How to start if

I have really wanted to learn yoga for quite some time now. The problem is this, I live in a very VERY small town. There are no classes near me. The closest I could find are over an hour an a half away from me. I have looked at quick clips on YouTube and I really love the flow of it. My issues are these, my town’s library is practically non-existent. They don’t even have one book on yoga at all. My local book store will order books, but I’m not sure where to start. I bought one, very old, yoga tape (VHS-lol) and it is a quick one with just some of the basic poses. My biggest challenge is how I learn. I have always been a visual learner and do SO much better when I am watching someone else and having them tell me what to do. My thing is that I want to learn, but I don’t know what poses to do and in what succession to do them in. I hope I am explaining this right lol. It’s like I need that constant teacher right in front of me until I really get it. I don’t understand how to be fluid if I don’t know where to start. I feel confused and honestly a little silly for asking this. I feel like it should be natural or something…even that sounds silly. Anyway, can anyone recommend any good DVD’s that I could purchase via book store or maybe even Amazon? I am obviously a beginner. I think I am pretty average. I think I could lose about 15-20 pounds, not everyone agrees, but I say a person looks hotter with clothes on then when they are standing in front of the mirror naked sometimes-lol. I am pretty flexible and I used to be a dancer.I have pretty decent balance, but would like to improve that. My only health issue is GERD, so I can’t really do poses that keep bent over or upside down for more then a minute or so at a time. I am a healthy eater and all, just want to start yoga to maybe shed a little weight…but mostly to clear my head and reduce my stress level. Does anyone have any suggestions??

Thank you!!

xx Glo

Light on Yoga: The bible of modern Yoga. It’s a book.

Shiva Rea and Rodney Yee are pretty popular Dvd people. I couldn’t tell you specific ones though…

If your looking to loose some weight the “Power Yoga” might be something you’d look into.

Brian Kest has a Power Yoga Dvd out there. I think it’s an older one. But it has 3 fairly lengthy programs. Begginer. Intermediate. Advanced on one DVD.

Lots of reviews on Amazon for these.

Hi Glo,

there are many recommendations on books here:
http://www.yogaforums.com/forums/f16/free-yoga-books-exiting-5822.html
and here
http://www.yogaforums.com/forums/f16/recommend-a-good-yoga-book-1747.html
And on dvd’s here:
http://www.yogaforums.com/forums/f16/dvd-recommendations-2365.html
Trust this will help.

My suggestion is to just start doing Yoga. There are some good books and DVDs Light On Yoga by BKS Iyengar is like THE Yoga bible. Rodney Yee has some great DVDs for beginners.

But, I would suggest just establishing a practice. Even if you just start with one pose. If you do one pose a day, you have a practice. Then just add a new pose every once in a while. I like doing Yoga either first thing in the morning, or last thing at night, or both. A couple of don’ts are, don’t plan to do Yoga, don’t plan a routine. Just do it! And never ask yourself whether you feel like doing Yoga, Just do it! My last suggestion is to do a pose right now! Get out of you chair, walk across the room, do a pose RIGHT NOW! Then come back and get back to computer.

You are embarking on an incredible journey! Welcome! Many years ago, I too didn’t know where to go or how to start. Here are some suggestions. Rodney Yee is awesome! DVD’s I would suggest are AM/PM Yoga, Energy Balance Yoga or Yoga for Beginner’s. His books are also very good. I would suggest Moving Toward Balance. Suzanne Deason has a video out called Yoga for Weight Loss. This one is very good and allows you to choose different levels and modifications. This is the DVD I started with. There are also several books I would recommend that really go into the poses with pictures and full explanations. They are also easy to understand. They are: Yoga s Medicine by Timothy McCall MD. , Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff, and finally Yoga Body by Judith Lasater. This last one is excellent.

Begin your journey slowly and with caution. As a beginner, you will not look like the pictures in the books and you may never due to body type and physical limitations. Use the pictures as a guide, helping you to understand what you are working and what you should be feeling.

A well rounded yoga routine would start with some gentle warm ups and then gradually building. You then end with more passive poses which prepares you for relaxation or shavasana. You should always include, warm ups, twists, back extensions and flexion, balancing poses, inversions and my favorite a hip opening series. Of course, in between you will do vinyassa flow which will work to strengthen and lengthen various muscles. It really depends on the style of yoga you choose too. If you’d like a sample routine let me know and I’ll give you a condensed version of what I teach. I’m a RYT (registered yoga teacher)

Best of luck!

Wow!! Thank you everyone for all this information. It is so appreciated!! I’m going to look into every book mentioned and buy a few of those DVD’s. You guys are great!!

Thanks!!!

xx Glo

Glo,

you’ve got some interesting replies here already. It often seems as though everyone has their own personal favorite so there’s likely no shortage of suggestions. I’ll tell you mine and let you in on the why as well.

Beginners are like new flowers. They are fragile but receptive. They need the nurturing of sun and water but an over abundance of either will suck the life from them rather than empower their living. For this reason beginners get sprinkled.

With that in mind the DVD I’d suggest is the beginners practice by Patricia Walden. She is an alignment-based teacher in the Iyengar tradition and you will surely develop the requisite actions and alignments for a lifetime of safe practice. In this way your future yoga teacher will not have to handle your injuries or unteach you.

I do not recommend Light on Yoga for beginners. To me this is not at all a book for those uninitiated and it thus leads to a feeling of being overwhelmed and confused. It is however a fantastic book from a respected author and all practitioners should own and read it at some point in their evolution.

However Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health is a bit more appropriate (there aren’t many sound books for beginners). It is a bit more than a beginner needs but the color pictures and sequences are very clear and understandable and one can reference other sections of the book as their practice grows.

[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;33196]Glo,

I do not recommend Light on Yoga for beginners. To me this is not at all a book for those uninitiated and it thus leads to a feeling of being overwhelmed and confused. It is however a fantastic book from a respected author and all practitioners should own and read it at some point in their evolution.

[/QUOTE]

Your right . . . :???:

Whoops.

It’s not a matter or “right”. It’s just not something I find fruitful to recommend to beginners. Others are welcome to feel otherwise. I owned the book very early on in my practice and cherish the reference it has provided but it was not appropriate for my practice at that time and I rarely reference it. But of course I’m studying with a teacher who began study with Iyengar when he was seven so…

Your right again! :slight_smile:

Stop it!

I grew up in small city so I know what you mean… It would be great if you could find some company, maybe a friend interested in yoga? Because motivation may be a factor later on. Also usually people learn better when practicing together (e.g. you can watch other person and see how it looks from the side)