Yoga in sanskrit means to connect, to unite with the dvine. It’s aim is to still the mind.
A brief history
Yoga originated thousands of years ago in India.
Made by men and for men. As it was men that practiced Yoga. The first and only pose was the pose in which you see the buddha sitting in meditation: the lotus pose.
But sitting for hours meditation was not good for the flow in their bodies. Sitting too long in the same position caused their health to decline.
Then the asana’s came to life. Breathing was always part of the practice as sitting in stillness and with focus is automatically regulated and becomes parasympathetic rather than sympathetic.
Combined with meditation and focus, the practice of using the body to make it healthier to get a calmer mind for better concentration and focus for meditation makes what we nowadays now as Hatha Yoga. The mother of all other yoga practices that focuses on the body to calm the mind.
But Yoga is more than the physical. What we teach is to get the body healthy, the mind calm so that we can develop the rest.