Yoga At Home

Yoga at Home

How to Get Started with Your Yoga Workout

Yoga is an ideal practice to get fit anywhere, anytime. It you want to practice yoga at home, you will find it easy to do. Not only is yoga great for your body, but it can be a wonderful stress and relaxation method. Yoga has been shown to be extremely helpful for many health issues including Asthma and back pain.

Your Yoga Space

To get started with yoga at home you want to set yourself up a yoga area or yoga room. This will be a quiet place that you can do yoga in without being disturbed, preferably. The basic equipment you will need to get started with includes:

• Yoga mat
• Yoga DVD, CD, video or Book
• Towel, should you want one
• Bottle of Water - always great to stay hydrated

As you become more advanced you might wish to start using yoga blocks and straps in your routine. 

The Basics of Your Yoga Workout

When you first start practicing yoga you should concentrate on learning the basics first. This includes how to hold each pose and very importantly how to breathe correctly. At first these are the only two things that you should be focusing on. Ideally, you will have receive proper training in a class setting to ensure you are doing your poses correctly for your protection. It is possible to overextend yourself or do a pose out of alignment, therefore increasing the chance for injury.

When you have the basic yoga poses down, then you can start adding additional movements. You might also want to start including some form of yoga meditation exploration if you wish. Many people like to include this at the end of their yoga session as meditating helps you relax and rejuvenates your body and gain more clarity (on whatever you wish to focus on) before heading back to your daily schedule.

Setting Up Your Yoga Schedule

When you first start your yoga workout you should only spend a few minutes on each pose. If you can’t manage very much at first, don’t worry, your body will adapt quickly. During your first week try to practice yoga for 15 minutes each session and aim for two to three sessions each week.

As you become more accomplished then increase this time to 30 minutes each time. A good routine to follow is one that includes lots of stretching. Then you want to get into poses and hold each one for as long as you can. The seconds will turn into minutes if you keep persevering!

In time you can then add a session where you do standing and seated poses separately. You can practice yoga every day if you wish. If you go this route then use three days a week to do a shorter yoga workout. Then aim for a longer and more intense workout on the other four days.

Because you are practicing yoga at home, you don’t have to worry about missing classes or taking a shorter class. Do what your body feels comfortable with as much as possible. It's OK to take a day off, rest up and relax, maybe include taking a hot bubble bath if you have time. Then resume your schedule when ready again.

Once you have your home yoga area set up, use it to your advantage. Why not see if you can get your spouse or friend to workout with you? It could make your yoga session more enjoyable.

It's always good to add in some classes with your favorite yoga instructors. Many time, we can have a tendency to do the same routine over and over. Having a live instructor could teach you some new moves that you might not have learned from the materials that you already had!

Also consider bringing your yoga practice with you wherever you go. You never know when you might feel inspired to practice at the park, in the mountains or on the beach. So make sure you bring your handy, dandy yoga mat with you!

Just remember to breathe. :)

Namaste,
Renee'