Have you always wanted to do yoga and be more flexible but just haven’t found the time for it? These five tips will help you build your practice holistically so that you not only make time for yoga but you also crave how good it makes you feel.
Tip 1: Listen to your body
Pain, tiredness, soreness, exhaustion are all indicators of a slump in your health and wellbeing. If you’re too exhausted to get out of bed and would prefer to sleep in and skip your 6 am yoga class, you officially have permission from me, a yoga teacher who teaches those early morning yoga classes, to keep sleeping. I’ll welcome you back to class when you’re rested.
Your health and wellness comes first.
Tip 2: Build strength over time
Approach the poses repeated the most in vinyasa (flow) yoga classes like chaturanga (yoga pushup) slowly and with control. As a yoga instructor, I would prefer you lower ½ inch with your core strong and your elbows tucked in to your sides than for you to collapse down to your belly and risk crunching into your shoulder. Over time this repeated crunching or ‘dumping down’ into your shoulder could lead to injury.
A slow chaturanga builds strength in your triceps and core so that you can control your descent and protect your shoulders over the long run.
Tip 3: Take social media with a grain of salt
Social media can be a great source of inspiration, motivation, and community as you’re starting on your yoga journey, but don’t let it lead you down the path of “I’m only a yogi if _______”:
- if I can do the splits
- if can do crow
- if I do yoga everyday
- if my body looks a certain way
Social media puts the brain in a comparison mindset. The more time we spend on it, the more likely we are to find someone who’s more flexible or experienced at yoga than we are. (Trust me: I’ve been doing yoga for 15 years, and I still cannot do every pose.) Try to show up every practice for what you can do on that day at that moment.
Tip 4: Find your flow
Try out different styles of yoga and class lengths. Yoga is more than just heated power flow chock full of 30+ chaturangas. Get outside your comfort zone and try hatha, deep stretch, yin, slow flow, vinyasa, flow, and restorative yoga. Each studio has different naming conventions, so reference the class description to understand what to expect from a given class.
Most classes run anywhere from 50-75 minutes. In your first month or two at a new studio, try out a bunch of classes and see what works for you.
Tip 5: Make friends at your studio
As you fall into a weekly routine of classes, you’ll start to notice other regulars in class. Get to know each other: make eye contact, learn their cats’ names; see them as a person not as competition to “beat” by being “better” than them at yoga. With that mindset everyone loses.
I hope you find these tips helpful. If you have any others you recommend, I want to hear them, so add them in the comments section below.
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