Hatha Yoga: The most popular style of yoga

Hatha yoga
This style of yoga makes you healthy and happy!

Hatha Yoga is probably one of the most well-known yoga styles in the world. Here we explain the advantages of Hatha Yoga and how it works.

What is Hatha Yoga?

Hatha Yoga is probably the best known of all yoga styles worldwide and focuses on asanas (movement) and pranayama (breath). – but meditation also plays a role. The yoga style includes many classic yoga exercises such as the sun salutation or the downward facing dog and is therefore particularly suitable for beginners. The term comes from Sanskrit and is made up of “Ha” (sun, power) and “tha” (moon, silence) – in Hatha Yoga two actually opposing forces are supposed to be united.

For Hatha Yoga there is even a kind of basic work, the so-called Yoga Pradipika. Translated, Pradipika means lamp, lamp or light. Like Hatha Yoga as a style itself, the Yoga Pradipika is probably the most well-known yoga scripture in the world.

What are the benefits of Hatha Yoga?

Hatha Yoga focuses on flowing, calm movements and breathing exercises, which are primarily intended for relaxation. This is what makes this style of yoga so appealing to beginners. Regular Hatha Yoga has the following advantages:

The many positive effects can be attributed to the combination of asanas and pranayama. Of course, yoga can’t work miracles – especially when you’re just starting out, you should give yoga some time to unfold its health benefits. The more often you practice it, the easier the exercises are and the more fluent they appear. Mind and emotions come to rest, it is easier to concentrate on the here and now.

Yoga: Important for beginners

Beginners in particular should listen to their bodies when doing yoga. The aim of the Hatha exercises is to do something for your health and to carefully explore your own limits – but not to be ruthless about it. That is why it is also important to carry out the yoga exercises properly, at best under professional supervision at the beginning. Otherwise, you only need comfortable yoga clothing and maybe a comfortable pad to start with – there are plenty of yoga mats, for example.

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These yoga exercises are part of Hatha Yoga

There are usually three phases in yoga: Warm up, the so-called flow phase and the final relaxation. The following exemplary exercises are typical of Hatha and are immediately associated with yoga, especially in the West:

1. Cat and Cow

These two poses, along with Downward Facing Dog, are ideal yoga warm-ups to loosen and warm up the muscles. To do this, get on all fours and look straight down.

When you breathe in, you make a cat’s hump, by rounding your spine and stretching towards the ceiling (cat). When you exhale, look up and let your body “sag” in the middle (cow).

2. Downward Dog

You start again on all fours. Then you stand slightly on your toes, push your hands forward and push your whole body up so that an inverted V appears. You can hold this pose for a moment or alternately, gently press your heels toward the floor to stretch your hind leg muscles. Then you either return to the cat and cow or start with the flow phase of yoga.

3. Plank

The good thing about the flow phase in yoga is that you can vary and expand it as you like. A popular exercise is the plank. From the four-footed stand, you stretch your legs backwards one after the other and hold yourself on the balls of your feet at the back and on your hands at the front with your arms outstretched, as in a push-up. Make sure that your back stays straight and that your back is not hollow. The abdomen is tightened, then this position is held for a few breaths. Then lower carefully.

4. Cobra

For the cobra, lie flat on your stomach, arms bent at your sides, chest and forehead touching the floor. Now raise your head and, with the support of your arms, gradually push your upper body up and back as far as possible. Hold this position for two to three deep breaths and then gently lower yourself back down.

5. The child

The position of the child in yoga is the ideal relaxation in between. To do this, sit on the balls of your feet and push your upper body down towards the mat. You can either stretch out your arms parallel to the front or lay them backwards in the direction of your legs. The forehead touches the ground at best. Hold this position for a few breaths, then slowly come back to all fours.

Savasana as final relaxation

It sounds a bit strange at first, but the most well-known final exercise in Hatha Yoga is the so-called Savasana – the corpse pose. To do this, lie relaxed on your back and stretch your arms and legs out to the side. Feet point outwards and palms face down. You lie down like this for a few minutes and breathe deeply and slowly in and out of your stomach. Then finish your yoga session by slowly sitting up and standing up.

Reading tips: Tired of hatha yoga? Here we explain Bikram Yoga and Acro Yoga, how Osho Meditation, Chakra Meditation and Zen Meditation work and how you can learn meditation.

Bridget