The Beginner’s Guide To Yoga

Do you want to get stronger, more flexible and look after your body long into the future? Yoga might be the best way forwards. The low impact, strength building exercise has long been lauded as one of the best at improving your overall health and general well being and it’s not hard to see why it’s so popular. Improving your cardio health, clearing your mind and helping you to tone up your body, yoga is one of the best ways you can better yourself and improve the quality of your health. Are you ready for a better, brighter you? It’s time to hitch a ride on the yoga train.

1. Keep A Journal

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While you’re still in the early stages of figuring out what routine works best for you, keeping a journal of your progress is a great way of getting on board with yoga. Noting down the exercises you tried, how they worked your body and the way you felt in the hours afterwards is a great way of figuring out an effective personal routine and marking your progress over time. After the first month, you can look back on your earliest comments and see just how far you’ve come!

2. Buy A Sticky Mat

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So much of yoga is performed on the floor and when you’re first starting out, your comfort should be of the utmost importance. If you’re unsteady on your feet, a sticky mat will help to keep you grounded, giving you a sufficient foundation upon which to perform even the most tricky of moves. Better yet, protective mats can help to guard your back and joints against hard floors, protecting your body against potential injury.

3. Follow A Video

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If you’ve decided to take yoga into your own home, it can be hard to know where to start and for beginners, following a pre-planned guide might just be the best way in which to go. There are plenty of in-depth videos on the internet which will run you through beginner moves, breathing practices and help you to progress to the next level. In the early stages, it pays to learn from the best and thanks to the internet, that is a very easy process!

4. Learn How To Breathe

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While breathing is something that comes entirely naturally to us, yoga requires specific breathing practices that many of us might not already be aware of. In the early stages, picking up the correct breathing habits can mark the difference between failure and success, so make sure you’re paying it sufficient attention. Closing your eyes and counting your breaths after each session will help you to get in tune with your breathing style and flood your body with oxygen in the process. The more you practice, the more natural it will become.

5. Take Your Time

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Proper yoga takes some time to develop, so if it’s slow going in the early stages, try not to worry too much about it. Taking your time to develop the correct postures and positions will serve you much better into the future, making jumping to the next stages a much smoother process. When it comes to yoga, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, so observe, copy and focus your attention as much as possible.

6. Get A Good Night’s Rest

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In all areas of your fitness, sufficient sleep is incredibly important but when it comes to developing good yoga practice, it is a vital step. While yoga can be best performed in the morning, it can take some time to shift your body’s sleeping patterns in order to wake up earlier still feeling fully rested. In the early stages, gradually shift the time at which you go to sleep, making sure you get enough hours of pillow time in order to function the next day. The more well rested you feel, the better the quality of the yoga you will experience.