Yoga Tips for Beginners: How to Get Started

If you are just beginning with yoga, things can seem a bit overwhelming. Our yoga tips for beginners will help you to choose the right accessories, the right yoga type and will help you to get started on the right track

A regular yoga practice can have great benefits for you body and your mind. It can improve your strength and flexibility, alleviate joint pain and calm down your mind. But if you are just starting, it can all seem a bit much with all the different classes and accessories on offer. Our yoga tips for beginners will help you to get off to a good start.

Why Do You Want to Practice Yoga?

First it always helps to become clear what your motivation is to practice yoga. Do you want to practice it just as an exercise or do you want to immerse yourself in the philosophy of yoga?

Yoga literally means union – the union of body and mind. Often our body is disconnected from our mind and often we are also disconnected from our surroundings and other people. If we can break out of this state, for example by practicing yoga, we can find our way back to experience unity, union.

Practice Yoga from the Comfort of Your Home

The current pandemic has created a special situation where if you want to start practicing yoga, you will probably have to to do so from the comfort of your own home. For someone, it’s more motivating because they don’t like to practice in front of others, especially if they are a bit insecure about their performance. 

If you are practicing from home one of the difficult things will be to hold yourself accountable and to practice regularly. Beginning something new, but our tips for developing new habits can help you. 

Although you might not have a yoga teacher to supervise and correct your yoga poses, practicing in the warmth and familiarity of your home might give you a sense of comfort.

Have the Necessary Accessories at Hand

While you generally don’t need many or expensive accessories to do yoga, there are a few things you do need to support your practice.

Choose the Right Clothes

Put on light clothes in which you can easily move. Traditional yogis use nothing for their practice but a reed mat and a simple cloth to cover themselves. Preferably wear natural fabrics, cotton and silk are examples. Avoid synthetic fabrics, even though the huge choice of fancy yoga pants available can be quite tempting.

According to some yoga teachers not only the food your eat, but also the clothes you wear can help you in your practice to feel better and to live a healthy lifestyle.

Opt for a Good Yoga Mat

While the yoga mat seems to be inherently connected with the practice of yoga, yet this is only a trend since the last century. 

The selection of yoga mats is at least as big as the selection of expensive yoga clothes. You can choose a yoga mat made of plastic, rubber, cotton, cork and other materials with different colors and with different levels of thicknesses,. 

Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing: If possible, make an environmentally friendly choice. It is also important to choose a non-slip mat – it can get extremely annoying to exercise on a constantly moving and slipping mat. Don’t choose a yoga mat that is too thick. While this might sound more comfortable, it is harder to balance poses on a soft ground.

A soft, woven rug is probably one of the longest lasting pieces, if you want to invest in it.

Other Accessories You Might Need

As with the yoga mat, the range of other yoga accessories is endless. Yoga bricks, yoga pillows, yoga wheels, yoga straps and more. There is no need to have them available right from the beginning. Take some time to find out which ones would be really beneficial for your practice. Many can also easily be replaced with items you have at home like blankets, pillows or books. 

But having two yoga blocks around can definitely come in handy for your alignment to support your body, also a strap is very useful to work on your flexibility. But take your time to find out if you really need them.

Practice with an Empty Stomach

It is also important to have an empty stomach and an empty bladder when doing yoga. There is no worse feeling during your practice than the food you just swallowed “moving” within you while switching from asana to asan. This bad feeling can take away our focus and our attention. 

But you should not be too hungry either, since a growling stomach will certainly distract you from your practice.

With Which Type of Yoga Should You Start?

Fortunately, the Youtube is full of free online yoga classes for different styles and levels, so you can try which one suits you best. These are the most important styles of yoga practiced today:

Hatha Yoga – the Most Practiced Type of Yoga

This one is the most well known and most popular style of yoga. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (“The Lantern of Hatha Yoga”), written by Swami SwatMarama in the 15th century, is its foundation.  Whenever someone casually refers to “yoga” they are probably talking about this style.

It takes various asanas ( yoga poses) and focuses on deepening and enduring them through breathing. There are asanas with different degrees of difficulty, depending on your level of practice.  Beginners can also stay in the asanas for a shorter time. 

Iyengar Yoga – Body Alignment with Precision

BKS Iyengar’s method of deepening yoga is a slow and very meticulous style. The practitioners are given very precise instructions, so that they can align their asanas perfectly. Whatever your injury or pain, adjust your exercise accordingly. Anyone who becomes an Iyengar Yoga Instructor must undergo a 6-year training course to properly immerse themselves in practice, perfect instruction, and human anatomy as well.

Ashtanga Yoga – Feel the Flow of Asanas

Ashtanga yoga is also derived from hatha yoga and is a more dynamic form of movement. It consist series of movements (vinyasa) that are connected to each other through breathing, more specifically through ujjayi pranayama. 

Ashtanga yoga originates from the sutras of Patanjali Yoga in India. The Sanskrit word ashtanga means “eight branches”, referring to a Indian system of yoga philosophy. One of the best known yoga sequences, the sun salutation, is part of this system.

Yin Yoga – Helps You Too Relax

Yin Yoga is a blend of Indian hatha yoga and Chinese Taoist traditions. It consists of slow and mostly stretching poses. With its meditative nature it is relaxing but still works actively on the physical level as well. 

Yin yoga usually works with connective tissues around the pelvis, hips, and lower back. The practice focusses on the energy channels, the meridians, that according to yogic teachings enclose the human body. These meridians are associated with certain organs (e.g., kidney, liver, stomach). During exercise, relaxation is the main goal.

Practicing Yoga Online

While currently most yoga studios are closed, many yoga instructors try to stay in touch with their students and newcomers as well. If you join an online yoga class, you can still practice from the comfort of your home, but also under the eye of an experienced teacher. This way your practice doesn’t have to be solitary, but can be interactive, yet safe and you can ask for advice on your asanas.

Once the studios are open again, we definitely recommend practicing with a real, experienced instructor who can correct you and support you with personalized exercises. Check out the best yoga studios in Budapest – you will surely find one that is right for you. Till then follow oue yoga tips for beginners and your practice will soon be an inherent part of your life.

barbara