Beginners Yoga Guide
A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO YOGA PRACTICE
It’s time to roll out your yoga mat and discover the combination of physical and mental exercises that for thousands of years have hooked yoga practitioners around the globe. The beauty of yoga is that you don’t have to be a yogi or yogini to reap the benefits. Whether you are young or old, overweight or fit, yoga has the power to calm the mind and strengthen the body. Don’t be intimidated by yoga terminology, fancy yoga studios and complicated poses. Yoga is for everyone.
Welcome Beginners!
When you’re brand new to yoga, it can feel intimidating and be difficult to know exactly where and how to get started. Our Yoga for Beginners guide was created specifically for you—to give you all the tips, guidelines, and recommendations you will need to start a successful yoga practice. To ensure your success, we highly recommend you read this entire page before attempting any yoga.
What Is Yoga?
Yoga is a vast collection of spiritual techniques and practices aimed at integrating mind, body, and spirit to achieve a state of enlightenment or oneness with the universe. What is normally thought of as “yoga” in the West is really Hatha Yoga, one of the many paths of yoga. The different paths of yoga emphasize different approaches and techniques but ultimately lead to the same goal of unification and enlightenment.
Is Yoga Right for You?
Yoga is in no way exclusive—being able to practice yoga does not matter how old you are, how much you weigh, what you do for a living, where you live or what religion you practice. Yoga is accessible for just about everyone.
If you have a medical condition or a recent injury, it can be challenging or dangerous to do certain types of yoga, specific poses, or breathing techniques. Usually, there are alternatives or modifications that can allow you to practice safely, and many common complaints have specific yoga therapy remedies. If you are recovering from an injury or are of poor health, we recommended consulting with a physician or other qualified health care professional before beginning a yoga practice.
The Benefits of Practicing Yoga
The benefits of yoga are almost endless! Practicing yoga helps build healthy virtues and good values, such as discipline, honesty, devotion, self-inquiry, mindfulness, and non-attachment. Yoga empowers you to make conscious choices toward living a healthier and fulfilling life. Yoga also helps you:
- Improve and maintain the health of muscles, joints, and organs
- Improve flexibility, strength, stamina, mobility, range of motion, and balance
- Keep your mind healthy and strong
- Reduce stress and promote relaxation
- Get a better night’s sleep
- Boost your immune system
- Prevent conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and auto-immune disorders
- Help heal common aches like back pain
- Increase happiness and wellbeing and reduce depression
How to find a suitable yoga mat
Depending on what you want, you could just pick up any cheap yoga mat to match your needs. Or perhaps you need to spend some more on a mat with more features. Consider what sorts of activities you are going to use your new yoga mat for, and where you are going to take your pad to. Taking your height and any other body conditions (such as knee or back pain) into account too. With these in mind, you are on your way to getting a great yoga mat for yourself
Here are some tips for finding the best yoga mats for yourself:
Are you going to use this indoors, outdoors or both? Almost any mat will do indoor yoga, but if you’re planning to workout outdoors, you’re going to want something more robust and long-lasting.
Firm mats are generally made from rubber and are hard, but for experienced yogis, they provide more stability to hold advanced postures. Softer mats are mostly made of PVC and are lighter, less costly and have more cushioning for amateurs. They’re even great if you need joint support, or if you are going to use the mat for other exercises where you’re going to be on your knees or back.
Need extra length or cushion? Standard mats range from an 8th of an inch to a quarter of an inch. Whether you need cushioning for your knees, hands or back, you may need something thicker, like a half-inch mat. The norm is 68 inches so that taller people can gain from a lengthier mat.
Will you take it on an airplane or some other small space? Search for a thinner mat that rolls up or fold into a smaller size so that you can pack them easily if you don’t want to lug around a heavy, bulky yoga mat.
Look out for info: Consider what you’re going to use it for: Some mats are made to work better for hot yoga when wet, while others have to stay dry. If you don’t want to lug around a heavy, bulky yoga mat, there are travel-size options too.
Check the thickness: Most of the outstanding yoga mats were 4-5 mm thick (less than 1/4). If you’re looking for a more stable yoga mat, you need to avoid one that’s too thick because you might end up feeling wobbly while trying to hold up yoga moves.
Travel mats are usually 2 mm, and the general workout mats can be about 10 mm thick with more cushioning.
What is your budget? For beginners who are not sure whether they should stick to yoga practice and individuals who don’t practice regularly, cheaper mats are the perfect option. If you practice multiple days a week, in the long run, a high-quality mat will save you more money, as you will not have to replace your mat so often.
