Hatha yoga: features and benefits

Nowadays the practice of many types of yoga. Depending on what our objective is when practicing this discipline, we should decide on one type or another. If your desire is to practice controlled yoga, focused on the elasticity of the muscles, hatha yoga is for you.

This yoga class is far from others, such as raja yoga (mental yoga) or karma yoga (more active yoga), since it focuses on preparing the body before meditation. Its purpose in our society is body stretching. It is the best known type of yoga in the West, and the most practiced. For this reason, it is sometimes considered distorted.

What is hatha yoga?

This yoga class is already practiced in almost any Western center or gym. In fact, has ended up becoming a set of stretches before or after another type of training. As we all know, yoga is an Eastern religious practice, which has been imported into the West with the purpose of being used as another sporting discipline.

Hatha yoga has several steps or parts. The first of them is the postural part, the asana. The rest of the steps, more related to relaxation and meditation, have often been ignored by Western teachers to give rise to a yoga class characterized by dynamic postures that do not follow a fixed series.

Hatha yoga postures

The different hatha yoga asanas often have certain postural difficulties: mastering them depends on balance and flexibility. Nevertheless, This yoga class does not require prior preparation, and its practice is not restricted by age, sex or physical condition. That is why it is a very popular discipline.

Among the most common postures are those most related to meditation, such as lotus pose or child’s pose. We also have some more related to physical aspects, such as the cobra posture or the bow posture.

lotus posture

This is one of the most representative postures of yoga in the West. It is practiced by placing your legs crossed and each foot on the opposite thigh. (right on left thigh and vice versa). It is difficult to practice at first, as it requires a lot of flexibility in the legs, as well as strength in the back, which must be kept straight.

Child’s posture

This posture is much more accessible and also works for meditation. It is achieved by bending the body forward when we are sitting on our knees., so that the spine is curved and relaxed. Then we must put our arms back and rest our forehead on the ground.

cobra pose

Another of the most famous yoga poses is the cobra pose, and It is achieved by lying face down, and then, with the help of the palms of the hands, elevate the trunk up to, if possible, the hips. It is not an easy position, and requires a lot of strength throughout the trunk (central abdominal, lateral and lumbar muscles).

Bow Pose

This posture is achieved when, Face down, we grab our ankles, so that our arms and legs are elevated. It’s not an easy posture either, but it helps strengthen your back muscles.

If we want it to be correct, the practice of hatha yoga usually involves first a warm-up phase, with postures such as sun salutation. Later, an asana practice and, finally, a meditation.

The benefits of hatha yoga

This yoga class has some benefits, and that is why it is so widespread in our society.

Firstly, does not require prior physical preparation, so it is affordable for all ages, sexes and constitutions. It is also a very good way to increase or preserve our elasticity, since the practice of asana is slow and controlled. It gives us, in turn, muscle strength and toning, since in many of the postures we use muscles that we do not usually train. When more control is achieved, The practice can help us increase lung capacity, since breathing exercises are an important part of this discipline.

Hatha yoga is, therefore, a very complete exercise that helps us train our entire body, in very different ways. Thanks to it we not only exercise, we can also relieve or control injuries, reduce stress and also share moments.

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