Akash Sharma
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900hr Advanced Yoga Teacher · The Yoga Institute Mumbai
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June 2026 · 9 min read
Most people treat asana and pranayama as two separate practices — one a physical exercise, the other a breathing technique. You do the poses, then you breathe. But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what yoga science actually says. According to the system I studied for 900 hours at The Yoga Institute, Mumbai, asana and pranayama are not parallel practices. They are sequential steps in the same journey — and understanding why changes everything about how you practise.
Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga — the eight-limbed path described in the Yoga Sutras — places asana as the third limb and pranayama as the fourth. This is not arbitrary. The sequence is precise and intentional.
This is Patanjali's complete definition of asana. Not a physical workout. Not flexibility training. A steady, comfortable posture. The entire purpose of the physical practice is to create a body that can sit without disturbance — because the fourth limb, pranayama, requires exactly that.
Note the words: after mastering asana. Pranayama does not begin until the body is stable. A restless body creates a restless breath. A restless breath creates a restless mind. The sequence exists because the body must be settled before the subtler work of prana can begin.
To understand why asana and pranayama are complementary — and not interchangeable — you need to understand the Pancha Kosha model from the Taittiriya Upanishad. The human being, in yogic science, is not one body. It is five nested sheaths, each progressively subtler:
Asana works on the first kosha — the physical body. But its effects ripple into the second. When you practise a steady asana, the nadis (energy channels within the pranamaya kosha) begin to open. The physical body becomes a doorway. Pranayama then walks through that door.
"Asana opens the house. Pranayama fills it with light."
Within the pranamaya kosha runs a network of energy channels called nadis. The Yoga tradition speaks of 72,000 nadis — though the three most significant are:
Ida Nadi — the left channel, lunar, cooling, associated with the parasympathetic nervous system. Active when the left nostril dominates. Linked to rest, creativity, and emotional processing.
Pingala Nadi — the right channel, solar, heating, associated with the sympathetic nervous system. Active when the right nostril dominates. Linked to action, logic, and metabolic activation.
Sushumna Nadi — the central channel, running along the spine. In most people it remains dormant. When Ida and Pingala are balanced through pranayama, prana moves into Sushumna — and the state of Sattwa becomes accessible.
Here is the critical insight: asana works directly on the physical spine and the nervous system pathways that correspond to these nadis. Twisting poses open Ida and Pingala. Inversions redirect prana upward through Sushumna. Forward bends calm the sympathetic nervous system. Backbends activate it. Every asana is preparing the nadi system for pranayama — whether you are aware of it or not.
Prana is not a single, uniform energy. It moves in five distinct directions within the pranamaya kosha, each governing specific physiological and energetic functions:
Specific asanas activate specific vayus. Paschimottanasana (seated forward bend) strengthens Apana vayu — the downward, grounding energy. Sarvangasana (shoulder stand) redirects Apana upward and stimulates Udana. Pranayama then regulates the flow between all five — bringing the vayu system into balance in a way that asana alone cannot achieve.
One of the most significant contributions of The Yoga Institute, Mumbai to yoga science is the Yogendra Rhythm — a specific breath ratio developed by Shri Yogendraji that is applied during asana practice itself. This is the bridge: it turns every asana into a pranayama in miniature.
The extended exhalation (6 counts vs 4 for inhalation) activates the parasympathetic nervous system — signalling the body to restore rather than react. The kumbhakas (retentions) create pressure differentials that stimulate nadi activity and prana movement.
This rhythm means that at The Yoga Institute, asana is never practised with free or unconscious breath. The breath is as much a part of the posture as the position of the limbs. By the time a student completes an asana session using Yogendra Rhythm, their prana is already moving in prepared channels — and pranayama becomes not an additional practice but a deepening of what has already begun.
Not all asanas prepare for all pranayamas equally. Here are the most significant pairings from my ATTC training at The Yoga Institute:
The ultimate purpose of both asana and pranayama — in the TYI system — is the same: the stilling of the mind. Patanjali defines yoga as "chitta vritti nirodhah" — the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. Neither asana alone nor pranayama alone achieves this fully.
Asana works from the outside in: it stills the body, which begins to still the nervous system, which begins to still the mind. Pranayama works from the inside out: it directly regulates the nervous system through the breath, which sends signals to the brain that change the quality of thought. Together, they create a convergence — the body approaching stillness from its end, the breath approaching stillness from its end — until the mind finds itself in the quiet that was always waiting between the two.
This is not metaphor. The research now supports what Patanjali described: combined asana and pranayama practice significantly reduces cortisol, improves heart rate variability (the physiological marker of nervous system balance), and changes the default activity in the prefrontal cortex — the brain region responsible for clear, considered thinking.
Practise them separately and you get two good things. Practise them as the sequence they were designed to be — asana first, pranayama after, with conscious breath connecting both — and you get something greater than the sum of either.
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