Beginner Yoga question! :)

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hey everyone! OK, well here is my question regarding Yoga. I’ve heard that Yoga provides a vast array of benefits to a person from healing afflictions to even slowing down the aging process and helping to retain a persons young psychique. Now I’d love to get started and get into Yoga and receive all these benefits that it has to offer, but I don’t really know where to start. How do I even begin this ‘youthful’ process? I’d love to be able to stay healthy and I believe Yoga will really help reshape my life and help me in very many ways. Please help me get started! Please give me a list of poses or anything that I can do to begin doing this process!

Please tell me what I can start off doing. What exercises should I learn? Any good Youtube links you can offer me? Any tips that I should remember before hand? I just really would like to change my life around and start engaging in more healthier activity’s, and I believe Yoga is the best way to start. I’d like to learn from home before taking classes so I can feel comfortable. I just don’t know where to start. Thank you everyone!

#2

The best way to start is to GO TO CLASSES!!!

Look for beginner classes/courses or have private classes if you think you would feel uncomfortable in a class.

You can find some very good yoga on youtube along with some deeply terrible stuff…but DVDs, books and youtube cannot truly TEACH you. An actual teacher in a class can teach/show you how to do the asanas correctly, safely, effectively and give variations for your own personal ability…a virtual teacher on a screen or in a book cannot observe you and help you…

Do read some books and watch some youtube to give yourself some ideas about which style/school of yoga you think will be a good fit for you.

Good luck.

#3

Thanks but I really don’t have the time right now to go to classes unfortunately, plus I don’t own a car so it’d be a real hassle traveling there and back so that’s why I’m trying to learn from home at the time being, then later on I can try and take actual classes but unfortunately that’s not an option right now… But yeah… Where exactly should I start? What should I remember before attempting to do Yoga?

#4

A good start would be to go to a local bookstore or library and find a book that appeals to you. If you have any friends or family who practice yoga, speak to them and invite them over to do a simple practice. Here is a website that offers free (donations are welcome) beginners online classes. www.doyogawithme.com

#5

[QUOTE=MatrixGravity;68757]Thanks but I really don’t have the time right now to go to classes unfortunately, plus I don’t own a car so it’d be a real hassle traveling there and back so that’s why I’m trying to learn from home at the time being, then later on I can try and take actual classes but unfortunately that’s not an option right now… But yeah… Where exactly should I start? What should I remember before attempting to do Yoga?[/QUOTE]

My first yoga class was Astanga Yoga, and I loved it! Astanga can be very beneficial for beginners because it is a slow to medium class and allows you to build your own strength with each practice.
For video, I like Rodney Yee. He has beginner to intermediate DVDs
You can find him on youtube, just type in his name and I think he has a half hour video for beginners listed on the site.

Hopefully this helps with starting your yoga path :slight_smile:

#6

As always, a teacher really will be the most helpful. If there is anyway you can join a beginner’s series in the near future, that would be really great. Otherwise, the book I started with was the American Yoga Association’s Beginners Manual, and it was amazing. The courses are safe and effective, and everything is presented really well. You could also try out the free trial on the YogaGlo website for a week and work through a few of their ‘Beginner Series’ videos. I tried an Anusara Beginner Series recently and it was very well presented. They also have some good meditation videos, which I recommend you check out. They are many different teachers and styles, and the free trial would enable you to study the teachings of different traditions, so that when you do have time to go to classes, you’ll have some idea of what you’re working towards.

If you’re going to be practicing at home alone, please stay safe. Start with gentle practice and pay close attention to the breath. The breath is an amazing indicator of the state and capacity of your body. If you find that you can’t take smooth inhalations and exhalations in postures, or that your body starts to tremble, or if you start to feel pain (especially in the joints) - then back off. A lot of people think that they have to look like the pictures in order to be doing it right, but it usually takes genetics or many years of practice to get the models to that place, so be patient and gentle with yourself. The body and mind are free to start healing you when you allow them the freedom to do it.

And we are always here to help! So if you have any questions at all, please ask them! You’ll get a variety of responses from all across the spectrum of traditions and beliefs. :slight_smile: Welcome!

#7

[QUOTE=suryadaya;68762]As always, a teacher really will be the most helpful. If there is anyway you can join a beginner’s series in the near future, that would be really great. Otherwise, the book I started with was the American Yoga Association’s Beginners Manual, and it was amazing. The courses are safe and effective, and everything is presented really well. You could also try out the free trial on the YogaGlo website for a week and work through a few of their ‘Beginner Series’ videos. I tried an Anusara Beginner Series recently and it was very well presented. They also have some good meditation videos, which I recommend you check out. They are many different teachers and styles, and the free trial would enable you to study the teachings of different traditions, so that when you do have time to go to classes, you’ll have some idea of what you’re working towards.

If you’re going to be practicing at home alone, please stay safe. Start with gentle practice and pay close attention to the breath. The breath is an amazing indicator of the state and capacity of your body. If you find that you can’t take smooth inhalations and exhalations in postures, or that your body starts to tremble, or if you start to feel pain (especially in the joints) - then back off. A lot of people think that they have to look like the pictures in order to be doing it right, but it usually takes genetics or many years of practice to get the models to that place, so be patient and gentle with yourself. The body and mind are free to start healing you when you allow them the freedom to do it.

And we are always here to help! So if you have any questions at all, please ask them! You’ll get a variety of responses from all across the spectrum of traditions and beliefs. :slight_smile: Welcome![/QUOTE]

Hey, thank you so much! I’ll definitely remember to keep that in mind. I’ll be sure to check out all the websites you mentioned and hope I can follow these routines! Thank you :). Once I start learning some of the Yoga, how regularly should I perform it? I’m guessing 20 minutes every morning, a few days a week is good? I’m just really trying to do Yoga to release some stress that I have, and to help flatten my core. I don’t know if there are any specific exercises that do all of that together, but I will look around.!

#8

Hello everyone, I am also a beginner. I found a blog post that has the best yoga poses for beginners and it really helped me. There are also online yoga resources that will guide you in forming your own at-home yoga practice.

https://yogadailytips.com/yoga-for-beginners/

I hope it helps! :wink::blush: