Understanding 3 Major Yoga Styles

Vinyasa, Restorative, and Hot Yoga: Understanding 3 Major Yoga Styles

Each yoga practitioner has their favorite style. It's either a gentle practice of restorative style or it can be a powerful, energetic flow of Vinyasa and Hot yoga. This article breaks down the difference between these three major yoga styles to help you find the most suitable practice for yourself.

Restorative Yoga

This gentle and slow practice concentrates on calming down your mind and relaxing your body. Restorative yoga focuses on the passive stretching. Instead of involving a lot of movements, you will just practice several postures in an-hour-long course.

Since each posture is a long hold, your muscles are able to relax to the fullest. Such practice allows the props to support your body.

Therefore, restorative yoga is a delicate and soothing style for those living a busy life. After a long day at work, the restorative yoga becomes an excellent antidote to stress.

Vinyasa Yoga

In contrast to the mellow practice of restorative yoga, Vinyasa is more powerful. It creates one fluid movement by connecting different poses together.

The core value of a Vinyasa practice is the complement of the breath in each movement. The Vinyasa yogi will focus on the transitions between movements. Therefore, they spend less time on stationary poses.

Even though Vinyasa is considered as fast and energetic, it in fact encourages self-reflection and mindfulness by allowing you to inhale deeply during the transitions.

Hot Yoga

Often mistaken with Bikram, Hot yoga gives your lungs, heart and muscles an intense workout with the interference of heat. This form of yoga has become popular recently. It reduces stress and improves physical strength as well as flexibility.

A hot yoga session comprises of a wide range of poses and usually spiced up with music and a better interaction amongst the people in a studio.

A hot yoga class is heated just above regular temperature. The heat depends on the preference of the instructors. It can be somewhere between 80 and 100°F.

Meanwhile, Bikram is a similar style as hot yoga with a higher temperature and humidity. The room is usually heated up to 105°F and 40 percent humidity.

Bikram includes 26 poses and two breathing exercises. The practice and order remain the same in every class. A typical Bikram yoga class is a 90-minute course.

In contrast to hot yoga, Bikram features a quieter and more serious practice ambiance.

This article is a brief introduction to these 3 major yoga styles. It's time to discover your favorite practice and start living a healthy life today!