Vinyasa Yoga 101: Everything To Know About This Fast-Paced Flow

If you're a newcomer to the mat, you may have some questions about the different types of yoga. For example, what yoga variety should you choose for a more intense workout?

"Vinyasa yoga has come to mean poses linked together by the breath," explains Lisa Maria, RYT-200, national workshop director at YogaWorks and certified yoga instructor. That means all movements in a vinyasa class are coordinated with your breathing, and there's no break in between poses. Instead, "you're just dynamically moving from one to the next," Maria says.

Tara Stiles, mbg collective member and founder of Strala Yoga agrees. "Allow your body to move along with the ride of your breath," she says in mbg's Complete Guide to Yoga class. "So your inhale is literally lifting you and opening you into movement, and your exhale is literally twisting you or moving you a little farther along, whatever the movement is."

All vinyasa classes will probably start with an intention-setting phase and end in final relaxation. But in between, the format, pace, and other aspects will deviate from class to class. 

In some vinyasa classes, the teacher might call out poses with the expectation that students will know how to do them. In other vinyasa classes, like in alignment-based vinyasa classes, the teachers will provide more instructions on how to perform postures. There are also vinyasa classes that combine vinyasa with other types of yoga, like yin or restorative, and some vinyasa studios that are heated, says Maria.

As you move through your vinyasa class, don't push yourself into poses you don't know. If all of your classmates are busting out headstands, for example, and you've never done one before, now is not the first time to try.

Typically, vinyasa classes will incorporate a variety of postures, or asanas. Think standing, seated and supine poses, twists, balancing poses, forward folds, inversions, and backbends.

Also typical: Most classes will build toward a "peak pose" using a sequence of movements that progressively open the body, explains Maria (think crow pose or headstand).

Vinyasa is great for especially athletic folks, says Maria. "It tends to be a more vigorous class," she explains. Vinyasa could also be a good option for people who are somewhat restless, she adds, as it allows you to move around more than you would in a slower-paced form of yoga (like certain hatha classes, for example). 

If you're brand-new to yoga, you may want to take a beginner-friendly class (like some hatha classes) or an Iyengar class (a form of hatha that focuses on proper alignment and precise technique) before jumping into vinyasa, says Maria. That way you can correctly learn poses before practicing them in the quick-flow format of vinyasa.