The physical techniques are the very gist of yoga.
The two major techniques you should know about are the Asanas and Vinyasas.
Physical Technique #1 - Asanas
Asanas, another word from Sanskrit, means "poses".
Asanas are one of the key building blocks of Yoga.
It includes poses that are a mix of stretching, and balancing using your body weight.
Most of these Asanas retain their traditional names. You'll find that these poses are named after elements from nature, because of their close resemblance.
You'll find poses with names like Child's pose, Lion pose, Bolt pose, Warrior poses etc.
This naming style is very convenient, as it can help you remember the pose. The names help you visualize the poses — which makes it easier for you to remember them.
You'll hold each of these poses for at least 15 to 30 seconds.
For some poses, you'll have to hold them for upto 3 minutes long.
You see, Asanas are very important to know.
If Yoga were to be a car, the Asanas would be its engine.
You need some kind of engine to run a car right? In the very same way, you need Asanas to do Yoga.
When you're starting out, some poses may take a little time getting used to.
But once you've done it a few times, your body will adjust and make you stronger, which will help you to perform them more easily.
The stretching poses help you increase your range of motion, flexibility and is good for blood circulation. This is great for your body's major areas such as your neck, back, hamstrings, quadriceps and hip flexors — basically, muscles that are involved helping you to sit, stand and maintain good posture.
Balancing using your own body weight gives you many advantages, and when combined with the stretching, it becomes great for burning fat, helping you build & tone your muscles, as well as improving your core-strength.
How Many Asanas Are There?
Throughout the centuries, several asanas were developed, some with a few variations.
Most Asanas you'll find are either sitting, standing or reclining. Generally, they won't be much of a challenge to perform.
They target areas such as your back, shoulders, hips, legs and spine.
Asanas To Build Muscle Strength
The Asanas that require balancing can help you build muscle depending on what part of your body is being targeted.
To build muscle, you first need to do some activity that creates micro-tears, such as lifting dumbbells. And then, as you're recovering from the exercise, the muscle starts to repair and increase in mass.
In yoga, there are no dumbbells or barbells or any other weight lifting equipment involved.
Instead, you use your own body weight.
Because of this, Yoga is a very safe way to strengthen muscles.
An example is the cat pose, which can help you target your core and back muscles for strengthening.
Cat Pose With Variation. Photo by Li Sun from Pexels
Other poses can help you with relaxing your muscles, such as the Child's Pose, as seen below.
This pose helps relax your muscles.
Child Pose. Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
There are also poses that focus on improving your flexibility, such as the Downward Facing Dog.
Downward Facing Dog Pose. Image by AndiP from Pixabay
Asanas To Burn Fat
There are a set of Asanas that can help you burn fat as well.
To burn fat, your body has to consume more energy.
You can make this happen through exercise.
Let me explain how this works.
After you eat, the food gets stored in your body in three major forms — carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
All three forms can be converted into energy for your body when you want to do some physical task.
But they get converted in different levels.
The primary source of energy for your body are Carbohydrates.
Your body converts carbohydrates into energy, which goes into your blood stream and gets absorbed by the cells of your body.
The next source of energy is fat.
Fat gets "burned", after being converted into your body's fuel.
There are Asanas that are intense enough that your body will burn fat.
The Different Levels of Difficulty
The basic asanas are beginner-friendly. With a good amount effort, you can perform them easily.
After you've gained some good experience, you can move onto to the intermediate level poses — which will be slightly more intensive, but are very doable.
Even after all that, if you want to take yoga more seriously, you can move onto advanced level poses, with a certified trainer — these are more intense and challenging. They will test your flexibility and strength.
You don't have to worry about the advanced levels of yoga, since the beginner level Asanas are very beneficial too.
Physical Technique #2 - Vinyasas
Vinyasas, in Sanskrit, means "transitions". They are dance-like flowing sequences used when you switch between different Asanas (postures).
Don't be confused by the Vinyasa Yoga I mentioned earlier - Vinyasa Yoga (the yoga style) is named that way because of it's use of Vinyasas (the physical transitions between Asanas).
A full session that includes Asanas and Vinyasas can greatly improve your strength, your body's circulatory systems and internal organs, increase your immunity, as well as help you with digestion.
As you can see, just the above two techniques can make significant improvements to your body, both internally and externally.
In the next blog post, we'll look at breathing & relaxation techniques.