History and origin
Integral Yoga is the school of Swami Satchidananda, who became widely known in the United States after Woodstock. A class combines gentle hatha, breathing, deep relaxation, and meditation, and it often closes with the sound Om. The aim he stated was ease in the body and a mind fit for sitting. The format is still taught as a complete hour. It is not a fitness brand, and the postures are there so the sitting that follows has a body quiet enough to try.
The name collides with another use. Sri Aurobindo called his philosophical path Integral Yoga, and that path is not a pose series. This page is Satchidananda's class. You do not need the Woodstock story, and you do not need a doctrine, to take the rest seriously when it begins.
Philosophy
The pose serves the sitting that follows. Strain is a mistake, not a badge. A calm nervous system is valued over a difficult shape. Breathing is taught as a skill you can repeat: a full breath, and often a simple alternate-nostril pattern, without retention and without a secret. The chant is short. You are not asked to adopt a cosmology in order to take the class. If a sentence asks for a belief you do not share, stay with the breath and the shape.
How a class proceeds
Expect slow postures, a breathing practice, a guided relaxation in which the body is named part by part, and a short meditation. The room is quiet. You will not be rushed. You may chant Om at the start or the end. The postures are beginner-friendly hatha, with rest between the stronger shapes. There is little music and little talk about performance.
The relaxation is longer than a token minute. People who are restless sometimes find the end harder than the poses. That difficulty is not solved by pushing the shapes. You can cover the eyes. You can sit through a chant by remaining still. If the meditation talk turns doctrinal, the posture and the breath remain available without the doctrine.
Intensity
On this scale the class sits at 2, often toward the gentle end of that number. The physical work is light to moderate. Sun salutations, if they appear, are few and unhurried. The longer piece is the relaxation and the sit, which ask for stillness rather than strength. Inversions, when they are taught, are prepared and optional. This is a poor choice if you wanted a training effect you can measure in sweat, and a sound one if stronger classes leave you more scattered than when you arrived.
Benefits
A full class of this kind rehearses four skills in one hour: moving without strain, breathing on purpose, lying still, and sitting. The slow pace lets a beginner learn where the hands and the feet go. The guided rest gives a concrete way to finish, which many people find makes the rest of the evening quieter. That is not a sleep treatment. Nothing in the hour produces enlightenment, and this page does not suggest that it does. The benefit on offer is a repeatable, unforced class.
Who it suits
Beginners, and people who want the whole of a classical class, pose and breath and rest and sit, fit this hour. It also suits people who find hot or loud rooms unusable, and people returning to movement who need the shapes to stay small. You can be new to meditation. The sit is short and guided.
It is too gentle if you came to train. It is a mismatch if you want only postures and find chanting or a devotional frame intrusive. You can usually remain quiet through Om. Pregnancy, uncontrolled high blood pressure, and glaucoma still need inversions changed or dropped. A gentle class is not automatically a safe one if those limits are ignored.
Beside similar forms
Integral is gentler and more given to meditation than Sivananda's twelve-posture hour, though both use classical hatha, breath, and a long rest. It is not Aurobindo's philosophical Integral Yoga, which is not a series of poses. Deep relaxation here is guided rest, not the Yoga Nidra syllabus associated with the Bihar School. It is not a heated studio brand, and it is not Kripalu's move from effort into free movement. The signature is the order: move, breathe, lie down, then sit.
Best positions
Easy seat
Sit cross-legged, on a folded blanket if the knees complain, so the hips are at least as high as the knees. Rest the hands on the thighs and let the breath move without being shaped yet. The seat is the base for chanting, for alternate-nostril breathing, and for the short meditation. Height under the pelvis matters more than how the feet are arranged.
Half salutation
From standing, reach the arms up on an inhale, fold with soft knees on an exhale, and come halfway up with a long front body before you return. Repeat a few times, slowly. The sequence warms the shoulders and the back of the legs without a jump back to a plank. It is enough of a sun salutation for this hour. Racing it misses the point of the school.
Standing fold
Hinge from the hips with the knees bent, and let the head and the arms hang. Stay for a few breaths, then roll up or come up with bent knees. The fold stretches the back of the body and gives the head a change of height after standing. If you feel pressure behind the eyes or you have glaucoma, skip the long hang and take a halfway lift with the hands on the thighs instead.
Gentle cobra
Lie prone, hands under the shoulders, elbows bent, and lift the chest a small amount while the pelvis stays heavy and the neck stays long. Hold for a few breaths without forcing the lower back, then lower. The pose is a modest backbend, a counter to folding, and a way to feel the upper back work. Pubic bone and tops of the feet remain on the floor. Less lift is the right lift if the lower back speaks.
Seated forward bend
Sit with the legs extended or the knees bent, lengthen on the inhale, and fold from the hips on the exhale, hands to the legs rather than hauling on the feet. Stay briefly. The pose stretches the back of the body at a pace the breath can follow. It is not a contest with the person beside you. A rounded, strained back is a sign to bend the knees, not to pull harder.
Alternate nostril
Sit tall. Close one nostril with a finger, breathe in through the open side, switch, and breathe out through the other, then reverse, without holding the breath. Keep the touch light and the shoulders down. The pattern gives attention a simple job and usually slows the breath. Stop if you feel dizzy, blocked, or short of air. No mantra is attached, and none should be invented for you in the class.
Deep relaxation
Lie on the back for longer than a token rest, arms away from the sides, and let the teacher name the body part by part while you release what you can. A blanket for warmth is reasonable. This is a main part of the method, not an extra. You practise lying still while attention moves. Sleep may come. The aim is a conscious rest before the short sit, and neither outcome needs to be performed.
Watch a class
A verified class of this form. If a link is not here, none was certain enough to include.
Introduction to Integral Yoga and Hatha Yoga with Swami Satchidananda