Beginner's mind: online yoga for teh n00b
Mar. 16th, 2010 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rydra_wong posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sun_salutation(Thanks to green for giving me the nudge I needed to finish compiling this!)
Actually, this post isn't just for n00bs at all; it's also for more experienced practitioners who might feel like a gentler practice, want to take things down a notch because of injury or illness, or want to revisit a simpler routine with a deeper level of insight.
But for people who are completely new to yoga, a quick disclaimer: I am not a yoga teacher (nor do I play one on the internet). Neither is YouTube. A good teacher isn't just going to show you the poses; they're going to guide you through the details, correct your alignment, and offer modifications suited to your body and needs.
However, videos (and books and DVDs and podcasts) can give you a great deal. At the very least, they can familiarize you with the most common poses that you're likely to run into in classes (or podcasts), and give you a sense of how your body responds. If you choose to go to a class later, they can enable you to focus more on what the teacher actually has to offer than on worrying about whether you're keeping up or whether you're embarrassing yourself (though, really? Everyone is worrying about that).
Videos can also be a way of sampling different approaches; there are variations in how the same poses gets taught even among the introductory videos I'm linking here. See what styles of teaching suit you best.
And of course the big bonus of a video is that you can pause it when you need to. It's perfectly fine to pause it to take a break, or work through it in ten minute chunks, or to rewind and watch again to puzzle out what the hell you're supposed to be doing in a pose (I recommend YogaJournal's index of poses, by the way). You can get a glass of water, check your e-mail for five minutes, and take a breather. This is fine.
A key part of yoga, especially if you're learning on your own, is listening to your own body and taking things as gently as you need to take them, not pushing to "get" the pose and straining things in the process. As one teacher said in class the other day: this is about truthfulness and non-violence (ahimsa) with yourself.
(And right now I have the strained back to prove it *g*. The more you think you know, the more you need to get back to being a beginner again.)
Introductions to yoga:
The Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies gives a very gentle (if cheesy) introduction to some basic poses:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Then it moves on to a Sun Salutation (plus a forward bend and a twist):
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Yogatic's Yoga for Beginners provides a nice introduction to some common standing poses (though I'd quibble with her alignment in warrior poses -- I've always been taught to align heels on the same line, or to line up the heel of the front foot with the arch of the back foot, whereas she wants them on parallel "train tracks"):
Yoga for Beginners Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Yoga Garden's Yoga for People Who Hate Stretching is a good short introduction to modifying poses if you're pretty inflexible (though I have to warn for a rather dubious metaphor about diets and weight at the beginning).
Yoga Today's Yoga for the Novice (which can also be downloaded as a video podcast from iTunes) is a lovely little 24-minute class with an Anusara flavour (and gorgeous scenery as a backdrop).
Also from Yoga Today is Yoga for the New Beginner. This is quite different from the others as it begins with pranayama (breathing exercises) before moving into the poses, and it does require a fairly high tolerance of chakra-talk.
But it's great not only for n00bs, but also for people who've been doing asanas for a while but still tend to forget to breathe and who haven't explored pranayama (e.g. me). This is a full hour long, so ideal if you want to extend your practice beyond than the usual short introductions.
Once you've got to grips with the basics, you can dip into some beginner-friendly sequences:
From Yoga Journal, there's an Awakening Practice (from their DVD Complete Beginner's Guide to Yoga with Jason Crandell); this is a nice 17-minute morning sequence that starts slowly and shows beginner's modifications to the poses first.
Yoga Journal's Gentle Flow with Kathryn Budig uses props (blocks and straps) extensively; it introduces some poses you won't have seen in previous links, and is also a great introduction to using props.
Sadie Nardini's Yoga For the Inflexible is just what it says in the title, with lots of modifications to preserve alignment:
Yoga for the Inflexible Part 1 Part 2
And in this comm,muck_a_luck has posted an awesome set of getting started posts which start with a simple sun salutation and build into an increasingly complex and demanding sequence.
At this point, the intrawebs are your oyster: you're going to be in a pretty good position to sample all sorts of classes and sequences, on- and off-line. And there are lots of them out there (just as an example, I posted about the treasure trove of free yoga podcasts on iTunes).
