Ashtanga vinyasa yoga side. Vinyasa is the alignment of breaths with movements in asanas while practicing yoga. Founder Pattabhi Jois states, "Vinyasa means 'breathing system'. Without vinyasa, don't do asana. When vinyasa is perfect, the mind is under control". For each movement, there is one breath. All asanas are assigned a certain number of vinyasas. According to Sharath, "The purpose of vinyasa is for internal cleansing. Breathing and moving together while performing asanas makes the blood hot, or as Pattabhi Jois says, boils the blood. Thick blood is dirty and causes disease in the body. The heat created from yoga cleans the blood
Ashtanga vinyasa yoga and never taught by Sharath. However most of his teachers who claim to have been taught by him will teach the above methods, exercises, & postures, even though none of what they teach is part of the Ashtanga method of instruction under Sharath. Pattabhi Jois also did not require students to independently drop back and come up from back bending before progressing to the 2nd series. Sharath changed the requirements, and has now made this mandatory. However, it is important to note that Pattabhi Jois was the founder of the system, and taught each of his original students differently, instructing