How to Start a Home Yoga Practice
There isn’t always time in a day to visit the yoga studio! So building an at home yoga practice can keep you flowing through life. But you may not be sure how to start practicing yoga at home, if you haven’t ever practiced alone before! Let us walk you through a step by step guide to designing your own home yoga practice — and then watch as all the powerful benefits begin to fill your life!
A home yoga practice is a powerful addition to any yogi’s routine. Practicing yoga at home means you don’t have to wait on a studio’s schedule, you don’t have to drive anywhere, and more than that — it allows you to connect more deeply with yourself
Why Start a Home Yoga Practice?
Deeper Connection with Self
Starting a home yoga practice means developing a deeper relationship with your own body. A home practice means that you dictate how your body moves, and it takes tuning into your current state — how you feel right now — to decide how to move. And learning to show up for yourself, as you are, meeting yourself in the moment — moment by moment — means learning to live life in the current more often.
Consistency is Key!
If you add a home yoga practice into your weekly routine, you’ll naturally add more consistency to your yoga practice. As Sri K. Pattabhi Jois said “Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory!” By practicing more frequently, you’ll build strength and flexibility faster. You’ll also enjoy the other benefits of yoga — such as stress relief and a greater sense of calm. Movement makes the body feel more free, and when the body feels free, so does the mind!
Be Your Own Guru
Having an at home yoga practice means that you don’t always need someone else to lead you into your spiritual practice. It’s important to learn from our teachers, and making sure you have correct form before you take your practice home is vital to your safety, but there’s something really special that comes from letting your body be the teacher.
How to Start Practicing Yoga at Home
1. Make Space
Create your yoga zone! Clearing a small space in your home will allow you to focus only on your practice. Ideally it’s a quiet area, where you won’t be interrupted too much, but if that isn’t possible — hey kids and puppies can snuggle in savasana — that’s just part of the practice!
2. Get the Props You Need
Yoga doesn’t take too much in the way of equipment, but make sure you have what you need. A yoga mat is definitely useful to stop yourself from sliding on the floor, but if you don’t have one, a towel or a blanket will also work. Yoga blocks, straps and blankets are the three other props you might want to consider investing in or finding an alternative for.
Yoga blocks are essentially there to bring the floor closer to you. So, if you have tight hips and need support in your low lunge, or need something under your hands in a forward fold, blocks might be helpful! I recommend buying sustainable cork or recycled plastic blocks if you choose to purchase them. Another easy (and free) option? Grab a stack of books, and use them instead!
Same thing with yoga straps, they help you to reach your feet, or connect your hands in twists that you can’t quite reach. You can buy one, or use a clothing item — belts work perfectly, or a long sleeve shirt in a sturdy fabric is a great alternative. Blankets and cushions are easy, grab a few from your bed to help support your practice!
3. Choose a Time
Choosing a time to practice can help with developing a yoga habit. Morning routines are great to wake up the body, a mid-day break enlivens your afternoon, or an evening flow winds you down to sleep at night. Pick what works best for you! Then decide on a rough amount of time as your goal. Even 5 or 10 minutes to start with can be powerful, you don’t need to spend hours on your mat to start feeling the benefits. In fact, a shorter practice is probably going to be easier to keep up consistently! Then — listen to your body. If one day your body is loving moving, and you want to flow for thirty minutes, but the next time you’re done after 10 — that’s okay. You still got on your mat!
4. Listen to Your Body
If your neck is stiff, you could spend your entire practice rolling out your shoulders, massaging your neck and skull, and loosening up your upper back. If you’re feeling anxious, a slow yin practice could be exactly what you need, or perhaps you want to amp up your energy, so you turn up the tunes and flow through twenty sun salutations! It’s your practice, so it’s completely up to your body and mind what happens on the mat. The more you tune in to what your body wants, the more beneficial these solo flows will be!
5. Enjoy Your Practice
We all have a few ‘favorite’ poses — it’s okay if those show up in your home yoga practice every single time! Your body loves them for a reason. Studio classes with teachers are amazing for taking your practice in new directions, putting you into new positions, working on poses you don’t like, and even playing with the edge of your ability. But when you’re practicing at home, it’s totally fine (and even advised!) to stay in your comfort zone. Do the poses that feel good, and add in anything else that brings you joy — such as a fun playlist, practicing outdoors in the sunshine, frequent meditation breaks in child’s pose, or handstand hops at every vinyasa!
6. Include Breath and Meditation Practices
Yoga is so much more than just the asana (poses)! Incorporating pranayama (breath practice) and meditation into your home yoga practice can be an amazing way to expand beyond the movement and bring more mindfulness into your life. Start simple. A few minutes of quiet focus at the end of your home yoga practice will begin to bring you the benefits of meditation. Set a timer or follow a simple guided meditation. Or try a simple breathing practice — simply focusing on making your inhale and exhale the same length can be a great place to start.
7. Commit to Yourself
The most challenging aspect of starting a home yoga practice is that there’s no yoga teacher to hold you accountable. Become your own yoga teacher, and make a commitment to show up on your mat — for yourself! Take note of how you feel at the end of your home yoga practice, and think about how you might like to cultivate that feeling more often. How free your body feels, how clear your mind is? That’s a gift you can give yourself any time you want!
So with all that in mind, lets get started!
Your at Home Yoga Sequence
While every at home practice doesn’t have to be the same, here are some suggestions for how to structure your solo class, and what to include. You can always leave out a section you aren’t feeling
Start with Sun Salutations
This is the beginning of most yoga classes you’ll take — and you’ll see why after doing a few! Surya Namaskar builds up warmth in the body so that you can start moving deeper into other poses. Flowing through these sequences wakes up your body, and syncs your breath up with your movement. You can always get creative with this set series of movements — add some extra ab work in if you’re feeling firey, or stay low and slow if that’s what you’re craving!
Move into Standing Poses
These are your warrior poses, your triangles, side angles and more! They build strength and stamina, and also prepare your body for the movements that come next. Pick a few, maybe four or five to flow through. This is also where balance poses can be added to your practice (which is a great way to add creative flows between poses). Try coming up with creative ways to get from one pose to the next.
Inversions
Get upside down! Headstands, handstands, shoulder stand (or legs up the wall for a more mellow practice) are all perfect for changing your perspective, having fun, and flipping the world on its head. An inversion practice is also good for improving digestion, increasing circulation and pumping blood to your head, and energizing your whole body. Remember that you can always use a wall to play safely, and that you don’t need to hover perfectly in handstand to reap the benefits — this is play! Have fun.