Goyoga.net Yoga Classes London

Finding the right yoga for you

Level

This article has been written more with the beginner thinking of starting yoga for the first time in mind, than the experienced yoga practitioner.

Introduction

While the mushrooming in popularity of yoga over the past few years is an exceptionally good thing that we whole heartedly welcome it has brought with it a few difficulties that present themselves to both the novice and experienced student of yoga alike. The process of finding the right yoga teacher or class for you is becoming increasingly complex especially for the novice in the face of the ever increasing number of styles of yoga on offer.

By offering some basic advice and more targeted at the novice than the experienced practitioner this article we hope will make your journey to the right yoga class or teacher for you a journey that follows a quick and pleasant path.

Step 1- broadly define your preferred style

Our first tip for the novice or beginner with no knowledge of yoga is to make a broad decision about what type or style of yoga it is that you feel you have most affinity for. While this may sound like an impossible task since you don't yet know what styles of yoga there are we have simplified this decision by compiling the brief guide below.

A lightening guide to yoga styles

There are very many styles of yoga some of them very old with a heritage that stretches back for a couple of thousand years and some of them very modern and very new.

One way of defining / separating yoga styles

One method of broadly defining or separating these styles from one another is to do so in relation to their physicality. Since most people interested in starting yoga will have some idea of their own physical ability, affinity for or contrary dislike of physical exertion we have chosen this definition of style as being the most apt we have so far contrived for the purpose of this guide. When we refer to the word physicality in the context of this guide we are then referring to the degree of physical exertion and quantity of physical content a student would be likely to encounter within a specific style of yoga. Please remember that our purpose is to provide a broad definition of the yoga styles available. This definition is therefore inherently subjective and will not support examination at a level of detail for which it was not designed.

The Goyoga.net scale of physicality

We have created a scale. The leftmost end of the scale represents those forms or styles of yoga which include a greater proportion of quite rigorous physical exertion in their practice and therefore require a higher degree of physical ability on the behalf of the student. The right hand end of the scale represents those forms of yoga which practice little or no physical work and may for example be based entirely around the practice of meditation.

You can start here

Look at the diagram below and choose a point on the scale with which you feel affinity with in terms of how dynamic you think you would like the style of yoga you will be looking for to be.

Hatha yoga is a good style for the beginner because most Hatha yoga classes consist of a well balanced combination of the three major disciplines in yoga these being postures, breathing exercises and relaxation / meditation.

Now look at the table below which is similar to the diagram above but rotated through 90 degrees anticlockwise and has some more detail added. You can now familiarise yourself with the names of some styles of yoga that include the degree of physicality you are looking for.

Step 2 Check out the Goyoga.net Yoga Class Schedule

Shakti Murti's yoga classes listed on the home page of goyoga.net range from zone 5 to zone 8. So if you are interested in joining a class within these zone please visit our home page. If you are interested in other classes within these zones or other zones please see the next section below where we may be able to offer you some assistance.

Step 3 Contact Some Yoga Centres

There are links to some of the major yoga centres in London on our links page. Alternatively you can search for yoga classes and centres in London using the Goyoga.net Google Powered London Yoga Class Finder.

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