Yoga for beginners: how to start your practice?

Yoga is an essential routine for thousands of people around the world. If you are a beginner, this article contains the basics you need to know to familiarize yourself with the topic and take your first steps, or, better said, your first asanas.

What is yoga?

Originally, it emerged as an Eastern discipline of spirituality and meditation, but it later evolved as a discipline for mastering and strengthening the body through asanas or special postures. The latter is the most widespread approach to yoga in the West. 

One of the fundamentals of yoga is the coordination of deep and controlled breathing along with a series of movements that can pose a challenge to strength, flexibility, and balance, which forces the mind to become fully aware of the body in the here and now. 

Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is a low-impact exercise, which does not mean it is easy, but rather that the movements and postures performed, when done correctly, do not endanger the joints or tendons, unlike other activities such as running or contact sports.

Yoga is also an ideal option for those who want to relax and focus the mind while exercising. Among the main benefits of yoga, we can mention:

• Helps strengthen muscles and gain flexibility

• Promotes targeted fat burning

• Combats depression and irritability

• Improves sleep and regulates appetite

• Counteracts stress and anxiety

What type of yoga is best?

There are two main types of yoga as a physical conditioning discipline:

Hatha Yoga: Ideal for beginners and the most common. It focuses on creating chains of postures or asanas in a slow and controlled manner.

Vinyasa Yoga: This practice is very similar to hatha yoga, except that the movements are more dynamic, the postures are held for less time, and it is closer to cardiovascular exercise. It's a great option for people who are already in good physical condition and have little patience. 

What do I need to start practicing yoga?

The basic guidelines and requirements for any yoga practice are as follows:

• A mat or mat with good density and non-slip properties to protect your joints. The thicker (not padded) and more non-slip it is, the better, as these are two qualities that prevent accidents and injuries. There are many tools for yoga practice, but this is the only essential one. 

• Wear comfortable clothing. It does not have to be specialized sports clothing for yoga; it just needs to allow for free and wide movement of the limbs and not be tight in any area. 

• Hydrate properly: drink at least a glass of water before starting the practice, and one afterward.

• A quiet space with enough room for your mat to be at least half a meter away from the walls or furniture on each side. 

• Optionally, you can play soft instrumental music or relaxation sounds.

1.- Find a suitable guide

Nowadays, you don’t necessarily have to attend a yoga teacher for live classes: there are countless tutorials on YouTube with which you can start. However, note that this kind of support works for beginner yoga but not necessarily for intermediate and advanced levels.

Here’s an example of a special video for beginners with all the instructions to get started. 

2.- Relax before and after

One of the fundamentals of yoga is relaxation and conscious breathing before and after practice. This is a step we should never skip, as it helps us reach a level of breathing and a proper posture to both initiate physical effort and allow the muscles to rest.

3.- Don’t overdo it

Yoga should never hurt; it is not normal to feel any kind of discomfort or pain. While it's true that this practice involves a considerable amount of effort, discipline, and will, there is also a clear difference between a muscle that is working and one that is being injured. For some, this line can be very subtle, which is why we should always start gradually and, above all, listen carefully to what our body is trying to tell us. 

4.- Be patient

The results of yoga should be obtained gradually through consistency. It is preferable to practice a position briefly over five or six weeks than to attempt to achieve it through intensive practices in one or two weeks.

5.- Be disciplined

Regardless of whether you practice yoga at home, in a specialized center, or even take a break from work to do yoga in the office, the basic thing is to be clear that to obtain the benefits of this practice, you must be truly disciplined. 

Just practice for half an hour four or five days a week. You can even alternate your practices with other sports - like swimming or Zumba - but always giving yourself time to invest in yourself, your health, and your physical and mental peace. 

Contraindications of Yoga

As it is a controlled low-impact exercise, yoga has very few contraindications beyond the limitations that certain injuries or specific conditions may imply. For example, several of the postures or asanas are not recommended for people with sciatica or herniated discs. If you have any condition, it's best to consult your doctor before starting yoga. 

At Zen to Go, we want to help you have a healthy lifestyle, full of well-being while always taking care of what matters most: you.