Mar 14., 2018   /   Uncategorized

Iyengar Yoga Basics for Beginners

Background

As a child, B.K.S. Iyengar, the founder of Iyengar yoga suffered from ailments. Up to the age of 16 years, he was frail and week. One of his relatives saw the suffering that he was in and encouraged him to practice yoga. That was when things changed for him. He is currently 96 years old and he is still standing strong.

Iyengar founded his style of yoga after many years of practicing yoga asanas and systemizing various poses. He never labeled his style Iyengar. In fact, the name was developed by his students to differentiate what he taught from other styles of yoga.

The term Iyengar yoga was barely used 25 years ago, although Iyengar has been teaching his style for a long time. The real teaching of this style began when Iyengar started a yoga institute at the Indian city of Pune.

The Basics of Iyengar Yoga

Why do Iyengar yoga? There are many reasons, although the key bass of this style its three defining characteristics:

Technicalities

Sequencing

Timing

The technicalities are the points given during training to help one explore asana in totality. Sequencing on the other hand is the way Iyengar postures have been arranged to achieve the desired effect. This can be the mental, physical, or psychological effect. Sequencing applies to both postures and the points. Timing entails the different lengths of time that a given posture can be maintained. It is through the timing that one can overcome the mental and physical challenges in a given pose.

Iyengar yoga is an offshoot of Hatha yoga where much emphasis is given to precision, detail, and alignment. The number of poses performed in Iyengar yoga are much more compared to most of the other styles of yoga. There is a total of 14 breathing exercise and 200 yoga poses. Most of the poses are variations of others and they range from the basic to advanced. This is why it is possible for anyone to join Iyengar yoga even if they have never engaged in any type of yoga.

Benefits of Iyengar Yoga

Like most of the other yoga styles, Iyengar yoga has many health and psychological benefits. However, there are certain benefits that one can gain specifically from doing Iyengar yoga. Unlike flowing yoga or other fast paced types of yoga, Iyengar focuses on holding poses for much longer and it is slower.

Doing this enables the body to be realigned posture. When one regularly does Iyengar, he or she achieves calmness of mind and steady breaths. Doing Iyengar also helps balance muscular development, making the functioning of the mind and body more efficient.

Practitioners of Iyengar yoga also benefit from increased concentration, better flexibility, and low chances of back pain. One interesting aspect of Iyengar yoga is the fact that there are very few risks or health concerns. This makes Iyengar ideal for all people at all ages. The only challenge is that the poses may be a bit harder compared to other styles.