Best Vinyasa Yoga Classes & Videos to Get Your Flow on

Jake is a yoga and meditation teacher. He loves stream-of-consciousness…

Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga arguably has been around for centuries in the form of Patanjali’s 8 limbs of yoga, although it was only recently that K. Pattabhi Jois popularized it in the Western world and made it more mainstream.

While modern vinyasa yoga is slightly different than ashtanga yoga, it takes its roots from the system introduced by Jois as a continuous flow from one movement to another coordinated with the breath.

The great thing about a Vinyasa practice is that unlike ashtanga there is no set of postures and hundreds of variations and sequences that can be made.

While Ashtanga can be to rigid and confining, the fluidity of vinyasa flow has made it one of the most widely practiced styles of yoga out there.

Table of Contents

Primary Series & Flow

Some ‘flow’ teachers aside from the famous Pattabhi Jois include people as diverse as Shiva Rea, who does an almost dance-like version, and lesser-known Himalayaa Behl, who incorporates some Bollywood movements into her yoga practice. Traditional Ashtangi’s, however, will practice the primary series, a specific grouping of postures, and then eventually move on to the second series, etc.

In a ‘true’ Ashtanga yoga class you will hold each posture for exactly five full breaths, and this formula is never strayed from. While Mysore, India, is now frequently called “Ashtanga City,” due to Jois’s legacy, I believe that any true yoga master will agree that all forms of yoga can be modified or evolved so that the practice fits your particular needs.

More dance-like, flowing movements is a cornerstone of the ‘flow’ movement, but it came from Ashtanga yoga, while allowing the creativity of the teacher to come through.

So the true question becomes, how flow can you go, and still be practicing yoga?

When you consider that there were originally many different types of yoga being practiced all over India, and that Patanjali (the sage who is given credit for compiling a bunch of oral systems into a cohesive set of universal sutras, called the Yoga Sutras) was just one of the yoga gurus who happened to write down their thoughts on a cohesive system of yoga.

To learn more about the history of yoga check out our list of online yoga trainings.

Vinyasa Yoga : A Little History

The oldest known yoga teachings, after all, with archeological documentation are between 10,000 and 3,000 years old, since dating of Vedic seals and Stone Age shamanism aim to define pre-classical yoga. Yoga had its own stages of evolution too – if you look at its history.

Before Patanjali’s Yamas and Niyamas (a main component of the Yoga Sutras which informs many of the modern yoga teachings, Ashtanga included) they were practicing yoga near the Saraswati River – this is where the great Rig Veda was said to have been produced, and new satellite images point to this area being a hot-bed of yoga practice.

Now, scientists are coming to the conclusion that this area is dated to 3000 BCE. Is it not logical, then, to allow for a continuation of yogic evolution from this far-reaching date in our history?

If you ask yourself whether your teacher is practicing Vinyasa yoga correctly, you should consider that there are dozens of branches of yogic science, from Bhakti and Jnana yoga, to details on diet and meditation practices numbering in the hundreds.

There is yoga inspired by ancient India and evolved through Buddhism and Sikkhism, and Shivaism. Yoga has a thousand faces and a million names, but its ultimate aim is to bring you closer to an awareness of the divine within yourself and for you to lose your erroneous belief that there is an ‘ego.’ Yoga is inclusive, not exclusive.

Teacher: Ally Maz

Focus: Strength

Type: Intermediate

For more>>Best Ashtanga Yoga Videos

Jake Huxley

Jake is a yoga and meditation teacher. He loves stream-of-consciousness writing, good coffee, and a quiet mind. Not necessarily in that order. You can find him pursuing that wherever he goes.