What is Hatha Yoga?
The best Hatha Yoga asanas for beginners. The word “Hatha” in Hatha Yoga has remained unchanged for the past thousand years. However, our understanding and perspectives on the concept of Hatha Yoga have evolved over time. Language is complex, and words can have multiple meanings in different cultures.
In the evolution of yoga, “Hatha” has carried various connotations. In the Western world, the common interpretation is that Hatha Yoga represents the union of the mind and body. The syllable “ha” represents the energy of the sun, while “that” represents the energy of the moon. Hatha Yoga emphasizes finding balance and harmony between these two energies.
In its literal Sanskrit translation, “Hatha” means “effort,” and traditionally in India, Hatha Yoga is seen as the yoga of force, a means of achieving the state of yoga through physical exertion. Therefore, Hatha Yoga can be understood as everything we do with our bodies to attain well-being, harmony, and equilibrium.
- Asana-Yoga pose
- Pranayama-breathing exercise
- Mantra-repetition of sound combinations
- Mudras-hand gestures
- Shatkarmas-ways to purify the body and mind
- Visualizations
Modern Hatha Yoga
Present-day yoga effectively finds a way into regular daily existence. Presently yoga has transformed into the direct inverse of what it was previously and is seen in a totally extraordinary route from what it was seen previously. Current individuals do yoga in the first part of the day, frequently surrender or suspend classes, and utilize online exercises.
On antiquated occasions, Hatha yogis repudiated common life, family, and bringing in cash, and drove the existence of a loner. The austere custom began someplace on the line of India and Nepal, and parts of yoga, for example, karma and resurrection were key standards of thought for religious zealots of that time. Plainness, hatha yoga, and tapas were morning workouts, yet a lifestyle to consume the karma of previous existences and refine the brain.
Hatha yogis practice starknesses, focus, and order to improve the body and faculties. For instance, they keep their hands raised for quite a long time, remain on the toes of one foot, hang topsy turvy, and never plunk down for a long time. It might appear to us that this is important for an unimaginable and tragically missing custom, however, this training actually happens presently. Furthermore, there is no sign that customary yogis in India will before long vanish.
The Buddha rehearsed parsimony for quite a while. He attempted to control his breathing and quickly as did the Jain priests who sat in reflection and abstained from death to consume with extreme heat past karma and free themselves from the wheel of resurrection. However, eventually, as indicated by certain sources, he didn’t discover anything valuable in these practices and dismissed them.
Consistency in Hatha Yoga
A sequence in Hatha yoga is one of the actual establishments of the yogic way of thinking. The body is the sanctuary of our soul, and this training is pointed toward fortifying it. From the start, the presentation of hatha yoga asanas can cause challenges, which is the reason an arrangement of training for beginner yogis has been created. Notwithstanding rearranged arrangements, it offers a specific grouping of their usage.
The best Hatha Yoga asanas for beginners are one of the most common areas of yoga. Perhaps it is with her that they begin to get acquainted with this ancient system of teachings, founded many centuries, or even millennia ago.
Not everyone knows that yoga is not only a set of physical exercises (asanas) aimed at maintaining and correcting health. Any yoga is primarily a spiritual practice, the goal of which is enlightenment, merging with the Higher, and the path to this passes through self-knowledge. It, in turn, is achieved through the practice of the basic stages of yoga.
But in fact, you can master and understand a few basic principles of hatha yoga to make safe, effective, and appropriate sequences. Here I have collected the most universal principles of building sequences and described the application technique, pros, and cons.
These principles are used by popular areas of Hatha yoga, such as Ashtanga Vinyasa and Iyengar yoga. To some extent, they seem to be opposite to each other, so it is not possible to apply them all in one lesson.
But you can use them in a long-term strategy to diversify the practice, sometimes using one principle, sometimes another. In this way, you achieve an integral impact by negating the disadvantages of each of the principles.
