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 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