hatha yoga classes

When describing styles of yoga, Hatha yoga is a popular term – but what does it really mean? Often, not what some might think.

At triyoga, we don’t call any of our classes Hatha yoga but many of them are rooted in Hatha yoga practices. These include popular styles such as Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Kundalini and Iyengar yoga, as well as our open level yoga and yoga gently classes, to name a few.

our yoga classes with roots in Hatha yoga practices

• Ashtanga yoga classes
• Iyengar yoga classes
• Kundalini yoga classes
• Vinyasa flow classes
• Yoga gently classes

The phrase Hatha yoga first appeared in ancient Indian texts around the end of the first millennium and became formalised into a system around the 13th Century.

Patanjali and Tantric yoga influenced early Hatha yoga, even as we saw a whole new range of practices introduced, including standing postures, breath control practices and mudras, or hand gestures.

Hatha in Sanskrit means force, which might surprise you because many people think a hatha yoga class is a gentle one. That doesn’t mean it was a particularly aggressive or vigorous practice in the traditional Indian context – although there are plenty of examples of yogis performing extreme austerities like holding an arm raised for years at a time or sitting amid fire pits on a burning hot day.

Over time, the concept of Hatha yoga changed and in the 15th century it was said to balance solar (ha) and lunar (tha) energies. Generally, Hatha yoga has walked the middle road. Western ideas and practices contributed to its radical transformation in the 20th and 21st Centuries and the myriad of styles that appear in yoga studios across the world.

At triyoga, we don’t call any of our classes Hatha yoga but many of them are rooted in Hatha yoga practices. These include popular styles such as Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Kundalini and Iyengar yoga, as well as our open level yoga and yoga gently classes, to name a few.