Go forth, and enjoy being a beginner.
green for giving me the nudge I needed to finish compiling this!)Actually, this post isn't just for n00bs at all; it's also for more experienced practitioners who might feel like a gentler practice, want to take things down a notch because of injury or illness, or want to revisit a simpler routine with a deeper level of insight.
But for people who are completely new to yoga, a quick disclaimer: I am not a yoga teacher (nor do I play one on the internet). Neither is YouTube. A good teacher isn't just going to show you the poses; they're going to guide you through the details, correct your alignment, and offer modifications suited to your body and needs.
However, videos (and books and DVDs and podcasts) can give you a great deal. At the very least, they can familiarize you with the most common poses that you're likely to run into in classes (or podcasts), and give you a sense of how your body responds. If you choose to go to a class later, they can enable you to focus more on what the teacher actually has to offer than on worrying about whether you're keeping up or whether you're embarrassing yourself (though, really? Everyone is worrying about that).
Videos can also be a way of sampling different approaches; there are variations in how the same poses gets taught even among the introductory videos I'm linking here. See what styles of teaching suit you best.
And of course the big bonus of a video is that you can pause it when you need to. It's perfectly fine to pause it to take a break, or work through it in ten minute chunks, or to rewind and watch again to puzzle out what the hell you're supposed to be doing in a pose (I recommend YogaJournal's index of poses, by the way). You can get a glass of water, check your e-mail for five minutes, and take a breather. This is fine.
A key part of yoga, especially if you're learning on your own, is listening to your own body and taking things as gently as you need to take them, not pushing to "get" the pose and straining things in the process. As one teacher said in class the other day: this is about truthfulness and non-violence (ahimsa) with yourself.
(And right now I have the strained back to prove it *g*. The more you think you know, the more you need to get back to being a beginner again.)
Introductions to yoga:
The Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies gives a very gentle (if cheesy) introduction to some basic poses:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Then it moves on to a Sun Salutation (plus a forward bend and a twist):
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Yogatic's Yoga for Beginners provides a nice introduction to some common standing poses (though I'd quibble with her alignment in warrior poses -- I've always been taught to align heels on the same line, or to line up the heel of the front foot with the arch of the back foot, whereas she wants them on parallel "train tracks"):
Yoga for Beginners Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Yoga Garden's Yoga for People Who Hate Stretching is a good short introduction to modifying poses if you're pretty inflexible (though I have to warn for a rather dubious metaphor about diets and weight at the beginning).
Yoga Today's Yoga for the Novice (which can also be downloaded as a video podcast from iTunes) is a lovely little 24-minute class with an Anusara flavour (and gorgeous scenery as a backdrop).
Also from Yoga Today is Yoga for the New Beginner. This is quite different from the others as it begins with pranayama (breathing exercises) before moving into the poses, and it does require a fairly high tolerance of chakra-talk.
But it's great not only for n00bs, but also for people who've been doing asanas for a while but still tend to forget to breathe and who haven't explored pranayama (e.g. me). This is a full hour long, so ideal if you want to extend your practice beyond than the usual short introductions.
Once you've got to grips with the basics, you can dip into some beginner-friendly sequences:
From Yoga Journal, there's an Awakening Practice (from their DVD Complete Beginner's Guide to Yoga with Jason Crandell); this is a nice 17-minute morning sequence that starts slowly and shows beginner's modifications to the poses first.
Yoga Journal's Gentle Flow with Kathryn Budig uses props (blocks and straps) extensively; it introduces some poses you won't have seen in previous links, and is also a great introduction to using props.
Sadie Nardini's Yoga For the Inflexible is just what it says in the title, with lots of modifications to preserve alignment:
Yoga for the Inflexible Part 1 Part 2
And in this comm,
muck_a_luck has posted an awesome set of getting started posts which start with a simple sun salutation and build into an increasingly complex and demanding sequence.At this point, the intrawebs are your oyster: you're going to be in a pretty good position to sample all sorts of classes and sequences, on- and off-line. And there are lots of them out there (just as an example, I posted about the treasure trove of free yoga podcasts on iTunes).
Go forth, and enjoy being a beginner.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-17 12:10 am (UTC)Thanks so much!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 07:37 am (UTC)I'm glad you managed to find it anyway! *g*
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 07:38 am (UTC)