Hatha yoga: what it is, positions and benefits of the most practiced form of yoga
Born in India, yoga is a discipline that aims, through physical exercises, meditation and ascesis, to unify the body and the spirit. Although relatively recent, in the West, yoga has now become a cult phenomenon, mainly thanks to the credit granted to it by various stars. "Hata Yoga, or" strength yoga "is its most popular form.
Yoga is certainly not recent: it was already practiced in India three thousand years before Christ. Yoga means "union" in Sanskrit (literary language of ancient India). However, it was only in the fourth century BC. that Patanjali, considered the father of this discipline, drafted it Yoga Sutra, basic text of yoga. Here he describes the 8 aspects - which he compares to the branches of a tree - that make up yoga:
- Yama, the ability to communicate with non-violence
- Niyama, self-respect
- Asana, the positions of yoga
- Pranayama, the control of breathing
- Pratyahara, internal sensory listening, the emancipation of the mind
- Dharana, the concentration
- Dhyâna, meditation
- Samadhi, liberation, the last stage of personal fulfillment.
What is hatha yoga?
The first five of the eight aspects described above form the basis of hatha yoga, a real discipline that aspires to health and concentration by means of a healthy lifestyle and some postures (asanas, to be precise).
The vast majority of yoga classes focus primarily on the physical dimension of hatha yoga. The main purpose is to keep the body in an optimal physical condition and to discipline the spirit. It can be practiced by anyone, even pregnant women, as the exercises in this video show:
Hatha yoga: postures, breathing, relaxation
Hata yoga is divided into three basic actions:
- The positions. From the snake to the boat passing through the half moon, there are more than 1000 positions. Static or dynamic (such as the Greeting to the Sun), they must always be done without effort, respecting the body, paying particular attention to the position of the body and the alignment of the spine.
- Breathing exercises. Indissociable from the practice of the positions, they are articulated around four main phases of breathing: inhalation, inspiratory apnea, exhalation and expiratory apnea. During a yoga course, there are therefore different ways of breathing: accentuating one of the four phases, breathing with one nostril only, with both, alternating nostrils, producing a sound or not, inhaling and exhaling for a longer or shorter time.
- Relaxation. This phase, which usually closes the session, is practiced in a sitting or lying position. It should be accompanied with slow and deep breathing, which is suggestive, or with some sounds.
The benefits of hata yoga
The fundamental characteristic of hata yoga consists in its accessibility to a heterogeneous audience, whatever their age, sex and health conditions. Without competition, it is not necessary to have specific skills and the results depend above all on the will, concentration and perseverance that each of us puts into realizing the positions. Furthermore, although it derives from a spiritual practice, it absolutely does not require specific philosophical or religious knowledge.
It provides various benefits to the body: increases muscle tone, elasticity, balance, abdominal muscles, decreases fat mass.
At the same time it improves the general state of health: elimination of toxins, stimulation of vital organs (digestive, respiratory, sexual ...), improvement of cardiac functioning and resistance.
Thanks to the concentration and willpower it requires, hata yoga also positively affects the mind. Stress and anxiety progressively decrease, and after a few sessions you experience a profound well-being that affects daily life and relationships with others.
Different types of hata yoga and Hata Yoga Pradipika
Thanks to its success, hatha yoga continues to evolve. Even if the postures remain the same, there are more and more different teachings, which combine postures, breathing exercises and meditation in a more or less calm, energetic or relaxing way.
The most common are ashtangayoga (synchronization of breathing with a fast succession of increasingly difficult positions), integral yoga (balance between positions, breathing, meditation and relaxation), viniyoga (integration of movements with breathing), prenatal yoga (suitable for pregnant women), bikhram yoga (practiced in a room heated to 40 degrees).
Hata Yoga Pradipika, on the other hand, is not the name of a hata yoga practice, but one of its main and oldest texts, written in the 15th century by Svatmarama. The main asanas are described there. To find out a few, browse our album, or learn how to make the classic Sun Salutation.
