Ashtanga yoga, Iyengar Yoga and Hatha yoga may be familiar terms; but have you heard of dog yoga and toddler yoga? Yoga is an ancient mind body discipline that can trace its origins back to ancient times to the Patanjali Sutras but newer forms have evolved in recent times. What makes yoga so relevant to modern times is not only its wide applicability but also the fact that it is an adaptable, non-dogmatic body of knowledge that grows to encompass other thoughts and contemporary requirements. So if new and hybrid types of yoga have evolved in recent times this as added to and not detracted from the merits of this ancient mind-body system.
This type of yoga is performed by toddlers as well as with toddlers. A child can perform simple yoga aasans along with a parent or parents to get an early start on a healthy lifestyle. In some cases, adults can increase their difficultly levels or add resistance to their yoga practice with the help of their child’s weight.
Yin yoga is a slow paced style of yoga that is suitable for a range of people. It requires the pose or aasan to be held for longer periods – ranging from 45 seconds to 5 minutes for more advanced practitioners. This is a more meditative approach to yoga. It is thought to increase mindfulness and an increased awareness of a person's inner silence.
People with pets can also spend some quality time with their pets while doing yoga. Dog yoga is meant to help people unwind along with their pets. One can use the pet’s weight to do some of the yoga exercises. The presence of pets is also thought to be a therapeutic stress buster. According to Mahny Djahanguiri, founder of dog yoga in the U.K., the lack of ego of the dog can also have a positive influence.
As the name suggests, restorative yoga is all about helping one relax and restore. There are only a few poses included in restorative yoga and props are also used as support to help a person relax completely. Light twists, forward and back bends, seated bends are commonly used. Like Yin Yoga, here as well, the poses are held for longer durations. However the aim of restorative yoga is relaxation whereas yin yoga is supposed to help one reach a meditative state and increase physical endurance.
As the name suggests, this type of yoga is for expecting mothers. Specially designed for pregnant women find that this type of yoga helps to keep them fit and also helps prepare for childbirth. Prenatal yoga involves pelvic floor exercises, stretches, breathing exercises and more to prepare for the discomfort of later pregnancy as well as to ease the process of childbirth.
Based on hatha yoga, this form of structured sequence of yoga poses was created by Bikram Choudhury. This type of yoga is performed in a very hot environment (35–42 °C with 40% humidity) and consists of a series of 26 poses performed in a particular sequence over 90 minute period.
This type of yoga is similar to Bikram yoga in that this is also performed in a very hot environment. Unlike Bikram yoga, this type of yoga is not very structured and does not follow the same sequence of poses. Hot yoga can help one perform more difficult poses that require more stretching.
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