Ashtanga yoga is a dynamic type of yoga in which movement, breathing and concentration are essential. In order to feel the effects of Ashtanga practice, you need commitment, regularity and full body control. However, Ashtanga brings remarkable results. See what Ashtanga yoga is and why is it worth practicing?

The tradition ofashtanga yogais associated with Professor Sri T. Krishnamachary and a 500-year-old manuscript that the researcher found during his research in a library in Calcutta. The book contains the entire teaching system, known today as Ashtanga Yoga. Over the years, successive masters, including Sri K. Pattabhi Jois closely associated with Ashtanga, cultivated the practice of combining physical and breathing exercises, and today Ashtanga yoga is one of the most famous varieties of traditional yoga in the world.

Ashtanga yoga - basic principles of dynamic yoga

Ashtanga yoga is called dynamic yoga because movement follows the breath directly, which makes the body work in complete harmony. "Asto" means eight, which is intended to emphasize the eightfold nature of this yoga path, which consists of:

  1. yamy - moral rules
  2. niyamy - working on yourself
  3. asanas - postures, exercise
  4. pranayama - rhythmic breath control
  5. pratyahara - sensory control
  6. dharana - concentration
  7. dhyana - meditation
  8. samadhi - Self-realization.

The natural effect of a well-done practice is experiencing, realizing all successive points. Samadhi is the final point of practice: enlightenment, liberation, self-reconciliation. It is worth remembering that ashtanga without breathing is not Ashtanga. Therefore, performing asanas without breath control will not give the desired effect, it will be just a pose, a figure.

Not every ashtanga class participant passes all levels of practice. People who treat yoga mainly as a set of strengthening and relaxing exercises focus on the third stage, or asanas. It is a system of strictly defined positions (asanas) practiced in series. Their performance is based on four basic elements: breath (uchjaya breath), body movement (vinyasa), eyesight concentration points (drishti) and bandas (internal clamps).

Ashtanga yoga - the most important concepts

Breathing

Breathing is an extremely important part of exercising. Its task is to combine asanas and smoothly transition between them. In Ashtanga yoga, one breathes the uchjayi breath, the so-called the winner's breath. While breathing, the practitioner makes a characteristic sound that is to help him concentrate and achieve peace, and with time - enter the state of meditation.

Vinyasa

In the basic sense, visaya means smoothly entering and exiting an asana (posture). In a broader sense, vinyasa is also the complete sequence of asanas that make up a series. There are 6 series of Ashtanga yoga known, but only the first one is practiced - Yoga Chikitsa and, less often, the second Nadi Shodana - it is a series for highly advanced and longer practitioners, most often practiced by Ashtanga teachers. The purpose of Chikitsa yoga, or yoga therapy, is to cleanse and strengthen the body. Nadi Shodana, on the other hand, is used to cleanse the nervous system by focusing mainly on twists and bends of the spine.

Drishti

The focusing of the pattern by the exercising person is to facilitate concentration and focus. There are 9 varieties of drishti in Ashtanga:

  1. tip of the nose - Nasagra Drishti;
  2. up - Urdva Drishti;
  3. third eye - Brumadya Drishti;
  4. middle finger tip - Hastagra Drishti;
  5. thumb tip - Angushta Drishti;
  6. right side - Parshva Drishti;
  7. left side - Parshva Drishti;
  8. pępek - Nabi Drishti;
  9. big toe tip - Padagra Drishti.

Bandha

Bandha is the energy center in the body. Activating it by the practitioner is to "trap" life energy in the body and help in breathing control. In Ashtanga, we have three very important bandhas, or "energy valves" that allow you to keep and distribute the energy generated during exercise:

  • Mula Bandha;
  • Uddiyana Bandha;
  • Jalandara Bandha.

Bandhas rely on proper body posture and tense muscles to increase stability and ensure the integrity of the posture. Performing them requires awareness of the body, and in the initial stages, the help of a yoga instructor, who will determine exactly which muscles and how to tighten.

See ashtanga for advanced players

Ashtanga yoga - what are the benefits?

Practicing yoga is quite a specific type of physical effort. First of all, Ashtanga exercises are slow and smooth, but still quite demanding. Arranging the body in subsequent positionsincreases the strength and flexibility of muscles and tendons. After a dozen or so yoga classes, the practitioner adopts subsequent asanas without much resistance, smoothly and naturally.

For people who have been practicing ashtanga yoga for longer, the greatest benefit is the sheer pleasure and peace achieved during subsequent asanas. Conscious practices are not about the physical dimension of the following items, but about the internal harmony achieved thanks to them.

Ashtanga, due to the huge role of breath, has a positive effect on the oxygenation of the body and the work of the heart. What's more, yoga also has a positive effect on the psyche of the exerciser. It facilitates coping with stress, achieving inner peace, and by activating both hemispheres of the brain in equivalent positions, it prevents the aging of the brain.

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Yoga