I want to integrate yoga in my fitness routine, because I am pretty weak in balance and stress management. But when I try searching for stuff on it online, I run into two problems:
- I get overwhelmed by the amount of content. A Youtube channel like “Yoga with Adriene” has hundreds of videos and dozens of playlists, each covering a different perspective and set of exercises. I don’t know from myself what I want, so it leads to me unable to choose.
- I either get impatient or roll my eyes at the way yoga is commonly talked about. Even if there’s no mention of more spiritual elements, I feel prejudiced against the usually slow pace and mindfulness talk, even though that’s precisely what I want to practice.
I have a membership at a small gym, but they don’t have any yoga classes, and I don’t want another membership for yoga coaching on top of that. Are there ways around this?
Change your approach completely.
Plan to do a single video for an entire month. Literally.
In your schedule, decide if you’re going to do yoga 2 times a week or 3 times a week. Don’t do more. You’re not ready.
Pick one video.
Every single time you do yoga for the next month, ONLY do that video.
This will fundamentally change your mindset. Yoga is not about gathering external information. Doing more videos will not teach you anything.
Yoga is about learning how to observe internal information. Repetition is the key to get started.
If you want to do more than this, then every single day you are not doing yoga, sit on the floor in complete silence for 15m. Do nothing else.
Again, the goal is not to gain anything, it’s to observe. Through observation, you will fundamentally change.
1 Here: https://youtu.be/AGKGi44zxlI I’ve made the decision for you. Next session, pick one of Adrienne’s classes (or whoever) based on time and just get started. If the class hits, save it to come back to. If it doesn’t, oh well. At least you did yoga instead of finding excuses not to.
2 You’ll get used to it. Incorporate what works for you and continue rolling your eyes at the rest.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I’d start and ask yourself why you want yoga specifically. You look like you just want to work on your balance from a physical standpoint, so let’s hit that first.
Look up Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation stretches. These function similar to some yoga, admittedly less on balance and more on flexibility and range of motion, but all of these concepts are somewhat related. Bonus is that it’s very science-based, you won’t see too much yoga woo around it. I was introduced to this stuff by Bill Esch in his Ultimate Kettlebell Warrior program (we’re replacing woo with cringe, just roll with it) and he put it at the end of a lot of days once the body is loose and ready to really stretch. But his programs are very expensive (he puts them on sale often, wait for that if you want).
Second, in terms of mindfulness, this doesn’t have to be yoga here either. I personally find a lot of mindfulness occurring when I do a program that has incredibly short rest timers, like Brian Alsruhe’s Reps Per Minute (much more reasonably priced). When you’re doing 60 squats in 10 minutes, you really can’t focus on anything else but doing squats. It’s just you, gravity and the bar on your back trying to drive you into the ground and you saying “no, you will not.” Unlike a lot of programs with 2 (even 3) minute rest timers, you don’t have time to get in your own head or check your phone. You inhabit your body and listen to it for proper form and go. Your mileage may vary, but I find doing complex movements (squats, deadlifts, etc) with little rest (and then of course, lower weights, like 45% of your 1RM) very big on clearing the clutter out of my mind.
Ultimately, I don’t mind yoga even though it’s got some woo, but I was fortunate to take it as a college course at a midwest university to satisfy a gen-ed requirement and so my instructor was not some 11% body fat YouTuber talking to me about chakras or something. I had a hearty woman from the plains just telling me how to get into the poses properly. So, I can’t be much help if you specifically want to get into yoga.
