I’ll tell you why I needed to know how to get into yoga: I used to have a crappy boss. The kind who makes you report for work 15 minutes early each day (unpaid) and line up in front of her desk with the other senior managers to report on your daily goals.
The kind of boss who has clearly read too many self-help and leadership books and decided “yes, I can achieve” without stopping to learn the necessary skills first.
When lockdown hit the screws were turned tighter. To relieve my stress I decided to practice yoga each morning before work. By keeping a routine for 30 days I saw a huge improvement in my physical and mental health. But before that I needed to know how to get into yoga.
Also: Before writing this I was fairly confident that there would be billions of stock photos for yoga. I was correct.
Learn the basics at home
I had tried yoga twice before. Once on holiday in Kerala, India (how very middle class) and another time at a local community centre class.
As I was yet another idiot tourist the Indian yoga teacher had a lot of patience with me, politely smiling as I wobbled and sweated in front of the sunrise.
At the local community centre my fears became real as the yoga teacher kept stopping the class of 30 to correct my posture. Yes, that really did happen.
For the next time I thought I’d give myself a head start and learn the basics at home. It’s remarkably easy.
Sweet, sweet advertising revenue
When everyone was trapped at home during the pandemic, online yoga classes received a boom. There are many YouTube yoga teachers more than happy to help you find your zen in exchange for the sweet, sweet money of online advertising revenue.
Like a lot of other people, I chose to follow Adriene Mischler. Specifically, I followed the 30 days of yoga playlist:
It takes on average 20 minutes of your morning and finishes with a few minutes of destressing meditation.
It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime, what better place than here, what better time than now?
I had never meditated before. I didn’t know how to do it and in truth I still don’t. I was almost certainly doing it incorrectly. But getting it half right still worked for me and was far better than not doing it at all.
It essentially revolved around getting comfortable and completely clearing my head. Obvious joke: For a man with very little in his head to start with, clearing it was absolutely not a problem.
Here’s what you need
Baggy clothes. I wore old football shirts.
A comfortable floor. My wife and I had previously bought a yoga mat each for that ill-fated trip to the community centre. Mine alone wasn’t quite thick enough to soften my hard floor so I doubled up with my wife’s mat too. (She wasn’t doing it with me, I’m not that selfish.)
A laptop. To put in front of you on the floor and follow the videos.
How to get into yoga
You don’t need any experience and my particular series of videos was perfectly pitched. I started with the absolute basic poses and help getting into the right mindset.
By the end of the 30 days I was by no means a yoga master but I wobbled noticeably less than when I started. I had a basic knowledge and I knew what good looked like, so I knew what to aim for instead of thrashing about.
I reckon if I went back to that community centre I’d be bang average and that’s exactly where I need to be.
Hopefully this has given you inspiration to start at home and the reassurance that following an online yoga course will give you a tangible benefit. You’ll feel better, your mental health may improve and you’ll be better equipped to join a public course.
