Hatha Yoga: History, What a Class Involves and Evidence

What "hatha" means

In yoga scholarship, Hatha-Yoga names a tradition associated with the Nathas and known from texts such as the Hatha-Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita. [1] The same paper says these texts are multifaceted and their influences hard to determine, and that early nineteenth-century scholars did not accurately perceive the medieval Hatha-Yogis in terms of their plural influences. [1]

A 2017 review of a modern commentary on the Hatha-Yoga Pradipika, by authors at a yoga institution in Bengaluru, India, names Swami Svatmarama as the author of the text. [2] It reports that the commentary brings out that hatha neither means nor advocates forceful yoga posture practice. [2] It also gives one traditional explanation of the word: "ha" stands for prana, the vital force, and "tha" for the mind. [2] That is a traditional framework, not a finding of biology. For other traditional ideas see chakras, nadis and the subtle body.

Hatha as a modern class label

Today "hatha" is a broad label, and the same word covers quite different classes. A scholar who separates "traditional" from "modern" yoga uses the term modern for yogas that emerged in India's nationalist period. [1] In research the label is just as loose: a six-month trial described as "Hatha yoga-based" used a progressive series of Vinyasa Flow poses, [3] and another paper called vinyasa "a system of hatha yoga." [4] Thirty-three trials of yoga in people aged 65 and over were primarily based on hatha yoga, most often Iyengar or chair-based methods, and most trials in a Cochrane review of low back pain used Iyengar, hatha or viniyoga. [5][6] Results therefore cannot be assigned to hatha as a separate style.

What a class tends to involve

In a survey of 968 yoga teachers from 64 countries, nearly all teachers included postures, and those who mainly taught "traditional" styles (for example hatha or Ashtanga) were more likely to include breath techniques (95.2%) and chanting (68.3%) than exercise-based teachers (88.6% and 42.5%). [7] Postures took 50.0% of class time, and breathing, meditation, relaxation and chanting took more time than in exercise-based classes. [7] The survey used snowball recruitment and teachers' own reports, so it shows tendencies only. Ask any teacher what a class includes. This page does not teach poses; see how to find a yoga class or teacher and questions to ask a yoga teacher.

What research shows

Movement trials cannot be blinded. In the Cochrane review of low back pain, all trials were at high risk of performance and detection bias because participants and providers knew the treatment and outcomes were self-assessed. [6]

The last trial's control group did no training, so it cannot show that yoga beats other exercise. Hatha compared with other yoga styles: Proper evidence not found. PubMed searches for hatha trials and reviews turned up studies of hatha against non-yoga comparators, and none of the reviews read compared hatha with other yoga styles. For back pain in more detail, see yoga for low back pain.