Do you practice Vinyasa Yoga and have you ever wondered what is Vinyasa Yoga? Vinyasa Yoga is a widely popular style nowadays. It is often described as a practice with a theme or purposes consisting of poses linked and associated together. There are as many versions, sequences, and definitions as there are teachers. So, what is Vinyasa Yoga and how did it develop?

History of Vinyasa Yoga

Vinyasa Yoga or Vinyasa Flow is not a system and does not follow a clear lineage, hierarchy or leading guru. There is no official founder of Vinyasa Yoga. Vinyasa Yoga is a modern style of yoga, born out of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga tradition. The Ashtanga Vinyasa tradition, in turn, is based on the teachings of Sri Krishnamacharya.  Krishnamacharya taught that the movements between each asana should be considered just as important as the postures themselves. His idea behind this was to deepen concentration and body consciousness throughout the entire practice. Rather than focusing on “getting into the posture” and then breathing, in Vinyasa Yoga, the aim is to keep the deep breathing and body consciousness consistent throughout all movements during the practice.

What is Vinyasa (Flow) Yoga?

Simplified, modern Vinyasa Flow Yoga (also known as Flow Yoga) is best described as freestyle Ashtanga Vinyasa as it doesn’t adhere to the rigid structure of the Ashtanga Vinyasa series set out by K. Pattabhi Jois.

Many Vinyasa Flow classes follow the basic structure of the Ashtanga Primary Serie, starting with Suryanamskara A and B but then offer different sequences thereafter. Many classes also closely follow the basic standing sequence of the Ashtanga tradition and the finishing sequence. There are no fixed series of poses. Each class can be different. The basic syntax of Vinyasa yoga allows one to explore a changing syllabus of poses. You can explore poses from the Ashtanga first, second and third series in a more accessible manner than in the Ashtanga Vinyasa series practice.

What does Vinyasa mean?

The term vinyasa is a composition of two words. Nyasa has several meanings like “to place”, “special order”, and “attention”, “and vi, which means “specially”. Vinyasa has many meanings in the Sanskrit language, however, in the context of yoga, Vinyasa can be best interpreted as

• Special way
• Special order
• With attention

It is often interpreted as a practice with a theme or purposes consisting of poses linked and associated together.