Yoga for beginners

Yoga is originally a philosophy of life rather than a sport, but in the western world Yoga is often understood as a specific form of training program consisting of gentle exercises involving breathing. For beginners, yoga is a small challenge of strength, stability and balance in the beginning. There are, however, exercises (asanas) that are well suited for beginners and slowly improve strength and flexibility, so that the difficulty of the exercises can increase with time and experience.

What does a beginner have to consider?

As a beginner you should not start with too demanding exercises. Of course, it also depends on whether the interested person uses yoga as an introduction to regular physical training, or is an already experienced athlete who just wants to change the training form. Yoga demands a high degree of stability, balance and coordination but also strength from the body.

In the beginning the movements will be stiff and unrhythmic. Some time will pass until the yoga beginner reaches a meditative, harmonious rhythm in his asanas. However, as with all sports, the body will get used to the movement and demands through regular training, the movement sequences will be stored more and more and the training will become more fluid and the joints more supple.

It is important, especially as a beginner, to choose exercises that are easy to perform and are optimally adapted to the current level of strength and flexibility. Overstraining can lead to damage to the muscles and joints. Mobility should be improved slowly to prevent injuries. Also for long-term training success it is better to start with simple exercises that can be mastered. This motivates and prevents premature discontinuation of the training.

Which Yoga styles are suitable for beginners?

There are a variety of different yoga styles that follow different focuses and requirements. Hatha Yoga is especially well suited for beginners. It is one of the most popular yoga forms, which includes both strengthening flexibility breathing exercises and meditation.

Vinyasa Yoga is a little more dynamic, the individual positions are changed dynamically and breath synchronously. Vinyasa Yoga is physically more demanding, but still suitable for beginners, even if they may not be able to take all transitions and positions correctly in the beginning. Through frequent repetition, beginners can improve quickly.

Little by little the movements become more harmonious and eventually coordination with breathing will also work better. There is a variety of other yoga styles that are particularly calm and focus more on meditative aspects than physical ones. These yoga styles serve more for relaxation and balance than for physical strengthening, but are also suitable for beginners.

However, it should be noted that meditation also needs to be learned and for beginners the state at the beginning can usually not be reached properly. Very demanding (Ashtanga Yoga), dynamic Yoga forms (Bikram Yoga), or Yoga under special conditions like Hot Yoga or Iyenga Yoga (precise individual exercises) are rather overstraining for beginners. At first, yoga forms should be chosen where the movement sequences can be learned before adding further difficulties.