Flow yoga in Koh Samui
Let the breath lead the body.
Flow classes link one movement to one breath, so poses run into each other like a slow dance. Vinyasa is the main style here, along with flowing hatha and Ashtanga-inspired classes. The pace can be soft or brisk; what defines it is continuous movement.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Flow does for you
You get to stop thinking in single poses and start moving in a rhythm. The breath sets the tempo, so your mind has one simple thing to follow. Many people describe a pleasant absorption, where an hour passes faster than expected. You leave warm, loose and a little lighter on your feet.
It suits you if
- you like music and movement together
- holding still for long feels harder than moving
- you want a practice that feels more like a dance than a drill
- you already know a few basic poses
Read the full guide to FlowWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Most classes run 60 to 75 minutes and build from a slow warm-up through sun salutations to standing sequences, then come down to the floor and finish with rest. The facilitator cues each inhale and exhale, often with music playing. You will get warm and probably sweat a bit. In most vinyasa classes the sequence changes each time, while Ashtanga-style classes repeat a set order. Expect to pass through plank and downward dog a lot.
Your first time
- Wear close-fitting clothes so nothing rides up when you are upside down in downward dog.
- Bring water and a small towel.
- If you are new, set up near the middle so you can follow someone, and rest in child's pose whenever you lose the thread.
Good to know
- Flow classes move through plank and downward dog many times, which asks a lot of wrists and shoulders; lower your knees or rest whenever you need.
- Pace varies a lot between facilitators, so a class called flow can be very calm or quite athletic.
Where it comes from
Vinyasa, often glossed as "placing in a special way", describes linking breath and movement in sequence. The approach comes largely from Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who led classes at the Mysore Palace in the 1930s and made the flowing sun salutation the basis of his style. The sun salutation itself was popularized in the 1920s by the Raja of Aundh as a fitness routine, and at the time it was not counted as yoga.
Krishnamacharya's students carried this into the world: K. Pattabhi Jois with Ashtanga and its fixed series, and later the looser vinyasa flow that Western studios developed from the 1980s and 1990s, where each facilitator builds their own sequences. Music became part of many classes along the way.
The word flow also has a life outside yoga. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi introduced the idea in 1975 to describe being fully absorbed in an activity, which is how many people describe a good vinyasa class. In Berlin, flow is the most common style on the schedule, from early-morning classes to candlelit evening ones.
Words you will hear
- Vinyasa
- Linking breath and movement; also the short plank, upward dog and downward dog sequence between poses.
- Surya namaskar
- Sun salutation: a set sequence of poses repeated to warm up the body.
- Ujjayi
- A slow breath through the nose with a soft, ocean-like sound at the back of the throat.
- Chaturanga
- A low plank with bent elbows, part of most flows.
- Adho mukha svanasana
- Downward-facing dog, the upside-down V shape you return to often.