Ashtanga Yoga vs Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga vs Power Yoga – What is the Difference?
by Fred Busch
Let’s talk about this subject of Ashtanga Yoga because there are a lot of similar sounding names flying around that people use without precision. We first need to make sure that we know what we are talking about. When it comes to Ashtanga Yoga vs Ashtanga Yinyasa Yoga, does anyone really understand the difference?
It seems like they are the same thing because they share a name. Here is why it is confusing: Both are using the name Ashtanga!
Ashtanga means ‘EIGHT LIMBS or EIGHT PARTS’ and is from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and is describing a series of steps that lead to Samadhi through Meditation.
Ashtanga Yoga is the Eight Limbs: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyaana, Samadhi
The 5 Yamas are things that you don’t want to do for a spiritiual life. For example to live spritual life a person would not want to hurt things, waste energy, steal, don’t want to speak untruths, don’t want to horde.
The 5 Niyamas, kindliness, contentment, austerities, study secret texts, surrender to God’s will.
Ashtanga yoga means 8 limbs, because ‘anga’ means limbs and ‘ashta’ means 8, simple enough.
So the fact is that all Yogis who practice the 8 Step Path of Self Realization prescribed by Patanjali are practicing Ashtanga Yoga.
Ashtanga yoga is everybody who considers the 8 Limb Path to be essential to their Sadhana.
So a lot of Yoga traditions are underneath the umbrella of Ashtanga Yoga because they are looking at Patanjali for ultimate inspiration.
What is Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga?
Then there is also this style of yoga called Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga but is also called Ashtanga Yoga and this is what you see in Yoga studios in the West. That which is called ashtanga yoga in Yoga Studios Americas or Europe is actually Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga was created by Krishnamacarya for teenage boys in Ashrams to control their rambunctious behaviour. It is based in Mysore, India. Krishnamacarya passed the tradition to his student Pattabhi Jois who became the guru of Ashtanga Vinysasa Yogis from arount the world who travel to Mysore.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is a fixed series of Poses linked together by the breath in a specific meditative choreography. Students of Ashtanga Vinyasa are advised to master asanas in order to be able to advance to the next series of where there are 5 total series.
This leads to a possible misunderstanding that a person’s level of attainment in Yoga can be measured by their asana practice. This is not the case because Yoga not gymnastics and physical expressions of strength and flexibility can be performed by any high school gymnast.
There are many positive elements to the Ashtanga Vinyasa System. These include:
1) A culture of disciplined self-practice
2) A moving meditation experience
3) A challenging and dynamic physical asana sequence that brings strength and suppleness
4) Use of a specific type of breathing (pranayama) called Ujjayi (victorious) which helps purify the mind and body.
There are also many non-positive elements to the Ashtanga Vinyasa System:
1) There are no Yoga Teacher Trainings Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga which means that teachers are not trained in Anatomy or Yoga Philosophy. Once they attain a certain proficiency of practice they are ‘authorized’ to teach. (Please note that the author is not suggesting that ‘Teacher Training’ programs are necessarily effective at training future teachers to be safe as many examples of poor teacher training programs can be found with little effort.)
2) As a result of this lack of training there is a lack of understanding of Anatomy in general and more importantly the different expressions of anatomy in different people.
Yoga was never designed to be a ‘one size fits all’ practice and in fact represents a very unrefined expression of Yoga Asana that Krishnamacarya himself would not have taught to adult students.
3) As a result of the lack of anatomy training and the mistaken association of advanced yoga asanas with an advanced yoga practice there are many injuries. Severe injuries of the knees, lower back, shoulders and neck are very common in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. When poorly trained teachers meet an ego based system of asana advancement there tends to be many injuries and that is what we find with Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in most cases.
There are always exceptional teachers that are safe and wise in their application of the system but in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga a student would have to extremely fortunate to find such a teacher.
So what is Fred Busch Power Yoga?
Is it really possible that Fred Busch Power Yoga is better than Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga when it is from India?
It is possible only because of the way Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is being taught around the world. Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is being instructed to a student base that it was never designed for.
Teachers are adjusting students with heavy handed adjustments driven by ego and misunderstanding of what advanced yoga means. With only the occasional exception this is creating an epidemic of injuries that lead to hospitalization.
Fred Busch Power Yoga has all the positive elements drawn from Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. For example:
-Dynamic challenging sequences that bring strength and suppleness.
– Moving Meditation with Ujjayi Breathing
– Discipline of Self Practice
But in addition to these elements Fred Busch Power Yoga also:
-Emphasizes the self-realization aspect of Yoga rather than just the asana development
– Emphasizes safety and individual application of the Yoga System
– Focuses on the skills of enlightenment in daily life
– Talks about eating with Ahimsa (plant based eating)
– Has Fred Busch’s ‘Healing Sequences’ to help students Heal Injuries
– Has Fred Busch’s ‘ Massage Therapy for Yoga’ working on Trapezius muscle and foot massage
– Is designed and adaptable to all levels of physical practice with safety
– Considers the meditation at the end of practice to be the most important part.
Yoga must be a multidimensional practice offering benefits on many levels and traditions that are not respectful of student’s individual requirements is simply not offering an ideal practice.
I wish you all the best on your path! May you all be blessed by the Power of Yoga to experience the peace and wellbeing that flows naturally in vessel that has eliminated the obstacles of the mind.