A sequence in Hatha yoga is an incredible asset with honesty, well-being, and flawless skill for individuals who are looking for the profound way and themselves. The moon and the Sun, which have amazing energy, influence an individual on the physical and mental levels. By setting aside the effort to rehearse you get:
- harmonious, stable emotional background;
- an organized mind;
- free movement of prana in the subtle body
- release from energy blocks and as a result strong energy in the practitioner;
- strengthening the body and improving well-being;
- Best Hatha Yoga asanas for beginners
The most important of the principles of Hatha yoga, which is used in each direction. In accordance with it, it is necessary to use certain postures to compensate for the possible negative effects of some complex asanas.
These compensating postures by T. K. V. Desikachar are called Рratikramana. “Prati “means” against”,” opposite”, and” KRI “means”to do”. After a complex pose that strongly affects a particular body segment, you need to make a simpler pose on this segment with the opposite effect.
If we take the effect on the muscles, it is expressed either as tension or as stretching. After a pose that strains, it is necessary to bring it to a position in which there is no tension. To do this, you need to understand which group of muscles was strained in Astana or what effect the asana has.
Sometimes it’s not as obvious as it seems. It is also possible not only to eliminate tension but also to stretch the body segment. But this I will consider in more detail in the principle of tension-stretching.
Here is one example of the connection of the asanas, which results in the book by T. K. V. Desikachar. After Shelobhasana, which strains the back muscles and makes a deflection in the spine, Balasana is performed, which is the opposite of deflection. There is no tension in it.
It is logical to continue this principle by the fact that after a pose that stretches, it is necessary to bring it to a position in which there is no stretching.
After stretching, it is not very physiological to strain the muscles very much. You can conduct an experiment. For example, first stretch your arm muscles well, for example in Gomukhasana, and then try to do Chaturanga Dandasana.
You will notice that it is more difficult to perform the emphasis. So when choosing compensation after a strong stretch, it makes sense to take a normal position of the joint, which stops the impact of stretching and does not cause muscle tension.
The principle of the leading pose and target impact.
You can choose one pose that is at the top of the class. For example, Pincha Mayurasana or Urdhva Dhanurasana (Bridge). This helps you approach the sequence with creativity and make your lesson interesting by introducing students to different complex poses.
When you have chosen an asana, think about which postures and exercises will help your students prepare their bodies for performance and achieve success in performing this pose. But don’t forget about the principle of compensation.
The same type of impact on one area can increase existing problems in the muscles or joints, while the uniform impact is the key to injury safety! Therefore, I still believe that more emphasis should be placed on the fact that the impact of asanas is evenly spread to the entire body.
This principle can also be implemented as a sequence in Hatha Yoga by choosing one of the qualities that can be developed with the help of asanas. This is a targeted impact. For example, you choose strength and consistency so that it has a lot of strength postures, such as plank and savasana, or use the interval training method for yoga. You can also develop flexibility, balance, and coordination.
The principle of warm-up to Savasana
So I named the principle on which the Ashtanga Vinyasa style is based, as well as those that came from it-Vinyasa Flow, dynamic Hatha yoga, etc. the Lesson is built from warming up to standing, half-sitting, sitting and Shavasana poses.
The sequence is constructed as follows:
Customization. Chanting a mantra or simply tuning in to inner feelings, breathing techniques
Opening act. Surya-Namaskar or other techniques
Standing positions
Half-sitting and sitting postures
Inverted poses
Completion of the practice. Shavasana.
It can be represented as a diagram. If you do not lead Ashtanga Vinyasa, then you can fill the blocks with asanas that you like. Although the deflections can be placed in the middle of the class since they are related to activating and warming up asanas.
Advantages of this approach to Savasana
-the presence of dynamics, asanas are performed at a certain pace
-inner completion of the practice: from warming up, through the “point of fire” to a calm state in Shavasana
-diversity of practice, because asanas are not repeated.
