digestion by making it easier for food to move through the intestines.

• Sit on the ground with your left leg extended in front of you.

• Cross your right leg over the left and rest the sole of the right foot on the outside of your left knee.

• Twist your body to the left as far as is comfortable, and put the palms of your hands on the ground to the left as well.

• Remain in that position for 10 seconds as you inhale and exhale freely.

Repeat the pose on your right side.

Step 3: Cobra

This posture stretches the abdominal muscles, stimulates circulation, improves digestion and relieves constipation.

• Lie on your stomach with your arms bent, elbows toward the body, palms down in front of the shoulders.

• Inhale and raise your head, neck and back as you straighten your arms. You can bend your head back or look straight ahead.

• Stay in that position for 10 seconds, then lower yourself to the ground as you exhale.

Step 4: Supine thunderbolt

This is a great pose that stretches your whole body and increases circulation.

• Kneel on the floor and lower your butt until it is resting between your heels.

• Exhale and lower your back until your elbows touch the ground.

• Remain in the pose for a few seconds, then lower your back all the way until it is flat, or as flat as possible, on the ground.

• Fold your arms above your head and remain in that position for up to 30 seconds and keep breathing deeply.

Step 5: Supported plough

This pose exercises the abdominal muscles, aids digestion and relieves constipation.

• Lie on your back with your legs extended and your arms at your sides.

• Lift your legs up. The backs of your upper arms should remain on the ground with your elbows bent and hands against your ribs for support.

• Continue to lower your legs behind your head until your toes rest on the floor.

• Hold this pose for six seconds. Do not hold your breath.

Step 6: Abdominal uplift

This yoga position promotes healthy digestion and gives your abdominal muscles a bit of a workout.

• On an empty stomach, place your feet apart with knees bent.

• Resting your hands on your thighs, bend forward and breathe out through your nose.

• Press your hands down firmly, and without breathing in, use your abdominal muscles to bring in your abdomen toward your back.

• Hold for five seconds.

Repeat three times.

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