What is power yoga?
Seekerman
Posts: 58 Member
I am curious to what is power yoga? I am new to yoga and was told by another student of the class some of the poses we were asked to do were considered power yoga. I did not do so well in many of the lower body related poses. Anyone shine some light on what is power yoga?
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Power yoga does not "own" any pose, so it strikes me as odd that a student would say that some poses are power yoga poses.
Do you know what type of class you were taking?
I'm going to take a wild guess that you were taking a generic hatha class or possibly a vinyasa class. Normally in the class, you have a sequence that is fairly basic. The teacher decided to throw some more difficult poses in, which your fellow student had done in a power yoga class, so he/she assumed they were power yoga poses. Totally a guess here, but does that sound logical?
So to answer your original question, power yoga is not a system of yoga, it is more a way to describe a way of doing yoga. For example, I do Iyengar yoga - there is creator or Iyengar yoga (BKS Iyengar) and teachers of Iyengar yoga a required to teach yoga in a specific way without using other methods of yoga. Power yoga or Vinyasa yoga are descriptors. There is no specific creator of power yoga - anyone can call their class a power yoga class. Usually it means that the class has some sun salutations, but that poses are held a little longer than in a vinyasa flow class. Most of the time it is slightly more difficult that a vinyasa class.
I hope that didn't confuse you more.0 -
Might have been associating them with Baptise-style yoga which favors certain poses and can follow a somewhat set sequence. Power yoga is a general term to describe yoga that is more physically rigorous. It can be vinyasa flow, holding poses for longer periods of time, and/or in a heated room.0
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When I think of power yoga, I think of Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown DVD. Very dynamic movement into and out of poses that focus on large muscle groups - specifically the warrior poses - and then holding the pose for a long -ish time. I don't mind this type of exercise, but I think there is less focus on breathing techniques and alignment.0
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Thanks. I assumed the student knew what they were talking about. They were trying to be helpful but thank to everyones reply I now have a a better understanding.
One of the poses was like a low squat and we had to hold it. Then into other poses like the (I believe crescent moon). I found I could not hold these poses in combination for that long. the low squat was a killer. My body don't like that position. I don't know if this is yoga but we also used a ball between the wall and our backs and did a version of wall sit.0 -
It's difficult to say "this is yoga, this isn't yoga" - but I can tell you what is a classic pose and what isn't. Sitting with a plastic ball against a wall is not a classic pose, but it is similar to Utkatasana. The other pose, I'm guessing, is called Malasana.
Your body will take some time to adjust to the poses, just like any new conditioning.0
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