In my research about different types of yoga I have found five basic purposes for doing yoga. I have also found over thirty different types of yoga. Below is a list of the purposes of yoga and the types of yoga I found. Meditation and Pranayama (breathing exercises) are also important yoga practices. See also the sites below where I found this information.
Five Reasons for a Regular Yoga Practice: (in no particular order)
1. Stress release, better sleep (yin, hatha are good for this purpose)
2. Better focus, concentration, energy (meditation and Pranayama are best, see below)
3. Pain Management, healing from an injury – (Iyengar)
4. Fitness, Weight loss – (ashtanga/power)
5. Sprituality, preparation for meditation – (yin, hatha)
Types of Yoga: (in no particular order)
The most popular types of yoga are Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Hot Yoga, Yin Yoga and Iyengar. Over the years yoga has evolved and changed (in some good ways, and some not so good ways). See my post on Yoga History. Some of the many other names that have been given to types of yoga are found below, for interest’s sake.
Sattva, ISHTA, Integral, KaliRayTriYoga, Bikram/HotYoga, Hatha, Vinyasa/Power,
Kundalini, Ashtanga, whitelotus, Iyengar, Baptiste, Anusara, Restorative/Yin,
Svaroopa, Jivamukti, Prenatal, Kripalu, Sivananda, Viniyoga, Tantra, Ananda,
Bhakti, Jnana, Laya, Karma, Raja, Mantha, Moksha
For more information on these types of yoga see the websites below.
Some helpful sites about Yoga:
What is your favourite type of yoga and why?