Modern styles, explained plainly

Style names in a class schedule are brands and methods, not chapters of the Vedas. They are still worth sorting out, because the wrong room is a bad way to start.

Iyengar yoga holds poses and uses props. The teacher talks about alignment in detail. A beginner can like the clarity and still find the holding long. The method comes through B. K. S. Iyengar, described with Krishnamacharya’s other students in the previous article.

Ashtanga, in a schedule, almost always means Pattabhi Jois’s set series, moving with the breath. It is athletic. It shares a Sanskrit word with Patanjali’s eight limbs and is not the same thing. If you want the limbs, read them. If you want the series, that is a different class, and it is a hard first week.

Vinyasa is a looser modern word. It usually means poses linked to breath, with a teacher who designs the sequence rather than repeating one fixed series. Two vinyasa classes can differ more than two Iyengar classes. The glossary says the routines on this site are slower than a typical vinyasa class. That is a choice about pacing, not a claim that vinyasa is illegitimate.

Restorative yoga uses supports so the pose is rest, not effort. Blankets and bolsters do the holding. Yin yoga, associated in the late twentieth century with long passive holds and with teachers such as Paul Grilley, stays down for minutes. Yin and restorative look similar from the doorway and are taught with different aims. This site’s sleep routines lean toward rest. They are short, and they are not a full yin syllabus.

Hot yoga is taught in a heated room. The best-known fixed series is the one associated with Bikram Choudhury: the same postures in the same order, in heat. Heat changes the risk. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health tells newcomers to avoid extreme practices and notes hot yoga as an added strain. None of the routines here are heated. You can decline a hot room without falling behind a tradition.

“Hatha,” on a gym schedule, usually means a gentler class that holds poses. Historically, hatha manuals were more severe than that label now suggests. The word has stretched. Ask what the hour contains.

This site is beginner instruction in English: 44 poses, a 7-day path, and short timers. It is closest to a slow hatha hour and identical to none of the brands above. Mark Singleton’s Yoga Body is the scholarly argument that this kind of posture practice has a modern history. You do not have to accept every page of that book to stop calling a ten-minute desk break an ancient rite.

How to read a class schedule

A studio timetable often mixes these names with its own labels, such as "flow," "slow flow," "basics," or "power." These are usually the studio's own words rather than separate traditions. A short way to decode them is to ask three questions: does the class hold poses or move through them, is the room heated, and are props part of the plan.

If the answer is hold, unheated, and lots of props, you are probably in an Iyengar-influenced or restorative class. If it is move, maybe heated, and few props, it is likely vinyasa or a power class. If the poses are on the floor and held for minutes, that is yin.

No one of these is the correct choice. The right class is the one you can do safely and want to come back to. If you are new, the NCCIH advice is to tell the teacher about any health conditions and to start slowly. This site's 7-day path is built for that first week.

What the first hour actually asks

An Iyengar-influenced hour asks you to hold, to use a block or a belt, and to let the teacher correct a joint in detail. A Jois Ashtanga hour asks you to keep moving through a fixed series you are expected to memorize. It is a hard first week, and it is not the eight limbs, even though the Sanskrit word matches. A vinyasa hour asks you to follow a sequence that may exist only for that class. The next teacher’s sequence can be a different one. Restorative asks the blankets to do the holding. Yin, in the late-twentieth-century form associated with long passive poses and with teachers such as Paul Grilley, asks you to stay down for minutes. Hot yoga, including the fixed series associated with Bikram Choudhury, asks you to do the work in a heated room. The NCCIH page treats heat and extreme practices as added strain for newcomers. None of the routines on this site are heated, and you can decline a hot room without falling behind a tradition this site claims. It claims none.

“Hatha” on a gym schedule usually means the gentler held class, which is a long way from the Pradipika’s locks and retentions. “Flow,” “slow flow,” “basics,” and “power” are usually the studio’s own words. Ask whether the class holds or moves, whether the room is hot, and whether props are part of the plan. This site’s hour is closest to a slow, unheated class and identical to none of the brands above. The 7-day path is the version written for a first week at home, with the knees allowed to bend and the rests left in.

Sources

• NCCIH, Yoga: What You Need To Know.
• Mark Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford University Press, 2010).
• Style descriptions here match how those names are used on this site’s glossary and routine pages.