Minuses:
Minuses:
- -not all people can attend classes from week to week. It turns out that those who skip receive fewer loads and receive only the same type of load
- -insufficient compensation
- -the same type of load can have side effects both on the body and in emotional terms can cause boredom and loss of interest. Even if you don’t practice Hatha yoga using the Iyengar method, you can use this principle by devoting a week of practice to a particular topic.
The principle of alternating tension and tension
This principle uses the method of PIR-post isometric muscle relaxation. The PIR technique is actively used in manual therapy to relieve muscle tension, even in acute pain caused by muscle spasms. It consists of a 2-phase effect on the muscle. First, there is a slight muscle tension (usually the client is asked to suppress the therapist’s hand).
After this, the therapist stretches the muscle with his own effort. Due to muscle reflexes, usually after 3 times of exposure, the tone of the muscle decreases, and the muscle can relax. In yoga, it is difficult to achieve such a point effect, but nevertheless, this principle correlates well with muscle reflexes
After exertion, the muscles stretch better. At the same time, the muscles are strengthened. They become stronger and do not lose their elasticity, as happens when you work only with the strength of the muscle. This principle was first proposed to be used in practice by A. Nikitin.
The photo shows one of the connections of asanas in accordance with the principle of tension stretching.
In savasana, the front surface of the body is tense. In particular, the muscles of the press and the rectus femoris.
In the next pose of the half-bridge (Chandrasana) stomach muscles are free, stress-free, and a little stretch. Just like the muscles of the thighs, especially if you want to turn up the tailbone. Using this principle requires a good knowledge of muscle anatomy.
You can also find many other principles. Some of them require a mystical worldview, such as building a sequence based on the chakras, and the elements, or using a pendulum. I recommend that you use what you believe in, constantly strive to make sense of it, and create your own unique flow in
classes. There will definitely be those students who will suit your personality.
By some estimates, there are thousands of yoga poses to choose from, meaning your yoga sessions need never be the same.
Hatha Yoga in Fitness
Today, there is likely no wellness club left, where there are no hatha yoga classes. Yoga works really hard of improving the well-being and preparation of the body. The act of asanas is a genuinely protected type of actual work, in any event, for an ill-equipped individual of all ages. Because of this, hatha yoga has become a moderate wellness objective for the vast majority.
Wellness clubs as a rule leave just the actual part of yoga, disposing of the way of thinking and the actual pith of yoga. Frequently, the classes are called Hatha, ashtanga yoga, or Iyengar yoga. Since asanas are rehearsed in every one of these styles, it is all hatha yoga fundamentally. Since as per the eightfold way of yoga, hatha yoga is the main stage that works with the actual body. Furthermore, the higher phases of yoga presently don’t utilize unpleasant actual activities.
What About the Sun and Moon?
By one way or another, word has gone around in yoga circles that ‘Hatha’ is really the merging of two words: ‘ha’ for the sun and ‘that’ for the moon, inferring that hatha yoga is harmony among sunlight-based and lunar energies. Or on the other hand, on the off chance that you wish, among yin and yang.
Lamentably, that hypothesis isn’t right.
While ‘he’ does, in reality, speak to ‘sun’, it isn’t the lone word for the sun, nor is it intended to speak to the sun in ‘Hatha’. Moreover, ‘the’ may well mean ‘moon’ however Sanskrit messages give no sign of such.
While the act of sequence in Hatha Yogа is centuries old, centered around the physical is a generally new part of the order, and, zeroing in on one’s endeavors exclusively on adjusting the physical and mental parts of yoga leaves out the main viewpoint, the profound.
Truly, it is in excess of a matter of semantics.
As per Swami Svatmarama, burning through the entirety of our effort and attempting to adjust two powers continually in motion neglects the major way of thinking about yoga. He affirmed that we ought to rather center and guide the psyche so the body’s energy can stream as it ought to.
Conclusion of the best Hatha Yoga asanas for beginners
While many aspects and practices of hatha yoga are still shrouded in mystery, many people successfully achieve physical and internal changes by practicing asanas, pranayamas, mudras, and mantras. These ancient techniques can change not only physical well-being but also mental and emotional state.