Why You Should Consider Practicing Yoga: A Mini-Guide for Beginners

I was an athlete all throughout my high school career. I played field hockey, softball and soccer; the latter sport at a rather high and intense level. I was also very active while in school, taking intense fitness classes involving weekly runs, weight-training sessions and mini boot camps. I loved fitness, I loved being active and I especially loved taking part in physical activity with my best friends and teammates. In my final year of high school, however, I began suffering from back and stomach pain my doctor could not quite identify. The pain was not quite chronic, but it never really went away either. I continued playing soccer and participating in fitness classes, but my skills and abilities were often hindered by this pain I was in. I felt as though I could not perform as well as I previously could in soccer and on my weekly runs, and finally, after an extremely painful run one day in the summer after high school, I decided I needed to take a break from exercising.   

A few days after deciding to take that break, I found a yoga ‘challenge’ on YouTube which consisted of thirty straight days of yoga, with the flows ranging from fifteen to fifty minutes long. I decided to try to complete the challenge, which I did (with great difficulty), never missing a day. I ended up falling in love with yoga, and since then, I’ve been practicing yoga three to four times a week for at least forty-five minutes at a time.  I won’t ever say it was yoga that “cured me,” as I did eventually seek medical help for my aches and pains and had a doctor sort them out – but until that happened, yoga helped ease the pain I had been undergoing every day, and it changed my life in many others ways too. It helped me learned mindfulness and control my stress and anxiety levels to a degree. Whether you’re an athlete or not, whether you suffer from physical aches and pains or not, whether you’re looking to lose weight or just gain strength in your body, I’d like to urge you to give it a try (with a go-ahead from your doctor, of course, if you have any medical issues).

First, if you have no idea what yoga is beyond “that relaxing, stretchy exercise,” allow me to explain a bit of its history to you. Yoga’s origins can be traced back to thousands of years ago – to a time of ancient India. The exact dates are unknown, but it was likely quite sometime before the BCE (Before Christ Era). Hinduism and Buddhism were the original two religions from which modern yoga is derived from, and these two religions are ones very focused on and very interested in reaching a higher level of spiritual and tranquil insight in their everyday lives. The goal of yoga was to link and control the body, mind and spirit, and the practice was, in this beginning, meant to be a very individual experience. Yoga was brought to the West around the late 19th century and although it has evolved in numerous ways, many Western yoga teachers still embrace the original roots of yoga, often making sure to mention both the English (Westernized) name and original Indian name of each particular yoga posture the class is practicing.

There are many different varieties of yoga; too many for me to explain on a list meant for beginners. I will mention the six more common forms and their discipline-specific benefits below. The first three are more intermediate or meant for those who have been practicing yoga for a long time, whereas the final three forms of yoga tend to be much more beginner friendly.​

Bikram Yoga

Often known as hot yoga, this form of yoga was developed in the 1970s by an Indian immigrant to the United States named Bikram Choudhury. This practice is well-known because of its intensive training methods – it is a series of 26 different Hatha yoga postures (see below for more about Hatha yoga) practiced in a room heated to between 98 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit (35 to 40 degrees Celsius). It is believed the high-heated room allows toxins to be released and promotes flexibility. Many yoga studios today have taken from and adapted Bikram’s original series. This is one yoga class you’ll definitely need to bring water and a towel to!

Ashtanga

This form of yoga is very fast-paced and intense; it is designed for those who want to practice yoga daily and really hone and get in-touch with the natural strength of the body. It is probably the most “athletic” form of yoga as the flow offers many intermediate postures and can almost be considered cardio, although the focus of this practice is still committed to retaining a sense of harmony between oneself and one’s body.

Vinyasa

Vinyasa yoga is somewhat of a blend between Ashtanga and Hatha yoga – it is not quite as intense as Ashtanga but tends to be more demanding than Hatha. Vinyasa yoga is usually known as Vinyasa flow because the poses run together very smoothly, in a planned, organized manner. The definition of this form of yoga can be quite broad and yoga teachers often approach Vinyasa yoga slightly differently. Vigorous movement is often involved, but one is able to adapt the postures to fit their own body better. Sometimes, Vinyasa yoga is also used as a noun and may refer to the following flow: plank to chaturanga to upward facing dog. Always go at your own pace when performing these poses and focus on how your breath and body feel.

