Pranayama is just a tool to help enhance the asana practice when done along with the postures. Breathing deep and coordinating the movements of the body through each yoga pose is also part of pranayama. The practice of Pranayama is not only done differently by different styles of yoga, but also the time of practice varies, meaning, it could be done at the start of the yoga sequence, middle of the yoga sequences, or as part of every yoga poses, and most commonly at the end of the yoga sequence:
- Abdominal (or diaphragmatic) breathing, Thoracic Breathing, Clavicular Breathing, Full Yogic Breathing.
- Kapalabhati Pranayama (Skull Shining Breathing Technique) for warming up the body, and this would be easy as the body would already be warm due to asana practice.
- Bhastrika Pranayama (bellows breath)
- Nadi Shodhana (Alternative Nostril Breathing) – for deeper breathing in a regularized and controlled way, helping in clearing the passages too.
- Ujjayi Pranayama (the psychic breath)
- Chandra Bhedana Pranayama (calming energy)
- Surya Bhedana Pranayama (stimulating vitality)
- Sheetali Pranayama(cooling pranayama),
- Sheetkari Pranayama (hissing breath)
- Sadanta Pranayama(cooling pranayama)
- Bhramari Pranayama (Bumble Bee Breath) – for calming both the body and the mind.
