There is no such thing as one kind of yoga. On the contrary, yoga encompasses spiritual techniques and putting these into practice to achieve a "state of enlightenment".

Usually, the kind of yoga practiced in the US is Hatha yoga. Ha translates to sun and tha translates to moon. The goal of Hatha yoga is to attain unity of the mind, body and spirit through practicing asana (yoga postures), pranayama (yoga breathing), mudra (body gestures) and shatkarma (internal cleansings). Modern Hatha yoga focuses mostly on the yoga postures and does not emphasize many of the other facets.

Yoga's history can be traced to the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in northern India over 5,000 years ago. Probably the most famous writing on yoga is the Bhagavad-G