It’s interesting that you want to learn how to start yoga practice. A brilliant and an amazing thought it is, we say. You may want to learn to slow down in life maybe, or maybe take deep breaths and enjoy it too, or just want to learn yoga to make a strong connection between the body and the mind, learning how to start yoga at home for beginners would be the first step to self-help.
You may have heard of the amazing health benefits yoga can bring to the body and the mind. It can help bring down blood pressure, help you to lose weight, bring down stress drastically, maintain your metabolism, help make you more flexible, or simply boost your immunity too, there is so much that yoga can do for you. Yoga can also help calm your mind, help you recover from injuries, and help you find inner peace as well.
You may have heard family and friends talk high about yoga, and you may have seen them glow in the benefits of it as well. All of this has made you curious as a cat, but what is it that’s stopping you from starting how to learn yoga? Here is an easy guide to learn how to start yoga by yourself. You could be a novice or a beginner, even then this guide will help you. Please read on and be well-informed.
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Yoga teachers hear a lot of excuses from beginners when asked about why they haven’t learned yoga or started to learn at home. The most prized answer would be “I am not flexible enough so I can’t do yoga”.
The best thing about learning yoga is that there isn’t an ‘end goal’ per se to meet and nor are there any minimum requirements as well to start with. There is no point at which you wouldn’t be enough to start practicing yoga, and the same can be said on ‘enough’ yoga as well, when it comes to learning beginner yoga sequence. Yoga constantly evolves the practice that is and it meets you exactly where you are to be.
There are some yoga poses for beginners that will come very easy to you, while others would be tricky and challenging. Maybe deep breathing would come easy to you, while touching your toes in a jiffy would be a struggle.
‘Being good at yoga’ isn’t a thing. One scene is not better than the next. And there is no hierarchy as such when it comes to being good at yoga practice. There are no prizes to win when and if you master your yoga postures as well. You have to work with what you got, and that is what yoga is all about.
So all said and done, why the wait? Let’s begin learning yoga now!
The first step in learning how to start yoga is to decide where you want to start practicing the art and science of it. Are you willing to work it out at a studio, and learn under the guidance of a yoga instructor or guru, one on one or in a group? Check if your local gym or health club offers classes on yoga for free? Or, do you want to start learning yoga at home? With the help of DVDs, videos and yoga blogs.
Through experience, it has been seen that those who are newbies to yoga, they gain a lot when they visit a wellness center or a studio to start learning yoga. This is because they learn from the most experienced teachers and that they learn to mold under their guidance as complete beginners.
Check online for yoga with Adriene and do a little research of your own. Check if there are any yoga studios in your vicinity? If there are, check for the styles of yoga they teach or offer? It can be intimidating reading a lot of information about the yoga studios and classes out there, but there is nothing to freak out about!
Check out ” Yoga For Complete Beginners” Video from Yoga with Adriene to learn the basics.
We shall help you understand it all. The section below will help guide you to choose the style of yoga which best suits you. Please read on and be well-informed.
Below, we have made it easy for you to check with all the yoga styles, so that you can show up to your class of yoga with confidence the first time. If you are not sure about the style of yoga routine, it would be best to email or to call the studio before time to ask if the style being offered is the right one for you or not. The yoga instructor would be best to guide you, and you would know if the routine is your cup of tea or not, since you are a beginner. You should look for words online as a beginner, such as –
Hatha yoga means a movement-based yoga lesson. This would be a very good choice for you if you are a beginner.
In both the yoga routines mentioned above, the yoga poses are held for longer periods of time, and they use props, such as blankets, bolsters and blocks.
Some yoga classes would focus on building more strength, and not only making you flexible, while others may focus more on deep breathing and helping you slow down. The Vinyasa flow classes move at dynamic paces and would involve the sun salutations, and the mountain pose or even the downward-facing dog.
When you check in with routines such as power yoga, kundalini or even the Ashtanga yoga, even with hot yoga or Bikram yoga, there are more physical challenges to expect. In the case of hot yoga, there is heat and humidity added to the room while the power yoga is taught, so that the muscles are stretched and there is more relaxation aided.
Finally, it is important for you as a beginner to understand that there are yoga forms that are non-physical. These include pranayama and meditation, yoga nidra and also deep forms of relaxation too.
Now that you have decided which yoga routine to try out, here below is everything to know about what to expect.
There is no need to stress. Just go with the flow. Don’t doubt yourself, and do not allow negative talks to flood your mind. Stop thinking if you are doing this right or if you are looking stupid amongst others in the class. Or the notion that you are lagging behind others. Each to their own, when they come to learn yoga for the first time. You don’t get health benefits of yoga from comparing one another; it comes from cultivating the body and mind connection.
Still confused about how to start yoga at home? Well here we have culminated a couple of questions that will ease it out for you. Take a look at them and we hope you find your answers within the questions given below. Please read on and be well-informed.
There isn’t much needed to begin your own yoga practice at home. What you need is a quiet and a clutter-free space in your home to begin your practice. This is a sacred space of yours for your yoga, where you would have your blanket, blocks, mat and a strap and, any other helpful accessories like yoga wrist support braces.
Also keep in mind to set realistic targets, start small and go with the flow. Start with the basic beginner’s yoga sequences and expand as you evolve. With that being said, you have to build up to your individual needs and not otherwise.
There are many different styles and types of yoga, and it all depends on what you want to get out of your yoga practice which should motivate you to choose the type of yoga you want to start out with. Are you looking to relieve stress or looking for a fantastic workout session? If you want to get into shape, then Ashtanga or Power or Bikram or Vinyasa yoga would be ideal for you.
If you want to get in touch with your inner self, it would be wise to get into a beginners meditation practice, chanting and more. The spiritual aspect of yoga would be the Kundalini yoga, where there are breathing exercises taught to you by the instructor, and it involves meditation as well. If you are working to help heal an illness or an injury then work with Iyengar yoga, which focuses on alignment and these classes are slow with a lot of breathing involved.
Yoga is amazing and there are many health benefits that come along with it. Even if you don’t have much time as a beginner to practice yoga, one hour a week too will be enough to begin with, say experts. You will certainly see the benefits as you evolve and practice more. Experts suggest that two to three times a week, for an hour is more than enough for beginners to start with.
Yes, there is almost anything that you can learn to do on your own, including learning yoga off the net. But it would be wise as a beginner to always have an instructor guide you and give you real-time feedback.
You can start yoga at your own home by having a dedicated space which is clean and free from clutter, with props that you would need to use for the session and time for yourself- about an hour to begin with. Yes, there are books that can guide you on how to do yoga at home, and there are training videos as well. Check online and you would find plentiful resources to help guide you. Some of the books you could read up are:
Easy Pose– One of the first yoga poses you learn in your session. It is about sitting a few moments in this pose and prepares your mind and help you get grounded in the present moment.
Easy Seated Twist- This pose helps warm up your spine and increases blood circulation as well. It is a mild twist which you can control, and it depends on the level of comfort too.
Cat-Cow- This is a pose which is great to warm up the core muscles and the spine.
Child’s Pose- This is a pose that helps the body connect with your breath prior to the yoga session beginning.
In a nutshell…
We hope you found this guide to be an interesting read on how to start yoga at home? Do experience the joy of yoga in your own time and pace by checking out yoga resources for beginner.
