Hatha yoga of "Hatha yoga pradipika", "Siddhasana" is the most suitable and easiest posture to learn breathing exercises. The different Hatha yoga texts discuss "pranayama" in various ways. For example, "Hatha yoga pradipka" in section 2.71 explains it as a threefold practice: "recaka" (exhalation), "puraka" (inhalation) and "kumbhaka" (retention). During the exhalation and inhalation, the text states that three things move: air, prana and yogi's thoughts, and all three are intimately connected. It is "kumbhaka" where stillness and dissolution emerges. The text divides "kumbhaka" into two kinds: "sahita" (supported) and "kevala" (complete). "Sahita kumbhaka" is further sub-divided into two types: retention with
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