As a total Yoga beginner only a couple of years ago, I can remember this confusing time well. Plus when I listen to our potential new students each week at the studio enquiring about starting their first Yoga class… I have very similar conversations with them as I had in my own head before my first session.
Now it’s not making Yoga very approachable when the class names sound unfamiliar (Rocket, Vinyasa, Yin..) plus there’s sometimes a feeling of being silly, when everyone has to outwardly make sounds with their breathing, which for some (including me) was a little daunting. Don’t worry about the names of the classes by the way, just look for a beginners class instead.
I would like to point out that I was 46 when I first started Yoga, my daughter was only 14 for her first encounter at her school, so you see there’s a part of me that felt rather intimidated about going into a large class brimming with full on Yogis who,I was absolutely sure, would be putting their legs behind their heads in the first ten minutes!
It takes guts to sign up for your first Yoga session so when we started our studio, Ebb&Flow; we take all of these points in mind. For starters, we a have a small studio that only takes 8 students. This makes it ideal for all our beginners courses. This way, you know that you are in a studio with only complete and utter beginners who are all there for the same reason. Each person starting their first week with you, going through the basics and then moving on together to ensure you have a full and structured understanding of the basic postures, the correct movements and a teacher that will be able to adjust your position at the right time (it’s much easier to see the corrections when there’s only 8 of you in a class).
Yoga is growing in popularity due to the increased popularity in the media plus the various big retail brands are educating us more and more on the health benefits. I decided to try this type of well-being discipline as my regular form of exercise (running) was starting to play havoc with my hips! It wasn’t until I started a few classes that I realised that there is much more to Yoga than keeping fit and burning calories which I naively thought was what I wanted. Yoga is of course a way to stay fit, keep flexible and gain mobility (especially when you’re bones feel a little achy due to your age) but it also helps in spades with stress management, calming busy minds, great for anxiety, I certainly gained better sleeping patterns and of course the biggy.. a chance at a much longer life.
I found that my mood improved, flexibility greatly increased, my ability to keep running and feel stronger in mind and body gave me more confidence. If you start with one class a week for maintenance and then try to manage 2 or 3 sessions a week, you will without doubt, see much progression
What’s Hot Yoga?I’ve never tried Yoga before and attended Katy’s Beginners Yoga classes. I absolutely loved them – she explained slowly and with patience. She made me feel so confident and was so friendly – thank you everyone at Ebb&Flow.
Jane Whels, New Yoga Enthusiast
I’d advise all beginners to take some basic beginners classes first – don’t go straight into a hot yoga class. Then when trying your first mainstream Yoga class it’s important to learn to cope with an hours Yoga class at normal living room temperature before you do any heated classes. When you add heat (often by infra-red heaters in the ceiling) it makes the hours Yoga session a lot more challenging. So why do it in heat? The body doesn’t move as well when it’s cold, in heat, your muscles offer more flexibility, melting the stiffness to allow you to really get that stretch you will benefit from later.
It’s not for everyone, people with high blood pressure, heart conditions or pregnant ladies shouldn’t try it for instance. Our studio has 12 infra-red heaters, our classes range from 21 to 26 to 32 degrees depending on the timetable. We have a special humidifier running to add humidity to the room as the ceiling mounted heaters can often dry your skin even though you will feel wet/sweaty. So it’s important we add the water back in to the atmosphere at the right balance. We have also invested tens of thousands in a high tech heat exchange system to pull out the ‘dirty air’ from the studio (especially necessary in heated classes), whilst adding in fresh clean filtered air from outside which has been cleverly warmed to the right temperature so the room stays at a constant. Look out for that system – it’s hygienic and very important in my view when taking a hot yoga class.
All in all, Yoga can do many things, give you a great work-out, relax you to the point of sleep and train you to really start to understand yourself. I love it, come and see me and team any time just for a chat, especially if you’re worried about starting.