Monday 21 October 2013

Ashtanga or Iyengar?

So, it turns out that when I get into something, I REALLY get into it. It's only been about a week since I started yoga and I've done it on almost every day - even on the day I didn't really do it I still did a couple of poses. I downloaded a yoga app and did one of the programs from it today, and it was more challenging than usual. But because I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly and not developing any bad habits, I've also just ordered two books online -
- "Light on Yoga" by B.K.S. Iyengar, which is apparently THE bible when it comes to this form of hatha yoga.
- "Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual" by David Swenson.

Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual

These two styles of yoga seem to be the two main ones, and the best. I couldn't decide between either so I decided that I would try out both. I like the idea of perfecting the asanas which comes with Hatha yoga, but I also like the flowing style of Ashtanga yoga. I enjoy moving from pose to pose on different breaths and I like that it gives me a light sweat too. So ideally I would like to perfect and incorporate both styles. Maybe a different style each day?

The reason I got these books as well is that I want to fully discover all the aspects of yoga - not just the physical side but the spiritual side as well. I don't want to be a yoga hack I want to really know what I'm talking about and the meaning behind everything I'm doing.

Sure, I know that learning from books means that I don't have a qualified instructor guiding me in person, but I'm someone that likes to learn things for myself and teach myself. This is a journey I want to undertake myself. Plus, I don't want to pay for classes and then have to motivate myself to actually attend them. I've never been big on group classes for some reason. I like going at my own pace.

Anywho, it's time for me to hit the hay. Now I just have to wait patiently until these books arrive in the mail...


(Image: http://cache1.bdcdn.net/assets/images/book/large/9781/8912/9781891252082.jpg)

No comments:

Post a Comment