Do people here practice only asanas ?

This is Ashtanga Yoga Tech Support. Real questions from the yoga community, answered.

The Question

I'm curious if you practice only asanas from Yoga? Because it's all I see here, it's very beautiful but this is just a part of Yoga. Anybody practice whole Yoga? Like asanas, pranayamas and meditation ? In my case – I practice Kriya Yoga and do main kriya spinal breath, mahamudra, nauli, and OM japa. submitted by /u/Aliens_From_Space

— via r/yoga

Our Response

Yeah. We practice the whole thing.

Ashtanga includes pranayama. Meditation. All eight limbs.

The asana practice just happens to be very visible. Makes good content. But that's not all we're doing.

Most traditional Ashtanga students do pranayama after asana. Usually nadi shodhana. Some do it separately in the evening.

Meditation's built into the practice itself. Tristhana — breath, bandha, drishti — that's moving meditation. Then you sit afterward.

The yamas and niyamas? Those aren't optional. They're the foundation.

So no — it's not just gymnastics with Sanskrit names.

But here's the thing: Ashtanga's a specific method. It has its own structure. We're not doing Kriya techniques because we're doing Ashtanga techniques.

Different lineages. Both legitimate.

If you want to see how pranayama fits into Ashtanga specifically, check out the Pranayama study guide on the site.

Keep practicing.