If you Google the words ‘which yoga class is right for me’, you’ll get a wide range of websites listing yoga styles by preferences, goals and experience levels amongst others. That’s not very helpful if you’re a complete beginner to yoga looking for where to start, is it? One of the difficulties is in defining a beginner to yoga. People take up yoga at all different times of life and for all different reasons so it makes sense that there’s no one type of yoga which is particularly suitable for beginners or even for one particular type of person. There are some aspects of the different styles of yoga that you can think about which can make it easier for you to decide which style to try first that might suit your preferences and your needs.
Hold Poses or Flow?
Flowing styles of yoga are often advised for people who are more experienced in doing yoga but this isn’t always great advice as some people who are new to yoga are experienced in other types of exercise. Hatha yoga is often recommended to newbies because it’s quite slow and static but that might not be the everyone’s cup of tea. Doing a
style of yoga that doesn’t suit your preference is just going to put you off so it’s worth thinking about whether you would rather take a yoga class like Hathaand Yin Yogawhich involve mostly static poses or whether you would rather move more by doing Flow YogaÂor Kundalini Yoga.
What’s your Purpose?
Yoga fulfils many purposes at once but, to find out which yoga style would best suit you, it’s a good idea to think about the main reasons why you want to start practicing yoga. We find that people often take up yoga for different reasons such as relaxation, wanting to reconnect with their bodies, improve their posture, improve their athletic performance, relieve back or joint pain, increase strength or improve their overall wellbeing. Some types of yoga, such as Hatha, Yin and Kundalini, are more focused on realigning body and mind, increasing mindfulness and enhancing relaxation but do have physical benefits too. Other forms of yoga like Vinyasa and Dynamic Hatha focus more on the body but still have the same mental wellbeing benefits along with them.
What Appeals to You?
It sounds obvious but one of the most important things when choosing a yoga class is simply what appeals to you. We don’t like to label people and say that sports people will prefer this style or older people will prefer that style. Everyone is different and most of the time, the best choice of yoga class is simply the one that sounds like it fits best with your personality. Our yoga studio doesn’t have mirrors and people are encouraged to focus only on themselves and not compare themselves to others. As such, if the thought of spending a lot of time gently working on stretching joints and tendons appeals to you, then Yin Yoga might be a good choice but if you would prefer a more balanced approach which encompasses a bit of everything, then you might prefer Yin Yang Yoga.
You’ll have noticed that we’ve not actually told you which sort of yoga would suit you as a beginner. That’s because we simply can’t in a blog so have just given you an idea of some things to think about. However, if you pop into The Float Spa or give us a call on 01273 933680 one of our team would be able to speak to you about what you’re looking for and your preferences to help you decide which class you should try first.
