Yoga in these days is becoming popular and is practiced by people mainly for its health benefits. The term yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word "union," which means ?to join.?

It aims for the great union of the body, mind, and spirit through a system of postures, breathing exercises, meditation. It refers to far more than these. In reality, it includes a wide range of disciplines designed to eventually bring the practitioners closer to god.

The yoga classes are usually longer than any other exercise classes because practicing yoga generally needs two to three hours. During a yoga session, your yoga instructor will guide you a series of yoga poses, where you will find many for the yoga positions with simple names such as ?the plank,? ?the cat,? or ?the warrior.?

Yoga, when compared to other classes, is based on perfection and many yoga practitioners expend large amounts of their time in getting the positions perfect. Many instructors make use of definite terminology in their sessions.

You may feel overwhelmed in the beginning with terms such as asana, pranayama or pratyahara. So, do not allow these put you off, as it is not essential to learn and master all yoga terminology.

Benefits of Yoga

The benefits of yoga are countless. The most important benefit of yoga is physical and mental therapy. Hence yoga is considered therapeutic or beneficial. Yoga helps to increase one's body flexibility. It also helps to increase the muscle and tendon suppleness, as a result decreasing your risk of injuries.

It can also helps to combat against certain illnesses, and there are some reliable researches proving that it aids in controlling certain illnesses such as headaches, arthritis, stress, anxiety, blood pressure, asthma, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, epilepsy, diabetes and many more.

Practicing yoga doesn't increase the aerobic fitness of your body, apart from ?ashtanga yoga?, so it is better to combine yoga sessions with aerobic type of exercises such as brisk walking or jogging. The ultimate aim is to manage the breathing and reduce stress through meditation.

Types of Yoga

Yoga is all about poses, breathing exercises and meditation. There are many types of yoga that are available to practice regularly in order to maintain a healthy body and though no type particularly is harder.

So, it is wise to ensure how experienced your yoga class is prior to join. Generally, beginner's classes are more available.

Here are some of the types of yoga:

Hatha Yoga

?Hatha? is a type of yoga that is an overall term for the physical part of yoga. Hatha yoga is suggested for the yoga beginners. Hatha covers most types of yoga and a class that is known as Hatha Yoga, is usually a balanced and moderately concentrated.

Yoga posture and breathing exercises will be practiced. It's best to gain knowledge of yoga fundamentals before moving to other type.

Iyengar Yoga

This is one of the Hatha yoga styles, which needs to practice with the body alignment and focusing on the way to understand the body and its work. There is very little focus on breathing exercises and meditation for starting levels. The primary importance is on proper alignment, mainly for the spine and core of the body.

This Hatha yoga style makes use of some supports such as yoga blankets, yoga blocks, and yoga straps in order to bring your body into a proper alignment. Practitioners will hold the yoga poses for longer periods of time than other types of yoga.

Astanga Yoga

Ashtanga is an interesting one among all Hatha yoga styles, which is a series of yoga poses that always practiced in the same order. Astanga yoga is a physically demanding workout. Astanga yoga practitioners practice these postures in a continual flow linking their movements from breath to breath.

Practicing this type of yoga will develop the body strength, stamina and flexibility. It is also called as power yoga. Those who want to practice this type of yoga can fit it easier if they are physically fit.