Quarantine may lock us down at home but don’t let it lock down your yoga practice. Take your yoga journey to the next level by performing yoga practice at home! Though it may seem like you miss your morning yoga classes in a cozy yoga studio environment, yoga practice at home can actually be very beneficial and reveal a new angle of your practice.
In this article, we will share with you 6 simple tips on how to start your yoga practice at home!
6 Tips For Your Yoga Practice at Home
Tip #1: Find the Right Place
First of all, you need to decide where it would be most comfortable for you to practice. Look for a clean, bright, spacious room where no one will disturb you. If the weather is nice and you’re lucky to have a backyard – that would be a great outdoor option for your yoga practice. The patio also can be turned into a home yoga studio.
But even if you don’t have a separate room to arrange for your home yoga studio don’t let it stop you! You can always do your practice in the bedroom or even in the living room. Just make sure nobody will distract you from your practice!
Tip #2: Use the Tools
In yoga studios, the shelves are full of specialized tools. But it is not necessary to purchase all that equipment. All the tools are easy to replace among household items.
The books can be turned into blocks, the belt – into a strap, the blanket – into a platform for Salamba Sarvangasana, etc. A regular carpet or thin blanket can be used as a yoga mat. Experiment and you will see that you have all the tools you need for a yoga practice at home.
Tip #3: Choose the Right Time
When did you usually go to your yoga classes? Are you a morning or evening yogi? If you used to go to morning yoga classes then choose the morning hours for your home yoga practice. And if you usually attended evening classes then do your yoga practice after you’re done with your work. Try to adjust your quarantine routine in a way that your yoga classes are set up at the same time as you used to do at the yoga studio. Then it will be easier for you to get more organized and not to skip your yoga time.
Tip #4: Don’t Set Up Unrealistic Goals
The biggest challenge for home yoga practice is that you can be easily distracted. Once you decide to do yoga your mind will come up with billions of tasks you need to do before you start. “Did I feed my cat? Do my children need help with homework? Did I turn off the stove?” Therefore don’t set yourself the goal of practicing yoga for a full 2 hours or for a specific time. Start with 5-7 minutes of yoga instead! Then you can increase the time but only if you feel you can do it.
It’s much easier to convince your mind for a 7 minutes yoga practice than for an hour of yoga. Once you start, play with the situation – you can stop anytime!
Tip #5: Choose the Level of Difficulty
It’s best to leave the advanced asanas for the yoga studio. Why? You see, in the yoga studio, safety is monitored by the yoga instructor. However, when we are performing yoga practice at home, we tend to skip the preparation stages, overdo it, and can cause harm to the body. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to get injuries during your home yoga practice. Therefore, it’s better to start with simple asanas that you are confident of doing. Do it without haste, watch your body and do not push yourself too hard.
Tip #6: Use Yoga Apps!
What a wonderful era we live in! We can easily create a virtual yoga studio right in our living room by simply using a yoga app. There are tons of options out there! And you can choose the one that is right for you! Here are some easy-to-use yoga apps.
Glo
Glo is one of the top-ranked yoga apps that offers over 3,700 classes. It includes yoga, pilates, and meditation classes led by nearly 50 different teachers. All you need to do is to sign up and then this app will open the doors to tons of classes for you to try! You can easily do a search for what you’re looking for by using specific filters such as level, duration, required props and more.
Asana Rebel
Asana Rebel is one of the most popular yoga apps out there. It offers not just yoga classes but also guided meditations, high-intensity workouts, and other challenges and content within the app.
Alo Moves
This is the app you want to use if you’re looking for a true yoga studio experience! Alo Moves has a library of over 1,500 classes. It offers you yoga flows, meditations, sound baths, as well as other types of fitness, such as Pilates.
Down Dog
Do you feel like you may get bored doing the same class over and over? Well, with the Down Dog yoga app, you’ll never do the same class twice! This app can literally configure over 300,000 different workouts for you. You can customize such practice options as the length, type of music, speed, instructor, and more!
Gaia
This app focuses on merging mindfulness and spirituality with your yoga practice. Gaia app video library includes over 8,000 workouts, so you will always find what suits you best!
Grokker
If you love yoga but also like to switch up your workouts with HIIT, pilates, and more, then Grokker app is designed for you! This app has thousands of fitness videos! You can manage your practice by using filters that let you choose your intensity, duration, and equipment desired. It also allows you to schedule videos for future workouts and track what you’ve already accomplished. Moreover, it offers videos on healthy cooking and other self-help topics creating a true holistic well-being experience.
The Bottom Line
It is essential to keep practicing yoga during the quarantine time! Make yoga practice at home a part of your daily routine. Iyengar is known to say that the most difficult asana is unfolding the mat. And we couldn’t agree more! Once you unfold your mat, the practice will flow smoothly and you will not want to stop that flow. So take this step and you will be surprised how quickly your yoga practice at home will be something you can’t imagine your daily routine without.