Ashtanga yoga is a dynamic type of hatha yoga in which the static postures, asanas, are as important as the movements or transitions, vinyasas, that connect them to each other. During the Ashtanga yoga practice, the breath guides each movement and serves as the vehicle to bring your awareness inside the body. Ashtanga yoga is composed of a fixed sequence of asanas and vinyasas. Each asana prepares you for the next one, so the Ashtanga yoga sequence is designed to always be practised in the same order. Ashtanga yoga was developed to offer house holders a devoted spiritual practice which could fit within their daily obligations. Therefore, Ashtanga yoga is an intense practice which requires commitment and dedication, as it asks the spiritual seeker to practice six times per week to fully reap its benefits.
In the traditional way of teaching Ashtanga yoga, the teacher helps the student build the entire sequence step by step and at a pace based on their own readiness. Once the first sequence, primary series, is mastered by a student, the step-by-step process of building up the second sequence, intermediate series, commences again. A similar process is followed with each one of the four subsequent advanced series. Far from it being monotonous, practising a fixed sequence of asanas and vinyasas provides you with the opportunity of witnessing how your body changes day by day. And, as you learn the sequence by heart, it allows you to take your practice with you wherever you go.
Ashtanga yoga is best taught in so-called Mysore classes, which allow the students to practise at their own pace and the teacher to focus on helping each one of them according to their specific needs. Hence, Mysore classes provide the best environment for students to correctly and safely learn the practice. Furthermore, they allow students to concentrate and turn their attention inwards, both of them necessary elements to get into a meditative flow. Mysore classes are normally taught at dawn, when the energy in the air is at its highest and the world is silent