(Image source from: Gilfoy is the right place for Yoga)

It took Lauri Gilfoy several tries before she found the type of yoga she liked.

She first tried hot yoga but found the 105-degree heat overwhelming. Next she tried a stretch class at her gym.

"They didn't call it yoga, but it had the same postures," she said. That wasn't what she wanted, either.

Next, she eased into a vinyasa yoga class that gave her both stretching and a workout. She was hooked.

Now Gilfoy, a Phoenix resident, does vinyasa yoga once a week.

With so many types of yoga available, choosing the right class can be daunting. It's easy to assume that, because they employ similar or identical postures and techniques, one type is just like another. But that’s not the case.

The word yoga is “a big umbrella,” said Barbara Adams, owner of Yoga Village, which has locations in Scottsdale and Fountain Hills. “It can be anything from reading a book to jumping through a room and sweating.”

Depending on the class, the teacher and the practitioner, it can be exercise, a spiritual journey, a rehabilitative experience — or all of these.

Steeped in history, yoga, the name of which is derived from the Sanskrit word meaning union, dates back 65 generations. In general, yoga incorporates postures, which are called asanas, as well as breathing techniques and meditation. Its techniques typically have been passed down from teacher to student.

There are six original branches of yoga, each offering a different approach. They are: hatha, the physical practice; karma, the practice of service or action; bhakti, the practice of devotion; jnana, a scholarly practice; tantra, a ritualistic approach; and raja, the royal path or eight-limbed approach.

These serve as the foundation for the styles of classes offered today, said Angela Fie, a Phoenix yoga, meditation and corrective-exercise specialist who has a company called Yoga-Med.

Additionally, some contemporary styles of yoga are blends of the original six branches, said Vicki Levine, lead yoga instructor at the Montelucia Resort & Spa in Paradise Valley.