Hatha Yoga and its benefits
The pace of life we lead increasingly pushes us to practice sports and activities that help us disconnect and reconnect with our body and mind. The daily routine marked by work and social commitments often leaves us completely exhausted, and we need a space for ourselves. Currently, many women have found in the practice of yoga that moment of connection and inner peace. That moment just for them.
There is something that makes yoga different from any other sporting discipline, and that is that it helps us strengthen our body while resting our mind. Two factors that are absolutely necessary in today's society marked by a sedentary lifestyle and stress. However, the type of yoga that has become most popular in the West and which we can find available in most sports centres and gyms is Hatha Yoga. This is because the practice of Hatha Yoga has great benefits for our health.
For those of you who are not yet familiar with this type of yoga, in this post we are going to tell you what Hatha Yoga is and what its benefits are, among other interesting facts.
What is Hatha Yoga?
The popularity of Hatha Yoga and its benefits has been such that it has even been incorporated into other types of training and sports disciplines for warming up and/or stretching. But what does Hatha Yoga really consist of? Hatha Yoga has been established as the type of yoga that has served as the basis for all other styles. In this way, Hatha Yoga is understood as the basic yoga. That is, Hatha Yoga lays the foundations of yoga and, therefore, that makes it the most suitable for us to start practicing it.
There are several interpretations of the name Hatha Yoga. The first one describes this discipline as 'solar and lunar' yoga, since 'Ha' refers to the sun and 'tha' to the moon. However, there is a second interpretation that defines Hatha Yoga as effort and power. In any case, Hatha Yoga consists of a combination of breathing and movement through different postures. Through them, one seeks to find a balance between strength and flexibility, while learning to control the breathing rate and approaching meditation.
Hatha Yoga, also known as 'yoga of postures', can be divided into several stages:
- Stages 1 and 2: the Yamas and the Niyamas . Both are related to the set of ethical principles and rules that govern yoga. This is the most spiritual part of this discipline, while the following stages are related to physical activity and breathing exercises.
- Stage 3: The Asanas . These are the postures.
- Stage 4: Pranayama . The latter consists of breathing exercises that will help us master breathing.
In modern Western practice we focus much more on stages three and four, that is, on the strictly physical part. However, the dimension of Hatha Yoga and its benefits goes far beyond this. Therefore, it can also be a tool for meditation, self-knowledge and spiritual purification.
How can we start practicing Hatha Yoga?
From the moment someone does some research before starting to practice yoga, they discover that Hatha Yoga is the best way to start. This discipline is the most suitable for beginners, as it is characterized by a slow and simple rhythm that is easy to follow. In this way, we will be able to familiarize ourselves with and master the postures very well. In this type of yoga, the postures are held for long enough for us to adapt to them, know them in detail and be able to repeat them effortlessly. In this way, the learning process of Hatha Yoga is rewarding and friendly for first-time yogis.
Getting started with Hatha Yoga will allow us to become aware of our body through postures (asanas) and pay more and better attention to our breathing through the practice of pranayama. We can start by teaching ourselves, from home, using an app or YouTube tutorial. Or, we can look for a gym with yoga classes, or a center exclusively dedicated to this practice. The truth is that there are many options and all are equally valid. We can choose the one that best suits our needs. However, if it is our first contact with this activity, it will always be advisable to take classes in person at least to begin to understand the most basic principles of this discipline with the help of a qualified professional. In addition, in this way they can correct us on site those postures or gestures that we are not doing well and that may be harmful to our body.
What do I need to get started?
Now, let's look at some tips and notes that we should keep in mind to really get started in the practice of Hatha Yoga:
- Don't forget your mat! It's true that yoga doesn't require a lot of equipment, but a good mat will be essential for doing the postures and different exercises.
- The right outfit will help us feel comfortable and confident. A set of leggings and a top that fits our body and follows our movements effortlessly will give us confidence. An example could be the Flower set . Its fabric transforms body heat into infrared rays that help us fight cellulite, reduce centimeters and prevent the appearance of stretch marks.
- Persistence and patience. Let's not be in a hurry to do the perfect postures, or to see immediate results. Yoga is a long-distance race, a discipline that goes beyond sport, which seeks to balance and align body, mind and spirit. Therefore, persevering in our sessions and being flexible with our evolution will help us enjoy our immersion in the yogi world much more.
Top 10 benefits of Hatha Yoga
Hatha Yoga has countless benefits, but we will try to summarize the most important ones:
- It tones and strengthens our muscles.
- Improves lung capacity
- Increases balance and flexibility
- Strengthens the immune system
- Helps relieve stress
- Corrects and improves posture
- It promotes spiritual connection with ourselves
- Teaches us to meditate
- It fills us with energy
- It helps us to be more aware and intuitive
There are many benefits, right? We could spend the whole post detailing the multitude of advantages of Hatha Yoga, but, without a doubt, the best way to check them out is to start practicing it.
The most popular positions
If Hatha Yoga is known as the 'yoga of postures' it is for a reason. Asanas (i.e. postures) are the main axis of this type of yoga. A premise to keep in mind every time we are doing one of these postures is that the movements must be harmonious, soft, slow and relaxed. We must find the point at which that posture, within its difficulty, feels like a natural position of our body, as if it were not an effort. Thus, we can combine the asana with pranayama and align the breathing with the movement. This will improve with practice.
Each of the Hatha Yoga postures has different benefits. There are more physical postures and others more geared towards relaxation and breathing.
Some of the most common Hatha Yoga postures are:
- Mountain pose or tadasana. Used primarily as a starting point for another posture or sequence. It is performed standing. We only need to lift our extended arms and chin, and turn our shoulders back, with the palms of our hands facing inwards. As if we were making a 'V' with our arms and inhale.
- Tree pose or vrksasana. This is a basic level balance posture. We will stand on one foot and extend our hands together upwards.
- Warrior Pose or Irabhadrasana. Standing, take a step forward and bend your forward leg 90 degrees. Then place your arms stretched upwards or to the sides.
- Lotus posture or padmasana. This is what we have commonly heard called 'sitting like the Indians'. We sit on the floor and cross our legs so that each foot is on top of the opposite thigh. This is the most common posture for meditation.
- Child's pose or balasana. Kneeling, we will sit on our heels, then we will lean our body forward keeping our buttocks on our heels. We will try to touch the ground with our forehead and stretch our back while exhaling.
- Cobra pose or bhujangasana. While lying face down, place your hands on the floor at shoulder height. From there, extend your arms and stretch your neck and torso upwards.
