Ashtanga vinyasa yoga the Yoga Sutras. It was his belief that asana, the third limb, must be practiced first, and only after could one master the other seven limbs. The sage Patanjali outlined eight aspects—or "limbs"— of spiritual yogic practice in his Yoga Sutras: There is a lot of debate over the term "traditional" as applied to Ashtanga Yoga. The founder's students noted he modified the sequence to suit the practitioner. Some of the differences include the addition or subtraction of postures in the sequences, changes to the vinyasa (full and half vinyasa), and specific practice prescriptions to specific people. Several changes to
Ashtanga vinyasa yoga the practice have been made since its conception. Nancy Gilgoff, an early student, describes many differences in the way she was taught ashtanga to the way it is taught now. According to her experiences, some of the differences include: Pattabhi Jois originally left out seven postures in the standing sequence, but later assigned Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana and Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana before the Intermediate Series was given; Utkatasana, Virabhadrasana A and B, Parivritta Trikonasana, and Parivritta Parsvakonasana were not in the series at this point; and Jois did not give her vinyasa between sides of the body poses or between variations