Hatha

Hatha yoga is the most widely-known and practiced form of yoga. It is perfect for beginner and advanced yogis and everyone in between. It can vary from being a gentle, beginner yoga class with little-to-no flow between poses (usually known as Hatha for All Levels); it can be also known as a Hatha Flow class which consists of many of the same poses as the beginner class, just with more flow between poses and no resting in between. These yoga classes tend to be gentler and breath-focused, almost always ending with a Shavasana or corpse’s pose at the end to relax the body.

Yin

In yin yoga, poses are held for a long time – anywhere from one to five full minutes – to really stretch the body. In comparison, in most other varieties of yoga, no pose is ever held for more than thirty seconds, and usually, it is less than this. Yin is meant to address the problems that occur when one sits still for a long time. If you lead a very sedentary lifestyle and are only beginning to embrace physical activity, yin yoga may be the variety of yoga you’d like to start with.

Kundalini

This dynamic form of yoga emphasizes balance, engagement and specified breathing techniques in order to milk the full benefits of each pose in the practice. This practice can move very rapidly, or poses can be held for longer. Garnering and improving flexibility is key for this class, as is finding an inner enlightenment; it is also one of the more spiritual types of yoga you’ll see widely practiced out west.

The hardest part of beginning yoga is that first class or first video, and subsequently, the first ten or so minutes of the next first few classes after that; however, it does get easier to find the discipline and desire to practice as you get stronger. My first piece of advice is to start slow. If the idea of going to a sixty or seventy-minute yoga class filled with other yogis and an experienced teacher terrifies you, don’t go. Start out by watching a few yoga videos on YouTube, and start out with shorter videos, such as ones twenty to thirty minutes long and slowly work your way up to longer ones. My second piece of advice, then, is to figure out what way of practicing you prefer – do you like to get out of the house to move with others, and breathe with others in a yoga class, or do you prefer to practice independently in your own house? There are benefits to both of these forms of practising; I’m a major introvert, but I do practice one class a week at a local yoga studio. I love and look forward to these classes and find having a live teacher to guide me through and help me adjust my poses as needed is quite beneficial. My third piece of advice is to pencil your yoga into a schedule or calendar like you would a workout with a friend or doctor’s appointment and check it off once you’ve completed it like any other task. Having it written down will make you more likely to go and practice. Figure out where yoga fits best into your schedule, whether it’s morning, noon or night, and make it work best you can.

A final piece of advice I’d like to leave you with is one that any good yoga teacher will give to you during a live class: listen to your body and your mind. If you feel uncomfortable pain during your practice, stop and take a rest, whether that’s downward dog posture, child’s pose or actually stopping your practice all together; however, you should also learn to recognize the difference between pain which is going to cause your body harm, and pain which is going to improve your practice (as they say in fitness, “no pain, no gain”). The main way of telling whether your pain is physical and harmful vs discomfort in the moment (for example, your arms burn when you’re in plank pose and you want to come out of the posture, but you won’t actually cause any damage to your neck or shoulders by staying in the posture a few seconds longer) is by your breath. Is your breath shallow, constricted or heavy? If so, you likely need to back out of the pose; but if you’re still able to breathe comfortably and normally (in through the nose, out through the mouth), you should be okay – that being said, never feel bad about having to come out of a yoga posture AT ALL. Yoga, even when practiced in a class setting, is a very individual experience. It doesn’t matter what anyone else can do or is doing with their body and their practice – you need to be comfortable, pushing yourself hard but not too hard, and forming your own special relationship between your body, mind and spirit.

HELPFUL RESOURCES:

https://www.verywellfit.com/types-of-yoga-cheat-sheet-3566894

• This article helped me break down each different variety of yoga for this article, and the website also provides a lot more information about the benefits of yoga and how to start practising

http://yogawithadriene.com/

• These online yoga videos are free and are a great resource for beginners. Adriene got me started with yoga – it was her 30-day yoga challenge I completed that summer after high school that helped heal my body and help me fall in love with yoga. She has several more intermediate videos that range from 40 to 60 minutes long, but the majority of her videos are less than 40 minutes and so are perfect if you don’t have too much time in your life right now to spare to try yoga.