4 Types of Yoga Classes

A Breakdown of the Major Styles and How to Get Started

Whether you’re interested in a physically-demanding yoga class or one centered around relaxation and meditation, several types of yoga suit your needs. Each style has different goals for its participants. Not to mention, each teacher is slightly different in their methods and preferences. The key is to try a few to see which one you prefer. Depending on the day or scenario, you may grow accustomed to several different styles.

Let’s explore the most popular types of yoga classes.

The Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is an exercise involving the mind and body. It consists of moving through a sequence of body poses and breathing exercises to help participants improve their strength, flexibility, balance, and relaxation. Yoga has many benefits. For example, a 2019 study in Reuters links yoga to a reduction in blood pressure. The primary reason is that yoga focuses on centering your mind and body through breathing and meditative exercises.

An Improvement in Your Mental Health

One of yoga’s most apparent benefits is improving your mental health. The practice relaxes the mind and body, centers focus on controlled movement and breathing, and offsets daily stress. The exercise helps the muscles in your body unwind, strengthen, and, ultimately, relax better, which can improve sleep.

An Improvement in Your Physical Health

As mentioned above, yoga can result in an improvement in your physical health. John Hopkins Medicine explains how yoga directly connects to cardiovascular health. It can lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels, in addition to one’s heart rate. Not to mention, the exercise routine improved strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination as participants move through a series of controlled exercises and breathing techniques.

1. Vinyasa

In Sanskrit, Vinyasa means “to place in a special way.” Vinyasa is a common and athletic-style yoga adapted from ashtanga yoga in the 1980s. Vinyasa involves movement and poses carefully coordinated with your breath to achieve a continuous flow.

A Focus on Alignment

Vinyasa yoga is a dynamic, high-energy exercise that produces heat in the body, develops strength, and even stimulates the cardiovascular system. It enhances core stability by engaging the muscles in the lower torso and improves mobility by moving the body through poses that expand the range of motion and build a stronger foundation. All of these contribute to a focus on alignment. It also extends to developing a stabilized mood and emotional pattern with an increased view of one’s body image and enhanced focus and memory.

Controlled Breathing

Vinyasa is also known to increase blood circulation and is considered by many to be “moving meditation,” calming the mind, body, and spirit through controlled breathing while still working up a sweat. For many participants, time flies while participating in a Vinyasa-style class, and they walk away with a boost in their mood and the ability to sleep and live better.

Yoga Body Sculpt—A Crunch Exclusive

Available at select locations, Crunch has our very own Yoga Body Sculpt—a strength-building Vinyasa-style yoga class that focuses on toning your buns and thighs while flattening your belly and boosting your core—in addition to other yoga classes. Not to mention, it’s a lot of fun.

2. Hatha—The Most Popular Type of Yoga Class

Hatha is a Sanskrit word meaning sun (ha) and moon (tha). The term can also be translated to willful or tenacious. The practice involves mastery of the physical body and promoting spiritual and physical wellness. During hatha yoga, the participant attempts to balance the mind and body through a series of postures and chakras—focal points of awareness that allow the mind to meditate. It is considered the most popular type of yoga class, good for beginners and experts alike.

A Focus on Physicality

Studies show that Hatha yoga helps relieve neck and back pain as participants develop increased core and back strength, resulting in better posture and alignment. Through a series of gentle exercises, controlled movements, and poses, Hatha can also improve one’s range of motion, which naturally reduces our perception of pain and discomfort in the spinal cord.

An Excellent Entry-Point for Beginners

Hatha yoga classes are excellent for novices as they tend to be slower-paced than other styles. Hatha classes involve a classic approach to breathing and movement, improving flexibility, and enhancing balance through increased muscle strength and endurance.

Hatha Flow—A Crunch Exclusive

Available at select locations, Crunch has our very own ​​Hatha Flow—yoga that integrates posture, breathing exercises, relaxation, and meditation to harmonize you on every level: body, mind, and spirit. All levels are welcome.

3. Combination Yoga

Combination yoga involves strength training, cardio, and yoga in one exciting, fast-paced, heart-pumping workout. It is an excellent way to merge your love for weight lifting and other traditional forms of exercise with the controlled movement and meditation offered in yoga.

A Focus on Consistency

The key here, as with any solid fitness program, is to focus on consistency. If you’ve found your passion in combination yoga, make it a healthy goal to participate 2-3 times each week. This, in combination with other cardio and endurance exercises, will result in the many benefits discussed previously.

OmHIIT—A Crunch Exclusive

Available at select locations, Crunch has our very own OmHIIT—a class involving flowing yoga sequences mixed with high-intensity interval bouts to deliver a total mind and body workout.

Fierce—A Crunch Exclusive

Available at select locations, Crunch has our very own Fierce—take your yoga practice to the next level in this unique class that combines athletic movement, power yoga, and balance challenges, all taught in a heated studio. Special “fire it up” challenges inserted throughout the workout are designed to challenge your mind and body. This one-of-a-kind yoga class will leave you with a fierce attitude and a fit body.

4. Prenatal

Carefully adapted for moms-to-be, prenatal yoga is tailored for women in all trimesters. Many experts claim prenatal yoga is one of the best forms of exercise for expectant moms because of the combination of pelvic floor work, focus on controlled breathing, and the growing bond many experience with their growing baby. Thanks to the gentle exercise and breathing techniques presented, which can enable increased focus and pain management and open the hips for easier labor, prenatal yoga can also help prepare mothers for delivery.

A Focus on the Pelvic Floor

It’s no secret that pregnancy is extremely exhausting for the one experiencing it directly. As the mother and baby move through the three trimesters, her body must adapt to accommodate the weight of the placenta, increased blood volume, and the growing baby. Prenatal yoga is an excellent exercise routine as it allows an opportunity for the mother to strengthen both her pelvic floor and the various muscle groups that support it. This includes the hip muscles, adductor muscles, gluteal muscles, lower abdominal muscles

Stability Over Flexibility

Keep in mind that prenatal yoga emphasizes stability over flexibility. After all, with a growing belly, it can be difficult or even impossible for many expectant mothers to bend over and participate in traditional yoga poses. Therefore, prenatal yoga poses incorporate props and modified poses to ensure stability, comfort, and relaxation.

Whether you’re interested in a physically-demanding yoga class or one centered around relaxation and meditation, several types of yoga suit your needs. Each style has different goals for its participants. Not to mention, each teacher is slightly different in their methods and preferences. The key is to try a few to see which one you prefer. Depending on the day or scenario, you may grow accustomed to several different styles.

Yoga is available at select Crunch locations. Search here.