I’ve been doing yoga for a while, and I definitly can feel a deference in how I am able to move now. The guys on my yoga tapes are bendy to the extreme though. Any yoga gurus out there, please let me know how many months, years, etc. it takes to have a great range of motion, and a ton of flexibility.
I wouldn’t really say one can become a “yoga pro”. Yoga is a lifestyle: diet, pranayama, asanas, et cetera. You cannot become a professional at a lifestyle. Experienced at living it a certain way, but not “pro”.
As for how long it takes to get a good range of motion, it depends on the person. How much motion did you start out with, how often do you practice asanas? You get out of it what you put into it.
Low-hanging fruit. This suppleness thing is Fool’s Gold.
They are either bendy because they are hypermobile to begin with or they have decades of committed, focused, intention-filled practice. In the former instance it is difficult to feel due to the ease of the doing and therefore self-exploration (Yoga) is more daunting. In the latter case the work takes time and should the practitioners ego get in the way (which is nearly always does) or should the intention be less than wholesome one either sustains injury or becomes an ego-maniac pontificating about their own greatness.
Ergo if you did a sound practice everyday, supported that doing with appropriate thoughts, feelings, nutrition, meditation and philosophy…you could likely have this hollow victory of mobility in perhaps a few years.
few lives :))
In a similar vein, as a newbie I’ve wondered often what makes a person a “yogi” versus simply “a person who practices yoga”.
Is a yogi someone who lives the yoga lifestyle entirely? Or does proficiency in the asanas deem one worthy of yogi-ness? Are there shades of grey, or is it a self-proclaimed title? I’m not too foggy to skip googling, but the definition as “one who is a master of yoga” seems a little vague, still.
Thanks in advance for humoring the curiosities of a beginner…
Before our romance with yoga, does one consider his/her living as a “lifestyle”? One just lives on as one has always been. Yoga offers choices at each point in life, where one has to break way from an old habit and espouse a new. Further down the road, you stop ‘making’ the choices and instinctively follow the one caused by yoga. (This is where you stop ‘doing’ yoga) Very soon, one starts seeing the world differently, as the “seer” has changed, or rather dissolved.
My point is, the flowering of a quest for truth, finding a way to prepare for the truth-finding expedition, learning certain techniques like asanas to help the mission, realization of the relativity of truth, development of relaxed indifference to the false appearances, gift of an insight to see what the eyes can’t, dawn of intuition - all end up in the state of pure consciousness. “Yoga” is a label. One may use it, any other or none.
Purpose of life is important not the style. That makes every purpose equally valid - flexibility, suppleness, fitness, high IQ, holiness, equipoise, tranquility, selflessness, enlightenment.
Ummm…
@TGKvr
To answer your question the term “yogi” is one of great respect. One who is on the path of Yoga (in its entirety, though without necessarily perfecting it) can be referred to in such a way. One who practices asana and can place their big toe inside their left nostril may or may not be on the path of yoga.
I personally do not use the term when referencing myself or my peers. However I would feel very comfortable in referring to my teacher in such a way. Of course my teacher has a thoroughly steeped practice extending through each limb into his living. I on the other hand, do not
Becoming a Yoga pro? Easy peasy. I did it in under 30 days.
Now, handling 2 teenaged daughters, on the other hand…well, I need all my yoga mastery for that one brother!
You mean you mastered yoga asanas in 30 days? thats very quick your level must be of very high standards.
[QUOTE=fakeyogis;78380]You mean you mastered yoga asanas in 30 days? thats very quick your level must be of very high standards.[/QUOTE]
I was being facetious 
I’m at it for several years and still need adjusting in cat/cow sometimes.