What kind of yoga should I start with?

Starting up this blog again, now from Buenos Aires, I will give it a broader spectrum, including tango and other major themes of my life. There will still be yoga-related posts, and lots of people around me show a great interest for yoga.

Banking colleagues at Nordea have asked me for advice on where to start taking classes in Copenhagen. They tend to look for yoga that and keeps your body in good health and that relaxes their minds after stressful days at the office. The tango crowd also takes interest in yoga, as a means to improve body awareness, balance and focus.

I always recommend the aspiring yogi to try a few different styles and teachers. To give you an idea of what you may encounter, here's a brief summary of important yoga styles.

Hatha Yoga is a broad term that basically includes all yoga practices where you work the body (with the aim to "unite opposite patterns"). This is what people in general think of when they talk about yoga. In Hatha Yoga we practice postures (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), mediation and cleansing techniques. So all classes that you might take in studios will most likely be forms of Hatha Yoga, although they often bear different labels: "Vinyasa", "Power Yoga", "Yin Yoga", "Ashtanga Yoga", etc.

Confusingly, many studios have classes specifically labelled "Hatha Yoga", and here the term is used in a more narrow sense; it means that you will do asana, and take some time to explain how to do the postures well. These sessions sometimes include pranayama and meditation.

Asana - the postures - is the dominant yogic practice in yoga studios. This emphasis has grown dramatically throughout the 20th century. In traditional yoga, asana played a much smaller part, and was more or less a preparation for being able to sit comfortably in meditation. For many Westerners, asana is the most accessible entry point to yoga, and the first classes I took myself were all about asana.

Asana session, Anusara Yoga in Chiang Mai, Thailand 2010

"Iyengar Yoga" is a very widespread form of Hatha Yoga, developed by B.K.S Iyengar, where explanations can be extremely detailed. It will make you do a very healthy yoga for your body, although some find these classes to be quite slow.

Vinyasa is when breath is synchronized with body movements. Classes labelled "Hatha Yoga" usually include some of this, but in a "Vinyasa" labelled class there is often a much stronger focus on the breath leading each movement. In many Vinyasa classes, the teacher will assume that you already know the postures and won't explain them carefully.

Some Vinyasa classes can be very physically demanding, and especially so the "Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga" classes, developed by Sri Patthabi Jois and one of the largest Hatha Yoga styles today. It is often simply called "Ashtanga Yoga" and although originally meant for teenage boys in India, it has become very popular in the West, giving you a great workout and promoting discipline.

Ashtanga Yoga is actually much older than Jois' contribution, and here's also room for confusion. Ashtanga means "eight limbs" and in this yoga utilizes a set of eight different methods for enlightenment. Asana is one, pranayama another, but there's also e.g. yama, which are moral rules of conduct where ahimsa, "not to cause any suffering", is the principal one. This traditional Ashtanga Yoga is also known as Raja Yoga, the royal yogic path, and was outlined by the sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra, one of the main scriptures of yogic philosophy.

"Anusara Yoga" is the Hatha Yoga style that I'm mostly into. Just like Iyengar Yoga it has a strong focus on good alignment in postures, to make sure that the practice is safe and efficient. In Anusara we are also cultivating "heart qualities". These are good qualities in ourselves, such as "courage", "kindness", "sensitivity" or "gratitude", which we want to develop further in the sessions, but also off the yoga mat.

Besides Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga, I should also mention the 3 other major yogic paths:

• Karma Yoga, the yoga of action
• Jnana Yoga, the yoga of the intellect
• Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of love and devotion.

Enough for one post, but if you encounter other terms that you would like an explanation for, add a comment about it, and I'll get back on that.
Last but not least: If you want to try yoga, the teacher matters much more than the class labels. Choose someone that inspires you to develop a physical, mental or devotional practice.