How to Select a Yoga Class
Yoga is one of the country’s most popular and fast-growing health and exercise trends, and it’s easy to see why! Yoga increases your strength, balance, flexibility, and peace of mind. Whether you’re a beginner or experienced practitioner, the right practice can improve your physical and mental health. Here are some tips for picking a yoga class.
STYLE
The first step in picking the right class is knowing the style of yoga and whether it fits with what you’re looking for. Common styles of yoga include Hatha and Vinyasa.
Hatha and Vinyasa use many of the same poses (like tree or downward facing dog), but the paces are different. Hatha tends to be slower paced and more focused on deeply stretching the muscles. Vinyasa is faster paced, often with movements changing with each inhale and exhale. Power Vinyasa classes can really work up a sweat!
Ask yourself what you like about the classes you’ve enjoyed, and what hasn’t worked for you. Do you like to move fast? Do you prefer to hold poses? Do you want a teacher who gets into the philosophy of yoga? Or are you looking for a physical workout? Try several styles of yoga to see which one works best for you.
PROPS AND MODIFICATIONS
A common yoga misconception is that you need to be flexible to do yoga. Not true! Certain practice styles and teachers lend themselves better to using props and giving modifications than others. As mentioned above, Yin yoga uses props to help the body relax into stretches for longer periods of time. But blocks and folded blankets can be useful in many poses. For example, in some standing or lunging poses, you’ll set a hand firmly on the ground. But what if you can’t reach the ground? A yoga block (or 2) can bring the ground a few inches closer to help you find your pose.
If you have knee pain, you can place a folded blanket under your knees, or some yoga classes use a chair to modify those kneeling poses into standing poses. A chair yoga class can provide seated variations to many traditional yoga poses as well. Experience with modifications might be something to look for in a yoga instructor.
COMMUNITY
For many people, yoga is as much a social experience as it is an invigorating workout. For others, it’s a form of exercise to be done in solitude.
Each studio will have its own atmosphere based on the teachers and participants. Think about whether you want a laid-back, friend-like social setting with lots of talking after class or prefer practicing in peace and isolation and quickly leaving for home afterward.
Technology has brought us the opportunity to practice online via video as well! Whether you watch prerecorded classes, go old school with a DVD, or join a “live” Zoom class, there are more options than ever before to practice yoga from the comfort of your home.
In the end, the right yoga style is the one that will make you feel most comfortable overall. Some people say yoga is about toning both the body and the soul, and finding the right style of practice will leave you feeling better in both ways.
This article was originally published in the May/June 2021 issue of Our Town Magazine